Throwback Thursday Doodle Book Project: PART ONE

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.

First Place Winner

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!