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I can’t remember the exact time I came across professional markers for the first time. But I do remember seeing really cool illustrations by my friend @theletterstylist and wondered what type of pens she was using. ⠀ .🖍🖍🖍🖍⠀ Soon I bought my first markers. At first I had no idea what to do with them, and the colors I had bought were mostly green and pink (good for coloring flowers I thought). No grays or earth tones in sight. ⠀ .👩🏼‍💻⠀ But with the help of tutorials I found here and there and hours of practicing I started to learn and understand the principles behind how they work.⠀ .⠀ If I had known about a place to turn where I could learn everything I needed to know I would have been so happy. ⠀ .🙌🏻⠀ And that’s why I created my Skillshare courses about coloring with markers. To provide a place to learn in easy strides instead of hopping from stone to stone, searching for information and guidance. ⠀ .🖍🖍🖍⠀ So if you’re a beginner or would like to learn more about how to use markers for your illustrations I’d be thrilled to have you in class and to be able to help you get started with this addictive and fun media. ⠀ .⠀ Link to my Skillshare profile and courses you’ll find in the bio.
Visualizing your patterns on real products is a great way to showcase them, plus it’s a real rush to see them come to life like that. ⠀ 🌿🌿🌿⠀ But printing/producing real physical products isn’t always an option - some products require a minimum volume and would cost a looooot to produce, but with Print on Demand services you can work around that, enabling very small orders and affordable prices. 🌿🌿🌿 The downside with these PODs are that they take a lot of time uploading the designs and make sure the scale and colors are correct on the end product. And then there is the photo shoot left still...⠀ 🌿🌿🌿⠀ Another fun, more cost efficient and time saving way is using mockups. I make mine by either purchasing images from creative markets, or shooting my own. Then applying the patterns on the product using Photoshop.⠀ 🌿🌿🌿⠀ Here’s a wallpaper mockup with yesterday’s posts pattern ’Promenade’.⠀ 🌿🌿🌿⠀ On my blog you can find two articles about this:⠀ 1) 10 print-on-demand services for getting your prints on real products⠀ 2) Save money showing your work using product mockups.⠀ 🌿🌿🌿⠀ And in the creative resources section on my website I also have a video tutorial about mockups where I show you the different ways I use mockups, my process for creating my own images and how to apply your patterns on the mockup image in Photoshop.⠀ 🌿🌿🌿⠀ You’ll find links to the blog/articles and the tutorial in my bio link tree. 💋
There is this beautiful park called ”Vallarna” in Falkenberg, my home town on the Swedish west coast (swipe to get a glimpse). Before I moved to Stockholm I used to go there - for a run, a bike ride or a Sunday walk. In a specific part of the park grows huge Rowan trees and in the summer, when you looked up to the foliage and saw the sun drizzle through the prickly leaves it would make this amazing almost zig zag pattern. ⠀ 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿⠀ This was years before I even was aware of that creating patterns was in the stars for me, but I remember looking up towards those luminated emerald and lime green patterns thinking ”This would look great on curtains”.⠀ 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿⠀ Over the years I’ve tried to capture that zig zag impression, but haven’t succeeded quite yet. But Rowans have been a constant inspiration to me. 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿⠀ Here’s a pattern where I incorporated some leaves and berries in a sparse design. It’s called ’Promenade’ and is a part of the Perfect Weekend collection. It’s painted with water color and you’ll find it as fabric & wallpaper in my Spoonflower shop. (link to my shops is in the bio). 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿
The landscape was even more stunning than we had imagined when we drove through the munros and glens and on narrow winding roads along Loch Lomond. It was only April so the colors were still in beige and brown, the sky carefully blue. But it was the hottest Easter since bagpipes were invented, about 15 degrees and the scots wore tank tops and shorts, getting all red from the sun, but didn’t care a bit.⠀ 🦐⠀ By the second day I knew I had to make a pattern about this, somehow, someday.⠀ 🐴⠀ In Inverness we got to see the heather covered mountains from the horseback during a highland trek, an experience and a view and that will never ever leave me.⠀ .🦌⠀ And there, in the heather we saw him. A beautiful stag that glared at us from a distance.⠀ 🌉 ⠀ Uhm.. no. Actually we didn’t see a stag, but it would have been a great bridge to the image, don’t you think? I actually had to look up a bunch of images of deer to draw this guy.⠀ ⚜️⠀ But, I did end up creating a Scotland themed pattern and this illustration is a part of it - a Toile de Jouy inspired design I’ve shown a couple of times here before (scroll down the feed and you’ll find it). ⠀ 📖⠀ A Toile de Jouy is a narrative pattern style, it tells a story and the traditional 18th century Toile designs often had themes from the bible, fables, poems, mythology, exotic places or important current events. The designers often got (very) inspired by rococo paintings (even copying them) for the pattern motifs and scenes.⠀ 🏙⠀ You can also make modern toiles, with a contemporary theme or phenomenon. And that’s actually the correct way to make one - depicting something about current trends and popular stories.⠀ 👩🏼‍💻⠀ If you want to learn more about this pattern style, it’s history, and how to make one yourself check out my course on @skillshare ’Classic Pattern Designs - make a Toile de Jouy pattern’.⠀ ✍🏻⠀ If you’re just interested in how to draw and make illustrations I have a course on that too: ’Artistic Illustrations’ where you'll learn how to create illustrations using techniques like stippling and hatching.⠀ 💋⠀ Read more & view intro videos on my website, link in bio.
New/old pattern: Auburn Alley - a design I created a few years ago for a fall inspired collection that was never finished. Perhaps it’s time to give it a go again? Here it’s revised in a new color way and my new favorite effect; fabric texture for that vintage and washed vibe. . Double tap if you’re already starting to think about fall too. . 🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁
L a s t c a l l !⠀ (and last time I’ll nag about this)⠀ Today (Friday) is the deadline for pre-ordering Gemstone pillowcases, curtains and fabric by the yard from me (from @svanefors fall collection, designed by yours truly).⠀ .⠀ To order go to the pre-order page on my website (link in bio). . Over and out.
 

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Copyright Bärbel Dressler 2018

Bear Bell Productions
27A Söderhagsvägen,
Haninge, Stockholms län, 136 49,
Sverige / Sweden
+46 727 38 55 55 barbel.dressler@bearbellproductions.se

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