As a digital artist I have to make a real effort to not totally forget how to paint in traditional mediums. So when I came across this delightful tutorial from artist Lucy Brydon on painting William Morris’ “The Strawberry Thief,” I thought this would be a perfect exercise for me.
Here’s Lucy’s speed paint of it:
I’m a big Morris fan. “The Strawberry Thief” is probably his most popular and recognizable textile pattern.
Lucy did her painting completely in gouache and it looks fantastic. I went for watercolour because my gouache is low quality and streaky (and I absolutely detest streaks in my artwork). Watercolour also makes some lovely tonal variations which keeps the colours from looking too flat.
My tribute to Mr. Morris
Ta-da! Don’t you just love this cheeky bird stealing a strawberry? He’s looking at us like he knows exactly what he’s doing. It’s my favourite section of the whole pattern.
I will note I did change the colour palette and my favourite teal and pink make an appearance as usual. I used a mixture of Tombow Brush Pens (watered down so they act like watercolours) and Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese watercolours for this.
I also discovered that flat black is the only gouache paint that works for me. It covers it’s own imperfections so well that I’m going to have to try painting more pieces with it.
And guess what?
If you’d like your own copy of this piece, a print will be available for sale at the Harvest Moon Show and Sale coming up this weekend, October 16-18, 2026. I’d love to see you there!
Until I think of something else to write about, stay curious dear reader.
Alys
Leave a Reply