Neutral Wallpaper Design: Enduring Dogwood Botanical Pattern

Whenever I visit Oregon in the late spring, I’m reminded of the beautiful dogwood tree in my childhood back yard. These lovely flowering trees line the walking paths and are sprinkled throughout the neighborhoods. The flower is not only alluring, it’s durable and able to withstand hard downpours of rain. It makes sense that this beautiful flower is also known to represent the ability to survive life’s challenges. 

For some time, I had wanted to work on a wallpaper design inspired by the dogwood tree, and I chose it as my subject matter for a Spoonflower challenge. The challenge was to create a botanical design in a neutral color palette to be used on grasscloth textured wallpaper. Choosing a color palette of soothing creamy tan and pale sage green, I set to work. 

As I’m finding my illustration voice, I experiment with a few illustration styles when I start a new design. I know as an illustrator, it’s best to market myself with one very distinct look, but I find it hard to stick with one style. I have a few styles that I work with. My hope is that one of them will finally take over. With that in mind, I found working with loose and easy brush strokes for this piece felt right. In doing so, I was hoping to create a sense of the way the flowers and leaves move in nature. It was also an enjoyable way to draw since it was more freeing than some of my other work.

For me, I see this design as wallpaper or as upholstery fabric for furniture or curtains since the pattern is large at twelve inches. The calm, neutral colors make it versatile in a space. Find this design and more original illustrated surface and textile patterns on my Spoonflower shop.

Enduring Dogwood Botanical wallpaper and fabric surface pattern design by OcuLoop.

Seamless Pattern Design: Geometric Beetles

Fig beetles are big iridescent green beetles that fly erratically and eat fruit. They’re so big, they can be confused with a humming bird for a split second - partly because they both share a beautiful iridescent green coloring and partly because they will both fly toward a glass of red wine on the patio. Though I wouldn’t want a fig beetle to land on me, they are kind of like big flying gems and they’re totally harmless.

When I saw there was a Spoonflower challenge to create a retro bug design, I thought it would be fun to come up with something. Beetles were easy to work with because of their gem-like quality. That’s why I also picked out an intense jewel color palette of emerald, sapphire and ruby pink.  

When thinking of beetles and tying them into a retro illustration, I was reminded of the seventies when beetles and other insects were encased in glass and worn as jewelry, from big pendants, to earrings and rings. I’ve always found this jewelry to be disturbing, and I would never encase a fig beetle in glass like that, but I thought it would be an interesting avenue to explore in this illustration.

To capture the essence of the beetle jewelry, I worked with geometric seventies-style circular shapes with alternating gem colors and placed the beetles in the centers to be encased for eternity.  The end result was a seamless pattern that made me happy I discovered the world of textile illustration.

After seeing the colorful fabric swatch I ordered, I looked at comps of the pattern on throw pillows and blankets. I imagine it brightening up a dark room or adding more color to an already colorful maximalist room. Find my retro beetle fabric design and other original illustrated patterns in my Spoonflower shop.

Image: Retro style beetle pattern design.

Image: Beetle pattern design printed on fabric swatch.

Pattern Surface Design: Seashells on the Beach

Finding and collecting shells on Florida’s beaches is one of my favorite things to do when I visit that side of the country. There are so many treasures to find in the sand, from conch shells, to sand dollars. After walking the beach, I usually find myself lounging on a beachside patio taking in the view while sipping on a refreshing beverage and feeling the ocean breeze on my face while it rustles through the tall beachgrass. These are the feelings I tried to subtly capture in my Seashells on the Beach design.

While illustrating this design, I tried to simplify the complicated shapes of different types of shells and beach treasures to create a minimalist and modern aesthetic. The shapes ended up being more organic than symmetrical and freeform than controlled. Imagining what I would want to see on fabrics if I were decorating a coastal lounge or breakfast nook, I went with a contrasting color palette of pretty pink, bright coral, and soft blue and tan.

The original design was entered into a seashell Spoonflower challenge as a bold size design - making it ideal for curtains and furniture coverings. To complement it, I created a smaller, more detailed print for table linens and other home decor items, and liked it so much, I had cocktail napkins made for gifting. 

In general, I’ve always liked contemporary coastal beach decor so it was fun working with the shell illustrations, and I’ve come up with different compositions and color palettes to work with since. In the future, we’ll see what other seashell compositions come to me. Find this combination of seashell coastal fabrics as well as all kinds of other originally illustrated patterns in my Spoonflower shop.

Image: beach inspired shell pattern design by OcuLoop.