UK trend forecasting agency Trend Bible showcased their AW 2012 trend concepts in Stationery, Kids, Wellbeing and Fashion Accessories for Top Drawer earlier this month.
I just love their Kid's trend concept 'Grow Your Own'. Think cute gnome and vegetable prints, woodland animals and garden prints, home-made, kid's nature craft and product traceability. Got to love kids planting, growing and cooking their own food –encouraging that connection with nature that seems lost in many adults.
Head over to Trend Bible's post to read more and download their Top Drawer presentation for Autumn/Winter 2012/13.

Images: Trend Bible Stationery trends for Autumn/Winter 2012/13. All images © Trend Bible 2012

Technically, on my desk a couple of weeks ago …

Image: Aster for the March issue of Australian House & Garden magazine

How beautiful is this autumn/winter 2013-14 home colour story 'natura' from Peclers Paris?

When I was in my final year studying textile design at RMIT, I was fortunate enough to get some work experience at a trend forecasting studio in Melbourne. The studio happened to be the Australian agent for Peclers Paris, a styling and trend forecasting agency in Paris that produces seasonal books interpreting trend information for textiles/fashion/cosmetics/home/kids etc. I do not have the words to describe how beautiful these forecasting books were. I would spend my lunch break pouring over them. Such an inspiration for colour and motif, and a great launching pad to generate your own unique ideas and take on a particular trend.
These books are a little out of my budget, but Peclers have always had a fantastic website where you can get teeny-tiny glimpses of their current books. I stalk their site frequently.

Images; Top: I painted some colours with the mixer brush in Photoshop -I think I'm finally getting the hang of that brush. Bottom: Peclers Paris Fall/Winter 13-14 Home colours and Peclers Paris Fall/Winter 13-14 inspirations (screenshots from peclersparis.com).

The first plant out of the press for two thousand and twelve is one of my favourites, Coral Bells. Such a gorgeous plant when flowering en masse. And even when it's not, its leaves are so striking -the underside a beautiful shade of darkish purple. A gouache paint-up is called for … it's on my list.

Image: Allison Langton for Bigprint Little.

Image: Balmain shopping by postcode map for Australian House & Garden magazine February 2012 issue. Scalloped tags -free download courtesy PuglyPixel (gee she's ace!).

Images: 1. Fiona Dinkelbach (partial) 2. MPDClick Tsumori Chisato Fall 2011 3. Ashkan Honarvar found via sfgirlbybay 4. Fiona Dinkelbach 5. Genadii Berezkin

I love the softness of marks when working with bleach. I painted these magnolias with bleach on brown paper then scanned them into photoshop to be re-coloured.

Image: Allison Langton for Bigprint Little. Striped tape -free download courtesy Puglypixel.

Hello 2012! How are you? I've very much enjoyed the wintery summer weather you have dished out so far —back in my winter PJ's has been very strange indeed.
What have you been up to this past week? I hope you've had/having a lovely break. I've been learning the WordPress ropes over at Lynda so I can change Bigprint Little over from RapidWeaver —which has served me well for the past few years but now it's time to change. Although I'm having to re-post EVERY post manually —thank goodness I'm not a prolific blogger and there are only about eighty or so (links and RSS feeds will have to change but more about that closer to the switch). I've also been drawing Asters and shopping maps of Subiaco, W.A, and sifting through old boxes filled with discarded pantone colour guides (my brother works in print and grabs old formula guides for me —can you believe they just throw them out!) and fabric swatches (mum works in a fabric store and has a "warehouse" of fabric stashes) and I've been putting together little colour stories for a new project or two … hello two thousand and twelve, it's good to be back.

Image: Colour swatches by Allison Langton for Bigprint Little.

It's been a little quiet around here. My mind has been elsewhere -it's that time of year. I like the other side of Christmas. The week between Christmas and New Year. It's quiet and restful and untroubled. My kind of place.
This will be my last post for 2011 so I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you. Thank you for hanging out with me this year. I have made some wonderful friends whom I feel I have known forever, who share the ups and downs of their creative life and in turn inspire me. So thank you for your comments and links and pins and mentions and/or for just hanging out here for a time -it's all appreciated.
2012 looks like it will be a big year. With lots of exciting projects and collaborations in the works, and some meet-ups too! So enjoy this coming festive season with family and friends, drive safely if you're on the roads, and I look forward to sharing some new adventures with you next year. xx
Image: Lisianthus illustration for Australian House & Garden magazine February 2012 issue.

There are two distinct garden stories that I often illustrate in Australian House & Garden magazine.
The first is a 'How To' garden story that usually flows over two double page spreads. It highlights sections of a garden, and offers tips and advice from the garden designer and the team at H&G on plant selection, surfaces and finishes for paths, walls and garden features. The illustration I do for this section is quite stylised and computer generated but with a bit of texture. I work on this in Photoshop after scanning in my hand drawn line-work (see top image).

The second story is more a traditional garden story and the bigger of the two. Spread over a number of pages, it highlights a beautifully photographed Australian garden with lots of sweeping views and close-up detail shots, with the story of the history and/or development of the garden, its focal points and perhaps a bit about the owners. If House & Garden need an illustration for this section, I'll get my watercolours out and hand paint the garden on 300gsm cold pressed paper (bottom image). A more traditional style for a more 'traditional' garden story.

Do I prefer working on one style over the other? I actually enjoy both. It is easier to cut and paste and paint on the computer and I love the ease of colour correction, but there's something about hand-painting that's so much more satisfying. The smell of paint, the texture of the paper, the scratchy sound your pencil makes as it moves across the toothy grain, the trips to the tap when your water jar gets murky (or slopped about by the cat), it's all rather comforting. No matter how advanced Photoshop or Painter get with their brushes, or Wacom with their interactive tablets (I wish), I'm not sure I would ever like to work entirely on the computer.

Images; Top: A Melbourne garden designed by Eckersley Garden Architecture. Bottom: A Griffith garden, designed by Paul Bangay. Illustrations by Allison Langton for Australian House & Garden magazine. See the December issue for more on these two beautiful gardens (on sale Nov. 7th).