First Pattern

One week of the 100 Day Project has passed and I have finished my first pattern. To create the pattern I started by painting blue flowers in gouache on watercolour paper. The flowers were inspired by bachelor’s buttons as I had recently purchased some seeds and will be starting them this weekend. Bachelor buttons have long been a flower that I have admired as they were a flower that we dried and used for crafting when I was a kid. The flowers that I painted are a more stylized and imaginative version of the flowers as I felt the stylized version would lend itself better to creating a pattern.

For my first pattern I used a square shape to paint on as I thought it would make it easier for pattern creating if the shape mimicked the shape I would be using at the end to create the pattern. The jury is still out on whether or not this was the correct approach, but that is the whole point of experimenting throughout this project.

I created a video of the entire painting process which can be viewed by clicking the image below.

Once the painting had dried, I photographed it and loaded it into procreate. From there I erased the white of the paper and some of the flowers and leaves until the most desirable parts of the painting remained. This part of the process did take a long time and I am considering ways to try to make that easier going forward, but overall there was a satisfying and relaxing aspect to the editing process. When the editing was completed, I started to move around the flowers until the pattern felt balanced and harmonious.

After the pattern was complete, I got to do the part that I think is the most fun about editing a painting in procreate and that is to change up the colours in the pattern. It is something that is exciting about technology that I couldn’t have imagined when I was younger. I could probably make hundreds of colour combinations, but I limited myself to four.

My favourite pattern in this group is the version with the purple flowers and soft yellow background. I think this choice is likely because spring is around the corner and I am anxious for the buds and blooms to appear and this colour scheme makes me think of this season the most.

I would love to hear which one you like the most. Please feel free to leave a comment below and we can start the conversation.

Until next time, have a lovely week ahead and may you find an opportunity to explore something creative.

Laura