Designing surface patterns from scratch blog tour.

Hello and welcome! To my stop on the designing surface patterns from scratch blog tour by bonnie christine at going home to roost. Don’t forget to check yesterday’s blog by Harriet’s HiddenBlog and tomorrow's Shimmerskys Handmade Items.

Last month I found out about Bonnie Christine’s course on Creative Live about Designing Surface Patterns from Scratch and I participate in the live class, It came at the right time and the following days were filled with many aha moments!.

Before taking the course, I was very limited on my creative process from how to create technical repeat patterns to how to use illustrator to create artwork.

Bonnie's class was great, she is a great inspirational and technical teacher and taught us how to get inspiration, create mood boards and sketches , how to work on illustrator to create artwork and the process of creating technical repeat patterns.

So after I took the course on a beautiful Sunday morning, camera in hand I went to the French romantic park that's near my home and took pictures of the flowers, the blue sky, the park, and was lucky to find a full bloom Magnolia.

Back at home I created my mood board and the color palette from the pictures.

The I started creating the process based on Bonnie's teachings in how to create artwork from photographs in Illustrator and then creating the  technical repeating patterns.

I created a collection with the main  pattern using the different flowers and the I created four coordinates to go with.

I'm very happy about the result and is all thanks to Bonnie's Christine Design surface pattern from scratch course.

I will be using this collection as a part of my portfolio and on my society6 and my spoonflower shop in a different home products and fabrics.
After this learning experience I'm looking forward to creating more collections  based of what I have learned.

Bonnie has offered a free month’s membership to her Roost Tribe to all the readers! So make sure to take advantage of this opportunity and start enjoying the benefits of this membership.

Howe Collection pattern design

Summer is a time for celebrations, barbecues and time to spend having fun with friends and family. This new pattern design is inspired by that, I have done a basic stripe pattern combining orange, dark blue and yellow, then I have created  the starfish motive with the same color theme and combined them.

This design collection is available as fabric and in a variety of Homewear products.

Cushions at my Bespo shop

Kitchen ware on my Bespo Shop

Collection of three coordinating patterns, the designs can be used on a variety of products such as soft furnishings, homewares, surface and fashion.This design is available for licensing

Artist spotlight -Elly Mackay

©ellymackay

In love with the work of Elly Mackay.
This artist from Ontario, Canada combines illustration, photography and paper-craft to create worlds inside a paper theater
Her inspiration behind her work comes from her own childhood and her experience as a mother, and also by her fascination with Victorian curiosities and Zoetropes.
When I look at her work, it reminds me of Victorian and early 20th century Illustration, but it doesn't look vintage or dated, it has a contemporary and modern look.
And that's what I love about it, often times we look at vintage style illustrations and we don feel relate it to it on the contrary we feel detached, because it belongs to another era, but she's able to achieve the connection between the past and the present.
As Alice in wonderland, I would love to get inside those timeless worlds  to explore them and have an adventure.

Marina Beach, Weekly Illustration

Summer is around the corner, and in this week's illustration I got inspired on  summertime and a vacation near the sea.
Hope you Like!

©Mayacoa2014

Beauty a short video by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro

Beauty by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro this film conveys the reason I made once a transition into film, watching at paintings I've always wondered what happens before and after, and I always felt the need to bring it into my own paintings, this short film give us a glimpse with classical paintings of what would it be if those same paintings give us a few more seconds to the story. I look forward to watching the complete version.

B E A U T Y - dir. Rino Stefano Tagliafierro from Rino Stefano Tagliafierro on Vimeo.

Zebra Walk Weekly Illustration

This week's illustration is a Zebra walk or crossing, fashion illustration, I worked only with two colors and tried to keep a very linear style.

©mayacoa

Eryn Collection New pattern design.

The Eryn collection is a geometrical pattern design, that comes in 6 different color backgrounds.
I created the geometrical pattern with the madpattern, a perfect tool to create symmetric patterns and some of the background colors are color trends from the pantone S/S2014.
You can find this pattern in different textile and surface supports on my shops.

@mayacoa

Society6 shop ©mayacoa

Bespo Shop ©mayacoa

Society6 ©mayacoa

Mimosa-Weekly Illustration

This week's illustration is called Mimosa, it is not inspired by the cocktail, but by the plant ;)
Hope you enjoy!

Mimosa By Mayacoa©

©wikipedia image

Saturday at the flower market-Weekly Illustration

This week's illustration is inspired by those days, mostly on a Saturday morning that we love to spend  at the flower or Farmer's market.

MOYO MAGAZINE-ISSUE 6

Just want to share today a publication by "The Art and business of Surface Design"

MOYO is the world's first online magazine dedicated to surface pattern design. It is brought to you by the creators of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design - the definitive guide to becoming a surface pattern designer. 
 This is publication number 6, you can take a look or download previous publications at their Issuu account.
I love to read Moyo magazine, is a great publication for people that creates or likes the world of textile and surface design.
Take a look!
http://issuu.com/moyomagazine

 

Open publication - Free publishing

Must see Henri Matisse: The cut-outs at the Tate Modern.

© Succession H. Matisse / DACS 2014

Must see! if you're in London this summer, don't miss this one time exhibition to see together 130 of Henri Matisse Cut-outs including four blue nudes.

Henri Matisse: the cut-outs at the Tate Modern in London, will be open until September 7th and on June 3rd, will be a live broadcast into cinemas around the UK, showing the film “Matisse Live from the Tate Modern”, a behind the scenes view of the exhibition.

In 1941, after having Colon cancer surgery Matisse was confined to a wheelchair. No longer able to paint, he developed a new technique of cutting shapes from sheets of painted paper.

“The cut out was not a renunciation of painting and sculpture: he called it “painting with scissors.” Matisse said, "Only what I created after the illness constitutes my real self: free, liberated.” Moreover, experimentation with cut-outs offered Matisse innumerable opportunities to fashion a new, aesthetically pleasing environment: "You see as I am obliged to remain often in bed because of the state of my health, I have made a little garden all around me where I can walk...  There are leaves, fruits, a bird."(from Henri-matisse.net)

Matisse is one of my favorite artists and has been a very big influence in my art. When I was an art student I attempted to do a similar cut-out work for an assignment without much luck , (I will share it on the next #TBT ;))

The beautiful colorfulness simplicity and emotion behind every cut-out makes this exhibition a must see exhibition.

Hope you enjoy!

Spring Field Illustration

                           

"The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion. " Oscar Wilde

This week illustration is inspired by the poppy fields that you can see in many places, specially in Spain.Lately I'm trying to be very simple in the illustration working with colors and less details.

Hope you like!

Spring Field by Mayacoa

Arbia Collection- S/S14 Pattern/textile Collection

Here's the Arbia collection, one of the pattern/ textile collections that I designed for this S/S 2014.
This beautiful floral design is inspired by flowers that I photographed at Parc Güell in Barcelona.

It comes in five colorways (nude, placid, green, blossom, tropical).
You can find the textile design at my Spoonflower shop, and you can find on different surface designs at my Bespo Shop and Society6.

bespo.co.uk/mayacoa

Society6.com/mayacoa

Bespo.co.uk/mayacoa

Society6.com/mayacoa

Illustrator of the month - Meet Pascal Campion

MEET PASCAL CAMPION

Illustrations by Pascal Campion

It has been nearly impossible for me to decide which Illustrations to pick, this images represent a small fraction of the vast portfolio of this amazing artist, Pascal Campion is one of my favorite Illustrators, that inspires me every day to keep working and creating.

Pascal Campion is a French-American Illustrator and animator, residing in San Francisco, he studied narrative illustration at Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg, in France.

His personal use of color and perspective, and the way he creates stories and emotions in everyday life that resonates with us because they're very familiar,defines his work.

On his Facebook page, each day he shares a sketch of the day Illustration, visiting his page is a feast for the eyes and the soul and his discipline and commitment to create daily is something that I truly admire and inspires me.

You can check his work on his Facebook page, and you can take a look at the video link below of an interview to learn more about his creating process.

I hope you enjoy!

"Loving Vincent " A Loving tribute to Vincent Van Gogh

I'm looking forward to watch this new project by Oscar winning studio Breakthru films.
"Loving Vincent" will be a celebration of Vincent van Gogh work and also a film about the death of the painter, told by the characters in his paintings.
"Loving Vincent" will be the world's first feature length painted animation, with every shot painted with oil paints on canvas.
The interesting technique use is call PAWS (painting animation works stations) are the work stations, specially invented and patented by BreakThru Productions, thirty painters will complete the 80-minute  movie in two years. The painters will hand paint 56,800 frames, inspired by the style and the hand of van Gogh.
I have always wondered, while watching a Van Gogh painting, how would it be alive and always thought what was inside his mind, how he saw the world around him.
And even though we have seen before in videos some of Van Gogh paintings come alive, I think this time around will be excepcional.
On "Loving Van Gogh " website you can find more information about the project.


      



More films about the life and art of Vincent Van Gogh:

• Lust for life:A film by Vincente Minelli (1956) A biodrama of the troubled artist Vincent Van Gogh, from his first paintings to his death. Kirk Douglas delivers a brilliant Oscar-nominated performance as the tragic Dutch painter.
• Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh (1988) The story is told through letters written to his brother Theo from 1872 until 1890, eloquently read by actor John Hurt.  
• Vincent the full story Art critic Waldemar Januszczak presents this exploration of the man who is officially the world's favourite artist, but who only sold one painting in his own lifetime. Januszczak presents a more balanced overview of the artist's life, avoiding the more sensationalist focus of modern times on Van Gogh's degeneration into madness and torment.