Before I was an illustrator or a surface pattern designer I was a doodler. I am not talking about random scribbles that adorn the sides of notebook pages (although I have certainly done my fair share of those). Back in college I began a filling sketchbooks specifically with doodles: black and white abstract prints and designs, often with a defining theme, but sometimes completely random. For the past year I have been sharing these doodles on my
Instagram feed, one per week, as a Throwback Thursday exercise. I have always loved getting feedback and opinions from others about my doodles, especially since the particular designs a person is drawn to, seems to vary greatly, and are often not the ones I hold as personal favorites. In school, I could pass a doodle book around the classroom. But now, with the joy of social online sharing, my doodles can be seen by a whole new audience! It has been very interesting to see which doodles garnered the most likes, and just like back in college, it is often a surprise to me which doodles tend to be popular. After I completed a full 52 weeks of doodle book posts I tallied the current heart numbers (which have already changed as new likes have accumulated) to arrive at the top 9 most liked designs. Here were the winners:
For PART TWO of this Project I want to take some of the designs and turn them into repeatable patterns. I decided to enlist the help of my followers again to see which of the 9 designs were the most popular. I shared the photo list on Instagram as well as my
Facebook Page and a few other Facebook places, asking friends and fans to choose one or more as their favorites. Interestingly, the votes were very wide spread, and while there were 2 clear winners, they did not win by much. 3rd place was a 5-way tie and the final 2 designs tied for 4th (and each had only one vote less than the 3rd place designs). Clearly this was not a landslide win. Here are the first and second place winners.
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| First Place Winner |
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| Second Place Winner |
I am excited to turn these two designs into seamless patterns. I love problem solving and the process of converting hand drawn sketches into vector repeats is one that I find challenging and fun. I have decided to begin with the 2nd place winner, since it has less complicated hatch and will be easier (although not easy) to do. I have already begun and I am loving how it looks already! Stay tuned for PART TWO, where I will share the finished patterns!
