"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.

"Succulent Christmas Fern" - Christmas Themed Repeating Design

One thing I've learned about Christmas designs is that the best ones in my opinion are the ones that aren't necessarily that Christmassy. There are plenty of designs that look like Christmas decorations at the time, but don't look out of place for the other eleven months of the year. That means you get a good amount of use out of them, without having to find somewhere to store your decorations. That's what I was thinking when I came up with this design.

"Succulent Christmas Fern", November 2015

I think this would make lovely place mats or napkins for a Christmas place setting with red and white accents (such as plates, napkin rings or table runners). Or if you want a non-seasonal place setting, it would still look nice with neutrals such as cream or white.

"Succulent Christmas Fern Repeating", November 2015

I'd like to think more about designs that can be used outside of Christmas time, especially since a lot of people like to change their Christmas decoration colour scheme every year. If those people can resell or give away their decorations to people that can use them straight away rather than waiting until next Christmas, the decorations are more likely to be reused rather than thrown away.

"Autumn Flame" - Pals Paper Arts 274

Some days, whatever you try to create just doesn't work out. I knew I wanted to spend today creating new art because I had a decent chunk of time to do so. I tried about three different things before coming to the conclusion that being creative just wasn't happening for me today, so I decided to work on some more businessy things instead.

But still, I knew I wanted to create something nice today, because I knew I'd be a bit sad about it if I didn't make anything nice. This was my third attempt at the Pals Paper Arts colour palette for this week, and I'm glad I persevered, because I'm pretty happy with it. 

"Autumn Flame Repeating", November 2015, 15x15 Inch

I don't know how I keep end up doing the colour palette challenges with chocolate brown in them, and skipping the ones that don't. It's a weird trend for someone who isn't that fond of brown. But it works quite nicely with the coral and yellow colours, so I can't complain. 

Thanks for taking the time to look at my art. Don't forget to add Renee Dillon Art on Facebook and Instagram to keep track of my latest work.

Arabesque Trellis Preview

I'm currently getting back into the swing of things after a pretty solid month of work at my day job. It's nice to have the time and energy to be creative again. Sometimes you just need a bit of time to play. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite thinking when I created this pattern, because I managed to save this small preview sized image that I'm currently using as a desktop background, but not the original sized artwork that I was actually going to make something with. So that's frustrating. Luckily, it didn't come out quite how I wanted, so I was going to have another crack at it anyway. 

For now, here's the small version to show you.

"Arabesque Trellis", November 2015

I'm not even sure if that's clear enough for you to see, but it's the best I can do. Let this be a reminder to keep track of what you've saved when you're closing files. I have a bad habit of getting distracted mid project, and going to work on another image, so I often have about ten tabs open at the end of a session. Don't do this. Save what you need as you go.

But also, don't worry too much if you lose things. It happens. There will always be something else to draw tomorrow.

"Ditsy Leaves" - Color Throwdown Challenge - Digital Repeating Pattern

Time for another colour palette challenge from Color Throwdown. I always intend to do these, but I rarely get around to them in time. I spend too much time trying to decide what I'm doing, and suddenly a week has gone by. This week's theme is green, yellow, black and white.

I wanted to make sure I submitted something, so here's just a quick ditsy leaf pattern. I'm starting to practice patterns where I have to arrange different elements and make them look like a balanced repeating pattern. This is a lot easier now that I have a Wacom tablet and can draw in additional elements to fill spaces rather than sketching on paper and scanning them in as I had to do before.

"Ditsy Leaves", Digital Repeating Pattern, September 2015, 15x15 Inch

It's still a bit rough and I might go back to clean it up later, but I'm pleased with the technique and look forward to doing it again with more complex pattern elements. Look forward to some paisley and floral patterns in the near future. 

"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

Amy Work in Progress - Symmetrical Tiling Abstract by Renee Dillon

Here is my offering for the 1st of February, my very first hour of the month, as mentioned in my previous post. The first image was actually from January, and doesn't count as time spent in today's hour, but I thought I'd post it anyway. It's a digital draft or colour palette test that I whipped up by colouring over my sketch in Photoshop. I think I should do these colour tests more often, but I think I should stick to them rather than choosing random colours for the digital version and then choosing random colours again for the painting. The digital also tiles at a smaller scale than the original, which makes it harder to see the detail.

As usual, my photo of the painting is a little crooked, so please forgive that. Also, the colours didn't photograph very well. The grayish colour you're seeing is supposed to be metallic purple paint, which looks quite nice in real life. The yellow and green were markers, because I thought I'd go a bit more mixed media with this one and see how it turned out. The markers definitely give a lot more control in small spaces, which I like. Bic Mark-Its also seem to be fairly streak-free in small spaces as well, which I love.

I won't necessarily be trying to post daily in February, but I'll try to stay on the wagon as far as actually creating art goes. Wish me luck!

Total Time Spent Making Art in February: 1 Hour

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 21 - Wilma WIP 2

Another crazy impromptu addition of colour - this time a lime green. Then finally, bright blue. I thought about adding bright yellow to finish it off, but I quite like the white there. I've already started on the lineart of my next abstract today.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 20 - Wilma WIP 1

Started adding colour to Wilma. I added the orange first, then took a little bit of a left turn from my original colour ideas and started adding a powdery blue instead of aqua shades. 

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 19 - Wilma Lineart

Here's the lineart for my tiling abstract, Wilma. I'll be able to start painting it later today. I was annoyed while projecting it onto the paper because the computer went to sleep half way through and when I turned it back on it had moved slightly. I managed to move the paper to line it back up, but trying to move the projector back into the right position was impossible. Lesson learned - next time I'll have the computer play a movie in the background or something so it doesn't think I'm not doing anything with it. Usually I have music or something playing, but today I was listening to the rain outside while drawing.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 18 - Wilma Work in Progress

Taking a break from the "Goldfish Girl" I have been working on, to start a new tiling abstract. I've missed working on larger abstracts, so it will be nice to paint another one. This one is only 12x12 inches, so not as large as "Austin", but still larger than the 4x4 inch abstracts I tried earlier this month.

I'm thinking of using a colour palette of shades of teal and aqua, bright orange and cream/beige.

"Samantha" - Pals Paper Arts Colour Challenge PPA 218 - Moroccan Style Abstract Digital Art in Purple, Yellow and Grey

Time for another piece of abstract digital art for a colour palette challenge, this time for Pals Paper Arts. The colours this week are Hello Honey, Crumb Cake and Blackberry Bliss, which sound delicious and make me want a desert. 

This one has a little bit of a Moroccan or Arabesque style to it. Like the sort of thing you'd see on a scarf in a marketplace somewhere.

"Samantha", Digital Seamless Tiling Art, 6x6

I've also added this one and  "Jasper" from yesterday to Society6. You can now buy prints, cushions, clocks, iphone covers, galaxy covers, duvet covers and more with these designs printed on them.

"Jasper" - Color Throwdown Challenge CTD308 - Digital Seamless Tiling Abstract Design in Yellow, Orange and Pink

Yellow, pink and orange is one of my favourite colour palettes, so I was very excited when I saw this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. This week I decided to go back to seamless tiling abstract artworks. I haven't been making enough abstracts lately, and I need a few to get some greeting cards or post cards printed up. Also a few Spoonflower fabric designs. Maybe some throw cushions. I'll see where it takes me.

I went a smidge brighter on the yellow to get it a bit closer to the banana yellow shade of the bottles. That shade of orange is similar to the one I used on "Austin", which reminds me of orange sherbet. The shapes I've used came out looking like lanterns and hourglasses. That's one of the things I love about making symmetrical tiling abstract art - you can get an idea of how something is going to turn out, but the end result is almost always surprising in some way.

"Jasper", Digital Seamless Tiling Abstract Art, 6x6

Remember to follow Renee Dillon Art on Facebook if you'd like to stay up to date with my new work. Thanks for looking. :)

"Austin" is Now Available for Sale

So, remembering that I have a blog today. I'm not nearly as consistent with it as I would like. I've been posting nearly daily on Instagram to try and build up a following on there. I find that I get very single minded with social media, and post in batches on one while neglecting the others. Then realise I haven't posted anything on my blog or Facebook page for a month. The difficult part is that blog require words as well as pictures, and what I have to say isn't always relevant to the artwork. Maybe I should talk generally about my life more, I don't know.

Anyway, I finally got around to putting a Paypal Buy Now button on my blog so I can actually try to sell some art. I couldn't find out how to set it up so the button doesn't let two people buy it, so in the unlikely event that two people buy before I have a chance to disable the button, I'll refund the second purchase. EDIT: Fixed this problem and hopefully it will now only sell one painting to one person.

"Austin", Geometric Art Nouveau Style Acrylic Painting, Acrylic on Canvas, $1800

Will try to get a decent photo of it hanging up on a wall. So many things to do. I've also made a list, below, of the social networking sites and galleries where you can find my work (or will be able to find my work in future). Thanks for looking.

Renee Dillon Art on Blogger
Renee Dillon Art on Instagram
Renee Dillon Art on Facebook
Renee Dillon Art on Society6
Renee Dillon Art on Fine Art America
Renee Dillon Art on Saatchi Art (Formerly Saatchi Online)
Renee Dillon Art on Etsy
Renee Dillon Art on Twitter

"Austin" - Geometric Art Nouveau Style Acrylic Painting

I've had this post on hold for a few days, mostly due to a busy couple of weeks at work. But also due to the fact that I'm a little apprehensive to call this artwork 'finished'. Everything that that entails is a bit daunting. While I intend to hang this piece on my own wall for now, having a finished artwork involves putting it up for sale, as I intended to do from the beginning of this project. 

It can be pretty scary sending your creation out into the world. It means seeing how it will be received, after you've already imagined the best and worst scenarios possible. It means taking a first step towards being taken seriously as an artist - a first step towards even taking myself seriously as an artist. It means acknowledging that it won't happen straight away, that I'm still many hours of advertising and marketing and art making away from having fans or making sales.

The scariest thing about taking this step, though, is that it means testing my mettle. I'm seeing how far I'll go to accomplish the things I want to accomplish. I'm betting hours of my time and a large portion of my dignity on the idea that I'm willing to keep going until I can say that I feel successful as an artist. I don't know what form that success will take just yet, but enough that I reach a moment where I can think "Yes, this was a worthwhile endeavor."

"Austin", Geometric Art Nouveau Style Acrylic Painting, Acrylic on Canvas

I've decided to call this piece "Austin". While I was painting the bright colours, Austin Powers came to mind and I couldn't quite shake the idea. As soon as I thought of it, I knew I had the name. I still have a couple of spots to touch up, but for now I'm calling it basically finished. Time to start on the next one. Stay tuned for more geometric art nouveau style paintings.

Pals Paper Arts Colour Challenge - PPA 195

Getting in just in time for this challenge at Pals Paper Arts. I liked the colour scheme so much that I couldn't quite decide what I wanted to do with it. In the end I went with some bunny silhouettes and a cutout rectangle Happy Easter banner. I like the cutout words technique over patterned paper and will be using it again. Probably with a smaller print next time.

Pals Paper Arts

I've been finding that I like using simple card designs and letting the patterned paper speak for itself, but I'd like to get into a bit of pattern mixing. Maybe next time. As always, you can find my papers at Sixth Floor Studio on Etsy. These bunnies might be up in the next couple of days.

Cardmaking Challenge - FTTC 262

Flourishes

I tried my hand at another digital greeting card tonight. This one was inspired by the Flourishes "It's a Wash" Challenge. The theme was washi tape, and I'm not sure that fake digital washi tape counts but it looked fun so I thought I'd try anyway.

I shrunk the pattern on my paper called Christina to make faux washi tape strips. Not sure how I feel about the empty space in the top right corner. Maybe I should have made the strips horizontal to full that a bit more, or made the card square so it wasn't such a large space. Never mind.

If you're interested in checking out this patterned paper for yourself, take a look at Sixth Floor Studio on Etsy. Thanks for looking.

Christina

Abstract patterns are harder to name than figurative ones. This pattern started with the name 'Diamond Rift', but I wasn't sure I liked that. Then it had the working title 'Circular' while I finished it off. Eventually I decided that I'd rather give my abstract patterns proper names. This one is Christina.

It took a bit of fiddling, but I'm glad I finally managed to make this design tile properly. If you'd like to buy it, head to Sixth Floor Studio on Etsy. Thanks for looking. :)

Pals Paper Arts Colour Challenge - PPA 194

I'm not much of a cardmaker, but I like the idea of challenges, especially colour palette challenges. I thought I'd have a go at the Colour Challenge at Pals Paper Arts.

Pals Paper Arts

Above is the colour palette I had to stick to. Not my usual cup of tea, but I guess that's the point of a challenge. It can be good to try things that aren't in your comfort zone.

My friend has a birthday coming up and his favourite colour is blue. The flowers might be a bit girly, but hopefully he won't mind. So that works out nicely.

If you'd like to see the rest of this scrapbooking paper set, have a look at my Etsy shop or look at the previous blog post. Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Overlapping Flowers

Finally opened a Twitter account today. My opinion that I would not like Twitter has not yet changed, but apparently it's pretty big in the scheme of social media and reaching new audiences. You can find and follow me @6thFloorStudio (apparently typing "Sixth" made it too long). As a known rambler, having an arbitrary post size limit bugs me. I don't like changing the grammar in a sentence so I don't have to remove content, but that's what needed to be done to fit my first tweet within the limit. What was the problem with blogs, anyway? You can be as long-winded or brief as you like, and people can follow you and see what you have to say. And you don't have to figure out this ridiculous hash-tagging business. I sound so old.

Anyway, here is my new scrapbook paper set. I'm still playing with ways to make tiling images. Spacial thinking isn't necessarily my strong point, but I'm getting better. It gives me one of those special headaches that mean you must be growing new neural pathways in your brain.

I've made one of these papers into a digital card for Pals Paper Arts Colour Challenge. That can be found in the next post. If you'd like to purchase these papers, take a look at Sixth Floor Studio on Etsy. Thanks for looking.