Author: Girl and the Deep Blue Sea

Mermaid Vibes with these Shell Patterns

Channel your inner mermaid with these shell-inspired pattern designs! I just LOVE seashells and can draw them endlessly – so it’s no surprise that they feature in many of my patterns. If you are handy with a sewing machine and looking for summer vibes for your projects you’ll be glad

Incognito Art Show 2023

Last year I donated three artworks to the Incognito Art Show – I loved the experience so much that I decided to do it again this year! Some background – the Incognito Art Show sells A5 sized artworks at $100 each – the catch being you don’t know who the

Pink Patterns

Come on Barbie let’s go party – this is one trend I’m totally jumping on, probably because 99% of my pattern designs have some sort of pink in them! I do love my pink patterns, and it is one of my favourite colours to design with. What is really interesting

sneak peak into a client brief

In this blog post I’m going to give you a sneak peak into how I design for a client brief. My client asked for a pattern design that was hand-painted with watercolours, including fish and the world. My client also supplied a colour palette of their preferred colours. The first

Sketchbook Practice

I have been thinking a lot lately about my art style and have started an almost daily sketchbook practice (I call it art play) where I can do whatever I like in a little A5 watercolour sketchbook. I’m hoping with regular art play I will develop a stronger sense of

Lennox Head photo diary

It is the winter school holidays here in Queensland and we were lucky to spend a few days at Lennox Head in northern New South Wales last week. Winter is my FAVOURITE time of year to be at the beach The only downside… freezing your feet running over the cold

My Creative Resources

I’ve just added a new page to my website called ‘My Creative Resources‘. I decided to list pretty much everything I could think of that I use in my business as a surface pattern designer and illustrator. I know when I have found these lists from other artists they are

why I love to design patterns for swimwear

As I have been learning about pattern design and running a business, there was one activity I did that really helped me focus my art creation, marketing, and clients to approach. That activity was deciding on an industry to design for. The industry I chose was swimwear, particularly sustainable swimwear.

Pattern design using Procreate

Welcome to the story of how I got over my technophobia of using the iPad to draw and why I now love doing pattern design using Procreate. I’m one of those people that struggle with technology and tend to avoid using it unless I have to. Whenever I hear something

Nature Inspiration for Pattern Design

I often like to reflect on my art style and my source of inspiration for pattern design. Most of the time this inspiration is nature – especially anything to do with the beach and ocean or the tropics. The motifs I always seems to be drawn to are shells, palms,