MY FAVOURITE COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
Hallo dear Friends,
some time has passed from my last blog and the reason is that I am fully immerse in developing my brand and business.
To be honest, the whole 2025 has been a year dedicated to learning, implementing new techniques and working in the background. I feel a bit tired, but so proud of all the foundation work that I did for the new steps that I want to take.
Being a self taught artist and entrepreneur, I spent my all life taking courses, reading books, experimenting and learning, always trying to get better.
So, in a moment of rest, it dawned on me that other people out there might be in a similar situation and that sharing my experience might help them to take some short cuts into their future business.
Here is a list of my favourite courses, workshops and books that have helped me to develop some of my skills.
BOTANICAL WATERCOLOURS:
When I started watercolours, I had absolutely no idea how to approach the medium, especially for painting botanicals.
I took a couple of classes on Domestika (https://www.domestika.org), which have been a good starting point. But the real game changer has been buying Billy Showell's book "BOTANICAL PAINTING IN WATERCOLOUR" (www.billyshowell.com). This book is the Bible of botanical art and Billy offers also an online membership for all level students.
Moving forward and getting better at the medium, I took a deep "FINE DETAILS COURSE" from Jackie Isard, an amazing teacher very focused on colour mixing and application. She has also published a very detailed book about the topic.
One last book that I would suggest: "BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION FROM LIFE", from Isik Guener. A wonderful book about drawing and illustrating from live subjects.
Nowadays I teach my own courses and workshops to hundreds of students every year, online, in person, touring New Zealand. But from time to time, when in doubt, I still go back to my library which is full of Botanical Art books.
BOTANICAL INSPIRATION:
As you already know, I get the most of my inspiration just by hanging around in my garden or walking in nature, but sometimes I use books to deepen my research.
Having studied Herbal Science during my second University studies, I have plenty of Botanical books, from plant biology to medical plants charts. After moving to New Zealand, I also made sure to buy many book about native plants, birds and insects, so that I am understanding better the world around me. One of my favourite books is "FIELD GUIDE TO NEW ZEALAND NATIVE TREES" from Dawson and Lucas.
Weekend trips to local markets are often a good source for finding old books, full of flowers and inspiration.
SURFACE PATTERN DESIGN:
This is my childhood dream, from the early days spent in my mum's interior designer shop, surrounded by fabrics and wallpapers.
By the age of 6 I knew that one day, I wanted to see my designs in people houses.
During the years I slowly worked towards my pattern designs skills, first focusing on perfecting my watercolour style (which, by the way, is still evolving...) and then learning all the skills to create seamless repeated patterns.
2024 had finished with the idea in my head that I was ready to take the big step into this business called Surface Pattern Design and, as if someone heard me (or maybe Google really did... 😉), at the beginning of 2025 I got this ad about a famous teacher, Bonnie Christine, who is running once a year a 3 months course for surface pattern designers, called IMMERSION (https://www.bonniechristine.com).
The course is a deep dive into this business, teaching Adobe Illustrator from scratch and helping students to build up a full operating business and licence to companies. I must admit that I was a bit put off by the price of it and by the fact that I had no idea about Adobe Illustrator, since I am a Photoshop user and lover. But I made the investment in myself and, once more, decided to learn something new. And, OMG, that was the best decision EVER!!!
Bonnie is a lovely human who shares all her knowledge freely and really helps students to become professionals. I cannot recommend the Immersion Course enough!
I am now fluent in Adobe Illustrator, able to create repeated patterns in both programmes and extremely happy to fulfil my childhood dream!
Bonnie also runs a Podcast for creatives who want to build a business around their love for creativity, called "THE PROFESSIONAL CREATIVE". I find lots of great tips in the podcast and love to listen to it while driving or painting.
You can see of my designs here:
https://www.thesewingsailor.com/pages/patterns-portfolio
These are just some of my favourite resources. Please get in touch if you would like to know more about any of them or if you have any other question. I would love to help you out to make your way to your dreams a bit easier.
if you would like to learn watercolours, you can check out some of my online classes and workshops here: https://www.thesewingsailor.com/collections/watercolour-courses