I came across illustrator Amy Van Luijk by chance through a Bloglovin' email after loveprintstudio featured her. I saw the cute colours and girly patterns and was immediately drawn to find out more.
A New Zealand born female, I was already immediately jealous, but after reading her interview with Flow Magazine (read here) her travels around the world sounded like the kinda life I'd love!
I think her designs attract me so much because they're playful and fun. The illustrations look simple, yet once you look closer you can see the work gone into them. Lots of various textures are worked within the block colours and line drawings.
Starting her designs with paper cuts, it shows that beauty really can come from the most basic of beginnings! Her work has inspired me to keep and grow my collection of bits n bobs found over the years as you never know when they will come in handy. Coloured bits of paper, patterns, textures - they can come from anywhere! I have been told on various occasions to keep a look out for cool patterns on the insides of envelopes, but also photocopying any found materials can give you a huge variety of textures to play with. I love how they give an extra depth and hand made feel to digital designs, and is definitely something I want to develop for myself.
I am a great believer in the handmade, as every piece of design with a lot of hard work gone into it starts by hand, even if it ends digitally. I love that Amy cuts up bits of papers, colours, textures and just plays around with composition and how they are laid out together. Once you find a great layout, colour combo, or layer effect, you can move on to do what you like with it. The end product could be an illustration, a pattern, or something that seems far from the start like Amy's ceramics!
P.S. Can anybody tell me where you can buy Flow Magazine in the UK, if anywhere? I used to love it at my old college yet haven't been able to get my hands on it anywhere since finishing, so it would be much appreciated! :)
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