A little something

Looooong time, my friends. If you are still around. I've been sketching sometimes more, sometimes less. I'm on Instagram and I share my sketches on there. Feel free to follow me (@fiafour) as long as you don't mind pictures of my kids too. I've also been doing a lot of nail art. I started a separate blog and Instagram for that. (www.voniver.com, @voniver).

Here's a header I drew for the new blog. It was so much fun to do. It was a sneak peek at my future when I won't be a full-time caretaker for my children.

Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design E-course

Monday I start an e-course organized by Beth Nicholls of Do What You Love and taught by surface pattern designer, Rachael Taylor. I am beyond excited for this. I think it will help fill in the gaps of all the things I've been trying to teach myself this past year. This e-course could also mean more posts from me in the near future.

 Registration is still open for anyone interested. Just click the image above or in the sidebar to get started.

Dinosaurs and Vegetables

Today (after a long silence) I have some goodies for you: two designs that I've completed recently. First, I have Prehistoric Pals, a colorful dinosaur print. My daughter is really into dinosaurs right now. You can't walk anywhere in our home without bumping into a stegosaurus, a parasaurolophus, or a brachi-oh-uh-saurus, as my daughter calls it. Anytime I ask her what I should draw, the answer is, "a stegosaurus." Let's just say, I have a lot of practice drawing dinosaurs.

This next design, Roots and Squares, is one I entered in Spoonflower's current root vegetables contest. I started out with the idea of a damask using the stems on the veggies as the swirls and swooshes, but it morphed into this more grid based design.

I think it's pretty clear from comparing both designs that I'm still working out my style. Right now, I'm a little all over the board, but I know with practice and experience, I will get closer and closer to a look that is my own. Right now, I'm just enjoying the exploration of it all.

P.S. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I'm pretty excited about The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design e-course that I registered for recently. I doesn't start until November and November can't get here soon enough. I'm so grateful for and amazed at all the opportunities and learning experiences that have been thrown my way since decided to enter this field.

Window display

Isn't this window display stunning? I saw it outside a used bookstore in my town

{here & there} little miss austen

Children's books have been a great source of inspiration for me lately. With a two year old in the house, it's not surprising that picture books are part of our daily life. At the library, I try to choose one or two books with beautiful illustrations. I recently bought this book, Little Miss Austen Pride & Prejudice: A Counting Primer by Jennifer Adams, art by Alison Oliver, for the cute factor and to honor my history as an English lit grad.

{here & there} office supplies

I've been posting illustration inspiration to my Google+ account from my phone since I'm rarely on my laptop these days. I've been lamenting how it isn't as easy to post to this blog as Google+ from my phone. Then I did some digging around and realized Blogger has been doing some upgrades behind my back. I'm hoping to get back into blogging regularly with my new Blogger app! I have so much news but I'm going to keep it brief for this initial post.

{sock design} I can't believe I forgot!

I can't believe I forgot to post about this here. I hit Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, my old style blog, etc. Somehow, I forgot to announce it here. Sock It To Me is producing my snail sock design. It should be available for purchase sometime mid-July. I'll definitely share the link once I know it.

In other news, I have four prints I'm working on and I'd like to finish two more and then I'm going to list them on Etsy. I don't know how soon this will all happen, but it will happen!