a NEW YEAR of Surface Pattern Designs!

Below are a few of my original textile or surface pattern designs---the top 2 are hand painted with watercolors, and the bottom left flowers on the black background are hand painted in gouache. The design on the bottom left was completely designed on the computer--in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Can you tell I really love creating floral designs and I love hand painting?

I usually do not create NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS because I have learned over the years that I rarely keep any resolutions I make. How about you? What is your success rate on annual New Year resolutions?

However these designs have been languishing in my portfolio----(stored under my bed!!!!)---for 2 years now and I have decided it is time I make a real effort to sell them and/or the many other surface pattern designs I have in my portfolio. So I am creating a plan for marketing my designs in 2012....is that a resolution? well not exactly. Which is good, as I want to avoid my usual failure---so I am planning for the NEW YEAR--how about you?

Playing around in Adobe Illustrator today I created this "pop" self-portrait thanks to this post by Terry grant of Portland, Oregon--she directed viewers of her portrait to this great quick tutorial "how to do pop portraits".



this was fun--and the "pop" aspect--with minimal drawing allows me to appear nice and young---like going back in time some.

I have been taking classes in both Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Illustrator CS2 at the California School of Professional Fabric Design, where I am a currently studying to be a designer. A year ago I would not have known how to do this--to draw this in Illustrator (the basis was a digital photo)and save the image for the web, and upload it to my blog...
Now, thanks to the Fabric Design School computer classes I am exploring more and more creative ways to use these great design programs.

And for more practice (and fun!)I also created this pop-portrait of my partner, Larry...the quintessential folk musician.