WORKING ON A DIAGONAL PATTERN

This is a continuation of the Behind the Scenes of my Pear Pattern Collection. This is also where I tell you that I didn't hit record on several of the steps- but I went back & showed my work to explain what you missed. (Like I promised, mistakes and all.) This is very much the work-in-progress phase, where it's not quite beautiful yet, which is likely why most people don't show this part. :)

my unedited pear drawing

(In case you missed the first video where I talk through my Idea Brainstorm, you can see it here.)

This video shows how I take the original idea and start sketching. I've learned (and re-learned several times unfortunately) to pause and take the scanned drawing into Photoshop & Illustrator to see how it vectorizes to make sure I like where things are heading before spending hours on an idea only to then realize it's not quite right and I need to start over.

The steps so far in the process are:

1. Sketch (many times if you're me)

2. Scan at 600dpi

3. Open in Photoshop to crop, adjust curves, & clean up any spots

4. Open in Illustrator to Image Trace

“Even small positive shifts in thinking, create huge results if you are consistent in your efforts” -Nanette Mathews

So you can see that I'm about 90% done with this diagonal pattern. I have another pattern about the same place now that is just waiting on video editing so it should post soon as it was much easier to create since I built the pattern in Photoshop instead of Illustrator.

I also wanted to point out that I have a blog post where I talk about the messy middle because I'm nearing that point. I will likely second guess if patterns are needed or what's missing in each individual piece and in the whole. It usually looks like conquering a lot of perfectionist tendencies which sometimes comes through as staying stuck in the mess and not completing things out of fear. But I'd guess the transparency of this project is going to encourage me to push through it faster than normal, hopefully providing some needed personal growth while finishing a collection in front of people. :)

I talk about growing past your comfort zone and this project where I'm letting you see behind the scenes, even trying to capture everything I do, is stretching my comfort zone for sure. I've already had some really nice comments from people though and that alone makes it worth it!

Side-Note: if you are copyrighting a collection, it saves money if you copyright the whole collection at one time instead of each individual pattern. However, you can't show your work publicly anywhere until after the copyright is accepted if you want to go that route. Since I am taking you along for the process, I will have to copyright each individual pattern this time.

Off to work on the next pattern...

Warmest regards,

P.S. If you want to see more about turning your art into products that sell, take a look at our Designed Simply Membership where I walk through all the aspects.