From Doodle to Pattern: Swirling Bursts

Hello Wonderful Readers!

It has been a long time since I have had a new post.  I am hoping to share more regularly in 2016.  To kick things off, here is a look at my next Spoonflower contest entry and a peek into my process of turning a doodle into a seamless pattern.  The theme for this latest contest was only a color palette:  Gray, Cream, Cucumber and Peach (exact shades were chosen by Spoonflower).  Since there was no other theme than the colors themselves, it was a perfect time for me to enter an abstract design.  If you follow me on Instagram, you may remember my Throwback Thursday series where I shared pages from my many doodle books.  For this contest I chose one of my most favorite doodles which also happened to be the first doodle page I shared.  I love how this doodle has a lot of movement and energy.

Here is a look at the doodle side by side with the final pattern:

Creating a repeating pattern is an extra challenge when you begin with a design that is already in a rectangular format with a lot of dense detail.  To achieve the seamless pattern I wanted, I worked back and forth between Photoshop and hand drawing to expand the tile size and repeat and add elements to create a pattern that would be complex and integrated enough not to appear boxy when repeated.

Here is a look at that process.  In this photo you can how I printed a portion of the in progress pattern, still with gaps, so that I could do some more hand drawing to fill in the space.

Once I finished filling in all the gaps and creating a seamless pattern in Photoshop, I next imported the design elements into Illustrator, traced them, and then began the long clean-up process to create crisp, smooth, beautiful elements.  I also waited to colorize the drawing until it was converted to a vector file.  Coloring this design was the most challenging aspect.  There was not a lot of contrast between the colors in the designated palette and I wanted to make sure that all the detail work of the hatched curves wouldn't be lost when viewing at a zoomed out scale.  We were allowed to also included black and white in addition to the 4 colors and I ended up using both in order to help the elements pop.

Here is a look at the final pattern:



I would love your VOTE this week!  (One voting session per person, but feel free to vote for as many designs as you wish)  Thanks!!!
And if you are interested in seeing this and many of my other designs You can find this design in my Spoonflower Shop.

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!

Meandering Mermaids Swimming in your Direction!

It has been a while since I shared about a Spoonflower contest, even though I have been entering them quite often. So here is my entry, for the Mermaid themed contest.  The objective for this contest was to design a print with girl's pajamas in mind, and the theme was mermaids.  I am not the biggest mermaid lover, but I liked the pajama aspect and the prize is an extra good one, so I decided to join in.  There were many design restrictions for the this contest, which were a nice challenge to work within, especially in the color department (since the tones I picked are outside my normal color box).  I am very happy with the result:  pretty, almost retro looking mermaids, with long swirly hair which is mimicked by the white swirls in the water.  The contest is over but the design is available for purchase now in my Spoonflower Shop.



Find this design in my Spoonflower Shop.

Pattern Observer Challenge

As indicated by the button to the right... I love Instagram!  It is such a fun place to meet and interact with other designers and pattern lovers all over the world.  What is even more fun than normal Instagram posting: An Instagram Challenge!  Throughout the month of March, Pattern Observer hosted an Instagram Challenge for designers to share patterns that they have created that especially work for quilting, in conjunction with the design competition that were co-sponsoring.  I tagged many designs for the challenge and was happy to have a few selected to be featured on the Pattern Observer Instagram feed.  In addition to that feed, the Pattern Observer blog also had a feature post about the Challenge and I am pleased to share that I had two designs included in that as well.  Below are the two designs of mine that were chosen.  You can see them as well as the whole collection of patterns from a large array of talented artists on the post itself.

And, if you love any of my featured designs, they are available for purchase as fabric, wallpaper, and gift wrap in my Spoonflower Shop! 

Shop the whole collection



Confetti Fish

I'm just a girl who loves paper!

A few weeks ago I was ordering some paper and print samples from a few online printers and it got me thinking:  I really do love paper.  But my love is discerning. I am not talking about newsprint or standard home printer white (though they do have their uses).  I mean beautiful papers with fine textures or an ultra smooth feel and a nice weight.  And then there are the colorful papers: solids, patterns, maybe something with a nifty colored fleck.  And let's not forget beautiful stationary with artful embellishments!  I am a creator of greeting and note cards and still I am tempted to buy other pre-made goodies... simply because they are SO PRETTY!  My love goes beyond the paper itself too.  Think of the countless possibilities for creativity and creation that a clean piece of paper can offer!

My love began really when I was a young girl.  I was definitely an artistic young lady, who loved to gather up all sorts of arts and crafts supplies.  Naturally I would be drawn to paper.  I get a lot of my artistic "genes" from my dad, a very creative fellow.  As a child, Dad would often take us to this awesome paper warehouse in a place "far, far, away".  Ok, maybe I am being a little dreamy here, but the store was about an hours drive away from home in the middle of pretty much nowhere.  I am not sure how he even found out about it.  It was WONDERFUL.  A huge, no frills, mini warehouse of all sorts of paper and envelopes in every style and color you could imagine.  The store has no real design to it, just a mishmash of big and small rooms that make it perfect for exploring and discovering.  We would get paper and envelopes to make homemade stationary and cards.  Dad had built a silk screen and we would print original Christmas card designs.  My sister and I would use our rubber stamps and create our own stationary for letters and such!  (You know, back in the day when people wrote letters with real pen and ink).  A favorite purchase would be the big bag of random paper pads!  It was exactly as you could imagine, just a big plastic bag filled with pads of paper, of all sizes, colors, and textures.  And it was dirt cheap!  Another favorite of mine were the mini pads of paper: 3 x 5, 1.5 x 6... or even smaller, like the size of a business card, they were perfect for homemade tickets or clue cards for homemade board games (yeah, we pretty much created everything as kids).  I still make treks to that store today.  It is just as far away, but not in the middle of nowhere any longer.  New businesses have been built up all along way, yet my beloved paper warehouse hasn't changed much.  Family owned, and looking pretty much the same, I still rely on it for my stationary and paper needs. 

I have amassed quite a stash: A whole closet full of boxes upon boxes of envelopes, various types of card stock and paper in a huge variety of sizes, and a TON of patterned scrapbook papers.  (Yes I, of course, whole heartily embraced that paper-pushing hobby).  My paper makes me happy.  I like to organize it.  I loved my neatly stacked card stock piles in my special cabinet, sitting there just waiting for me to slice and print and fold into cards.  Paper is so simple, so clean, and yet can be altered into something so spectacular and complex! 

We live in an increasingly paperless world these days and I am cool with that.  I own an e-reader and a tablet.  I love email.  And I certainly think there are advantages to less paper (like way less clutter!).  But there is still a place for the tangible, especially when it is a beautiful smooth and speckled card stock, just waiting to be printed with a doodled design! 

I hope this post inspires you to stop and admire the paper in your life!

Boxes of colorful envelopes from my favorite paper warehouse

What I am working on this week

This week the focus has been completing the design of the front side of my business card.  Sometimes a blank slate can be tough to tackle, but I have finally arrived at a design that I feel can well represent me as an artist and my unique style.  The card design features my new BZ logo and some of my signature doodle and poche styles. 

In addition to the business card I have been working on a new piece for my portfolio and I created this blog!  I hope you enjoy following me!  Thanks for stopping by!