Category Archives: resources

Free colour textures – monoprinting and ivy ghosts

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I’ve been playing around with monoprinting again, and in particular, with the delightful patchy, branching effect that happens when you use far too much of something thick and gloopy. (In this case, it’s acrylic paint.) These will print out at (almost) A4 size at 300dpi, and as always, they’re licensed under Creative Commons (CC:BY) so that you can use them for anything you like, with the only restriction being that if you’re using them commercially (ie. making money out of them) I must be credited by name (Somhairle Kelly) and a link back to this blog.

This first one is the printing block – the surface you layer your thick gloopy paint onto – after one other piece has been pressed hard onto it and taken away.

Next, we have the second print taken from another block – you can see how patchy it is in comparison, because the paint is never going to transfer as well to the paper as it’s going to stay on the block. But you still have the delightful tree-and-river lines.

And to round things off on a similar theme, here’s what happens when you let ivy grow for years over a concrete bridge abutment, and then clear it all off.

As always, I need your help! If you like these, please give a thought to supporting me on Patreon. Even $5 a month is a great help.

Free colour textures – stripes, stripes, and more stripes

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Here are four digital colour textures for your design pleasure! As always, they’re entirely free for you to use as you like – all I ask is that you credit me if you’re making money from them. (Creative Commons licensing – CC:BY)












And a special bonus, so you can rest your eyes after all those stripes, a starry sky for you.



If you find these useful, please visit my Patreon page, and give a thought to supporting me there – even a few dollars a month helps keep me in tea and potatoes.

Colour palettes for January

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It’s cold, and bleak, and dreary, which is why it’s taken me a while to assemble these. Nevertheless, here are some colours to brighten up an almost equally cold, and bleak, and dreary February.

Click on the image to download the original SVG file, and use to your heart’s content – though I require credit for their use in commercial projects.

And as always, if these inspire you, consider supporting me on Patreon, and the months will become less cold, and bleak, and dreary. That’s a promise.

Colour palettes for December

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Since winter is notoriously bare and bleak, I’ve had to raid my archives for photographs from previous Decembers, including a visit to a city farm in London. Most of these are much more recent, though, from next door’s cat (she’s just moved in) to the 1970s plastic Christmas tree my partner inherited from their grandparents.

Click on the image to download them all in SVG format. You’re entirely at liberty to use these colours in anything you like (and I’d like to see the results) but if you’re making money from the results, I’d appreciate credit. (Legal part: licensed under Creative Commons, CC:BY. You have permission to use them without attribution for noncommercial purposes.)

If you enjoy these, please consider supporting me via Patreon, and that will help keep me in needles and thread.

Free colour textures – sunset, beads, and gem cutting

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Four digital designs for you today! A reconstructed sunset, a grid of beads using tile colours, some striped cloth, and a section of Theophilus’s On Divers Arts, dealing with cutting & polishing gems.

As always, these are Creative Commons licensed (CC:BY) – you can use them in any way you like, so long as you credit me if you’re making any money from the project. And if they’re useful to you, please support me on Patreon!

Free colour textures – Carmilla roses

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Sheridan LeFanu’s story Carmilla is an absolute classic of the vampire genre, and the eponymous deuteragonist is credited as the first lesbian vampire. Inevitably, she comes to a very sad end. This is the first chapter (discounting the framing prologue) layered over a rose-red textural panel (which I’ve included on its own, below) and a single rosebud.

All of these are under a Creative Commons (CC:BY) license, which means that you can use them for anything you like, at no cost. If you’re using them in a paid project, you need to credit me, but otherwise there’s no need.

And if you find these useful, please give a thought to becoming a patron and helping me stay warm and well-read this winter!

Free colour textures: walls and skies

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This first texture is taken from a mediaeval ceramic tile in Derby museum. As always, click through for a full-size high-resolution version. It’ll print at A4, and it’s fully tileable.

The second is a straightforward photo of a Victorian brick wall, lovely and crumbly.

Pebbledashing houses and then painting them white is a very traditional practice, and it gives a lovely textured surface. I’ve stripped out the white here, to give a transparent overlayer that can be applied to anything else you like.

I looked up, and had to photograph this sky, with the conjunction of cloud, contrail, and clear blue forever.

Here we see the crooked bare branches of a mature plum tree, against a cloudy sky.

All of these are under a Creative Commons (CC:BY) license, which means that you can use them for anything you like, at no cost. If you’re using them in a paid project, you need to credit me, but otherwise there’s no need.

And if you find these useful, please give a thought to becoming a patron and helping me stay warm and well-fed this winter!

Free colour textures: Pickwick Papers

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The weather’s getting a bit Dickensian out there today. Not Bleak House level, but soggy and dreary and grey. So today’s free colour textures starts with Dickens, and indeed with grey – it’s a transparent overlay using some paper texture and some text from Dickens’s novel The Pickwick Papers.

But just plain grey isn’t Victorian enough, so let’s add a bit of brown behind it for a good vintage sepia.

Or a respectable muted olive green:

Or for something wildly fashionable, a bit of that nice Mr Perkin’s mauve:

And for a more space age take on the concept, here’s a solid grid of pearlescent transparent windows:

And here’s some special bonus fallen leaves, because it’s November and they’re beautiful. These ones are from a turkey oak, in Rykneld Rec in Derbyshire.

As always, click on the image for the high-resolution version. They’ll print out at 300 dpi at A4 size, and they’re Creative Commons licensed (CC:BY) which means that you can do whatever you like with them, but if you’re making money from it (commercial use) then you must acknowledge me as their creator.

And if you like these, please give a thought to becoming a patron via Patreon – even a few dollars a month helps to keep me out of the soggy, dreary, grey, and rainy weather!

Free colour palettes for October

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This month we mostly have fallen leaves, but can you blame me?

Click on the image to download an SVG version. All of these are Creative Commons licensed (CC:BY) – use as you like, but credit me if you’re using them in commercial work, and give a thought to becoming a patron. Even a few dollars a month will help keep me in pens and second-hand books.

Oh, and since it’s so appropriate, have some music as well.