We drove for 3 hours over unsealed roads to climb through the back of the mountain town of Eungella in hopes of seeing the elusive platypus. After 5 minutes of looking across the river, a cluster of bubbles formed and suddenly up popped this lil guy along with several of his friends! We stayed here for hours watching them feed and frolic until it was dark, hands down one of the best afternoon's of our life.

Naturally, after several hours of staring at all the wonderous wildlife emerging from the dark waters and rainforest, I started dreaming up a design of ripples, bubbles, and all the majestic wildlife we had witnessed. For the first time all year the inspiration I’d been searching for finally hit.

So I sat down, pulled out my iPad, and started sketching. I knew I wanted to include some pops of colour in the design and felt the iconic QLD Ullyses butterfly along with these stunning electric blue dragonflies that lingered along the water’s edge would make for a rich contrast to the muted colour of the reeds and platypus.

My intention was to create a design that ebbed and flowed like the platypus and ripples in the river so I tried to emulate that by hiding the repeat and guiding the eye through reeds and amongst the surface of the water. I also wanted to pair them with a rich dark background to reflect the evening light on the river and amongst the rainforest.

After working out all the different elements I wanted to use, I airdropped them to my mac and set about laying them out in Photoshop. I know you can do pattern making in Procreate but Photoshop just feels more flexible for me especially when creating patterns. After a day of playing around with arrangements and colour ways I finally settled on the design below. Let me know your thoughts!