Wednesday WrapUp Globe Mallow 2

Welcome!

Learning the tools of different apps is not easy. I’ve been using ProCreatefor a couple years, and have used  Affinity Designer, too. I’m digging deeper in the use of both of them to create repeating patterns for POD [print-on-demand] sites. I’m including that learning in my Wednesday posts.

I’m continuing that learning by correcting the process I missed and wrote about in the post WrapUp Mallow.

Inspiration

I joined Liz Kohler Brown’s The Studio, which includes a community and art courses in both Affinity and Procreate: a great combination. She just posted an “Historical Pattern Design” course, which is a lovely introduction to adapting the old styles of the Arts and Crafts style to today’s illustration. I started with the Damask pattern, a somewhat symmetrical, monotone design. I missed a section of her lesson which I have reviewed and corrected.

My Progress

I was supposed to create two motifs that fit together in this diamond damask pattern. Damask typically is two-colored, monotone, but I wanted to recreate the wildflower. I finally found the part of the lesson I somehow missed, and indeed now have two motifs that fit in the diamond pattern. I also broke those two motifs apart according to the different color layers to create the orange globe mallow pattern in the image above.

This way— as two flat motifs and as motifs in layers for color, I can easily create a variety of color variations in both colored versions and damask versions.

Damask Versions

Color Versions

Of course, the orange globe mallow is the inspiration for the flower, but as artists we can take those and create flowers of many varieties. Many of my friends loved the pink/blue/green combination in the last set, first image. I added that to a “Blossoms in the Woods” collection I’m starting and entered it into the the Vintage Sportswear Design Challenge on Spoonflower.

And wouldn’t you know it, Liz’s recent “Live Draw” provided a pattern design lesson so I could add to the collection.

Another Pattern Variation

The “Live Draw” included pattern templates for three different rectangle repeats. I chose the scallop type of pattern, which is a pattern shaped like a floral bouquet— the wide, curved top ending in a narrow stemmed bottom. I continued with my mallow flowers and created two versions, the monotone style and a colored version in the palette everyone seemed to like best. And this pattern is much more elegant than my original. I really like the style:

So, my hero [first damask design] and secondary [scallop design] patterns are:

All designs begin with sketching and inking in Procreate, export to Adobe Capture to vectorize, and import those into Affinity Designer for pattern creation.

Next Goals

I would like to try the other two patterns from the live draw to add blenders [coordinating patterns] to the collection.

Try it!

Whether you try Procreate or Affinity Designer, give pattern making a try. There are plenty of YouTube videos to get you started. Or join a community like Liz Kohler Brown‘s or Jennifer Nichols to get started or to refine what you already know while belonging to an artist’s supportive community. I’m very thankful for their lessons and support.

I look forward to your sharing your experiences with surface design / patterns and hope this little post on a week of extending my designs inspires you to start designing.

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.