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Thursday, October 9, 2014

Design Surface Patterns from Scratch Blog Tour




Welcome & thank you for visiting! Thank you to Bonnie Christine from Going Home to Roost for being our gracious host. We all met though the class she taught: Design Surface Patterns from Scratch on CreativeLive.  The class was one of the best I've taken.  I was ready to jump in & start playing in Illustrator.  I bought the class, so I own the recordings of the class & can watch them anytime.  It was a jam-packed 3 days of information.  It is amazing how much I learned about the Illustrator program from Bonnie.  She is an Amazing teacher - & it's not just me. Take a look at the student work & their reviews.



Here are all of us from this week:

Monday October 6th
Megan Tannahill | megtannahill.com


Tuesday  October 7th
Twitter: www.twitter.com/studioemdesigns or @studioemdesigns
Instagram: @studio_em_interiors


Wednesday October 8th
instagram:  sweetgumsara


Thursday October 9th
You are Here!
instagram: nerissaalford


Friday October 10th
heidi ahmed | www.lostinreverie.com
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/HeidiAhmed/

You can look at all of the posts here.

My sweet family.
For those of you that are here for the first time, my name is Nerissa Alford.  I am a military spouse, mom, artist & nomad.  I'm into all sorts of artsy things.  I started designing jewelry, then I found mixed media canvases & photography.  With the photography I became interested in digital design.  At our last base, I was lucky enough to work as a graphic designer & became proficient with Photoshop.  These days I've been playing with digital design & watercolors.

These are photos I've taken on base or right outside base at the local market. After I took this class, I look at EVERYTHING as inspiration.  I think I drive the kids nuts having to stop all the time to snap a photo.

We have been blessed to have had the opportunity to live abroad.  We spent 3 years in Kuwait, 2 years in Turkey & we'll spend the next 2 years here in Korea. Life has been an adventure!
My collection is based on what's inspiring me here in Korea during our everyday life. We've been carless for a bit, so we've done a few tours & I'm just exploring what's around me.  The plan is to make 2 collections: within the gate & beyond the gate.  Pictured on this post is the "within the gate" phase until I get some wheels.

My color palette for the collection.  I began with the colors from a canvas I painted & added some fall colors.  Before I learned how to use Illustrator, I used colourlovers to help create color combos.



Don't laugh, but this is as far as I've gone in Illustrator, besides the artboards above.  I used to blob brush to "trace" the photograph.
I am so excited about what I've learned that I'm going in so many tangents.  I have always been inspired by my environment & surroundings, but it's as if this class has retrained my eyes. I've been taking pictures, sketching & I probably have a million ideas in my head for collections.  So I don't know if this is too aggressive, but I'm giving myself 2 weeks to finish this half of the collection.  We've been in our home for about 6 weeks & I'm starting to feel settled.  Granted we're going away this weekend, so stay tuned for those pictures.







Mixing my current love of watercolors & digital design.  Back in the day, I would have never thought I'd label myself an illustrator & painter & here I am. Illustrating "the Girls" has been so much fun!
I've taken some of my new Illustrator knowledge & have been making downloadable prints in my etsy store. My current love is taking acrylic & watercolor paintings I've done & mixed them with digital art.  I hope you've enjoyed your visit to my blog.  Korea is full of festivals & they are currently in full swing. I'll have more inspiration after this weekend!  I hope you come back to enjoy our adventures here in Korea. Come back & see me here:



Bonnie has graciously offered readers a free month to join the Roost Tribe.  She has resources like downloads, tips, printables & recipes.  She had such a wonderful demeanor during the class & the vibe continues on.
The blog hop continues for another 3+ weeks, so make sure you visit Bonnie's post for lots of inspiration.