Design Surface Patterns from Scratch Challenge :The Pond, Butterflies and Dragonflies

You have likely seen my facebook and instagram posts on my latest artistic endeavor, graphic illustrations based on my watercolor art. I have dabbled with Illustrator for a couple years, using it at work for basic graphics, diagrams and then for some poster designs. I really enjoy the program and wanted to learn how to really use it. So I joined an awesome little group of like minded creative souls and was taught a bit through my Roost Tribe membership, lead by Bonnie Christine. Through her lovely efforts to teach her little hens she was offered an opportunity to teach the masses through Creative Live. Here is the link to the class. I watched the class for free, fell in love with Illustrator and had to buy the course to re-watch the details over and over again. The class came with course work and a challenge to create 6 patterns and share the story and end result. Here is my pattern line story and my 6 patterns. 

Inspired by summer weekends spent by a lovely pond, surround by woods and tall trees. Leaves dance in the breeze as cattails sway and frogs hop along the ponds edge. Butterflies flutter and dragonflies zoom as the surroundings are soaked up from a swinging hammock. Here is where my summer weekends are spent; day dreaming, cloud watching and lazy naps taking. The pattern line below was created from two watercolor paintings I created inspired by my days at the pond and a photograph card sent by a dear friend.

In the course I learned how to scan, insert and trace my paintings. The type of tools and how to make the lines work together was critical to get the dragonfly and butterfly tiles to look similar to the watercolors I painted below. The class also taught me how to create a repeat pattern from the collages I created from the pieces and parts I broke out of my watercolor pieces. The color palette came directly from my watercolor paint box. I show more on process in my earlier blog post,  here.