British Birds Poster

Whilst I'm on a roll with blog post writing I thought I'd write another one! I've produced a lot of designs since my post in April last year - and a lot has happened in that year... Taking on new work, with new clients and also being ill in the summer with pneumonia and having to stay in hospital for 2 and a half weeks.. but thankfully I'm slowly but surely getting back to full health. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm gradually getting better and able to do more!.

So I'm going to share with you some of my favourite designs that I've created in that past year.... in no particular order... just as and when I want to post abut them here...

Without further ado, here's a design that I created for the Summer 2022 issue of Cross Stitcher magazine. I posted about it on my Instagram feed, but not here on my blog - so I thought I'd share with you here now, as it is a design that I am particularly pleased with.

The design is inspired by classic posters of the natural world that you used to see in old school classrooms, or in illustrated natural history books and it focuses on British coastal birds. The design has a colour palette that is limited to blue and grey tones, with some terracotta, soft yellows and orange colours. The terracotta, yellow and orange tones add warmth to the design and work well with the colder blues and greys..

The birds are arranged in a random layout, rather than a rigid grid type of layout. This draws the eye around the design.

I've included the birds names in backstitch lettering, so that as you're stitching them you'll know which birds they are. The birds I've included are: Redshank, Guillemot, Little Ringed Plover, Arctic Skua, Puffin, Oystercatcher, Cormorant, Curlew, Black Headed Gull, Avocet and Shelduck.

The way I chose which birds to include was to have mainly birds that most people in the Britain have heard of and have seen here. Apart from the Arctic Skua, I think most of the birds are fairly well known. I also chose birds that had interesting body and wing shapes and colours of plumage. Some of my birds are flying, whereas some are wading in the water or standing on the beach or a wooden post - I wanted to show a variety of activities

The title on the design adds to the poster feel - I went for upper case letters in blue tones that reflect the summery/ watery subject matter.

Here is my design on the front cover of the Summer 2022 issue of Cross Stitcher magazine. .I was so chuffed to see my design as the main feature on the cover. Even after all this time of being a cross stitch designer it is still so nice to see your design as the main cover shot!

The photos I've included here are courtesy of Cross Stitcher magazine.