This is the third blog edition of ‘Patterns around the house’.
(Click here for the first one and the second one)
Patterns-on-holiday 3: Spanish patternmash in tiles at one of the (touristic) entrances of Toledo.
From the book ‘Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel’, page “Acephala, Muscheln”.
Chocolate wrap from the World of Snor, the Netherlands.
Texture close-up of my unfinished coat, which I “self-padded” with the sewing machine.
The 15th of July I’ve started a weekly Instagram project to get more pattern minded. Last year and this year I found myself buying more clothing with patterns all over it. It’s a nice contrast seeing them laying between my dark colored stuff in the closet and I find it a nice change to wear them as well!
To get even more pattern minded (for creative purpose) I thought I’d collect them as well, captured in a pic as reference material. And I thought, like many people do, Instagram is a good medium for this…It brightens my account too!
So…every week a pattern, shared on Instagram (and Facebook) and I’ll post them once a month on this blog, categorized ‘PATTERNS AROUND THE HOUSE’, found in the right menu.
This one’s for July!
Pillow cushion on the couch.
Tablecloth on the balcony table.
Puppets my mother brought me once from one of her travels.
After finishing my MATS A bolt fabric assignment I practiced a little with the BONUS ‘repeat pattern’ taught by Rachel Taylor. I used my herb material from the pasta dishes and moved them around in Illustrator.
This is what I came up with, and it was so much fun making it!
The next step is to learn how to make patterns more interesting and learn more about all the different kind of repeats. Because watching videos, making notes, and practicing one little repeaty-thing isn’t gonna make me a pattern queen. YET! – You noticed that last word?? ;)
But nevertheless I just wanted to share it with you, because I’m secretly a bit proud of the result, since it’s my first fancy looking repeat pattern……Well….not secretly of course, because it’s already all over the internet…..
One of my new years resolutions was start working in a real sketchbook.
I decided I want to draw more, to create material for what so ever (illustrations, patterns (collection), collage, maybe for clients or self-initiated projects). I think it’s more fun than only focussing on making things for the given assignments (by clients or courses).
But when I want to work in a freely way I still need restrictions or guidelines to stay on track, I think that’s because I want to know it’s for some reason, rather than just doing stuff….hm… quite contradictory, isn’t it?
This is Project Sketchbook 2016:
I started with an image in my head, drew it, and every next page should be related in some sort of way, wether it’s a detail made into a pattern, a texture, emotion, things from a dream that’s related in a way, strangeness, perspective, whatever. I’m allowed to add new things. When I cannot think of anything else, this relation-illustration is done and I can use it like it is or use selected things for patterns/ a collection, collage or whatever…
Here are the first six pages. I will share new pages whenever they’re ready to share, I made a category for it, which you can find in the left menu.
I’d like to share the result of the 4th assignment of the Lilla Rogers Bootcamp 2015.
“Marine Mash-up: design some plates by combining crustaceans and a pattern/patterns.”
I started again a Pin-board:
The first thing I noticed about these creatures was that their proportions didn’t seem right.
Small animals, big hair-do, large bodies, small limbs, cranky ‘faces’, bright colours, etc, etc.
So of course I had to do something with that. I exaggerated the things a bit more.
This time I haven’t got loads of pictures of my sketching process. I sketched about five different crustaceans, chose three best good looking, and started to paint. I used East Indian Ink and acrylics, that’s about it.
For the pattern-bit I created loads of shapes in different colours, from yellow to brown-red.
I decided to create a classic pattern with repeats… Hmm…no…. I’d rather not.
So I created some graphical patterns with pencil (which you can see in the background and on the plates) and carefully ‘blobbed’ the coloured elements on top of the illustrations.
I thought: It’s a colourful workshop (when you know the illustrators Lilla Rogers represent), so why don’t use some colours, get out of your comfort zone….
I sent this one in, but it was too much out of my comfort zone…I didn’t like it at all…
That’s also the reason why I’m sharing it now, four months later. I just had to do something more with it…
…or something les…
Actually I’m not very fond if these kind of combinations on china, I’d rather prefer patterns OR illustrations, and in this case just the illustrations. In the nearby future I want to print these moody crustaceans on plates for real. If you’d like a set, they’ll come in three…
