I’ve finally given in…and realized that having so many blogs just creates clutter in my mind. I need to focus…so no more updates here. Please hop on over to my art blog http://www.tortagialla.com instead. Thanks.
So I haven’t been practicing much, but every once in a while the design urge just takes over. I saw some posts for design competitions and thought I would give it a try. A variety of threaded patterns and a boys pattern…pretty cool…although I know that I have so much to learn.
I’ve realized that the final product has so much to do with the design…in terms of sizing. Sometimes things looks great on the computer, but in real life, would it be a good size for a quilt or clothing or something else? Hmm…
Feeling sort of girly and frilly, so just put together this pattern for practice. Cupcakes and strawberries sort of do the trick…
Wish there was a guide to pattern designing somewhere that I could just go through…it would seem more directed in that way for me. It’s certainly easily to have a guide then to go at it yourself…although I’m having fun just creating whatever I feel like. Perhaps… it might be time to concentrate a bit more on collections and styles. Round out things a bit more and make all this patterning go into something more concrete…
I had to quickly get this idea out of my head and into a pattern design…so here you see my random musings…a whimsical triangle flower and swirly repeat pattern. Maybe this comes from the fact that sometimes I end up sketching up stuff and it looks all distorted and unrealistic, but cute anyway!
I also loaded it into my Spoonflower account and you can see other fabric designs there – thanks!
Another week and so another pattern. Playing with a large central image here with really minimal background patterning. I really love the bright color scheme here…goes with the jester, don’t you think?
You can see my other patterns on fabric via my Spoonflower account… and if you have suggestions or challenges when it comes to pattern design – let me know. Until next week!
Not sure if that is even correct grammar, but started playing with this winged heart and created a pattern. I still don’t have a system, which is odd to me. I like having systems and methods for doing things…but for some reason, I keep going randomly when it comes to patterns. Bizarre indeed…
I’m sitting at my desk, running through my blogs and really thinking hard about what I want to accomplish and how sharing through my blog will be a positive thing both for me and readers. I first started justgraphic.com in sharing designs in general as I was just learning. Soon this blog turned it into pattern designs specifically as I started to put my work into Spoonflower for printing onto fabric. I think the prices are reasonable there when it comes to custom printing fabric, but it does add up over time and so I’ve really been trying to focus and figure out what makes sense for me.
For 2011 my general goal is to focus. It doesn’t mean to do less, just to do more efficiently and be laser sharp as to why I’m doing something. Optimizing sounds a bit too officially business-like, but simply said it’s just about trying to get all that I want to do into my life schedule in a balanced way…so I don’t have to “miss out” or lament about the lack of time – we all have 24 hours in a day and we must decide how to spend it. I know that I love to design and every time something is created into a pattern – even if super simple – it still seems amazing to me. Ultimately, I wanted to practice designing patterns, so that one day I could translate my designs into collections and be a licensed artist.
That is the big goal – to be a licensed artist. To get my work out there, so it’s not just a hobby or neat thing to share…it’s something that can help me sustain a living as well. I have been so inspired by the many success stories out there and I feel that licensing is definitely a great fit for my personality, work style and needs. I’ve been inspired by the print & pattern blog, Hollie Conger, Tara Reed and Kate Harper to name a few. All a part of the inspiration, excitement and driving force that pushed me to start this blog, to design patterns and try them out in the market of digital stamps, digital scrapbooking, Zazzle products, Society6…
Of course, things started slow and that is really just dipping your toes into many different areas. I need to focus and dive right in, right? So for this blog I want to hold myself accountable and post a pattern a week. That should be a doable goal and focused enough. If things shoot off from that one pattern, that would be a great, but I have to get this focused element into my life schedule. Thanks all who have visited this blog and encouraged me a long with my work… I hope to have an exciting 2011 and work towards my ultimate goal of being a licensed artist – designing my patterns and creating my whimsical world of characters… ciao ciao and happy 2011!
Just playing around and trying a different kind of color palette… sort of sour-ish and tangy colors. Something different that could be used for the holidays or everyday I think. Here’s the half-brick repeat of the design…
One thing I’m experiencing in designing repeat patterns is changing my mind a lot… how many variations can there be, or should I be searching for that one perfect combination. It makes me wonder how other designers approach designing patterns…because it does lend itself to lots of variations and sometimes it seems cool to have the variety… hmm…
Lately I’ve been really busy with other projects and not doing as much practice as I would like with pattern design. I’m wondering if there is some resource out there or a list of things to try out that would help challenge me to do a weekly or more regularly scheduled work? I keep thinking there is a secret manual out there for pattern design or different pattern types to learn, but maybe that doesn’t exist? Life isn’t like school exactly, right? So most recently I created a quick pattern using a photographed image in a mirrored repeat…
…and then a pattern for a Christmas stocking, both in my Spoonflower account if you want to check out the details. I’m going to make these stockings myself for Christmas…fun fun!
Just playing around and crafting for myself these days. The holiday season is really busy too, but maybe in 2011 I’ll be able to get a regular schedule setup for my pattern design learning! Let me know what you think 
I decided to use some of my digital stamp illustrations to create patterns…really practice in coloring because it’s not something I am comfortable with. I love to draw and sketch all kinds of things, but often don’t go on to the coloring part! Here’s my Dracula Kitty turning to a vampire kitty pattern!
Check it out on my Spoonflower account…thanks for stopping by!
