A DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : Want to play a game? Spot the differences!

Want to play a game? Spot the differences! The illustration on the left was at the beginning of the day, the one on the right is at the end of the day. There are 9 differences. The Answers are at the bottom. No peeking!

The playlist for today, I hope you like 100 Gecs!!! :D

And this is what I did this evening: Shout out to my friends Kari (@theprintmakerandherdog) and Tara (Tara.Lee.Bennett) stunning show at @newleafeditions on Granville Island in Vancouver.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*Answers: On the right illustration:

1. no surfer on the F

2. a surfer instead of a flower

3. a surfer from the left had been moved to on top of the D

4. no surfer in the right corner

5. surfer on THE

6. surfer moved from the M to a dot in the I

7. surfer now on the C in Chaos

8. the surfer is larger and between the A and the O

9. surfer larger and on the S

A DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING FIND THE CALM IN THE CHAOS : : Playing

I always start out with an idea but I know I have to be open enough to let it evolve. Which means a lot of playing. It’s getting closer!

Here’s what’s on today’s April 17th playlist!

playing. to bland?

text on the waves

starting to like it

still playing

A DESIGNER DIARY

ILLUSTRATING Find the Calm in the Chaos

Today I’m trying something new. I’m going to start posting about what I work on everyday and here’s why:

My friend Hana, when she was diagnosed cancer, started going outside everyday. A love of gardening was something we shared, although she was much more enthusiastic about raking leaves than I ever was. Everything about someone getting sick is heartbreaking. When she got really sick, she’d say, when I get better, we’ll get together. All I could do was send her texts, telling her she was in my thoughts and I was sending her love, along with photos of my garden. Knowing she was going outside each day, I decided I would go outside each day too. It was my only way of feeling close to her. I would think of her each morning, knowing she’d be so pleased to see things budding or how busy the bees were on the dahlias.

In November, when Hana passed away, I kept going out every morning, comforted with my thoughts of her while I dug a little over here and I clipped a little over there. I went out with no plan, just what ever felt good to work on that day. I’m out there first thing every morning, rain or shine, anywhere from 10-30 mins every morning. We both live(d) on acreages and there’s always a lot to be done, to the point of being overwhelmed… but now instead of resenting it or feeling like it’s a chore, I crave my time outside. What a wonderful gift of a daily ritual Hana left me.

Then I thought, what if I applied this daily ritual to my personal work. Usually I get a deadline and dive head first in and I don’t come back up for air until I’m done. I do love a good deadline but this way of working has left me depleted in the past and what I’ve been craving is consistency. So here we go, an experiment! Every morning I’ll work on new work, a little drawing here, a little painting there! Here we go!

Okay, here we go:

Today I’m starting a new illustration for the Goin’ Surfin’ collection. It will be called “Find the Calm in the Chaos”. Job one is working on the lettering. I’m taking my LET GO letters and converting them into the letters I need. Which means making eight new letters by making a/an:

T into an I

E into a F

two T’s into a H

a backward G into an A

O into a D

H into N

a sideways H into an S

two NN’s into an M

Here is the playlist I listened to whilst working away : April 15th, 2024 Ha! Whilst! It’s such a funny word!

LET GO : : deep thoughts by Lysa Flower

I always have an vague idea of what I’m wanting to do with a piece. The journey, like many creatives have written about, is U shaped. Starting at the top of the U: "This is such a GREAT idea! (sketching and inking)". To the bottom of the U: "Ugh! Why is this falling apart in my hands (realizing it feels a little flat)". To climbing up the other side of the U: "Okay, that’s interesting, (breaking it on purpose, pushing the scale super large or super tiny) what if I?… to Wow! I LOVE THIS!".

That U feeling; it’s kind of like riding a wave I suppose... AND like the ability to LET GO of expectations, disappointment, each moment. When I really started to think about it, the need to LET GO might be the purpose of life… Whoa, that got deep fast! All I was trying to say was that I LOVE when hand lettering and patterns go together ;D

YOU WANNA PLAY, OUI?! Le MINI GOLF!

I have always loved mini golf! I also fell in love with Paris when we were there in 2016. Then, fast forward to 2020 when I was taking Stacie Boomfield’s Leverage Your Art course, we were given an assignment to do a map. I used that assignment as a jumping off point and created the first version of the illustration you see in the panel of this new collection. This past May, I reworked it and it became the backbone of my Le Mini Golf fabric collection for Paintbrush Studio Fabrics!

Here are few fun facts that inspired each print:

MONUMENTS: When I was in Paris my mom and I did a speed run through the Musee d'Orsay. We had 45 minutes before it closed. It was the first time I had ever seen an actual Monet! His colours are to die for!

FLOWERS-PLAY DAY: In high school we’d take the bus to the big city (an hour away) just to play mini-golf! * This print also comes in RAYON! it’s so dreamy soft!

FLAGS: Well I love geometrics, triangles and colours. I only wish real mini golf had flags you had to take out of the holes!

POLKA DOT-GOLF BALLS: When I submitted this collection to PBS Fabrics and they accepted it, they requested this print with larger golf balls, which I loved the idea of!

SCORE CARDS: Truth be told, I don’t keep score when I play (I find it more fun that way) but I do LOVE the little pencils!

Le MINI GOLF SIGNS: This is the print that inspired the Sunshine Inn signs!

HOLE IN ONE: I love pink and green together AND I love BIG stripes! I can imagine these flowers popping out of each hole like whack-a-mole!

WOOD-TEXTURE: This is the texture behind the panel repeated… because who doesn’t love a snazzy tone on tone?!

PARIS GOLF COURSE: Paris is everything everyone and every movie tells you it is! I would love to go again even if I could only go back for another 45 minutes in the Musee d'Orsay!

This I did not know: The Eiffel Tower isn’t black, it’s beige! I was shocked standing in front of it, what the heck! I guess I had seen so many black and white photos of it, I just assumed. Also did you know there’s an apartment at the very top! Yeah! Me either!

HELLO BIRDY: It feels weird to have an odd number in a collection, so when I submitted the golf balls, I also submitted this print. I took the layout of the Paris print but used my text instead and added a few flowers. I used one of my favourite colour combos, red and pink. Although what I consider red some people consider orange. If we split the difference we can call it orangie-red :D

So there you have it, the whole scoop behind this collection. Le MINI GOLF will start shipping to stores in November and if I had to guess (and it’s 100% a guess) it will be in stores January-ish.

Lots of people ask me where they can buy my fabric. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see the distribution list but when stores tag me on Instagram I make sure I link to them on my website under COLLABS and under the specific collection. Also local fabric stores will often happily bring in a collection if it’s requested.

In the mean time, we will be sewing up a storm of projects and samples that will be posted on Instagram (@lysaflower) and under Le MINI GOLF COLLABS on my website. AND of course one of my very favourite things is to see what you make! Please tag me, I’d love to see it and repost it!

And lastly, as tradition has it, I have created a playlist for this collection on Spotify. I actually curate these and listen to them while I’m creating each collection! Enjoy! FORE!