Search Results

In today's art story, let's talk about how inspiration can strike you like lightening and get you to jump off the sofa and straight to your desk and iPad to create right away. This is exactly how this bird of paradise illustration and matching pattern came to exist in the first place after mindlessly scrolling on Instagram. It all started in June 2021, back then birds of paradise flowers aka heliconia were starting to pop in my Instagram feed more regularly, fo some reason, all the artists I follow were having a serious case of tropical vibe fever and in the world of tropical flowers, the two that stand out the most are hibiscus flowers and heliconias/lobster claws/bird of paradise. Living in a tropical region myself, I probably wasn't as "struck" as most artists living under colder latitudes and those flowers are pretty common all around me and I didn't particularly felt compelled to draw them. That changed when on a lazy evening, while enjoying the monsoon rain, lounging on my sofa, feet up on the coffee table, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and came across this picture from the ModCloth account (yes I follow them). It was a pretty abstract pattern that kind of looked like birds of paradise, and had all the colors you usually find on that stunning tropical flower and for some reason it gave me a jolt of instant creativity. Suddenly I had to get off the sofa, get out of lazy evening mode, grab my iPad and start creating a bird of paradise design right away! I knew right away that it had to be a pattern, so I drew all the elements separately. To assemble them later in not only the pattern you see on the right, but also created the "bouquet" you see in the sticker picture above. I normally don't draw anything past 6pm, I leave evenings for either conducting my art classes or do something relaxing for myself, but that day, the compulsion to draw was way too intense. If I hadn't read "Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert (it's an Amazon affiliate link), I would have found it weird. But, I knew better, that book has introduced me to the notion that ideas are body-less entities that roam the earth in search of a creative person that can give them a physical form. In her book Elizabeth Gilbert explains how an idea for a book stuck with her for a while, then left her, only to find out while casually chatting with Ann Patchett that the novel's idea that left her found it's way to Ann without them knowing each other before, or having shared notes. She also mentioned that sometimes ideas need to visit several persons all at once and that it's probably how trends come to be and how big discoveries that advance the human race are made. To me it was clear that the Bird of paradise art/pattern idea had made the round in the artist and surface designer community around that time, and that it probably wanted me to join but that it hadn't found the right trigger until that Mod Cloth picture. It was the point at wich I went for "Ohhh bird of paradises are everywhere" to "I MUST draw a bird of paradise pattern...RIGHT AWAY" That evening I spent a couple of hours getting it drawn and ready to turn into a pattern and went straight to bed, knowing that the instant I would wake up the next morning I would export all my made in Procreate elements straight into Photoshop to turn it into the pattern it was meant to me. And this is exactly what I did, I woke up at my usual 5-ish am and went straight to my laptop to continue working on it. And then, it was straight to my Society6 shop. If I remember well, I couldn't eat breakfast or do anything else until that was done. Some body-less ideas are oddly persistent and determined to come to life aren't they? This one was in a hurry to be born and out in the world like no other ideas that visited me, including the groovy rickshaw. The bird of paradise pattern isn't as widely popular as the rickshaw in terms of sales, but ultimately, that is not what ideas really aim at, an idea just want to get into the physical world, what happens afterward is not in anybody's control. What is clear is that this tropical flower idea really wanted my attention and really wanted me to commit to bringing it to life, for what reason? I'll never know, but I know it needed me to give it a form. That's what we artists and designers do. Did you like this art story? make sure you subscribe to my newsletter so that you never miss a blog post. Simply click on the image below to sign up :

Once upon a time, a girl started a blog on a platform called blogger, it was back in 2004 and it was a time when blogs were kind of online diaries about their daily lives. In 2013 said blog became Home Cyn Home and became more lifestyle focused before this girl decided to turn it into a design brand. This is when Home Cyn Home, the blogspot blog became confusing and many attempts to clean it up failed. As sentimental as this girl was, the old blog had to go, it outgrew its purpose and it led to not being able to grow a clear audience that was in line with the brand's core value. A clean slate is what this girl needed for her whole branding, and approach, so, she moved everything to a new platform to start afresh. With no glitches, broken bits and confusing off topic posts. If you followed Home Cyn Home from the old platform, welcome to the new one! We are still decorating around here and the smell of fresh paint is still in the air, but don't let that stop you from having a seat and grabbing a cup of tea. The new blog will be more targeted on Home Cyn Home's designs updated, journalling tips, and how to live you best life, high in color. Home Cyn Home's tag line is after all "Be bold and colorful" and it's all about living a fun, colorful life. After all, life is too short to live in boring greys. Do not forget to subscribe for all websites and blog updates. You'll get access to a member only page on the website which gives you access to cool new printables every months.

It's official! Several of my designs are now featured on Deny Designs and I could not be more excited for this! Deny Design is Society6's sister site, but exclusively deal in whole sale with wholesale partners signed up with them so this is not somewhere the general public can by from directly, but chances are you've hear from some of their partners : Urban Outfitters, Target, Nordstrom and Anthropologie to name just a few of the big names. So being part of the Deny Design family is really a big deal for me as you can imagine. My artist gallery there will keep on growing, and for now, they curated all of my Diwali designs, because the festive season is fast approaching and I'm stoked to report they also chose to feature two of my favourite designs in the initial gallery: This Scandinavian style spiky Christmas tree in a minimalist black, white and gold palette which I created last December and instantly fell in love with. One of the reason I love it so much is that unlike many of my other Christmas designs it's timeless, can be added to any Christmas decor because it's neutral enough to not clash with a bolder and more colorful Holidays theme decor, and last but not least, you can easily keep it around in your post Holidays decor. You know, that time when it becomes embarrassing (or rather frowned upon by certain people) to have a Christmas tree still standing in your living room. You can still keep some Christmas alive well into February with this cute pattern, because it has a log cabin kind of vibe about it. The other design that has been my favourite for a while is the pink flamingo pattern : It's pink, it's tropical, it's fun...enough said and that was the design I picked as my Apple watch band back in January, so seeing it being picked among hundreds of designs by Deny, is super special to me really. Fun fact about it, I painted those flamingoes in 2017 or 2018 when I just started selling on Society, and I revisited it in January this year by combining it with a digitally drawn bird of paradise flower and green leaves. If you look close enough, you will see the flower elements appearing as light pink on the pink background. Layering elements in a pattern is something I enjoy doing. Since Deny Design exclusively does wholesale, they only deal with partners registered with them, if you are a retailer, or know someone who would be interested in selling those designs on Deny's product in their shop, you must fill their form first to register with them. If you are an individual customer interested in buying one product just for yourself, Deny Design has those on Society6 and all of the designs above and more, are available out of my own Society6 shop.