attack of the Creative Block monster

it's been a tricky couple of months in 'create-amazing-things-land' for Mel Smith Designs. as you may have seen on my latest monthly round up posts i haven't been anywhere near as productive as i was at the start of the year. and this is because of one thing. i've been suffering from the dreaded Creative Block monster.

he's a meany.

he steals all ideas / visions / general ability to do ANYTHING, and you're left with...not all that much actually. on my big plan schedule for this year i was dedicating May through August for designing my new collection(s), starting with woodland. well he scuppered that plan well and good! it was the last week of June and i had 1/2 a design. HALF. crap.

i felt like i had a solid idea and could see what i wanted. but nowt happened. as continued for about 6 weeks.  moodboard - done, doodles - yeah a few, thumbnail ideas - check, i even did the individual characters...but no actual FULL COMPLETE STUFF!!

i'm not sure what made the Creative Block monster strike. i guess i wasn't totally secure in the 'woodland' theme so switching projects also as a wise move i think. 'woodland' is something i'd still like to pursue but as another designer said to me, it's been done a lot and i'd have to do something crazily different to stand out. i haven't done many characters before (apart form my recently completed Christmas 2014 card range) so that all made me a bit nervous. but i can build on this separately and go back to it once i feel confident enough. 

there are tonnes of advice pages on how to battle creative block, they all pretty much say the same - step away, go for a walk, try a different technique...but i think for me booking a 3 week trip to Peru this September may have helped somewhat! i did 3 designs in 4 days!

i ditched the woodland idea and went straight to what was going to be my 'supporting' range, a smaller collection based on my travel adventures. you've already seen some of my line drawings of the beautiful houses in Amsterdam. well, here's them all designed up. this is just a small part of my full illustration, don't want to spoil to great unveiling :p

and so i continue this weekend, concentrating on other traditional dutch pieces.

so for now i shall stick with the travel bug and continue our tour merrily around the memories from the wonderful places i have been fortunate enough to visit so far...where shall we venture next i wonder...

when in Rome . . .

earlier this week i had 3 days in the beautiful city of Rome. 3 exhausting yet amazing days! it was a late christmas/birthday treat for my mum who was absolutely shattered by the end of it with me dragging her round everywhere! i think we're both pretty much recovered now though...here's some the holiday snaps...

typical tourist! colloseum, vatican, st peters, trevi fountain, spanish steps, old town...did it all!!

i have a thing about doorways as you can see.

and of course i was on the look out for pattern. not much of my style obviously but i did find these beauties

sitting upon a hilltop . . .

spring seems to be taking it's sweet time to arrive so i've found myself constantly thinking about my next holiday (i have 3 days in Rome with my mum in a couple of weeks yay!). but then i think this is not enough...i want more! more sunshine, more sea, more warmth...so my new life plan?

buy a holiday home. in Italy. by the sea.

done.

this is where i'm currently thinking. nice huh? it's the little village of Manarola, on the Cinque Terre coast. there's a waling trail in the hills and the brightly coloured houses are just delightful.

but there's no sand. i'd quite like a bit of sand. so how about Vernazza?

it's pebbles not sand. bummer. but seriously look how pretty?! i think i could live without sand. i can travel to another resort right? so not a problem. but this i want/need. same difference. how can anyone say that Positano (below) isn't beautiful?

so what have i discovered from this marvellous day dream? well, i like sunshine, water (preferably in sea format), warmth, a good hill for a hike, coloured houses, nice chilled lifestyle (i am perfectly capable of adding my own stress, don't need others input), and being able to gaze across beautiful sunsets.

i blame Jamie Oliver for this - he was cooking on the beach with freshly caught fish and that set me off. so a totally unrelated pattern post today but we all need a day dream and this is mine right now :)

bonjour monpazier!

i have just returned from a lovely weeks break to the south of france. i visited a beautifully quaint little town called monpazier. the trip was a celebration of my friends upcoming wedding and we stayed in a lovely converted barn. the town was gorgeous as was the weather (at leas 35 degrees each day). the area itself is very green, lots of fields and vineyards but not so many flowers. i snapped what i could though but i think most of them are weeds!

the town was absolutely beautiful - a lovely, quaint little village. we had just missed the medieval festival that weekend but they still had some decorations up. i got a bit carried away taking snaps of the buildings and alleyways - there were lots of cute doors, shutters and they had a bit of a thing for net curtains as well (but of course this is juts more pattern for me so i didn't mind!)

and we were lucky enough to be there for market day - so many colours and gorgeous foods, flowers, bags, soaps... i bought an amazing air plant (no need for soil), and a gorgeous turquoise ceramic dish. no idea where i'm going to put it but it was too good to leave behind!

#dailydraw . . . week 1

as you may have read yesterday one of my recent challenges to myself is to do a doodle-a-day, or - depending how creative i'm feeling - a full drawing a day. here's how #dailydraw week 1 turned out... 

i didn't intentionally start out with a theme in mind but i have been wanting to draw from my Amsterdam photos for aaaages and this was the perfect opportunity to start.

day 1: amsterdam architecture

day 2: windmill

day 3: lilies from keunkenhof

day 4: bicycle (i gave up half way through as you can see!)

day 5: detail from a shop

nothing for day 6, tsk tsk...

day 7: window detail

amsterdam . . . the city

i had a lovely 2 days in amsterdam this week, a joint 50th birthday and mothers day present from me to mum. the main choice of location was to visit keukenhof to see the tulips. the weather had not been
looking good on the build up, i have to say, so we were a prepared to see tulip-less gardens.

if i had a bike - this would be it

we spent the first day looking around the city, walking alongside the canals - we chose not to take a canal cruise - ooh controversial! - i know,  right? BUT you get to weave in and out of little side roads - you can't do that when you're on a boat.


we saw some lovely little arty-farty boutique hops - it seems that they support their upcoming young designers in amsterdam which was lovely to see. a couple of shop-owners let me take some snaps of their goods for my blog so i shall show that in the next post.





we visited anne franks house and did a pretty good job at missing the queues - hot tip: go at 19:30 (an hour or so before it shuts) - no queue what-so-ever! i read the diary of anne frank when i was 11 or so and this visit has inspired me to read it again - just purchased from amazon...

cute little cafe 

the whole city had a very relaxed atmosphere - nice and chilled, no rushing, not hectic like london...exactly what i needed after a busy couple of months! we went to the flower market. bulbs, bulbs, bulbs! getting us in the mood for keukenhof tomorrow...

cute antiques stored 'antiqued' up with good ol' instagram

the city at night was just lovely, canal bridges were lit up and even more peaceful. there were lots of little bars and cafes with seats outside to chill by the water. shame it was a little bit chilly for that.

turns out i quite like fancy doors...

so the next morning we made our way out of the city to head to keukenhof but we got sidetracked for about half an hour down 'graffiti street'. here's my best picks of graffiti from around the city:

not your usual garage...

not really graffiti i know but it fitted in quite nicely here so go with it