Blog Archives

Pattern making

6/24/2015

There something really relaxing about watching an artist at work. Elsbeth Mclean is an Australian painter who paints beautiful vibrant paintings, all made up of itty-bitty dots.

I follow her on Facebook and she often posts short videos of herself painting--one tiny dot at a time. It's so simple and short, and so fun to watch. (I got these videos off of Facebook, and you apparently have to be signed into Facebook to watch them, FYI)

Misty morning moon painting #artistatwork #paintingvideo #dotillism #elspethmclean
Posted by Elspeth McLean .-artist-. on Tuesday, January 6, 2015

I think I might start doing that. So here's my first little one I posted today. I don't love the lighting, but I like the brush gently filling the shape with color.

Painting traffic colors around my bike lane guy
Posted by Laura K Maxwell on Wednesday, June 24, 2015

What do you think? Interesting or boring? It was originally posted on Instagram, which only allows 15 second videos (that's often all the attention span I have for online videos anyway).

In other news, I have a new fun pattern available on Society6, AND there is free shipping this week so you should most definitely take advantage of that.

I mainly drew this one while traveling--in the car to the coast, and on the plane to and from Texas.

Loosey-goosey patterns are a nice break sometimes.

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Things having to do with texas

6/17/2015

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Last week, Ryan and I flew from Portland to Dallas, for some good family time and the wedding of two dear friends. Fortuitously, I also finished this illustration of Texas at around the same time. I made it at the request of a dear friend, Linh.

I'm happy with how it turned out, and looking forward to getting a print of it myself.

Here are some sweet snapshots of time spend with friends and family this past week.

And since Jessica and Trevor are now married, I can finally share this project I've been working on the past few months. Jessica commissioned me to create a drawing for her and Trevor, which she gave to him on the wedding day, in a frame made by her dad. There is a back story to the illustration of course, but I think this blog post is getting long enough, so you can just ask them about it. Here is the finished drawing:

And here are some process pics. From beginning sketches, to a picture Jessica sent me of the frame-in-progress.

And then I added some color on Photoshop for kicks.

This is what happens when I go two weeks without posting a blog--there is so much I want to say and share. I'll leave you with that for now. And if you like the above Texas illustration, make sure you head over to BoomBoom Prints to buy prints, baby tees, bags, etc. AND get %17.76 off your order until July 4th when you use the code BoomForth.

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adventures

6/3/2015

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I hate it when I let two weeks go by without a blog post! I am way too much of a rule follower, and I set myself the rule to blog every Wednesday. I had much internal angst when I broke that rule, but I just had other priorities last week.

Last week, I was busy getting ready for the opening of Artistic Portland in Downtown Portland. As many of you know, that is the art cooperative that I am apart of here in Portland; the local home for my art. We just moved into a big beautiful space Downtown, and opened our doors there on Monday. And I got to work the opening shift! It was very exciting.

Anywho, last week I was busy getting my products packaged and priced (alliteration!), and helping out getting the space ready as well.

If you wander into Artistic Portland, you will find my original drawings, signed prints, tote bags, pillows, and greeting cards (pictured above). If you don't live in Portland, head over to my Etsy shop to purchase those things instead. *I'm currently offering free shipping in the US on Esty with the code FREESHIP. Offer expires June 10th.*

In adventure news, I went on an epic hike this past Sunday with some friends. This was a bucket-list kind of hike, something I'm so excited I was able to accomplish. We hiked up Mt Hood to the Sandy Glacier Caves. There are so many great pictures from that day! It's hard for me not to share 20... here are a few.

Our fearless leaders. I was content to just follow and not worry about navigation.

Adventure husband.

There's the cave in the distance! It's kind of looks like a nostril. (and there is more than one cave, but we just went to the first one, didn't feel confident/safe enough to keep going to the others)