February Birth Month Flower - Violet

I’ve never much liked violets. 

I tend to prefer bright, colourful flowers like Pot Marigolds and Daffodils. By comparison, I always thought of violets as rather drab and dreary, too much leaf for such tiny flowers and anyway, purple is by no means my favourite colour, especially in the garden. I tend to think of Violet in particular as an 'old lady' colour . . . 

But I’ve noticed that when I draw flowers for painting or for making a pattern, it feels as if I get to know them. It’s almost like getting to know a person, like making a new friend.

And that’s exactly how it was with the violets I needed to paint for a new series of February Birth Month Flower Birthday Cards!

Violets, February Birthday Card for Cousin by poshandpainterly
 

In fact, even before I’d made the violets into a birthday card design, my enthusiasm had grown so much that I began to make ‘Violets’ repeating patterns and coordinates to create all sorts of pretty products for my Posh & Painterly store!

White Porcelain Teapot, Sweet Violets Pattern by poshandpainterly
   

I made my patterns using Photoshop and if you’re interested in how to do it, you’ll find some easy to follow instructions HERE, on some of my blogs from 2013. 

The main violet pattern was based on an ogee-shaped repeat, instructions in #4. But if you’re a newcomer to repeating patterns, you’ll probably benefit from starting with #1 and working your way through.


If you don’t have Photoshop, don’t despair! 

I made some of my best and most popular repeating patterns, such as this one, using paper, paint, scissors and sticky tape! 

Mock Orange and Weigelia Bone China Coffee Mug, Bone China Mugs by helikettle
 

I found the very clear instructions for making repeating patterns without a computer on another blog, Design Sponge .

Good luck with this - but just think carefully before you get into making repeating patterns - you may easily find yourself getting addicted like I am! 

Read about Colombian Designer, MaJoBV, in this month's e-Interview!

This month's e-interview is with another designer from Colombia, but MaJoBV is living in Milan -

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First things first, I asked MaJo when she realised she was an artist -
It wasn't an actual aha moment... I just felt it. I remembered being very little (a toddler) and telling my mom and dad I would live in Paris and be a Fashion Designer when I grew up. My dad would then make fun of me and not really treat me seriously (he still isn't used to the idea of me being away from home). I don't live in Paris but I live in Milan... Another fashion, design and art capital of the world :D

Have you had formal art/design/illustration training, MaJo?
Yes I have. I did 4 out of 5 years of Industrial design in Bogota before moving to Milan to graduate from Fashion & Textile Design. I've also done several short courses related to design, art and crafts. Some of the most important I've done are Textile Portfolio and Draping in Central Saint Martins and the ABSPD course. I also learnt a lot from a short and very tailor made to my needs course I took in Textile Support: a very nice school in Pavia (about 30min away from Milan) that belongs to a great Textile Master I assisted a couple of years ago in a summer course at my university.  She taught me about screen printing, weaving and using a knitting machine.

What was the most important thing you learnt from it?
Mmm... This one is a very hard question. I think I've learnt tons of all of my studying and working experiences, but I guess all of the skills I've learnt I've condensed them in my own design methodology which is based on concepts. That's it... the thing that really stuck with me is the fact that I can't design unless I have purpose, a concept, and idea to work on. I can't just turn the music on and doodle... I wish that worked but it doesn't.

What is the most important thing you have learnt on your journey as an artist and from whom did you learnt it?
I'm my worst critic, in every aspect. I come from two very successful and perfectionist parents, so my biggest fear is to not live up to them (although they don't pressure me or anything). Lately though, I've started to let go my need for perfection and I've also come to accept that there is beauty in my imperfect work :)

Which artists/designers/illustrators inspire you?
I find inspiration in many designers... there's always something to admire from others work, but Orla Kiely, Helen Dardik and Jillian Phillips always surprise me :D

Where do you sell your work?
You can buy my designs on products online at:

Spoonflower  - fabric, cut-n-sew patterns, wallpaper, decals &  giftwrap

Envelop  - home cotton basics & tote bags

Artscase  - smartphone cases

MaJoBV Digitals - digital stationary and clipart 

Society6 - artprints, tech-gadget accessories, and other

Pattern Design - jpg and vector patterns

Do you have regular contact with other artists? 
I'm part of beautiful and supportive online community of Surface Pattern Designers... I wish I could personally meet them all because they are all fantastic and have played an essential part in my professional and personal journey in the past year.

Do you have a favourite quote, art-related or otherwise?
It depends on the period I'm living: currently this one has given me lots of hope:


"You're sowing seeds. Things take time, but you'll reap the harvest later." - Lilla Rogers

Today a fellow designer showed me this other quote that fits perfectly with my current mood: "Original minds are not distinguished by being the first to see a new thing, but instead by seeing the old, familiar thing that is over-looked as something new." - Friedrich Nietzsche

And finally, what are your plans for the future?
To keep working on licensing my designs all over the world and developing my brand and product line.

I've also recently partnered with Skillshare to teach Reign Repeats: create perfect repeat patterns in Adobe Illustrator with the support of Spoonflower. I'm looking forward to share my design process and all I know about repeats and Illustrator with the people that enroll. (I've attached a promo to the course in case you'd like to include it (I would appreciate it) - the link to the course is: http://skl.sh/11jgtzb)

Thank you, MaJo, for a truly inspiring interview! 

And I'm sure that 'Reign REPEATS' will provide a fantastic opportunity for anyone looking to learn how use Adobe Illustrator to make perfect and professional repeats. If you think that you, or someone you know, might be interested in taking this course -

 CLICK HERE!  

to find out more about MaJo's e-course,

'Reign REPEATS'

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Repeating Patterns for Painters #3

Last month I demonstrated how to make a really simple repeating pattern called a Block Repeat in Photoshop, using the magical ‘Edit > Define Pattern' and 'Edit > Fill’ process. 

I used a cute bunny rabbit motif as one example and a painting of some coloured primroses as an example of a pattern that needed some follow-up repairs to its 'seams'.

Now I’m going use the rabbit again to show you some more Photoshop magic that can make your repeating patterns more interesting! 

Instead of placing our motifs on a simple grid, we can use the Offset Filter to position them for either a ‘Half-drop’ or a ‘Brick’ repeat.

These two types of repeat are so alike that we’ll only need one set of instructions for the two of them.


To make a Half-Drop or Brick repeat:

1. Begin as usual by scanning, cleaning up/tidying your motif.

2. Use the Magic Wand to make the background transparent and Save.

3. Jot down the dimensions of the Image in pixels.


For the Half-drop repeat:

4. Canvas Size  > anchor Middle Left > change the Width to 200%. Leave the Height at 100%.

5. Layers > Duplicate layer

6. Filter > Other > Offset – make sure that ‘wrap around’ is ticked.

7. Enter: Width – no change, Height – ½ the number of pixels that you wrote down > OK

You should end up with a tile like this for a half-drop repeat

For the Brick repeat:

4. Canvas Size  > anchor Middle Top > change the Height to 200%. Leave the width at 100%.

5. Layers > Duplicate Layer

6. Filter > Other > Offset – make sure that ‘wrap around’ is ticked.

7. Enter: Height – no change, Width – ½ the number of pixels that you wrote down > OK

This is what your  'Tile' will look like for a Brick Repeat

For both the Half-drop and the Brick repeat:

8. Layer > Flatten (make your background transparent again if necessary.)

9. Adjust the size of the ‘tile’ you have made if necessary and save it, making sure you use the word 'tile' in your file name for future reference.

10. Edit > Define Pattern

11. Open a new, larger document/file.

12. Edit > Fill > Choose the pattern you just defined > OK

This is the Brick Repeat - the rows are staggered horizontally, like bricks

This is the Half-drop Repeat - the columns are staggered vertically

By now you have the knowledge to make patterns with three different types of layout and the more you practice using the offset filter, the easier it will become.

Hot Tip! One of the problems I had when I first started using Photoshop was that I’d be following instructions, but at some point along the way, whatever I did, nothing would happen, nothing at all; it was if I’d somehow locked myself out!

The most frequent reason for this is that I hadn’t noticed that the layer that I was trying to work with was locked! This still trips me up occasionally but it’s quickly rectified and it’s probably wise to keep checking this as you go along to avoid frustration. 

But sometimes the layer isn’t locked and yet, when I’ve wanted to use the paintbrush to tidy something up – nothing happens. I can’t explain why this happens, but occasionally the ‘opacity’ button in the top bar seems to slide back to 0%! So, although I was in fact actually painting, it wasn’t showing up because the colour was transparent!

The third thing to check, if neither of these reasons are what's holding you up, is that you haven’t somehow inadvertently left a marquee tool selecting part of your image. If that’s the case, you’ll only be able to work on the part that is selected. That one has caught me out a few times!

There seem to be a lot of things to keep your eye on in Photoshop that weren’t there in my old photo-editing program.

And, if you’re anything like me – more interested in the resulting design than in the mechanics of creating it – it can seem as if there are too many things to think about. But it’s a bit like driving a car – at first you need to think about everything you’re doing with your eyes, your hands, your feet . . . but after a while it all becomes automatic. I think Photoshop is a bit like that!

Next time, we'll be looking at my favourite type of repeat - the Ogee or Diamond repeat.

In a way, it's a combination of Half-drop and Brick. I discovered the easy way to create this repeat almost accidentally, by adapting some other instructions I came across on the internet!

So, till next month -

Practise as much as you can and enjoy making some wonderfully exciting patterns! I'd love to see them if you'd like to email them to me to post here!

Click

HERE

to download a .pdf of this post, 

condensed into 4 pages

 in case you want to print it out.

Repeating Patterns for Painters #2

Last time, we looked at examples of the various categories of repeating patterns -

It’s not usually at all difficult to sort patterns into these categories. 

But there are other ways of grouping patterns that may not be as easy to see at a glance. One way is to look for the way the motif is repeated. Sometimes it’s easy to see how the repeat has been worked out. Other times you really have to search for the repeat. And making a repeating pattern like that requires a certain amount of skill and practice.

So what are the main ways of organising the repeats?

There are Block repeats, Half-drop repeats, Brick, Diamond, Ogee, Mirror and Tossed repeats . . . And the simplest of these is the BLOCK repeat.

A BLOCK repeat is made by positioning the motifs side by side and directly above and below one another.

It can lead to a very regular, regimented, even, effect and works well with geometric patterns. You can make a simple Block repeat quite successfully by dragging your motifs across to the work area manually but using Photoshop's 'Define Pattern' button will ensure greater accuracy and probably saves a lot of time in the long run.

The BLOCK repeat arrangement can also be used for the most complex patterns and this is where many hand-painted designs are likely to feature.

Whether your motif is simple or more complex, the method for making a BLOCK repeat is the same. But when your pattern is more complex, there will be some additional steps at the end.

So we’ll begin with preparation instructions that will apply to all types of repeats –

PREPARATION

1. Scan your motif and clean/tidy it, using either the eraser or a paintbrush with your background colour (often white).

2. Make the background transparent: making sure that the layer is unlocked, use the Magic Wand to define the background area. (If there are light colours in your pattern, make sure the Tolerance of the Magic Wand is set low enough that it doesn’t select the pale colours as well as the white background!) 

Press Delete – this should give you a transparent background which appears as a chequerboard effect.

3. Adjust the size of the ‘tile’ if necessary.

4. Save either as a .png or a .psd and name it as xxxxx _tile.

bluebunny_tile.png

1. A REALLY SIMPLE BLOCK REPEAT

1. With your saved ‘tile’ file open, click on Edit > Define Pattern. You can give the pattern a name when the dialogue box appears or simply let Photoshop name it for you with something like Pattern 45.

2. Open a new, much bigger file, at least four times as big as your ‘tile’.  Click on Edit > Fill. Choose the pattern you just defined: > OK

And, as if by magic, you should have a ‘sheet’ of repeating patterns.

HOT TIP! I filled the background with green before I added the rabbits as I've found from experience that it comes out more even that way.


2. A MORE COMPLEX BLOCK REPEAT – where the pattern fills most of the ‘tile’. 

This is the 'tile' for the pattern below

For this we need the help of the very clever
OFFSET FILTER.

1. Prepare your ‘tile’ as steps 1 – 4 above.

2. Image > Image Size: write down the dimensions of your tile in pixels. Close Image Size.

3. Go to Filter > Other >Offset, make sure that ‘wrap around’ is ticked.

4. Halve the dimensions that you wrote down and enter them in the appropriate boxes > OK

5. What you will see are the horizontal and vertical seams as they will be when you repeat your tile and they will probably look an awful mess, something like this:

Now you need to spend some time tidying up the seams. There are various ways to do this:

a) Use the clone stamp and/or smudge tool and I’ve read that in CS4 ff. the ‘Content Aware’ fill is useful for this task.

b) Prepare some small individual motifs on a transparent background and ‘place’ them at intervals over the seam to hide the join.

6. When you are happy with your repairs, use the Offset Filter again to check them and if necessary, repeat steps 3 –5 until you are satisfied.

7. Layer > Flatten.

8. Steps 3 – 4 as above, in PREPARATION

9. Repeat Steps 1 – 2 above, in SIMPLE BLOCK REPEAT.

When I made this pattern, I didn't really know how to repair
the seams and you can still see faint lines where the tiles joined.

Good luck - and don't forget, if you have any difficulties following these instructions, please say so in the comments and I will try to find a solution for you!

Happy Pattern-making!

Click

HERE

to download a .pdf of this post, 

condensed into 4 pages

 in case you want to print it out.

Repeating Patterns for Painters #1

Floral Repeating Pattern made by the 'cutting up paper' method

Six months ago I began an online course in Surface Pattern Design. 
I had wanted to learn how to make repeating patterns from my floral paintings for a very long time. I wanted to make patterns that had a hand-painted look, similar to so many of the Liberty prints and the fabrics used in Monsoon clothing and accessories that I love.

I had to some extent succeeded by the ‘cutting up paper’ method, combined with some tidying up in paint.net. But I felt sure there was a better way and when I saw that making ‘technical repeats’ in Photoshop was included in the course, I thought it would be the answer. Sadly, it wasn’t.

But I did learn a few things about Photoshop – apart from the fact that it's a tremendously finickity program! – and with lots of help from fellow students, online tutorials and forums, plus three books that were Christmas gifts, I’ve finally found ways to do all the things I wanted to, ways that work!

So, with a very big thank you to all who have helped and encouraged me on this sometimes very frustrating journey, I’ve decided that over the next weeks and months, I’ll pass on what I’ve learnt.

First of all, perhaps we need to sort out what is meant by a ‘pattern’. 


The phrase ‘surface pattern’ is often used to describe any sort sort of ornamentation that decorates a plain
surface. But as I pointed out in ‘Hard-wired for Pattern-Making’,  the dictionary definitions often suggest an element of repetition. 

This is the first definition that Google provided:

pat·tern  

/ˈpatərn/

Noun: A repeated decorative design.

Verb: Decorate with a recurring design.

And I shall use the word ‘pattern’ to denote a repeating pattern or recurring motif.

We’ll begin by looking at the various types of patterns and next time I’ll give some instructions for making some of them, beginning with the simplest so that you can build your skill, post by post. I’ll be available to answer any queries and if I don’t know the answer, there’s a good chance I’ll know someone who does!

A watercolour painting that I'll use as a motif to demonstrate how to make a repeating pattern in Photoshop.

I shall assume that you have painted or hand-drawn motifs that you would like to make into a repeating patterns and that you notice and record in your sketchbook (or with a camera!) the patterns that surround us – in Nature, in buildings and so on. I shall also assume that you can’t wait to get started with learning how to make some of them into patterns for a variety of uses – fabrics, wallpapers, giftwrap and a million others!

The first thing to say is that there are many different kinds of patterns. 

There are the obvious categories, such as 'floral', 'geometric', 'ethnic' . . . some of them overlapping. And there are three classifications you may come across, with which you may not be quite as familiar. These are ‘organic’, ‘graphic’ and ‘conversational’.

A 'Geometric' pattern - but also an Islamic one, therefore it could be classified as 'Ethnic' too.

This pattern, named 'Jungle', is not truly 'Ethnic' in that it came from my imagination rather than an ethnic source. But I think it has an 'ethnic'/'tribal' feel about it!

Organic simply means a pattern that contains elements from Nature, generally with flowing, curving lines. Florals could be a sub-category of Organic but because they are so popular, Florals have a category of their own.

'Seaweed' - an example of an 'Organic' pattern

Graphic, on the other hand, indicates clean, more likely straight lines but could include curves if a floral motif is treated in a graphic way. It can often be very similar to ‘geometric’.

Although the motif for this 'Jungle' pattern was hand-drawn and the motifs are arranged  to represent flowers, it is the nearest I have come to a 'Graphic' style.

'Conversational' is a strange way to describe patterns that use motifs that don’t really fit into the other categories. It could be a little ‘character’ or object, anything from bunnies to boats to buses!  It’s not an area I have explored much as yet but here is one that I did as coursework:

I put two motifs together for this exercise in 'Conversational' patterns - both the frog and the water lily stand alone as hand-painted greeting cards.

In the next in this series of ‘Repeating Patterns’ posts, I’ll cover the most common types of repeats, together with instructions for how to create the most straightforward one in Photoshop.

Meanwhile, here’s a list of basic things you’ll need to know how to use or, at least, how to find in Photoshop:

1. Open/Close File. Open New File to the size you want. Resize: canvas size.
2. Show/Hide Grid, snap to grid. Guides – how to use them, Snap to guides.
3. Colour palette – how to swap background/foreground colours.
4. Cascade Windows. (Windows > Arrange >Cascade) Show Layers, History, Colours.
5. Change the % view of your open window. Fit to screen.
6. Layers – hide/unlock. Send to back/front (under Layers > Arrange)
7. Adjust Tolerance/Opacity/Brush Size
8. Tools: Move, Rectangle, Crop, Clone Stamp, Paint Bucket, Magic Wand, Gradient Tool, Ink
        -dropper tool, Text tool.

And please, don’t be afraid to ask if you don’t understand something I’ve written or if you have a question that I haven’t covered. 

Together we’ll make some glorious painterly patterns!

As an experiment, I've made this post into a .pdf file that I'm hoping you can download if you're interested in keeping these 'how to' posts -

Click

HERE

to download a .pdf of this post, 

condensed into 4 pages

 in case you want to print it out.

Periwinkle Patch - an Ogee-shaped Repeating Pattern

One evening a couple of weeks ago, I doodled a design that included some periwinkle flowers from an old tracing I had made back in the 1980s when I was doing a lot of screenprinting. 

I had been wanting to make a floral pattern that curved and trailed upwards in a natural-looking way and this seemed to be ideal for the purpose. So I experimented with various lay-outs and decided on a traditional ‘ogee’ shape for the basic unit of my main design. It came together really well at the sketching stage but I had never made an ogee-shaped repeat pattern and was entirely at a loss as to where to start.

I didn't entirely succeed in getting rid of the distracting white lines

I tried – and failed - to find an online tutorial. And members of the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design  group were unable to advise me how to go about this in Photoshop. After trying to work it out logically – but unsuccessfully – several times, and each time re-painting the pattern from scratch, I was tearing my hair out in exasperation! At one point I almost gave up. 

But then I thought of one more way to try, and while I was half-watching Ireland trounce Wales in the first of the Six Nations Rugby matches, I fiddled with graph paper and tracing paper, transferred my pattern to the computer as soon as the match was over, and realised that I was on my way to succeeding, even though the pattern didn’t entirely match up and I hadn’t quite managed to avoid the white ‘alleyways’ of negative space that are so distracting but not readily apparent until you see the pattern in repeat.

And some of the related patterns that I made to complete the collection didn’t work as well as I’d hoped they would. It all pointed to the fact that my knowledge of Photoshop for making repeating patterns was still very shaky. I had discovered a few very helpful and time-saving tips in my attempts to make the ogee-shape repeat properly. So I thought it was likely that I could learn all that I needed to know if only I could give it some sizable chunks of time and my full attention instead of trying to fit in snatches of designing time around my normal work.

I tried rearranging the flowers more times than I can remember - making a 'tossed' repeat isn't as easy as it looks!

Which is how I came to make the decision to put all my other work on hold for a week and make learning to use Photoshop to make repeating patterns my priority. What a difference it made, not feeling pressured to get on with uploading to Zazzle or Greeting Card Universe!

By the end of the week, I had tried and tested various instructions for making the different kinds of repeats, block repeats, half-drop, brick repeats and I had found a method of making a diamond repeat that could easily be converted to make the ogee repeats easily and accurately - next time!

This motif is from a sketch I made of the periwinkles in my garden 25 years ago!

I scoured the Internet and consulted my three books for ways to avoid having to ‘mend the seams’ in the more complex patterns – and discovered that mending the seams is normal practice. I also searched in vain for advice on how to avoid ‘tracking’ and ‘alleyways’ in a ‘tossed’ repeat and concluded that this is something that can probably only be developed through experience.

This gave me the confidence to use the remaining day of my ‘week off’ to learn other Photoshop techniques such as ‘mapping’ a pattern onto a product and making a watermark in Photoshop. So I have no regrets whatsoever about neglecting my usual work for a week.

And here's the funny thing: when I came to make a ‘presentation board’ of my patterns, I noticed that, without being at all aware of what I was doing, I had created a collection that embodied my newly discovered ‘Country and Eastern’ signature style!

         

Watersoluble Crayons - Perfect for Autumn Leaves!

In a few days’ time, here in the UK, we will be putting our clocks back an hour as we come to the end of BST – British Summer Time.

Not that it’s been much of a summer and the little there was of it seemed to give way to autumn very easily and promptly this year! And even the autumn has been wetter than usual, with fewer than usual bright, crisp days to show off the changing colours of the trees in all their glory. The usual ‘carpets of gold’ have been replaced this year with something rather more soggy and mostly less colourful.

But there have been a few of those ‘golden’ October days, though I’ve never happened to be out with my camera on those days.

So one day recently, when I was waiting for some paint to dry on an illustration I’m working on, I suddenly had the idea of getting out my watersoluble crayons and creating some autumn colours for myself.

 

It really was a case of ‘mucking around’ and only took a few minutes. I’ve had these wonderful crayons for some months now but never had time to really explore their possibilities.  On this occasion, I loved the way I could add water to some parts to make a smooth wash, while leaving other parts in their original, raw, crayon-like state!

After scanning and cleaning up, I used Photoshop to make a 'half-drop' repeat template from them -

- which I then repeated over and over again to make a basic pattern.

By making the white parts transparent, it was easy to try out different background colours. I started with my usual favourite deep blue that I often seem to use in conjunction with orange. But then I became a bit bolder - after all, when you are working digitally, there's no expensive paper or paint to waste!!

Perhaps surprisingly, this one turned out to be one of my favourites -

Next it was time to create some coordinating patterns.
Instead of the summer-y check ginghams I've been making to go with some of my flowery patterns, I felt that a  houndstooth check would be more appropriate; warm and woolly for those days when there was a definite autumnal chill in the air.

And then, by this time firmly in experimental mode, I went on to have great fun with this rather more complex than usual stripe!

And finally, the real fun bit - putting together all the patterns that resulted from that first quick 'scribble' with the watersoluble crayons -

I could have gone on and on - adding a matching polka dot pattern or some conventional stripes - where does one stop?

What has really surprised me is how easily the handpainted and the digital elements work together! I rather doubt whether I'll ever be tempted to create a pattern entirely on the computer. But even with the rather meagre level of digital knowledge I possess, clever computer programs can open doors to pattern developments that would be practically impossible by hand.

Can't help wondering, though, whether William Morris's patterns would have been any different if he'd had a computer!
 

Late Summer - a Pattern of Pink Anemones

Here I am in the middle of Week 2 of the ‘Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design’ online course.  

And I'm pleased to say that, even though the course, so far, has mostly covered what is, for me, ‘old ground’, I am managing to learn some very useful things from it!

Last week’s theme was ‘Finding Inspiration’ and for me ‘finding inspiration’ has never been a problem - quite the opposite. This week’s theme is ‘Sketchbooks’ and, putting the two together, I have sketchbooks full of inspiration and ideas going right back to my schooldays – ie more than half a century!

What I’m really looking for is the technical knowledge to make these ideas into surface pattern designs without needing to resort to the rather cumbersome, and often inaccurate, tracing paper and scissors method that I’ve been using so far.

And towards the end of last week, I found that a couple of the exercises we were set were really useful and they have already begun to provide me with some answers!

We were asked to take a pattern we liked and break it down into its component parts or motifs. I took a William Morris design of which I’m very fond and was surprised to find how many different motifs it contained! In particular, I hadn’t noticed the little squiggly grey leaves in the background (No.1) and ever since, I've been noticing less obtrusive, background patterns all over the place, where I’d never have noticed them before! 


Putting that together with some instructions on how to use Photoshop to ‘layer’ a design and, helped to take that one step further with a YouTube tutorial I hunted down, I was able to use sketches from some photos I’d taken in Week 1 to create this ‘layered’ pattern.

Here's the background 'leaves' layer:

 The page of sketches -

And here it is all put together -

I coloured it digitally to save time as I wasn’t at all sure that my experiment would work. So the colours have come out far brighter than I would have liked. (But then I don't know how it looks on anyone else's screen - to me it looks garish!)

When, this week, we were asked to use all sorts of alternative painting tools – such as sticks – to help us ‘loosen up’, I opted for crumpled up newspaper, a piece of old towelling and the rough side of a synthetic sponge to create some paint effects.

 

These, believe it or not, may well be good, useful material for pattern backgrounds of the future. 

In fact I've already used the blue one to create a new version of the Anemone pattern. I also toned the colour down a bit in Photoshop and used it to create a new Messenger Bag on Zazzle –

Dark Blue Messenger Bag with Pink Anemones by helikettle

By the way, I don’t much like Anemones. They don’t have a fragrance and I think they can look a bit mournful, maybe because they flower as summer draws to a close. So I’m really looking forward to moving on to create a pattern from a sketch or photo that I’m really enthusiastic about! 

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