Concentrate on the art, not the repeat

Today I listened to an interview posted on the Pattern Observer blog, where Jane Lewis, Art Director of P&B Textiles, talked about the fabric design and pattern industry world. A major take-away for me was another reminder to concentrate on the art rather than the technical repeat. It’s been sort of a slow awakening, but I’m finally seeing the light.

I’ve been researching so much in regards to creating repeats – I’ve strayed away from just creating art that I love. It was refreshing to hear that some artists just don’t do the repeat. There are those who concentrate on that part of the job.Everyone has to do what they love the most.

Perhaps I need to reassess my efforts…

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Butterflies Surface Pattern Design

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Just wanted to quickly share a butterflies repeat design I created. I really like the soft colors, although still playing around with how it all repeats. I entered this into a competition but didn’t get picked, shucks! I’m realizing that it’s important to know how patterns can repeat, but really it’s not a big deal. The manufacturers and companies will work that out in the end… I have been concentrating on the wrong thing I think!

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Evening Primrose Surface Pattern Design

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Going onto letter E for my series of flower practice patterns – evening primrose. Using a dark background to create nice contrast… pretty cool looking I think! I’m still amazed at how a slight color variation can change the whole look and feel of a piece. I suppose that is why it’s important to experiment with different colorways for every design, to see the possibilities…

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Daffodil Surface Pattern Design

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A quick little practice for the letter D – the daffodil flower. This pattern turned out vintage looking to me. I think it’s the colors that create that effect, sort of muddy… does it look that way to you?

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Camellia Surface Pattern Design

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Continuing with my practice of using flowers – for the letter c, I present you with the camellia. I’m trying to be looser and less graphic designy. It’s funny how working digitally we can be very exact, yet often we try to accomplish the opposite to make it look more human and hand-drawn  The grass is greener, eh? So I started with a muted color scheme, but soon learned that it was just too subdued for me. You can see the before below and after above. What a difference it makes to simply change the background color. The contrast makes the shades of teal pop! Definitely learning more about using color and thank goodness for digital where we can play around a lot and test out combinations.

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Baby’s Breath Surface Pattern Design

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Going on to letter b, I decided to create a modern design interpretation of baby’s breath… it certainly looks Japanese inspired, no?

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Aster Surface Pattern Design

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I’ve decided to work through the alphabet and design patterns for each flower name. It’s nice to have some sort of guideline for my surface pattern design practice. I’m also trying to choose a specific color palette to begin with… rather than randomly choosing colors on the fly! This design is based on the Aster flower with a bright color scheme that is more universal or boyish. Trying to move away from being too girly all the time!

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Blossoms Surface Pattern Design

Been thinking about how a slight change in color can really dramatically change the style and mood of artwork. I definitely have a lot to learn about color in general. I feel it’s my weak point, because I’m never sure what colors to use and sort of play around a lot… still not really sure in the end. Slowly but surely, I’m trying to learn more about how certain colors will affect the final work. They say something and should be in tune with how I want the design to feel. What do you think of these color ways?

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Wild Brush Surface Pattern Design

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Putting previous elements together, I created this wild brush design. I like the combination of brown and teal, although I would like to play around still with the colors. It’s amazing how much changes when you tweak the colors. These days, I’ve been trying to think about my favorite colors to work with to develop my own personal color palette. It would reduce that time I spend just changing colors at random! I think it would help to solidify one’s style…

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Wild Leaves Surface Pattern Design

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Still going with the wild theme. Another simple pattern in blue hues. It does have the scandinavian feel to it…

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  • Books from Amazon

  • More Resources

    How to Make a Repeat Pattern
    This is an article from Design Sponge where I first learned about repeat patterns.

    Making Repeat Patterns in Illustrator
    A written tutorial from Digital Arts magazine on the process of making a repeat pattern in Illustrator.

    How to Make a Repeat Pattern Swatch in Illustrator
    I found Barbra's website and she offers a video tutorial of how she creates repeat patterns in Illustrator.

    Art Licensing Info
    This website provides information for those who would like to learn more about art licensing. I've learned a lot from Tara and she has specific ebooks teaching you how to create repeat patterns in Photoshop.

    Artlandia
    A graphic design software company that offers many different products for the creation of patterns...from plugins to software that will automatically create patterns.