Garden glories...

Summer has been a mixture of absolutely gorgeous days, and a few torrential ones, too, so things have been a little late to flower... BUT, our beautiful year old Clematis has bounced back well, and is covered in beautiful blooms and buds.

I'm in love with the crinkly, crispy, interesting edges and rogue double flowers, and can't wait to draw it (perhaps it will become a new pattern?!)... I even love the bits where the caterpillers have had a nibble, makes for really interesting forms.

The boys are loving running around outside, too - sniffing, digging and mischief making. Hamish just turned a year old and is a cheeky wee bundle... Angus is as grumpy as ever. Love them.

 Looking forward to a long, hot, summer and more of the same!
A&R

Illustrating Springtime...

Hand-illustrating beautiful flowers is a huge part of what we do here at abigail*ryan, and something we really love... each and every design, pattern, print and product starts with me photographing beautiful flowers, trying to find gorgeous silhouettes and forms that I know will work well with my style of drawing, and then painstakingly interpreting them in pen and ink...

I love making marks with ink, creating deep hatched details, and how you can show the undulations of papery natural forms with some flowing line-work, building up depth and intensity with each line and mark you make.

I also love seeing them transformed with colour later on - it's such a magical process.

Here are some Hellebore's I have been working on. These are becoming the forth napkin design in a box set we are set to launch very soon.

Yum!
A@a*r