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 for the sky. He explained that it was used by many painters and helped evoke a surreal, dreamlike effect. It…
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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 that sit well together, they’re colours that make each other stand out. Like red and green. Already it’s confusing! From…
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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 it by Covid 19 like other countries. But then we were in lockdown for what seemed like an eternity, so…
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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 year, and although we’re allowed to mix with others here we’re keeping it low-key. The news from the UK, where…
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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 apart from the grocery stores – we no longer have active cases of Covid19 in the community here. It’s pretty…
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Karen Erasmus discusses Christmas and the end of that year.
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I’m a bit excited about this! A famous person reading a book I illustrated, and getting dressed up for the occasion.
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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.
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I love creating mock-ups for patterns and prints. Here are some pointers on how to start creating mock-ups
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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 to put a cap on it at three or four in case I fell asleep whilst reading to them. Our…
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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.
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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 of it towards the end and stared getting to grips with using Adobe Illustrator and building my skills. I also…
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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) logic is that it will encourage young people to consider more vocational subjects. But of course it will only disadvantage…
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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.
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A blog post celebrating black illustrators and designers
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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 few friends and of course I ferried the kids around but I did spend a large amount of time sewing…
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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? I don’t really know…it’s fun and we all need more silly nonsense in our lives. I’m contributing to the greater…
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Karen Erasmus discusses guidance and advice for creative business.
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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 do it again. It helps that I have three teenagers who are really great at directing and editing. Directing usually…
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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 but it’s ok again now. It’s not really looking likely at this stage though. But it is Easter! There’s chocolate…
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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 of things to be thankful and grateful for of course, and we’re all massively productive in pursuing our fabulous passion…
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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 of us to hide away from each other when we need to. I’ve been enjoying starting some unusual projects. At…
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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 on her laundry wall for ages. I managed to take a photo before it faded and the other day it…
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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 and we’ll told to stay at home. Over the years I’ve run private art classes and school workshops on drawing…
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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 together. I’d love to see it come to life one day. There is so much brown, ochre and muted tones…
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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 a small stall at a twilight market for alumni at Chisholm college. It was such an uplifting experience to have…
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Three new surface pattern design collections. Here’s some of the inspirations and ideas behind the designs.
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Illustrator and surface pattern designer Karen Erasmus has designed a new pattern with a Springtime theme
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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 write under the circumstances. There is so much commentary on how to donate, whether or not to send goods or…
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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 beach and forget that Christmas is coming very soon! I did manage to organise myself a bit this year though.…
Read MoreMy 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 their Christmas exhibition ‘Walls That Talk’. So I was delighted when I checked out their website and saw that they…
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I ran a festive cake decorating workshop with High School students.
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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 renovations haven’t progressed in time….what could possibly go wrong? One thing is certain there’ll be a lot of laughing and…
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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 non-alcoholic, and when the kids were little they certainly didn’t have chocolate and crisps for afternoon tea. Who knows if…
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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 years ago, but on Tuesday this coming week I be sitting in front of it again with my three near…
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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 tell I have to be grateful one more time I’ll scream!’…that one) because I really do have something to be…
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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 things, I’m hopelessly inconsistent. The sketches I’m accumilating though are leading to all sorts of ideas for patterns and collections,…
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A blog post about folk-art and surface pattern design.
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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, they’re doing the buying’. Now that’s all fine if you’re in publishing and marketing and all that matters is shifting…
Read MoreA tea towel designed with a recipe for chocolate brownies
Read MoreInktober 2019. Will I get to the end?
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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 a sharp eye with whatever you present or it’s rejected. I’ve only managed to upload two patterns but, as with…
Read MoreWhat 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, soft greens and little splashes of colour are very much par of the Australian scenery. This little bunny jumped out…
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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 by the thought of floating along the Lower Zambezi admiring the egrets wading. Something I’m really hoping to be doing…
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I’m so delighted to see my own pattern designs on cushions.
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A pattern designed for boys clothing with a wildlife them
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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 would be a nice piece for a beach bag. Still thinking about doing something to bring out the turtles.
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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 went on holiday to Queensland and I collected a whole load of drawing and photographs to make my own patterns.…
Read MoreCycling and Pattern Design
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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 upwards though. I’m going to just keep on trying. This week was Small Scale Summer. It was so perfect for…
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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 discovered Roostery this week. Cant believe it took me so long. What fantastic resource for creating quick mock-ups and visualising…
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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 the whole collection on my other website. It’s had a little bit of attention on Spoonflower. The competition is really…
Read More‘Monster’ for The 52 Week Illustration Project Another cake!
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