Welcome!
I’ve enjoyed sharing Wednesday Wrap Up— a wrap up of my project tips for the past week or something I’ve learned that may also help others with the same #warmup4art hashtag. Today I want to share a fun way to be inspired– with color palette prompts. The pattern above includes only the colors Cobalt blue, grass green, bubble gum, sky blue. Look at these other versions:
Last Week’s Inspiration
Isn’t that fun? I tried another pattern brush from Jennifer’s Swirly Pattern Brush Lesson [see last week’s post]– but with a twist because in Jennifer’s FB group, I discovered from Eva Strandberg the free #coloricombo class from Este Maccleod. She provides the palette with the ideas, people, and art that inspired that week’s palette. For an entire year– marvelous palettes ready made for artists! Sign up here.
So I created a repeat pattern with the “brush pattern” but on the canvas– not as a brush– with the stipulation of using only the colors for Este Macleod’s #coloricombo #estemacleodclass for prompt 20. I created the three versions above.
I used the studio pen for the pattern brush, Jen’s big monoline brush to add color to each duplicated base pattern on alpha lock, and added textures with the noise or the willow charcoal brush on clipping mask.
I think I like the textured pattern in white background the best. Click the image above for a larger version and let me know which one you like best.
This Week’s Inspiration
That inspired me to make patterns again this week using Week 21 colors: Ocean, Melon, Petrol Blue and Parchment.
I decided on a floral and insect pattern with four different background choices and five different designs. I like these two backgrounds best— the dark cyan and the red-orange, both different tints from the required colors.
Although Este inspires the colors, I also must thank Jennifer Nichols in her Skillshare class, Advanced Repeat Patterns in Procreate: Beyond the Basics, where I learned how to create the Damask style design in the upper right corner. Besides the same brushes from last week, I also applied repeating texture patterns from another class, but I cannot remember where she shared that. She was also with Peggy Dean sharing repeat patterns here and was also featured on Spoonflower’s blog with a how -to for repeat patterns here. With all of those in my learning, I’m able to create my own patterns easily now. They are not perfect, because I’m still a novice at drawing– but I’m improving, and so can you– with great teachers like Este and Jennifer to guide you.
A Bit on the Process
In both sets of patterns, the pattern layer, colored layers, and outline layer are left without backgrounds– in other words, with transparency as background so the background colors can be easily changed. When I have the color ready and outline removed, I “copy all” without background and paste onto a new layer. I can then choose a background.
The Cobalt blue, grass green, bubble gum, sky blue pattern, my design elements are solid with each color on a different layer so I can easily change the colors for a different version. In the one with the pink background, I also created a layer with all of the elements in solid black. I erased the big center leaf and then rotated that layer 90°, decreasing the layer’s opacity in “divid” blend mode to create that light background effect.
The Ocean, Melon, Petrol Blue and Parchment patterns were created with a black outline [drawn with studio and technical pen]. I created the pattern, then used that pattern layer as a reference layer to drop in colors, each color on a different layer. When all the colors were ready, I hid the outline layer to get a “stencil” effect for the pattern.
Replays
Try It
So, that wraps up this Wednesday Wrap Up. I hope that encourages you to give patterning and limited palettes a try.
Thank you so much to Jennifer Nichols and Este Maccleod for their inspirations in so may ways to help all of us improve and discover our own styles and processes. You may want to click the Artist Gems category on my blog for other teachers and artists who might inspire you and see the Artist Resources page for links to these amazing artists.
I look forward to your sharing, and please continue to be a part of the #warmup4art series to learn and enjoy our work together! See my sharing at IG @42Sheri and Twitter @42Sheri.
I wonder, if I draw a line... 