marks – Ella's Place

Posted on November 21, 2016 by ellajohnston12

Monday Moodboard: Folk patterns

Joyous, colourful and breathtakingly beautiful, my folk art moodboard is perfect for brightening up this grey Monday afternoon. .

Marks, patterns and painting made by ordinary people is a constant inspiration for me. The simple shapes, harmonious composition, strong colour combinations and celebration of birds, flowers and animal life in folk art are timelessly popular in interior design and illustration. I’ve used them as a spring board for some of the work I created for my Christmas Posca pen workshops and Christmas wrap designs – look out for those next week.

Posted on October 10, 2016October 5, 2016 by ellajohnston12

Monday Moodboard: Paint strokes

Visceral and expressive, paint strokes look so cool. Expect to see a lot of these on homewares and fashion next year as they are set to be a key design trend for 2017, hence this week’s Monday Moodboard. You can go for simple lines or big painterly blocks, either way you’ve got a stark, contemporary look made a little warmer with the suggestion of the human hand.

Est: Collected reports from East Anglia, Dunlin Press. Illustration and design by Ella Johnston. dunlinpress.com — Est: Collected reports from East Anglia, Dunlin Press. Illustration and design by me!

These simple marks are very effective and are a real short-cut to a stylish, minimal look. They also say so much, I used them as an illustration device in the Dunlin Press book Est, Collected Reports of Easy Anglia to suggest landscape and horizons.

Posted on September 16, 2016 by ellajohnston12 — 1 Comment

Drawing of the week: Feathers

I’m showing you something different for my drawing of the week – not a finished illustration but some ideas I’m playing with at the moment.

I’m in experimental mode this week, playing with different pens and drawing techniques. I often experiment with illustration but rarely share my playful doodles. However as I’m pushing out of my comfort zone I’m happy to show off my working process, and these feathers, with you.

The ‘playing process’ is so much fun. I get super absorbed with making marks and seeing how shapes and colours interact with each other. It’s a great way of thinking out patterns and new projects. I’m currently obsessed with feathers – they are a recurring theme for me and an effective way to free up my line and play with colour and shape.