Crafting Slowly
In 2020 Whenever we got the chance we bought up big at Spotlight (our handy craft mega-store) and sewed. We sewed clothes and quilts and knitted blankets. It seems like it was a frenzy now...
Another Challenge
The 100 Day Project – again I do love a challenge, but sometimes you have to gracefully admit defeat. In February I started another #100dayproject. This time I chose to draw a character every day....
Self Belief – What’s that?
Where do you find support and encouragement when you work alone? I signed up to attend a SCWBI event for illustrators. I would love share some of my work for ‘peer review’ (when I’ve figured...
Got an Issue?
Should picture books tackle the big issues or are they just for fun?
Dont Stop
Illustrator Karen Erasmus discusses the slow and sometimes difficult process of developing a creative career.
I finally kicked him out
My Space I know how lucky I am to have an office to myself. It’s an outrageous luxury, but like all luxuries sometimes you have to learn to share. D started working at home last...
Love a challenge!
Another 100 days Once or twice a year I take on a ludicrous but entertaining art challenge. It’s always an interesting journey. I’ve had some that have failed miserably because I just wasn’t in the...
Inspiring Surroundings
New Project…time for a break The start of every creative project is an idea and a brief. And it’s always nice to receive those from a publisher and get the contract signed. But after that...
Celebrating Illustrators and Colour
Many years ago I listened to Shaun Tan speaking to a small group of illustration students about how he uses colour. He showed us one of his pictures where he’d deliberately chosen a green colour...
Colour and Illustration
Colour – it’s a massive subject. Something that is incredibly beautiful and fundamental to art and illustration. Yet if you start getting into studying it formally, it can get very overwhelming. Complementary colours aren’t colours...
It’s all new
New Year The start of a new year immediately makes you look at the past one. It’s not very pretty this year though is it? Personally it was ok for us. Australia hasn’t been hard...
List, plan, muddle…Christmas
Four days left before Christmas! I’m a ridiculous list maker at the best of time but it can get out of hand at this time of the year. We haven’t got any house guests this...
Well here it is…
Happy Holidays From where I’m sitting on the south coast of Australia, I’m very aware of how incredibly fortunate I am. After many months of severe lockdown – no schools, shops or public places open...
Christmas Again!
Karen Erasmus discusses Christmas and the end of that year.
Famous Story Reading
I’m a bit excited about this! A famous person reading a book I illustrated, and getting dressed up for the occasion.
Play the Game
After going to all the effort of learning your craft and creating work marketing and showing your work can be difficult. But with some guidance it starts to feel more like a game.
Mock-up Love
I love creating mock-ups for patterns and prints. Here are some pointers on how to start creating mock-ups
Reading to Children
I can honestly say that some of my favourite memories of my children being small are the times when we sat down to read a book together, or two or three. Most nights I had...
Next Phase
A brief update of what I've been up to for the past three months. I'm very happy to be getting back to illustrating.
That Drawing Project I did 100 Years Ago!
It’s hard to believe how quickly the past two months has disappeared. When I last wrote I was finishing up on my #100daysofanimalsinhats project with The 100 Day Project. I really got into the swing...
Creativity, young people and mental health
As a teacher of creativity it was really disheartening this week to hear in the news that humanities degrees in Australia are set to double in cost over the next few years. The (total nonsense)...
Learning new skills
I've recently published a Skillshare class on illustrating characters in Photoshop. You can get 2 months free Skillshare access with the referral code in this post.
Black illustration
A blog post celebrating black illustrators and designers
More sewing
Face masks with wire! So life is opening up again and it feels weird and worrying so this weekend I hid behind my sewing machine. That’s not strictly true, we did have drinks with a...
More and more animals in hats!
Day 40 and counting. 40 days ago I had the ridiculous notion to start The 100 Day Project. As I love creating characters I set myself the challenge to create 100 animals in hats. Why?...
Getting Help…getting too much help
Karen Erasmus discusses guidance and advice for creative business.
My first story reading
At last! I was brave enough to get in front of the camera and do a story reading. And it turned out to be the best fun and much easier than I thought, so I’ll...
Happy Easter
Stay home, stay safe This time next year With any luck I’ll be able to look at this picture and remember this crazy time as a distant memory. A time when life was really odd...
The 100 Days of Animals in Hats
It’s getting to us all Well of course, like everyone else on the planet, life is just not the same. We’re all working at home now. But it’s going just fine. There’s an endless list...
Getting by at home
Sew-Walk-Draw-Design-Repeat As for most people on planet earth at the moment life has changed dramatically around here during the past two weeks. But we’re lucky, we have space to walk the dogs and for each...
Flying Elephants from the Past
Many years ago when my parents lived in Australia (and the world wasn’t completely fxxxed…sorry, I’m trying to stay positive!) my daughter drew this marvellous elephant. Mum loved it so much she had it stuck...
Time for some Dancing Bears
I scribbled down some dancing bears today. It seemed right to find something silly to do. Things are still pretty easy for us in southern Australia, but we know that the schools will close soon...
Rainy Day Mock-up
It’s been raining non-stop today and I’m feeling a bit coldy and yuck, so what better to do that play around with some mock-ups. It’s so great to see a whole collection of patterns come...
Setting up shop!
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been setting up shop on my website. The idea is that this will support my market shop. At the end of last year I was able to have...
New Collections!
Three new surface pattern design collections. Here's some of the inspirations and ideas behind the designs.
Springing Forward
Illustrator and surface pattern designer Karen Erasmus has designed a new pattern with a Springtime theme
Magical Mallacoota
Australia is experiencing our worst bushfires in history and the news from Mallacoota was some of the worst. It is harrowing and difficult to get your head around. It’s hard to know what to even...
Happy Holiday Season
I made this! The holiday season always seems to creep up on me at an alarming rate in Australia. The kids finish school and the weather starts to warm up so we all hit the...
Walls That Talk
My illustrations on the outside of a public building! Back in August The Maitland Library in New South Wales approached me to ask if they could use the illustrations from one of my books for...
Christmas Cake Toppers Workshop
I ran a festive cake decorating workshop with High School students.
Christmas! Just round the corner.
It’s going to be a bit of a mad Christmas this year at our place. With relatives driving across the Nullarbor Desert to be with us, a new puppy and just one bathroom because the...
Excitement all round Play School, Fabric and Puppy!
Mini Celebrations We had a lot of fun watching Play School yesterday and celebrating ‘Eva’s Imagination’ being read out. It brought back memories of the time when it was on every afternoon. The bubbles were...
Book reading on Play School!
We’re on the telly! I was super excited this week to hear that ‘Eva’s Imagination’ is going to be read on Play School. I used to watch the program every day with the kids ten...
Water Lilies
I made a new pattern yesterday with water-lilies for inspiration. I was also following the creative prompt ‘Grateful’. My cynical voice didn’t get much of a look in (‘god help me if I hear someone...
Inktober Round-up
This is the round-up of all my Africa Inktober sketches. I’m not sure what I was thinking of when I decided to do two Inktobers. I over-did-it and didn’t do any of it brilliantly or...
Inspiration for Design
Inktober I’m managing to keep up with two versions of Inktober, but only just. Days go by and I miss doing the sketching and then do a whole load at once. So, as with many...
African Designs
A blog post about folk-art and surface pattern design.
Do children have a say in design?
They have minds of their own A long time ago, when I started illustrating children’s books someone very cynically said to me ‘You know you’re not illustrating for children, it’s for the parents or grandparents,...
Tea Towel Design
A tea towel designed with a recipe for chocolate brownies
Inktober
Inktober 2019. Will I get to the end?
Licensing my work
This week my surface pattern designs were accepted on patterndesigns.com, a European pattern licensing site with really high standards. I was really thrilled. The designs are all checked and curated, so you have to have...
Winter Blooms
What better way to get back into designing than to enter another Spoonflower challenge? This week is Winter Blooms and as we’re coming out of Winter it wasn’t difficult to figure out the colours. Greys,...
Limited Palette
This is the first time I’ve attempted the challenge of using a limited palette for a pattern. Who knew it could be so incredibly absorbing? And I’ve just spotted a mistake! Ahh. Anyway, it’s inspired...
My pattern designs on cushions
I'm so delighted to see my own pattern designs on cushions.
African Boyhood
A pattern designed for boys clothing with a wildlife them
Vintage postcard inspired pattern
This week’s Spoonflower challenge was inspired by vintage postcards. I chose my palette from various old Australian surf posters. I also explored under-patterning and adding texture so the final effect has depth. I think it...
Cushions!
I finally got you round to having some of my own prints made up into cushions. It was about a year ago that I first took some classes on Skillshare with Bonnie Christine. Then we...
Cycling and Pattern Design
Cycling and Pattern Design
Small Scale Summer
A couple of weeks ago I entered my second Spoonflower competition and was please to get around 90 votes! That’s my best result yet, but it didn’t cut it for the top 60. Onwards and...
Australian Beauty
I have loved creating a new pattern for Spoonflower this week. Australian florals are an endless source of inspiration. The’r mad and random, curly and spiky and come in the brightest, loveliest colours. I also...
Nautical
Last week I entered my first Spoonflower challenge. But Whilst I was doing that I generated a whole new collection. It was such a great creativity boost. I’m really pleased with the results. I’ve put...
Wooohooh! Happy Halloween!
‘Monster’ for The 52 Week Illustration Project Another cake!