Happy June!
Drawing and design side-projects can be a welcome distraction from a busy life. Sometimes they have surprising results and consequences.
Thinking Outside the Sketchbook
Let’s talk about finding inspiration to create. It can come from unlikely places and it can be difficult to find at all. Sometimes it’s easier to not go looking for it.
Wondering how to get started with drawing?
Drawing exercises can be a great way to get started with drawing. Sometimes the ideas that come from fun and doodling can be surprising.
Central Character Energy
Getting to know the central character of a picture book, their clothes and props, is a huge leap forward in developing a picture book.
My Most Recent Book
Teddy is the second book in a series of three. They all feature greyhounds but they are beautiful stories about friendship and acceptance.
Wildly Adorable
Creating Animal Character Illustrations The joy of illustrating animal characters comes from knowing you’re creating a substitute for a child. They can have playfulness, curiosity and silliness. In a picture book, they can show another visual story that might not be mentioned in the text. As the sidekick or silent partner they can offer some…
Relax, it’s just a piece of paper
Drawing without purpose Spend more than 30 seconds on the internet and someone will tell you how to monetise your skills and be better and more efficient. It’s exhausting. So it’s not surprising that many people are looking for hobbies away from screens. Pottery, crochet and sewing are having a moment. But they all involve…
Navigating the Craft Market Scene
The market season is drawing to a close. Here in Melbourne it’s getting chilly and the leaves are changing colour to mark Autumn. I’ve only been doing markets for two seasons and recently I’ve been reflecting on the whole experience. I started it just as we were coming out of the pandemic lockdowns and I…
New Projects and Old
I’ve been creating work on the iPad for some years now. It changed everything for me. I could talk about improved workflow and efficient delivery of work to clients. Yawn. But, my absolute favourite thing about it is exploring brushes and textures to work in different ways. It’s like preparing a canvas with paper and…
I Love My ‘day’ Job
Decades ago I trained as a teacher. Before I’d had a chance to work out what I really wanted to do. Does anyone know what they want to do at 18, or what they’re good at? I did a pretty good job at pretending to be a primary school teacher for a while. But it…
Embrace the mess
You may have noticed that I got very enthusiastic about writing for the past couple of weeks. I had decided that I could put out three blog posts a week ongoingly. Why? Well, it seemed like a good idea of course. I do this a lot with all sorts of things. I can never manage…
More Dogs
The second greyhound book by Kylie Miller was sent off to print a few weeks ago and the book launch is being planned. Drawing dogs with such quirky characters naturally leads me to think about all the dogs that have featured in our lives over the years. Adopting a dog Mum owns a big hairy…
Boys Can’t Sew
It happened again! At the market last weekend someone approached my stall and showed an interest in my Sew Together Dolls. They appreciated the concept, the design of the animals and multicultural people. They loved the step-by-step visual instructions to encourage children to be involved. And then she said ‘But I only have boys’. Seriously?…
We’re off to The Show!
The Melbourne Royal Show I’ve heard a lot about it over the years. My kids have visited it with other families and bowled through the door with show bags bigger than themselves full of nonsense, telling stories of mad animals and fairground rides. It sounds exhausting but as we did just about every other thing…
Australian Animals on their way!
My best-selling products at the markets are the collections of small doll ‘Sew Together’ kits. When I first designed and made them I honestly wasn’t sure how much people would like them. But I found that after a few weeks I needed to order more fabric. The ‘Little Bag of Friends’ are particularly popular, especially…
Peninsula Studio Trail Artists
Last week I had the opportunity to have coffee with another peninsula artist. Narelle Callen is a fantastically talented painter. She’s been living on the peninsula for around the same time as me and we found we had a lot in common. She has also dabbled in creating patterns for fabrics which I spotted when…
Christmas in July!
I last set my market stall at the end of May and it was a super chilly start. It’s been two months and it’s time to flex the muscles and get back into it. I had a false start last week at Boneo Community Market. I was up at 5.30 am in the dark and…
Celebrating Dogs
I don’t have favourites. I love dogs so much that we have three! I don’t (really) have a favourite, but I’m certainly their favourite human, especially for one of them and probably for all of them. It helps that I’m the one that feeds them of course. As a family, we have always had small…
Albert on ABC Radio National!
The author of the book I most recently illustrated is an absolute gun with publishing. It’s a joy to watch her and listen to her in newspapers, tv and this week on national radio with Jacinta Parsons. A delightful object Finally seeing the hard copy of a book you have worked hard to create can…
It’s all new to me
‘Emerging artist’ always seems like an odd term to me. It seems to suggest you’ve been hiding away somewhere, not quite ready to brave the bright lights. I feel like I’ve been emerging forever and perhaps that’s all there is. Being an artist is about constant discovery, learning new skills and looking at what you…
Time to stop
We need a mini-break! The first three months of this year have whipped by at break-neck speed. It’s just as busy as it was in pre-pandemic days. Perhaps we’re trying to keep on the treadmill to distract ourselves from the nightmare that is going on in the rest of the world. With horrific floods in…
Markets Update
It’s been a little over a month since I started selling at local markets. Packing up my car the night before with tables, gazebo, card stands, 20kilo weights in case of wind gusts and boxes and boxes of stock. Then leaving the house at 6am to travel to a field and set up shop with…
Time to celebrate women
It’s 8th March again! International Women’s Day. Time to shout loudly about how great women are. I was really lucky to be the middle one of three sisters. This picture was a watercolour I painted a few years ago of a memory of us on holiday together as kids. I went on to have three…
My First Market Day
If you were to make a wish list for the best weather and people for your first market it would look a lot like this. 24 degrees, light breeze and clear blue skies. Friendly stallholders who buy you coffee before the start of the day – seriously, I’d never met this person before! (Tracey from…
Market Time!
I’m having a mild panic putting together my first market stall. Fortunately the market is set a truely gorgeous place and I’ll be surrounded by other lovely creative types. Check out The Emu Plains Market in Balnarring, it’s very beautiful. I’ll have my Sew Together Kits, artist print, t-towels and cards available. Markets have been…
You Can’t Get It Right
At the start of an art class, particularly with children, I often say ‘You can’t get it right and you can’t get it wrong. Art is an individual thing and no one does the same work. It’s an attempt to put the learners and ease and reduce comparisons and harsh judgments. Creativity is easier when…
Wrap It Up
Time to wrap up 2021 and wish it a fond farewell! But first a little bit of reflection. It hasn’t all been easy but I can look back on this year and safely say I enjoyed creating a bunch of stuff, I made some good progress and faced some really unexpected hurdles. I use a…
Christmas Challenge
Mid November, panic time! Although generally I get the sense that Christmas has a different tone this year. Let’s face it, it’s very difficult to expect anything to arrive on time if you’re buying online. Stuff is hanging about in warehouses waiting to be delivered. Here in Australia there are huge delays in the postal…
Where have you been?
Well, the quick answer to that is nowhere! But I have been very distracted and busy with projects and trying to keep the family on track. Here’s a brief catch-up. My husband had to travel to Africa and was stuck there for three months whilst we were placed in another lockdown. Melbourne has had more…
Back to Redbubble Fun!
This week I had a whole lot of fun uploading some patterns and illustrations to Redbubble. It was incredibly easy and I made a sale almost immediately! That was a big boost. Why wait? What have you got to lose? I’ve put off adding designs to lots of different types of products because I honestly…
How Important is Imaginative Play?
Let’s escape all this. What’s better than sitting down to a good movie or reading a book? Escaping into another world and forgetting all your concerns. We just sink into it and enjoy it and don’t think about what we’re learning. This is similar to children engaged in imaginative play. They are so absorbed that…
Let’s Sew Together!
Creating sewing kits Over the past couple of months I’ve been working on creating two collections of sewing kits. Now they’re finally ready to put in the shop! The idea came from watching my teenage kids getting into sewing during lockdown (and again in the next lockdown and the next. We’re in lock down 5…
New book on the way!
Tomorrow is the publication day for this lovely picture book celebrating some of the heroes of the catastrophic bush fires that took place in Australia early in 2020. I’m really proud to have illustrated this book, especially as it’s so local. It was a super fast deadline but fortunately there were no compromises and the…
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 but it really wasn’t. It was slow and enjoyable and satisfying. I love seeing the beautiful quilt on my daughter’s…
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. It was fantastic practice with using the iPad and Procreate. And it’s always great to mix with other artists outside…
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 out what that is) but honestly, after ten years of working as a professional illustrator, I’m not sure I’m ready…
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 March and moved into my office. It was an interesting experiment but yesterday we finally found an acceptable place for…
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 right space or at all organised. Others have been an adventure. In 2013 I created pop-up sketchbook diary for 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 comes the best bit. The faze of gathering more ideas and inspiration and letting it all sink in. It can…
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 for the sky. He explained that it was used by many painters and helped evoke a surreal, dreamlike effect. It…
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 that sit well together, they’re colours that make each other stand out. Like red and green. Already it’s confusing! From…
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 it by Covid 19 like other countries. But then we were in lockdown for what seemed like an eternity, so…
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 year, and although we’re allowed to mix with others here we’re keeping it low-key. The news from the UK, where…
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 apart from the grocery stores – we no longer have active cases of Covid19 in the community here. It’s pretty…
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 to put a cap on it at three or four in case I fell asleep whilst reading to them. Our…
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 of it towards the end and stared getting to grips with using Adobe Illustrator and building my skills. I also…
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) logic is that it will encourage young people to consider more vocational subjects. But of course it will only disadvantage…
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.
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 few friends and of course I ferried the kids around but I did spend a large amount of time sewing…
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? I don’t really know…it’s fun and we all need more silly nonsense in our lives. I’m contributing to the greater…
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 do it again. It helps that I have three teenagers who are really great at directing and editing. Directing usually…
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 but it’s ok again now. It’s not really looking likely at this stage though. But it is Easter! There’s chocolate…
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 of things to be thankful and grateful for of course, and we’re all massively productive in pursuing our fabulous passion…
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 of us to hide away from each other when we need to. I’ve been enjoying starting some unusual projects. At…
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 on her laundry wall for ages. I managed to take a photo before it faded and the other day it…
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 and we’ll told to stay at home. Over the years I’ve run private art classes and school workshops on drawing…
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 together. I’d love to see it come to life one day. There is so much brown, ochre and muted tones…
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 a small stall at a twilight market for alumni at Chisholm college. It was such an uplifting experience 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 write under the circumstances. There is so much commentary on how to donate, whether or not to send goods or…
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 beach and forget that Christmas is coming very soon! I did manage to organise myself a bit this year though.…
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 their Christmas exhibition ‘Walls That Talk’. So I was delighted when I checked out their website and saw that they…
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 renovations haven’t progressed in time….what could possibly go wrong? One thing is certain there’ll be a lot of laughing and…
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 non-alcoholic, and when the kids were little they certainly didn’t have chocolate and crisps for afternoon tea. Who knows if…
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 years ago, but on Tuesday this coming week I be sitting in front of it again with my three near…
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 tell I have to be grateful one more time I’ll scream!’…that one) because I really do have something to be…
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 finish it! Pretty sure that’s breaking the rules and shows no hard-line commitment at all! But it was wonderful to…
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 things, I’m hopelessly inconsistent. The sketches I’m accumilating though are leading to all sorts of ideas for patterns and collections,…
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, they’re doing the buying’. Now that’s all fine if you’re in publishing and marketing and all that matters is shifting…
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 a sharp eye with whatever you present or it’s rejected. I’ve only managed to upload two patterns but, as with…
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, soft greens and little splashes of colour are very much par of the Australian scenery. This little bunny jumped out…
Illustrated gum-nuts
After an extended break to the wilds of the UK and Africa, I’m finally back to creating patterns starting with recolouring these gum-nuts. This was one I started before I went away but it’s been jigged about about this week. Looking forward to more creating soon.
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 by the thought of floating along the Lower Zambezi admiring the egrets wading. Something I’m really hoping to be doing…
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 would be a nice piece for a beach bag. Still thinking about doing something to bring out the turtles.
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 went on holiday to Queensland and I collected a whole load of drawing and photographs to make my own patterns.…
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 upwards though. I’m going to just keep on trying. This week was Small Scale Summer. It was so perfect for…
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 discovered Roostery this week. Cant believe it took me so long. What fantastic resource for creating quick mock-ups and visualising…
Uncollected Patterns
I’ve been busy making new patterns for all sorts of reasons. Spoonflower challenges and because I’m hopelessly addicted to it. Creating a few new collections would probably be a good idea.
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 the whole collection on my other website. It’s had a little bit of attention on Spoonflower. The competition is really…
Grace’s Book Launch
It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog post here. I’ve been so busy setting up my business in surface pattern design. There have been some delightful goings on in the children’s picture book area though. This weekend is the first book launch for Grace’s Mystery Seed. I was fortunate enough to meet…
New patterns
I’ve only made one new pattern this week but it was a good silly one. I’ve also been messing about with the colour editing in Adobe Illustrator which is definitely one of my most favourite things.
Speech Pathology Children’s Book Awards 2018
I had some delightful news today. The short lists for the Speech Pathology Australia Children’s Book Awards 2018 is out. I was delighted to see my name on the 5-8 year olds list for ‘My Super Special Granny’, just a above Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton. Then I looked a little further down and there was…
Hi Karen,
I love your work. Pyjama Party is gorgeous. Writing to see if you might be interested in illustrating a children’s book?
Hi Karen (I’m Susan’s mum). I love your work – your illustrations really make me smile, and I love your “dribbly” watercolours. Yes it is scarey having an exhibition. No doubt Susan has told you that I am having my first exhibition in October in Wagga Wagga – it is something I had never even thought about until I was asked to have one!! Who would have thought at age 72 that I would be doing this. Nearly all my work is pastel which I love – it is so instant. Keep up your wonderful work and I will proibably catch up with you next time I am needed to look after Max, Ed and Arch. Belinda
Your work is so inspiring, I plan to put my work in the young artist section in the Derinya art and craft exhibition this year 2010!
Love your work :o)
I absolutely love your blog, and all your beautiful pictures. I think we share similar tastes, and we have some favourite illustrators in common. You are much better at drawing children than I am though! I love your loose use of watercolour; it gives such energy and life. You’re very versatile too. Lovely stuff.