Cart 0
Pattern Design Caricature & Character Design Illustration Watercolor
Hues & How-Tos Monthly Newsletter Skillshare 1-1 Portfolio Review
Cart 0
illustration and pattern design

allow yourself to fail before you succeed

 
 
 
 
a little about me@2x-8.png
 
 

Hi! My name's Melissa Lee, and I'm an illustrator and surface pattern designer living in the hilly forests of Northern California. Alongside my freelance and art licensing work (I'm a proud Riley Blake Designs fabric designer!), I teach online art courses on Skillshare, covering everything from surface pattern design and vector illustration to watercolor techniques, character design, and creative entrepreneurship.

I love blending vintage aesthetics with modern design to create artwork that feels both timeless and contemporary. And my love of caricature and character design brings a playful, stylized energy to much of my work. I'm endlessly inspired by animals and nature (whether living today or extinct), science fiction and fantasy, space and astrology, witchy things, and bees.

Always bees. 🐝🐝🐝

 
 
 
 

💌JOIN MY MONTHLY NEWSLETTER:

HUES & HOW-TOS

Get free art resources plus monthly inspiration delivered to your inbox! Each issue includes art insights, trending color palettes, my favorite creative finds, updates on new classes, and exclusive digital freebies. More deets here.

Sign up below to instantly claim:

  • The Character Creator's Handbook: Core principles, common missteps, & creative hacks for anyone interested in learning character design

  • Adobe Fresco Vector Brush Presets: Ready-to-use brushes for your digital art (instructions included in The Character Creator's Handbook)

  • Adobe Illustrator Quick Reference Guides: 1. Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts PDF: Complete with instructions on creating your own custom shortcuts, & 2. When to Expand (And When Not To) PDF

  • Plus more on the way!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

My Fall Quilt Market Experience as an Independent Designer

READ MY BLOG

I wrote a blog post about my experience at the 2019 Quilt Market Houston as an aspiring fabric designer. To quoth Quilts.com, “The International Quilt Market is the only wholesale trade show for the worldwide quilting, textile, and soft crafts industry.” In my post, I go over what I did to prepare, the process of getting an attendee badge as an independent designer not yet signed on with any fabric company, as well as my experience showing my portfolio to various art directors at the Market! A lot of this is info I wish I’d known prior to attending.

Fast forward to now and I’m a fabric designer for Riley Blake Designs!

 
 
 
 

Surface Design In Adobe Illustrator: A Beginner's Guide to Pattern Building

MY ONLINE COURSES

This class focuses heavily on the technical side of creating a repeating pattern in Adobe Illustrator. I put a lot of time and effort and care into making it a truly comprehensive introduction to surface design in the program. I go over all of the essential tools that I use for drawing, coloring, and assembling motifs to make patterns, and then some. In addition, I cover common beginner mistakes and how to fix or avoid them. I’ve also created some downloadable PDFs, including an Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts quick reference guide, among other things, for you to print out and reference along the way. As always, if you sign up for Skillshare with my link, you'll get a free month of membership (much better than the standard one week free trial)! I hope to see you there! :D

 
 
 
 
 

Stay in The Know

INSTAGRAM @MELISSALEEDESIGN

 
The Sketchbook Revival Binge Fest 2025 starts tomorrow! May 27th - June 9th For the first time ever, you can revisit and experience over 130 workshops from five years of the Sketchbook Revival Online Workshop (2018-2022), including a session from yo
I am super excited to announce that I'm part of something really special this month. You won't want to miss out on this mega-bundle of inspiration! "The Sketchbook Revival Binge Fest 2025" is here, and for TWO WEEKS (May 27 - June 9), you
There is a common misconception in the design world that concerns me and it’s that companies only accept vector files. Allow me to bust this myth for you. This simply is not true. You do not HAVE TO master Adobe Illustrator in order to become a
Eyyyy! It’s that time of year again! The time of year when one of my mentors, Bonnie Christine, puts on her awesome free workshop! Every year in advance of her Immersion course, she offers a week-long workshop. This year it's called "Your
The holly leaves were inspired by art nouveau floral design. I’m pretty proud of how they turned out! Simple but elegant and pretty.😌 Available to purchase at melissaleedesign.etsy.com! (Clickable link in bio.) . . . . #christmasdecorations #
Four years later and this is still one of my most favorite patterns I’ve ever made. Inspired by mid century design! Especially the colors. I’ve been seeing pink show up in more and more Christmas stuff lately and that brings me joy.🎀🎄🎀