Create

From Photo to Sketch to Pattern

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There were so many mushrooms in the woods that I explored this year. I took a ton of photos of all the varying shapes, sizes, and colors.

When I got home, I used my photos as references for sketches and collage elements in my art journal

I then used all these references to create a mushroom pattern for a creative exercise in Module 2 by Make it in Design. Below you can see the motifs I drew and the color palette I chose.

Then I scanned the motifs on to my computer, cleaned them up in Adobe Photoshop, and traced them, added color, and laid out the pattern in Adobe Illustrator.

And finally, I named the pattern Mushroom Meadow and uploaded it to my Redbubble shop on all kinds of products.

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Give My Designs This Holiday Season

Are you looking for unique gifts this holiday season? Check out my Redbubble shop for products with my whimsical patterns, designed with passion and wonder. Keep scrolling for some of my favorites.

Mouse Pads

Posters

Travel Mugs

Coasters

Zippered Pouches

Mugs

Jigsaw Puzzles

Phone Cases

Meandering Paths in my Art Journal

One of my favorite things to do in my art journal is to create wandering path-like shapes.

I started this spread by drawing curving lines across the pages of my Moleskine journal.

Then I added stripes between the lines to create the paths.

Next, I added rounded shapes on the outside edges of the paths.

Then it was time to choose my colors. I chose a warm, earthy palette of Sanguine, Terra Cotta, Cinnamon, and Green Gold Pitt Artist Pens.

I divided the spread into quarters and started adding the colors.

Each quarter got a different color.

Then I added small circles in each of the stripes.

Finally, I added color to the small circles.

Creating Pattern Variations

A recent exercise in Module 2 by Make it in Design asked us to pick a color palette and create a pattern from it.

I chose a color palette that reminded me of the photos I’ve been taking of berries and flowers and created this mood board.

Berries & Blooms color palette and motifs

I drew the berries & flower by hand, scanned them, and traced them in Adobe Illustrator. I chose a subset of colors for my pattern that I’m calling Berries & Blooms.

First I created this pattern by placing the berries and flowers in circles.

The assignment encouraged us to create variations on our pattern. For this version, I placed the berries and flowers in a half-drop arrangement on a striped background.

For this version, I created an iregular grid background that I arranged the motifs on.

I decided that I like the circle version the best and uploaded it to my Redbubble shop.

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Creating Geometric Patterns

The latest creative exercise in Module 2 by Make it in Design was to create a collection of geometric patterns. We were encouraged not to use any hand-drawn images, but to create patterns with clean graphic lines and geometric shapes.

To get inspired, I paged through several of my art journals looking for geometric designs in my doodles and collages. I created all the patterns in Adobe Illustrator using only the rectangle, ellipse, polygon (for the triangles), and line tools.

Below are a selection of the patterns along with the art journal pages that inspired them.