Today a bit of experimental play. Painting large and loose with Colorex dye inks and bleach for my Flora Obscura group. This is inspired by lumen prints and sun printing, but giving it a painterly style.

Over the years, I have learned so much about floral painting and the fashion print design industry from British painter and textile designer Natasha Gulliford. She’s incredibly talented, and I’ve been meaning to write a proper review of her online courses and design membership for a long time.

I was thrilled to read her announcement this morning and went straight to preorder her upcoming book, Vibrant Watercolour Flowers: Paint Stunning Compositions Inspired by the Seasons. Her loose, expressive style is such an inspiration. Congrats to you, Natasha!

(Not affiliated—just a fan!) 🎨✨

Analogue animation is making a spectacular comeback, proving that hand-drawn human artistry remains invaluable to storytelling. For its Holiday 2026 campaign, my favorite luxury house, Prada, commissioned legendary Disney animator John Pomeroy. The result is magical—with an incredibly charming sequence of little mice nesting asleep inside stylish shoes. Thank you, Prada.

As an independent print designer, I set my own art direction using trend forecasting and my own research. I’m beginning a new design group called Flora Obscura. I’ll be working on ethereal florals with a naturally dyed color palette, and I’m going to sun print with turmeric and paprika. Is this a trend direction you’re searching for artwork? Get in touch.

Today I painted with blue to celebrate my hometown team, the Milwaukee Brewers, sweep their playoff with the Los Angeles Dodgers. They haven’t been to a World Series since 1982. I used an ink sample I had, Robert Oster Grey Seas. The color shattering from the wet-on-wet technique was great. P.S. please forgive my messy desk. Thank you.

I’ve followed color and trend consultant Dawn Rae Knoth for a couple years now on Linkedin and I love to read her Creative Intelligence Substack. Her color sensibility is wonderful, and her insight and process is inspiring. She wrote her first book, Colorscapes: A Visual Sourcebook due to release February 2027. I preordered it on Amazon. (not an affiliate link)

It’s a sunny autumn Saturday morning here and we stopped by a pumpkin patch in the country. I’ve seen quite a bit of green and orange color trending on the recent runways. It feels new and unusual. However, this pumpkin reminded me that it’s been around for a long time, naturally.

Spring Summer 2027 fashion week shows have come to a close and it has been thrilling, and also exhausting, to watch the many live streams and click through the thousands of images. I’ve started spotting trends but I’ll be going back through images and defining clearer directions in the weeks ahead. Also considering what the (more) authoritative fashion critics have to say:

• The Impression chooses The Top 10 Shows

• BoF chooses their Top 10 Shows of the season (paywall)

• Vogue picks their favorites.

• Longina Phillips Design studio’s Substack post sharing their thoughts on print.

The week flew past, the sunlight is getting shorter each day. I needed to take a break from the computer today so I swatched these new Derwent Drawing pencils. They were on major sale at Blick so I thought I would give them a try. Also included in my little art supply haul was a restock of Black Star ink and Holbein Acrylic Ink in Super Opaque White (pricey but really good.)

It’s heeere! While I detest pumpkin spice lattes, I love spooky season and Halloween. Last year I colored this glowing pumpkin jack-o-lantern illustration, using Copic markers and colored pencil, with a tutorial by Color Wonk.

I have been going through and organizing old files this whole month. I opened this trend board I created in March 2021 and smiled. An oldie but goodie, considering all the stars on the recent runways.

This past summer I rewatched Mad Men, finally finishing the seventh season today. I haven’t seen it since it’s final episode aired in 2015. Eleven years later it’s still a great watch. What sticks with me is this iconic scene. Peggy Olson is walking into her new office, completely indifferent, and taking her space.

A stop in to Racine Wisconsin’s OS Projects gallery to see Dan Devening’s striking show Fenestra Falsa. Highly recommend.

Released a few weeks ago, I am listening to this album again and again in the studio. It’s the perfect sound for autumn. They are based in Chicago and from Madison Wisconsin, so I’m extra happy to support midwestern creativity.

I was really excited to see the J Crew x Eckhaus Latta collaboration. New to my closet now, I’m looking forward to wearing the bold striped Art Sweater this fall.

New York and London fashion weeks have wrapped up, and I’m pulling together trends. Phantom Florals, Brushstrokes, Zebra and Tiger print, and Stripes. I use Freeform and messily group photos as I’m going through the runway coverage. Eventually they’ll be edited into polished trend briefs to work from and share.

The Fashions, is a new newsletter by Jacob Gallagher at The New York Times. While I love to trawl the runway photos for print trends and inspiration, I also like to read the reviews and smart opinions. Supposedly this newsletter offers a conversational, unfiltered look at clothing and trends, moving away from formal reporting into a style similar to office group chats.

NYFW is here! Anticipation is buzzing and the email show announcements are rolling in. They’re eye candy easter eggs. Rachel Comey is a fave, so I’ll be tuning into her live show on IG today. This short film of hers beautifully captures the lead up to a show.

Working on a new group of lace prints this month. Along with drawing lace, I sourced a bunch of second-hand lace from a thrift store. I cut it up over the weekend and spent the morning outside spray painting many sheets paper. The results are wonderfully atmospheric, blurred and moody. I’m excited to digitize these and transform them into new designs.

The last couple days I’ve been taking spare moments of studio time to transfer tubes of Shin Han Pass Color Design paint to XL pans for palettes. This is a gouache watercolor hybrid paint. I’ll hopefully get around to writing a longer journal post about this paint.