Tag: Etsy

INSPIRATION GATHERING

From inspiration to design

Anyone who’s ever taken a walk with me will know I usually come home with a few ‘finds’ in my pocket which I use either as inspiration for a drawing, digital sketch or just to photograph and scan into Illustrator. These were my finds from last week, a collection of seeds, nuts and berries gathered during a long walk in the forest with my dog.

I love this time of year especially for the seed heads which are everywhere. I find them just as fascinating as the flowers they started out as. Sometimes they’re even better and more interesting. This collection made a perfect study for drawings and photos.

By the middle of the week I had a few images ready to work on in Illustrator.

After a bit more work plus finding a suitable colour palette to work from I came up with a few designs I really love. I’ve turned these into greetings cards which are now in my Etsy shop.

I’m super happy with how they turned out and so glad I walk everywhere with my eyes on the ground and a little net bag in my pocket.

Have a great week and I’ll be back soon

Jaine x

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BLUE SKIES AND RAINBOWS

We’re having an amazing autumn so far weather wise. It’s gloriously sunny and warm here in Luxembourg so we’re making the absolute most of every second knowing that it can and will change at any moment. It’s so warm that it’s hard to let go of the summer. Creating summer themed designs is also making it difficult to accept the new season.

In my previous post I shared how I’d been getting to grips with surface design and managing to complete my first collection of patterns. Although I knew the patterns themselves needed some work before I could see them being printed, the foundations were there. This rainbow was the first design I came up with and is my favourite so far. Starting out as hand drawn elements, I wanted to keep it bright, quirky and fun. I altered the original image a bit and changed the colour pallete completely to subconciously turn it into my signature aqua colour! After designing the main image I used it to create a further two patterns to support it.

I think it looks great on a notebook cover and once I’ve made a couple of tweeks I’ll be adding this notebook to my Etsy store.

Meanwhile I’ll just keep dreaming of blue skies and summer days.

Jaine x

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GREETINGS CARD ORIGINALS

Since opening my shop in Etsy I’ve been going through the stock to decide what to actually put on the shelves.

When it comes to the greetings cards I’ve decided to mostly stick to original designs which means a lot of the images on the card fronts are my own designs. If any of them are made using a stamp or die cut from another company then I’ll put that in the description. Eventually the only cards I’ll be creating will be designs from hand drawn images by me. The three below are stamps and stencils designed and made by me in my studio.

Designed by Basement Studio

There’s something very satisfying in seeing my own designs on a card, like a little piece of artwork.

You can find these and many other card designs on Etsy here by following this link.

Jaine x

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GOING BACK TO WHERE IT BEGAN

A very happy new year to you all and I truly hope 2023 will bring us all peace and prosperity.

As I look back 2022 was a year of reflection for me. I spent a large part of the year either trying to work out where I was going or longing to create something wonderful but not quite knowing what. I think this must be a result of calling myself a mixed-media artist. I want to use everything all of the time and procrastination is my worst enemy.

At the beginning of last year I challenged myself to create at least one large canvas painting which I’d be proud to hang on a wall as well as to fill a sketchbook with drawings I could use in future paintings. However halfway through the year it became obvious that I had neither the urge or the time to create a daily sketch, or even a weekly one and the canvas project was looking less and less likely too. As time passed it became harder to get back into a creative habit. The sketchbook is half way filled and I hope to fill the other half this year.

I’ve decided to scale things down quite a bit as a result and so the shop has gone. This cuts down on the admin side of things and leaves me free to get back to the thing I love which is making art. I’ve opened an Etsy shop again so I can still sell my creations as well as a few supplies. I do hope you’ll visit me there as I start to fill it over the next few days. It’s called simply BASEMENT STUDIO LUXEMBOURG – to the point.

Etsy is where I started my journey all those years ago so it’s appropriate I should go back to where I began. I’ve learned a lot since those days, gained confidence and a bit more self belief. The next few months will be exciting as I explore the possibility of new ideas so I hope you’ll join me from time to time and we’ll see where this path leads.

Jaine xx

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