It's Almost Here! Spring Block Print Patterns

Despite getting about seven inches of snow this past week, today's 50+ degree temperatures are making me feel like I can finally be hopeful that winter is almost over! Woohoo! In light of this general elation, I'm excited to share these new patterns:

 I really enjoyed the tactile experience of block printing the past few weeks (and sewing some sweet projects)... but I was ready for some instant gratification. So I scanned my favorite flower block prints and created some new repeating patterns in my favorite Spring, flower-inspired colors!

This isn't the first time I've digitized block prints, but I think we all can agree... I've come a long way baby! I love progress :)

Anyways, fingers crossed I won't be back here next week posting more snow pics on Instagram... that is unless they are like this amazing beagle snow video... We'll see!

Llama Llama Llama

In the progression of my pattern design dabbling, I decided the next step was to try to put together a coordinated collection of patterns.

Since I started out with the Fancy Camel, the obvious next step was a llama I doodled a few months ago. I started a Pinterest board, and found lots of textiles, carvings and artwork from South America for inspiration. I did a page of hand-drawn doodles and got started...

Lots of colors, lots going on... it was a pretty great starting point. Unfortunately I had to do the whole thing twice because of my Illustrator novice, but then came the llamas!

I ended up making five different patterns total and varied them up with different colors from the same color schemes and some similar hand-drawn shapes.

My husband declared the this one looked like Christmas trees so at least its seasonally appropriate? Finally here's the whole shebang together:

My very favorites were the circles. Particularly the dark blue and white (obviously my favorites colors if you've ever seen this blog or my closet before).

All in all, it was more good practice figuring out what worked and what didn't work. I think the biggest lesson for me from this was really to take my time. As previously confessed, I have a tendency to rush something on to the page and call it "good enough," but never actually be happy with it.

I'm not saying all of these patterns turned out perfectly, but I really learned that taking my time with layout, spacing, colors, etc. really brought out a better result... (I know, I know, duh). I was overall please with the result and proud how far of come since some of my early self-taught efforts :)

It's a Birthday Miracle!

For my birthday this past weekend, Kevin ordered me several fabrics from Spoonflower. Not just any fabrics though, fabrics with my patterns on them!

This one is also my Twitter background :)

Since I've been on a pattern-design hiatus with school and now wedding planning, it was an amazing surprise to see how patterns I designed looked on real fabric instead of just on-screen.

An example of where I actually tried to carry colors through multiple patterns.

I think I had been hesitating to actually order them, even though that had been my intention for a while, because I was so nervous they wouldn't turn out right.

This is Kevin's favorite. I didn't think I'd like it as much as I do.

And while, there were definitely some little nit-picks that probably only I would notice, seeing them on fabric made me feel kind of like a legitimate designer. Kind of like when I got my iPhone cover made.

We got a whole yard of this! What to do, what to do.

Now I just need to think of some sewing projects to use these! We ordered a couple different sizes but hopefully I'll be able to put them all to good use. What do you think? Which one is your favorite?

Wok This Way

Okay, I know that's a really lame title for a post. True story... I was in my car singing to Beastie Boys and there's a line in one song, "I'll stir fry you in my wok." (Ten points if you can name the song).

I know this is weird but I thought, I can draw a wok! So I did, and some chopsticks. I also tried little rice pieces (kernels?) but they looked weird. Yeah... my creative process is also weird.

One thing I'm learning from my surface design text book is trying to practice other styles of patterns. I've got a pretty good handle on abstract patterns, but as per usual... not so good at the things-that-look-like-things category.

So here's a first step. Not super complicated but I kinda like how it also looks kind of abstract and not too different from my overall style.

Asparagus or Bow Ties?

One of the greatest things about designing abstract patterns is listening to what people think they look like.  I always have my own opinion which you can usually see from whatever I named the file on Flickr, but I've heard some pretty weird ones too.

Do you see bow ties or asparagus bundles? 

What about now? Fun fact. I came up with the shape when I was trying to draw a pleated skirt. Unrelated, I'm in the midst of reading this textbook about surface design I bought and learning lots about the business and what it actually takes to do it. I'm such a glutton for punishment... I spend my free time (when I'm not writing my grad school thesis or doing my real life work) reading textbooks :oP

Let's Call it Plan B-Dot-0

Alright, let's talk a little about me. If you don't want to talk about me, you can just admire my latest and greatest pattern seen below. If you want, you can click on it and make it your desktop wallpaper! Because I love you Internet. Ok? Ok. 

Let's be real. I am not an easily motivated person. Really. I know that's shocking. So I've decided I need to lay out a plan to help me be more motivated towards a creative goal. Here are some of the steps:

1. Draw: I doodle a lot, but now the goal is to make those doodles into patterns. Also, I just need to practice, practice, practice to keep getting better at drawing and stuff.

2. Share: Share everything I'm drawing/creating plus maybe get some feedback?

3. Read: There's a lot of people on the internet that like to give advice to creative people about how to turn their creativity into a living. I'm gonna read some of it. I'm also going to read the blogs of illustrators, graphic designers and surface designers who inspire me.

So, I'm hoping that these first three steps will help me decide the next steps to take. Despite the fact that I'll be finishing my grad degree in Public Relations in December, should I go get an art/graphic design degree next? What kind of products could I make/sell with my patterns? Should I open an Etsy store? Is this just a hobby that I love and nothing more?

Yeah, that's A LOT to decide and it's pretty important to me. I'm not gonna quit my day job or anything, but I really love this stuff. Anyways, enough about me, what do you think? Do you have a three-step plan? Any suggestions on what to read?

Try Try Again

Hey look! I made a pattern that doesn't require squinting! I found instructions for pattern-ing it up in Photoshop as opposed to my last attempt when I tried to do it by hand. It wasn't pretty.

I get dork-ily excited when I figure out how to do something on my own. I know this is a little busy and there's definitely more to come as I keep teaching myself, but yaaaay.

See a pattern?

I've been thinking about trying to create repeating patterns with some of my designs. I guess because if I ever really wanted to make paper or fabric then designs have to repeat somehow.

I was inspired this week from news from the largest surface design tradeshow that was going on in New York, Surtex, so I decided to go ahead and take a crack at it. Surface design is "the art of changing the appearance of natural and synthetic surfaces by the application of traditional, stylized, digitized, and illusionary techniques to embellish a product." But first, please squint your eyes a little...

I got the instructions from Design*Sponge. Clearly I had some issues when it came to the part where you had to cut it up and tape it all backwards hence the weird lines, etc. but it's not terrible for a first try I think. Nothing was quite even though. I guess my dream of being a surface designer will have to wait for more practice. Maybe once I finish PR grad school, I'll start design school...