Author: Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

A busy holiday season and how I set myself up for failure

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

  
After Halloween, I wrote a long list of all the creative things I wanted to accomplish before Christmas. I wanted to make paintings as gifts, do Christmas crafts, and on and on.

I thought with Christmas two months off, there was plenty of time. I was so wrong. The list was totally unrealistic. My life is pretty busy already with three kids, a husband, my own business, running, etc. During the holiday season things obviously get busier with parties, trips to the city, decorating, shopping, baking, etc. 

It’s important for me to recognize the reason why I failed to get these additional things done. Because my first instinct is to feel bad about it. When I realize there wasn’t time I feel better. It’s why most people who create for Christmas (professionally) start in July. 

I will try that this Summer, if I can get into the holiday spirit. I’ll also try to be more realistic and plan ahead – way ahead!

Gingerbread houses

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

It was a lot of fun decorating mini gingerbread houses with the kids tonight. It’s nice to do something together especially since 2 of my 3 are teenagers. Traditions are really nice. We’ve been doing houses together since the oldest was 2 or 3. 

I remember when I was home from college and my sister said we were going to make gingerbread houses with my niece – who was the first grandchild. We baked everything from scratch, and then struggled to put the houses together. Finally we were ready to decorate. My niece ate a few gumdrops, put a few on the house, and yelled, “done!” As she hopped down from her chair. I couldn’t believe it. Kids are too funny! 

 

Painting Winter with Gouache

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

snowman
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reaching for the gouache paints. It started somewhat unintentionally when I decided to paint a nighttime snowy sky. At first I thought, I thought I had to keep the snow areas white (paper), so I was leaving white circles as I painted the black sky. Which was tedious! I was so happy when I started to flick white gouache paint onto the black and it was much more opaque than I was expecting.

Flicking paint is one of my favorite things. 🙂
https://www.instagram.com/p/_VKyofn6fF/?taken-by=eileenmckenna

After that, I continued with this dark snowy sky in several of my paintings.houses

I started playing with gouache paints back in June. See the June posting, and learn more about gouache paints here.

My 12 Surface Designs – one a month this year!

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’m really proud, and happy, that I followed through on my goal to start creating surface designs. I designed the first one in January, and decided to commit to “1 Surface Design a Month.” That goal, and the end of the month deadline, really pushed me to put in the work.

12 Surface Designs
January – Art Supplies

artpatternrepeat

February – Valentine’s Day
valentine'sdaypattern
March – Gardening
gardeningrepeatfinal2
April – Dahlias
dahliapatternv2
May – Sandcastles
sandcastleEM
June – Echinacea
echinaceapattern

July – Shells
shellspattern

August – Ice Cream Cones
watercoloricecreamcones

September- Feathers
featherspattern1

October – Leaves
leavespatterncolor

November – Nutcrackers
nutcrackersrepeating
December – Toy Soldiers
toysoldiers2_5inchhigh

I’m always asking you, “What’s your favorite?” And I would love to hear, but I’ll also tell you my favorites.

I really liked when I started using the technique of creating the ink lines and watercolor backgrounds separately and then merging them in Photoshop. I started this with the shell pattern. I think the watercolor really adds a depth that you can’t get with Photoshop brushes. I started this technique with the shells, and continued it with the leaves – which is my favorite design in this style.

My other technique is drawing the elements in my sketchbook and adding color in Photoshop. My favorite design, using this technique, is the Toy Soldiers. They are just so cute!

Will I be continuing with surface design in 2016? Absolutely! As you know, I’ve made the Nutcracker and Toy Soldier patterns available on Spoonflower, where you can have them printed as fabric or gift wrap. It is really interesting to see the designs printed and to think about how it will be used. It makes you think about the design, and what works and doesn’t. It’s a different perspective than just seeing it flat on the computer screen.

In the new year, I’ll be adding a few of the other “12 designs” onto Spoonflower. And I plan to continue designing one new one a month!

Only 16 Days til Christmas!

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

daystilchristmas
I had a list, a mile long, of all the creative projects I was going to work on this month. The best laid plans and all that! Instead, (in addition to everyday life), I’ve been going to parties, decorating the house, and shopping, with a little creative time squeezed in.

Since, I’m starting to feel like I have the Christmas preparations under control, and there aren’t any parties this weekend, I’ll hopefully have more creative time. Whatever I don’t get done this December, I’ll have to pick up over the Summer. Although I don’t think I’ll be in the Christmas spirit then!

When I was younger, I wanted to be a cartoonist. I wasn’t particularly good at drawing or writing cartoons (my 10 year old son is awesome at them), but I loved reading them – Cathy, Ziggy, For Better or Worse. Here is my cartoon, to show you what’s been going on in my world.

Hope all is well with you! 🙂

The Cooper Hewitt Museum – my new favorite

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

cooper
We try to spend a day in “the city” (NYC) after Thanksgiving as our anniversary celebration. This year quite by accident, we spotted the Cooper Hewitt on the way to the Guggenheim, and added it to our itinerary. As soon as I walked in, I knew I would love it. One of the current exhibits is “How Posters Work,” and as a Graphic Designer I was really interested in this. I think the poster design concepts can also be applied to illustration.

cooperhew2

Design concepts from the exhibit “How Posters Work”:

  • “Focus the eye
  • Overwhelm the eye
  • Use text as image
  • Overlap
  • Cut and paste
  • Assault the surface
  • Simplify
  • Tell a story
  • Amplify
  • Double the meaning”

Read more about the “How Posters Work” exhibit here.

Two of the other exhibits were equally interesting. One on Pixar and one on Architecture. The park design “under” the dessert, was mind blowing!

The Cooper Hewitt has these cool stylus pens that you use to flag anything you find interesting. Later on you can login to their site and see everything you flagged to learn more.

gugg1
I’d never been to the Guggenheim before. The building is very cool. The current main exhibit is abstract art that explored working with different textures. I don’t really love abstract art. I did love the colors of the Kandinsky’s that I saw.
guggen guggen2

I like smaller museums because you can absorb more. To me, the larger museums are a bit overwhelming. Another small museum in Manhattan is the Neue Galerie. I highly recommend it. It’s in an old mansion like the Cooper Hewitt. We went a few years ago and saw Klimt’s “Woman in Gold.”

If you are coming to New York, plan on visiting one of these museums, and send me an email. I’ll meet you for a hot dawg. 🙂

Toy Soldier Pattern

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

toysoldiers2_5inchhighrepeat
When I was a kid I watched the March of the Wooden Soldiers every year. Maybe that’s what inspired the design of my second holiday pattern. (The first was nutcrackers.)

toysoldiers2_5inchhigh
I’ve ordered the Toy Soldier pattern as gift wrap from Spoonflower and I can’t wait for it to arrive! This year I want to be especially crafty and creative with my wrapping. And I plan on sharing my creations on Instagram – I hope you’ll follow along! 🙂

Nutcracker Pattern – and it’s available as fabric and gift wrap on Spoonflower!

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

nutcrackersrepeating
I’m so excited to announce that this Nutcracker pattern is available on Spoonflower and can be ordered as fabric or gift wrap! I just received some Nutcracker fabric and I’m excited to make something with it for the holidays!


You all know how passionate I’ve been about surface design this year! I’ve been wanting to take the next step, and see these patterns in action. And make them available to anyone else who is interested in them. I plan on adding some of the past year’s pattern designs to my Spoonflower shop too. If there is a particular one you are interested in, please let me know (links below).

This Nutcracker pattern is my “November” design. I know it’s jumping ahead of Thanksgiving, but I couldn’t help myself! I’ve already uploaded another holiday design and am waiting to see it printed. I’ll share with you, once I have it in my hands!

My surface designs this year:
January – August
September (includes a tutorial on making a repeating pattern)
October