I’m finding these surface design patterns really fun to make but I’ll need to keep ironing out the kinks: color palette, scale, busyness, line-work, personal style and branding for collections of patterns.

Illustration is not my strongest skill but I’m pushing myself to be more abstracted to create a style all my own. Over time, and with more sketches logged, the general look and feel of my patterns (or, my personal style) will eventually emerge. I already have plans to create a series of typographical patterns, since I kind of have a thing for stacked typography. That should be fun! Stay tuned.


I wanted to share a little bit of my process, so I posted the above photos. I began by doing some online research and doodling several cupcakes into a sketchpad (this was a fairly quick process, about twenty to thirty minutes). I marked the ones I liked with an X and then in the second draft, I simply re-drew them, but added in some details and made the lines darker. I also experimented with a title. The third step of the process, which isn’t included here, was scanning the illo and then vectorizing in Illustrator.

I will say this: I’ve used the scan-a-drawing-and-vectorize-in-Illustrator method before, as I know many a designer who sketches something has done, but what I won’t do next time is color in certain areas of the drawing. Nor will I not complete a line (some of them don't connect all the way) or make certain areas darker or heavier in line quality than others. All these things combined DO lend character and personality to the pattern, but it was hard for me to work with, once I started. If you choose to scan and vectorize in Illustrator without completely re-drawing over every shape, I would suggest to also make your illo (each element) at least an inch or larger in size to make the process a bit easier, as well. Finally, I prefer to scan from tracing paper, though this particular pattern was scanned from newsprint.

♥

NOW! Here’s your Freebie Friday: a desktop wallpaper created by yours truly. Right click or drag to your desktop to save.

IMPORTANT: Not intended for commercial use. Enjoy for personal use only.