Poinsettia Christmas Flower Repeating Pattern

I had so many Christmas designs ready to go, and somehow December has almost crept away from me without posting any of them. This poinsettia design is bright and cheery. It puts me in the mood to draw some more floral designs.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Thanks for looking.

"Dreamcatcher" Repeating Pattern - With Video

I finally decided to figure out how to use Shadowplay to record my desktop and put some of my art process up on Youtube. I only have a couple of drawings on my Youtube channel from a long time ago, but I liked the idea of posting on there.

"Dreamcatcher Mandala", Single Tile

"Dreamcatcher Mandala", Repeating Pattern

If you'd like to watch me drawing this pattern and get an insight into how I create my artwork, go to my Youtube channel, Renee Dillon Art.

Product Ideas - Beachy Starfish Picture Frame

Now that a sample of my handbag is on the way from the manufacturer, I'm really excited about creating new products. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of startup capital, so I can't just get twenty samples of different items made up and keep a bunch of things in stock. So I figure I should make mock-up images of the products I have in mind, and show them off here, so I know which ones are most popular when it comes time to get them made up. 

This design has been in my head for a while now, and today I had to finally draw it out. It's a wooden picture frame with a printed starfish pattern on the front in grey and blue. There is a slightly darker grey wooden border around the opening and the edge of the frame itself. I know it's hard to tell what the finished product will look like from this picture, but if you think it's something you would like to buy, please let me know in the comments. The more interest it has, the more likely it will be made.

Thanks for looking. :)

Strive Home and Design - Handbags Coming Soon

Well I've been working hard this past month at my day job, so this morning I was feeling pretty fatigued. Luckily, I received an email this afternoon with some exciting news that has invigorated me. As some of you may know, I've been planning to have my designs printed on some things to sell in an online store. I've been going though the plans for the last few months, researching possible objects, finding manufacturers, discussing logistics, calculating potential cost and profit margins. It seemed like a big undertaking, with a lot of things that could go wrong. But, despite my cautious nature, I decided to say "Why not?" and took a chance on it. And today, it's looking like that chance is paying off.

This is the very first sample of the first handbag I've ordered. You might recognise the pattern as "Space Highway", from an earlier blog post. And here it is. On a bag. That actually exists. And I'm positively thrilled about it. All that remains is to look at the handbag in person when it arrives, then go about placing my first bulk order.

There are still some decisions to make, and some work to be done before I can start selling, but this is a huge step forward for me. I'd really love to be able to develop a business around my designs and today I'm the closest I've ever been to making that a reality. It's a good feeling.

"Lady Beatle" - Digital Mandala

I adore the colours in this one. Shades of aqua/blue and pink together make me so happy. I thought this one looked like a scarab in feminine colours, so I called it "Lady Beatle".

"Lady Beatle", Digital, September 2015

"Hibiscus and Pansies" - Floral Repeating Pattern

I keep coming back to pansies as one of my go-to flowers to draw. They have a nice shape to them, and they come in some pretty colours. I'd rather like this pattern on a summer dress.

"Hibiscus and Pansies", Digital, September 2015

I made this red hibiscus pattern first, before I drew the pansies. it looks very Hawaiian in red.

"Red Hibiscus", Digital, September 2015

"Corn" - Digital Repeating Pattern

A friend of mine just posted a picture of his dinner on Facebook. His delicious corn-filled taco meat inspired me to make this pattern. Now I'm hungry.

"Corn", Digital, October 2015

"Ditsy Daffodils" - Colour Throwdown CTD364 - Repeating Floral Pattern

The running shoe seems appropriate because I'm in the middle of a marathon of shifts at work. My blog posts for the last few days have been scheduled and updated automatically, which is good because I've hardly had time to touch them. Unfortunately that also means I forgot to upload this one in time to add it to the list on the Color Throwdown website. Aah well.

I miss drawing at the moment, but in a couple of days I'll have a day off, so hopefully I'll get something done and won't be too tired to work on the ideas that have been floating around in my head lately. Today, here's a ditsy daffodil pattern, 

"Naughts and Crosses" - Digital Mandala

Another stripe-style mandala. I like the happy white cloud shape in the background.

"Naughts and Crosses", Digital, September 2015

"Naughts and Crosses Tiling", Digital, September 2015

"Cross Stripe" - Digital Mandala

Another mandala from back in September. I think I need to keep better track of which pictures I've uploaded and which ones are already on the blog. When everything is all together in one folder it's easy to lose things.

"Cross Stripe", Digital, September 2015

This one becomes a patterned stripe in tiling form, because the pattern doesn't touch the sides. So that's a kind of cool thing to do.

"Cross Stripe Tiling", Digital, September 2015

"Blue Totem" - Digital Mandala

This is another one that didn't get posted from September. I like monochromatic colour palettes. Not much else to say about this one.

"Blue Totem", Digital, September 2015

"Frogger" - Digital Repeating Pattern

Lots of blue and green shades in this one. The aqua dots make me think of the little sticky toes on a frog, so I've called it "Frogger". The more I look at it the more eyes I see.

"Frogger", Digital, September 2015

"Feather" - Seamless Repeating Pattern

At this point, I'm not even sure why I called this one "Feather", but that was what the file was called so I guess I'll go with that.

"Feather", Digital, September 2015

"Chrysalis Psychedelia" - Digital Repeating Pattern

Today's piece has a bit of a simpler shape than some of the other art I've been working on recently. It's just an oblong with some marks inside. I'd like to create more like this, because I think it makes a rather striking repeating pattern. It's simple, but the gradient adds a bit of texture to it. The shape makes me think of a butterfly chrysalis, hence the title.

"Chrysalis Psychedelia", Digital, September 2015, 36x24 Inch

"Dream Catcher" - Digital Mandala

This is the other artwork I'm considering for my first printed handbags. I love the aqua and blue tones in this one, but I still think I'm edging just slightly towards the first. This one makes me think of feathered Native American headdresses or some kind of Mardi Gras decoration. 

"Dream Catcher", Digital Mandala, September 2015

I would have liked to create something new today, but I just spent the morning trying to fix some problems with my wacom tablet. It seems I need to spend an hour fixing things every time I try to create something. But I'm pretty sure I'm close to having all the kinks in my workflow ironed out.

"Disco Ant" - Digital Mandala

Another of my mandalas, completed back in September. I have to start posting these as I do them, rather than thinking of something clever to say, or they'll never get posted.

"Disco Ant", September 2015

"Space Highway" - Digital Mandala

Talking about your own art can be one of the most difficult parts of the process. I've always wanted to share what I'm working on with others, but coming up with a spiel to go along with it tends to trip me up. It feels strange to just post an image with no accompanying explanation, but I find there isn't much to say. I'm not a very conceptual artist, so even coming up with a title can be tricky. And while I like to be a positive and uplifting person, talking about how much you like your own art leaves you balancing the fine line between obnoxiously self-confident and annoyingly self-deprecating. It can be hard to convey the fact that you're happy with your work (sometimes more than others) but you see there are things you'd like to improve upon and areas you'd like to explore. Except in that one exact sentence, and that hardly lends itself to a second blog post.

My favourite art bloggers seem to have galleries that they exhibit in, art-related businesses that they run, sponsors to talk about, or ongoing personal projects to discuss. It's easy to compare yourself to someone who has spent many years cultivating their online presence and find yourself falling short. But it's important to look at the things they do well and create those traits in yourself. 

I wonder that I don't have any projects to work on, but I don't start them. I get distracted easily by other ideas, which makes it very difficult to work in series or finish a long term project. But I intend to change that. For the last few months, I've been planning to have some things manufactured with my designs and sell them online. In a manner that is most unlike me, I've made concrete steps towards my goal, rather than planning things in the abstract until I lose interest. I know I have to see actual results, such as sales of products that I've created, so that I know the effort is worthwhile and I should keep going. The next step is to decide which artwork should adorn my first item and have the sample made up and sent to me.

I've been working on several abstract designs that I can have printed on handbags. So far, this is my favourite. Whether this ends up being my first printed design or not, I still haven't decided. But it's nice to be making art that I can feel proud of again.

"Space Highway", Digital, September 2015

The Curly Haired Lady - Acrylic Painted Portrait by Renee Dillon

After the slow blogging month I had in April, I've decided to try posting daily again, like I was doing in January. Unfortunately there isn't another 30 in 30 challenge going on this month, but hopefully I'll still be able to motivate myself. It's all about developing habits, and not letting myself get distracted by other projects.

My theme for this month is simple, graphic, pop art style portraits on 12x12 scrapbooking cardstock. I'm still working on exactly what I want to do with them. I like the simplicity of just the lineart, but I think I like the background to be painted a different colour to add a bit of contrast. In this piece, I decided to add a bit of colour to the lips, eyes and jewelry, to see how I liked it.

For today's portrait, I was inspired by this weeks Color Throwdown colour palette - bright pink, lime green and sky blue. Excuse the dodgy photograph, the colours are much brighter in real life. I'll take a better picture with my camera in the morning. But for now, it's here, and that will do. Not sure what possessed me to do pink for the eyes instead of green, but it is interesting. Experiment, try new things sometimes.

"Amy" - Symmetrical Tiling Abstract in Acrylic Paint

So I've been keeping at my plan to create for an hour a day during February. I'm already a little bit ahead for tomorrow. I find it interesting that sketching and lineart seems to go by so fast, I finish a drawing and I've hardly used up any of my time, yet when I sit down to paint it feels like the time flies by. Maybe I'm focusing harder when I have the paints out because painting is still so strange and different for me. I've been drawing for years, but I'm still quite new to paints, in a way.

Blogger is refusing to justify my text for some reason. It's annoying me to no end.

Paintings in the Works: "Sargent Peanutbutter" the Horse, "Cookie" the Pug, "Fizzy" the Pug, "Lesley" the Cow, Other Misc Art

"Milo the Red Heeler" - Acrylic Painted Pet Portrait

I follow a Buy Swap and Sell page for pets on Facebook, because I like the cute animals that pop up in my news feed. Mostly it's things like rabbits and birds, but occasionally cute puppies come up and I have to draw them. This one was a red heeler, a different colour variation of a blue heeler. It was actually a pretty difficult colour and texture to emulate in paint, but I like it the way it is anyway.

I love the way the colourful hills and bright blue sky came out. I'll have to do backgrounds like this more often. If you want to buy prints of this image, including items such as throw cushions, greeting cards and phone cases, you can check out my account on Fine Art America.