Try it: Cut Out Florals

Following on from my post on Monday about Matisse inspired cut out style, I thought I might show a little bit of work in progress this week and share a few ideas.

I'm working on a floral pattern using this cut out technique. I made my motifs using scissors and origami paper. You could paint your own paper or use material or textured papers particularly if you work traditionally. As I am working digitally I didn't worry too much about the colour of the paper as I just want the shapes.

Unlike the current papercut trend for fine and intricate details, I'm going for simpler shapes with a playful feel. I tried using a scalpel but found that made me want to get too fiddly.  So working with scissors and large pieces of paper made the process more fun and expressive.

I then assembled flowers in a sketchbook. For more variety you could just scan all the elements in separately and then assemble a variety of flowers in Photoshop or Illustrator.

I scanned the flowers in and used the pen tool to trace them but there are lots of other ways to make them digital. For example you could trace the motifs using Live Trace or retain a more handmade feel by creating the repeat in Photoshop.

So I'm currently playing with palettes and layouts...

I really like this drawing technique. It's a fun and easy process and great for if you are not very confident in your drawing skills or are just looking to loosen up and be more creative in your approach to drawing. I also think it really lends itself well to vector art with its simple lines so works a treat in Illustrator.

I hope you've found this post useful/inspiring! On Friday I will be featuring the work of Jessica Nielsen whose bold graphic style caught my eye whilst researching this week's posts.

Love
Frankie x
 

Progress...

Morning,

Just thought I would share a little bit of the work I've been doing this week. I am preparing for my first trade show and trying to add lots of one off patterns to my portfolio. 

Hand drawn geometrics with a floral twist really are my most favourite patterns to make and the reason I started making patterns in the first place. This one reminds me of looking through a kaleidoscope a little bit and I really enjoyed creating it. It was inspired by some drawings of Edwardian brooches I have done this week and I can't wait to make some more like this one. 

This culinary inspired repeat is something that I created whilst on Lilla Rogers' MATS course. I spent some time improving the repeat, polishing up some of the motifs and recolouring it. I still think I might try tweaking the colours further. I'm spending this month reviewing the work I did on the course and further improving it so I can add it to my portfolio. 

Also this week, I've been looking at Islamic art and tiles for inspiration. And I'm loving this book that I got for Christmas...

Marnie Fogg

...so expect some 1950's inspired doodles soon! 

Love 

Frankie x

My work in progress this week...

Hello!
Today I'm sharing a some of my work in progress from this week. I rarely share my work and I'm not sure why, I just think I enjoy sharing and talking about other people's work more than my own!

I'm currently working on some single patterns for a trade show in China. This is the first time I have ever prepared for a trade show and I am really excited. I'm trying to do a variety of subjects but as there is no brief, it's really fun researching trends and experimenting with different styles. It feels a bit strange working on single patterns as I got in the habit of thinking in collections but it's always good to try new things! MATS Part A really helped me with this and I can't wait to be challenged even more in Part B!

So anyway, here are a few screenshots of some of the things I have been working on this week...

I adore the ogee shape - it's so nice to design motifs to fit inside it. 

My motifs were inspired by Scandinavian folk art.

Old bottles and ferns with a mid century modern feel...

These motifs were inspired by old Mexican tile patterns. 

Making patterns can take you on such wonderful journeys!

Hope you have a lovely weekend! 

Love

Frankie x

Word Wednesday: Always Yes

Hello!

Today's Word Wednesday was inspired by a comment I read on a course I'm currently taking. I mentioned last week that I am doing Beth Kempton's wonderful course,  Do What You Love  and it's really bringing some energy and fresh thinking to my life. 

Earlier this week we were talking about turning 'can'ts' into 'cans' with a simple but very effective exercise. There was a discussion about this exercise and this was one of the comments...

"When I was being under confident about my abilities a few years ago, my husband told me about a colleague who once said to him 'always tell yourself yes, let the others say no'. I remembered that when looking at this exercise. We just need to tell ourselves that we 'can' a lot more often than we do."

This really resonated with me. I've put so much off in my life because I've said no through a lack of confidence and a fear of failure. It's such a bad habit that I really want to let go of. I'm working on hard on making this happen! Fonts are Papercute and Eyes Wide Open

Enjoy your day,

Frankie x

#WordWednesday Be Brave...

Good Morning! It's Word Wednesday and today I've decided to doodle a little message to myself. It was fun to try out some new Illustrator techniques I've learned lately. Fonts are by Kimberley Geswein again!

I'll be writing more about the sentiment expressed above in my Progress post later this week.

Have a lovely day,
Frankie xx

#WordWednesday - Postcards for Peace

Good morning!

Today's Word Wednesday is all about Peace. I was recently asked by Martin Rowsell, founder of Postcards for Peace, to design two postcards for a Japanese themed pack he was putting together, inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako Sasaki contracted Leukaemia as a result of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. She is remembered for making hundreds of paper cranes after being told that if she made 1000 she would be granted a wish, as told in a traditional Japanese story. Sadako was only 12 when she died, an innocent victim of war.

With Sadako in mind I was inspired to create some patterns and named my completed collection after her. I used these patterns in my digital paintings for the final postcards...

My Sadako collection...

Paper Cranes

Peace

Kimono

Here are my postcards that are now for sale as part of a beautiful pack on the Postcards for Peace website. The pack contains 5 postcards, origami paper and instructions for how to make a paper crane and would make a thoughtful gift. I think the words are really beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed being involved in the project. 

The fonts used are Kimberly Geswein's Eyes Wide Open and Love Ya Like A Sister. 
Thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely day,
Frankie x

Progress

Happy Monday! 
I’m doing a little progress update for today’s blog - I’m away at the moment and have very little internet access - so apologies if you have sent me anything and haven’t yet received a reply. I am working through things when I can. I’ve also become aware that some people are having trouble sending submissions to my ilovepattern@yahoo.co.uk address. If you are having problems, please try my alternative address: frankielovespatterb@gmail.com

Last week was quite a short week - I packed and started my journey on Wednesday and then once I’d arrived on Thursday have had lots of lovely things to do so have not done too much work since then. The week started off really well though, I had been shortlisted for the Tigerprint February competition - I had two designs in the top 68 and whilst I didn’t win or make the runners up, I have been invited to submit work for their Designer’s Spotlight on the Tigerprint blog which I am really happy about. I’m aiming to take part in every Tigerprint competition this year as I’ve mentioned before because as a new designer I think it’s a fantastic way to broaden my portfolio and hone my skills. So, this weekend I’ve been having a look at which designs I might choose for the blog feature.

On Tuesday evening I was browsing the Skillshare website (I really like their courses) and I came across a course by Jenna Frye called Intro to Surface Pattern Design: Creating and Mixing Patterns. I’m just mentioning the course briefly here but will do a proper review of it soon. I was so taken with the course that I watched every lesson back to back! There’s some fantastic tips for using colour which I can’t wait to try out. I really do recommend it if you want a bit more theory under your belt - I’ve been stuck with a couple of collections and I think I’ve found out why now, thanks to this course. I’m also very much looking forward to revamping my blog with the help of Jo Klima’s blog design course The Darling Tree and will post a review of this course too.

My latest project is a collaboration with Postcards for Peace. I’ve already produced one postcard for the organisation and am really looking forward to doing more work with Martin Rowsell, the founder. I’ll be telling more about this soon. I’ve also started thinking about my next collection and have posted a Pinterest board for March. And, of course, I will be working on my designs for the Tigerprint ‘Black and White’ competition which is currently open for submissions. 

Good luck to everyone who has submitted to the ABSPD testimonial competition - I believe the winner will be announced today. The winners of the Print & Pattern scholarship were announced last week and the standard was phenomenal. There are so many wonderfully artistic and skilled designers out there - it’s just so inspiring to see such diverse and exciting work.

Have a lovely day,

Frankie x

Progress

Good morning!

I generally use Friday on my blog to talk about my own work and progress but this week it's on a Monday! I do have a new feature in the pipeline for Monday posts which is coming soon but in the meantime I hope you will enjoy reading this post. It's a little bit of a ramble but I hope that other new designers might find it helpful/interesting.

I had some lovely news at the end of the week - I'm starting a course to help me make my blog look prettier! I'm so pleased. I love to blog but I don't know a thing about templates, layouts etc. The course is called Your Darling Blog and you can find out more about here. I will let you know how I get on with it... And of course, if you're a regular reader, you will see the results at some point!

It's been an incredibly productive week - I finally finished my Rubiya collection and I am so pleased with it. I think it is my favourite collection I've made so far. The idea for it was sparked by entering the January Tigerprint competition for Everyday Surface Pattern. One of the suggested motifs for the competition was butterflies. Here's the original print that I designed for the competition.  

Since then, feeling it was a bit too pink, I played with the palette and I also made into a multi directional print - you can see it here, top left in the collection, below. I felt the one directional layout was too formal looking and limited its use. Studying this pattern and the palette I felt I wanted to take the collection in an Indian textile inspired direction and that led me to think about one of my favourite shops... Monsoon. So I set about creating a collection with their 3-13 girls' range of clothing in mind. I thought about how the patterns could be applied as trims as well as all over patterns. I named the collection Rubiya - a Hindi girl's name meaning Spring.

I'm still working on my Midsummer collection - I've made some changes to the main print and finally done my teatime pattern justice by giving it some details. 

I was really pleased with my original outline drawings but as it stood in all its minimalist glory, it just didn't fit the collection and looked a bit too bare. I'm so happy with it now.  As with Rubiya, I thought about where I envisaged seeing these patterns and I thought about outdoor dining - melamine crockery. tablecloths, picnic hampers etc and it helped me to move beyond simply creating a main pattern and a couple of co-ordinates. I learned this strategy from Steven Pressfield's book Do The Work where he emphasises the importance of the theme in a body of work. Whenever I'm working on a collection in progress I take a moment to remind myself what the theme is. With this is mind, the work just feels better... if that makes sense!

In other news I was really pleased to be shortlisted for the February Tigerprint competition, The Colour of Love.  I submitted five patterns and had two shortlisted which I am so pleased about. 

I'm aiming to enter every Tigerprint competition this year - obviously it would be great to win but it's just a great way of generating new work and I'd recommend it. It's helped me create two collections so far this year.

So, that's all for now. This week, I am looking forward to heading home which is always a thrill. I'm planning on getting out and about with my camera to collect some images for creating my own set of brushes, but more about that soon! 

Have a lovely week,
Frankie x

Word Wednesday #10

Today's Word Wednesday is my testimonial for the Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design. There's still a few hours left to get your entry in for the competition where you can win a free module on the course. Head on over to the Make it in Design blog to find out more.

I took an afternoon off just to play around with lettering to make this piece of work. It's something I really want to get a better grasp of as I really love hand drawn lettering. I'd really like to design some fun fonts too!

I've decided to open Word Wednesday up, just like Studio Tuesday, to act as a showcase for other designer's work. Each week will feature a piece of work and a Q&A with the designer. Don't worry if you're already taking part in Studio Tuesday, you can still contact me and have a Word Wednesday slot too.

Thanks to everyone who has contacted me so far and to those of you who read my blog. I am so happy to be sharing my love of pattern and it's really lovely to connect with other designers.

Cheers and have a great day!
Frankie x

Tigerprint Competition

Good Morning!

This weekend was wonderfully productive.

Yesterday I did some final edits on my Tigerprint competition entry. The competition closes at midnight today so there is still a bit of time left to enter. I've promised myself that I will enter every single one this year as I think it's a great way to build my portfolio and practise working to a brief. 

The collection I've produced is called Sweetheart and I will be sharing pictures of it later this week. The inspiration came from having to create a palette that was a little bit different for Valentine's. I created an 'edible' palette - chocolate, strawberry, cream, mint, lemon sorbet and candy. 

This is my third time entering a Tigerprint competition - I'm so glad that I've entered this one in particular because I've managed to create a mini collection in a weekend to add to my portfolio. 

In the future, I'm planning on making Monday 'motif day' on my blog. I'd like to pick a different motif each week and have some good examples of it being used to serve as a nice little inspiration/knowledge bank that can be shared. So I'll be working on launching that over the coming month. If you have any comments or suggestions about this idea, please do get in touch.

Have a great week!
Frankie x

February Review

February. It's only shorter by 3 days at the most but what a difference it makes. February flew! How was it for you?

This month I worked on my logo. This was one of my initial drafts.

Here, it was a very productive month, albeit in a rather erratic, disorganised kind of way at times! I had an Evernote malfunction (my precious tick lists!!!) and although I did order myself a new timer (for Pomodoro purposes) it turned out to be utterly useless. I've sent it back and still haven't found a replacement. I guess I will just have to take the plunge and go digital!

I've done a lot more drawing this month and I'm starting to feel more competent digitally. I started taking more courses in the last few weeks - I did this amazing lettering course and discovered Laura Coyle's tuition videos - I'm really pleased with the results I'm getting on LiveTrace as a result of the lettering course and Laura's videos have helped me work more efficiently.

Damask style pattern that I really enjoyed drawing with my fountain pen.

I've had 3 collections on the go, all of which are not quite finished yet - at least two patterns per collection needs some final tweaking. I'm not going to start another collection until these three are finished now though as the work seems to be piling up and I really need to schedule some time to sort out my website and getting the work that I've already done onto some products/mock ups. I've been a bit braver and shared more images of work in progress lately which has proved to be a positive exercise. My problem is that I just can't seem to keep it simple when it comes to designing - I want every pattern to teach me something. Actually that's not really a problem - at this stage where I am at the beginning I should be learning something all the time - it's the deadlines that are the problems! Whilst I'm not working to anyone else's time constraints, I think it's better to be focusing on learning and honing my own style.

I've also expanded my blog to be more inclusive of other designers and this has been so rewarding. It's so nice to be hearing about how other designers work and I'm getting that sense of community back that I had when I was on ABSPD. The new Studio Tuesday feature kicked off with a look at the work of Sophie Honeybelle and I've put out calls for submissions for Word Wednesday too.

Read it here

My card project has ground to a halt and I'm okay with that for now. I've just not done anything to promote it or add to my designs. I'm not saying that it's gone altogether - I just really need to do some other things before I can give it the energy and experience that it needs. I was so upset after losing my whole portfolio just before Christmas that I've just wanted to concentrate on rebuilding it. Once I have a more substantial body of work, I'm sure I'll feel better about it and get it going.

Whilst not my favourite image, one of my favourite quotes for Word Wednesday!

So, hello to March... In all things non-pattern related I get to go home (YAY!), see the ocean and hope to see a satisfactory end to a long drawn out financial/legal issue (everything crossed, please!).

In case you were wondering, there are a couple of days left to enter the February Tigerprint competition and the ABSPD testimonial contest.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely weekend,

Frankie x

Word Wednesday #9

Good Morning!

I saw this quote a few days ago on Twitter and really liked it, so I googled it and found out that there were a number of other 'rules' that went with it. The original article was geared towards writers but can apply to all forms of arts or practices.

1 Turn up for work. Discipline allows creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom.

2 Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether.

3 Love what you do.

4 Be honest with yourself. If you are no good, accept it. If the work you are doing is no good, accept it.

5 Don't hold on to poor work. If it was bad when it went in the drawer it will be just as bad when it comes out.

6 Take no notice of anyone you don't respect.

7 Take no notice of anyone with a ­gender agenda. A lot of men still think that women lack imagination of the fiery kind.

8 Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward.

9 Trust your creativity.

10 Enjoy this work!

I've only ever read one book by Jeanette Winterson - it's called Lighthousekeeping and I really enjoyed it. So today, I might dig around on audible and see if there's anything by her that I might listen to whilst I'm working.

This isn't my favourite word wednesday image I've ever done but things have been so busy here that I only had half an hour to put it together and do this post! I'm guessing it will annoy me so much that at some point in the future I will come back and improve it! The patterns and elephants are from a collection I am working on and as ever the font is Kimberly Geswein's 'Let Her Go Solid' that you can get here.

Do what you love and love what you do,
Frankie x

Word Wednesday #8

I'm listening to Do the Work by Steven Pressfield on loop at the moment. It's such a great book about tackling resistance when working on a project. I highly recommend this book if you struggle to stay on track with anything from keeping fit to writing a novel. It has some great bits of advice, including this one. If like me, you lack confidence, maybe you will also find these words helpful.

The fonts used are Kimberly Geswein's Love Ya Like A Sister and Let Her Go. 

I'm opening up Word Wednesday to submissions. If you would like to have your work featured here then please get in touch - tweet me: @ilovepattern or drop me a line - ilovepattern@yahoo.co.uk 

Have a great day and don't forget to SHINE!
Frankie x

Progress #2

Greetings!

This 'Progress' post is a reflection on my week's work. I'm hoping that it might be helpful to other new starters... or if anyone more experienced wants to give me any advice/feedback it would be received gratefully! It's a bit heavy on text but I'll try to stick to the point!

Ironic that I have started this post on progress with the word 'greetings' since this is where I seem to be having the most trouble and the least progress! I mentioned in an earlier post about how I had this idea for personalised greetings card boxes - I was full of energy and excitement about it and I launched my personalised card service locally to a small audience. I did get some orders for my cards and I also began to approach people individually. It has been met, on the whole, with positivity. But somewhere along the way I have lost my enthusiasm. I just don't feel so excited about it anymore and keep 'forgetting' to do anything associated with it. I've not gone as far as letting customers down or anything, I just haven't helped it to grow.

This week I am going to have to decide whether I am willing to put in the time and effort to build this side of my business or shelve it as something that just isn't for me. I know it's not the designing that's the problem - I suspect it's because there's a lot more customer focus and end product involvement to it than designing my pattern collections and my true dream is to have my patterns licensed to products/fabrics rather than being involved with the making of the actual end products. 

I'm not a craft person which I think is quite unusual in the textiles/arts/pattern design world. I seem to come across more people who are into sewing and making things and I sometimes feel a little inadequate as I've never developed these skills. It's one of the reasons I took Fine Art instead of Textiles at uni. Despite my interest in fabric I've just never had the inclination to make things with it - I just like to look at it. I was a painter for a short time at uni, big scale stuff with acrylic on canvas but I just don't seem to get on with the mess very well! I prefer gouache and watercolour pencils these days. I've also spent a lot of time on the move, living in cities in cramped, shared accommodation with minimal space so have adapted to this. I sometimes have a little envy for people who collect things - vintage toys, books... lovely inspiring objects adorn the shelves of their studios. Even now with the space and my own studio, apart from essential books,  I'm still just collecting inspiration digitally through Pinterest etc ... but this is also due to keeping an eye on finances too!

My pattern collections are starting to grow though, which is great. I'm currently working on 3 collections at once and after listening to 'Do the Work' by Steven Pressfield I've decided to apply some of his strategies to my work routine. 

He advocates working quickly with very little research at the beginning and then working out the underlying theme of what you are you doing and reminding yourself of this throughout the work in order to stay on track. So for example, I started with a design I'd done based on the Strawberry Thief by William Morris. I'd decided to build a collection around this design but couldn't seem to come up with anything that felt right. After listening to Do the Work I realised that I hadn't pinned down the theme of the collection. It had to be about more than just a study of the strawberry thief and a couple of co-ordinating patterns. So, I jotted down a list of words I associated with the pattern - English, June, summer, country garden, etc and decided that the collection would be called Midsummer and the patterns would be good for dining and kitchen products - I particularly like the idea of them being for al fresco dining products - melamine plates and the interior of picnic hampers! 

My Strawberry Thief inspired print

Working within this theme I created a square art board, called it 'collection', divided it into 9 subsequent squares and quickly doodled some pattern ideas down to fill 8 of the squares - the middle square being saved for the name of the collection. I started to build a vision of what the complete collection might look like using doodles and words. I've since done that for 2 more collections and I feel like it's a great way to work - it just feels more directed and more structured. I'll let you know how I get on with it this time next week.

First ideas for a new collection

So, in brief....

Highlights

• Postcards for Peace selecting and sending my design to print
• Using Laura Coyle's lessons to find a new technique for creating some exciting new palettes (more on this next week) 
• Entering the Make it in Design/Print & Pattern ABSPD scholarship contest. I never win anything but I really had to try for this!
• Doing a class on lettering on Skillshare - Mary Kate McDevitt is brilliant!
• Getting organised with my workflow when creating collections
• Spending more time at my drawing desk than I have done for ages

Challenges

• My personalised greeting card boxes idea is stuck
• Sometimes wish I had a bit more contact with other designers

Looking forward

• See what progress I make with my collections this week using my new workflow technique
• Decide what I am doing with my card business
• See if I can make more connections with other designers online
• Work on the latest Tigerprint competition

In the meantime I am going to start reaching out to other designers in my blog to ask about how they work. If you would be interested in participating in this feature, please get in touch with me through twitter @ilovepattern or email me: ilovepattern@yahoo.co.uk . I am looking for beginners, experts, known and unknowns - my intention is just to create a space where we can share our experiences of learning about the wonderful world of surface pattern design!

Thanks so much for reading and have a wonderful weekend,
Frankie xx

Word Wednesday #7

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, today's Word Wednesday is a love themed lyric...

The words are from January Song by Lindisfarne.  I think they are perfect for a Valentine's card.

Word Wednesday was a little late today because I decided to take a class in lettering on SkillShare The class is called Hand Lettering by Mary Kate McDevitt and it's brilliant. She's such a great teacher. I'm not sure this design is quite finished - I haven't added textures to the lettering yet but will play with that later this week. If you use the link above to go to Skillshare there's a discount! 

Thanks for reading and Happy Valentine's!

Frankie x

Postcards for Peace

Morning!

Just a little mention about a project I've designed for. I'm so pleased to have some of my work involved in this wonderful idea. 

Postcards For Peace was founded by Martin Rowsell, Managing Director of Simply Marvellous Creative Ltd, in June 2013 as a way of putting the skills and experience he had gained, from working in the design industry, to good use. It's basically a very simple idea to promote love, peace, support and hope around the world via the humble postcard. I really love the idea and think it's a great way to get young people involved and inspired to spread good stuff around the world. There's a lovely video on the front page of the website explaining the concept.

Following the death of Pete Seeger a couple of weeks ago I used a quote of his in my Word Wednesday post. I posted this to my Facebook page where Martin saw it and asked me if I might turn it into a postcard for the project. So here is my finished postcard. I'm absolutely chuffed to be part of this and to put my design skills to a good cause. 

Enjoy your day,
Frankie x

January Collection update...

Greetings!
I just thought I would do a little update regarding my January collection. I'm currently working on rebuilding my portfolio, as previously mentioned I managed to lose all my work just before Christmas! I decided that I would do at least one new pattern a day and complete one collection per month. It took a while to get in the swing of it in January and so I'm a bit behind with this one but glad to say I learned a lot and am already on track for February.

I also decided to tackle a more detailed pattern with lots of motifs. I started out with William Morris' Strawberry Thief as my inspiration and took it from there. Here's how the main pattern looks at the moment... I really love it and in these cold, dark, wet days it's really provided some sunshine.

It was really awful when I first discovered that I'd lost all my work. I was devastated and really angry with myself for not backing up. In the end it has been a blessing in quite a few ways. It's forced me to work harder and smarter. I had orders to fulfil in a very short time and I did it! That gave me confidence in my ability to work under pressure. I actually felt a little bit more free without the history of my beginner's work - what I realised was that although I had lost my work, I hadn't lost all the skills I'd acquired whilst making it. Now, in backing up my work, I've started to be much more organised in my work flow. And last but not least, I experienced some really good customer service from John Lewis! 

Have a lovely day, I'm off to start designing some co-ordinates! 
Frankie x

Hello February! Let's focus...

Hello and welcome to February... What are your plans for this month?

After a lovely weekend of relaxing, cooking, walking, food and fun with friends I'm starting this new week and month with 'focus' as my theme. I've just started an 8 week meditation course which I am hoping will help me in this area. It's so easy to lose sight of what you are doing or why you are doing something and I noticed this when looking over the work I produced in January. My intention was to enter some competitions and to have more work that I can use for my greetings cards range. I don't really think that I managed to achieve this despite making a lot of work so I am really going to focus on this for the coming month and try to design with a product/audience in mind more often. Whilst it's great to just be creative, a sense of direction would be helpful too if I'm to achieve my intention of making this venture into a viable business.

I've drawn up my list of what I'd like to achieve over the next four weeks - below are my design related goals. I've based my plan for the year on Jessica Swift's Goals and Intention Kit which is an absolutely brilliant way to get yourself more organised and focus upon what you want to achieve. I bought her kit last year and stuck to using it for the whole year. I'm doing a few things slightly different now as I've found ways to do things that work better for me but I think Jessica's kit is fantastic and can't recommend it enough if you're looking for a tool that will help you succeed.

February Intentions

• Rethink my approach to building my portfolio and be more structured in my approach by considering  audience and product. More placement patterns and typography...
• Consider starting a motif library/resource. 
• Complete 28 patterns and 1 collection
• Do a February Pinterest
• Schedule in some drawing time away from the computer - outside of the house even? Exciting! 
• Buy a new timer!!
• Organise and tidy my workspace
• Challenge my tendency to 'hide' my work - be braver! Enter competitions, showcase my work.
• Limit time spent on Pinterest, social network and other procrastination tools. Vampires!
• Finish my Strawberry Thief collection 
• Get my greetings card idea MOVING!

I've already made a start on my February Pinterest collection, you can see it here and I'll obviously be adding to it throughout the month. I've been asked to design some butterfly notecards so that's my starting point for this month. I've always been drawn to indian patterns - in particular paisley type patterns so these will also be making an appearance too. 

So good luck with February!
Bye for now,
Frankie x

Post January

Greetings!
This is my first monthly round up post where I look at the work I've created in the last month, consider what I've learned and plan what I need to do next. I'm doing this publicly as I hope that it will be helpful to other people who are starting out. If anyone wants to give me advice or feedback, it would be most welcome!

Warning - These progress posts will be l-o-n-g and self reflecting! 

January went like this....

My 31 patterns for January...

My intentions:

• to rebuild my lost portfolio
• to complete 31 patterns and 1 collection
• to start blogging regularly
• start selling my cards
• make plans for my website

At the beginning of the month I set myself the task of creating a pattern a day with a view to selecting 8-12 of these patterns and bringing them together into a collection. It's been really full on in other areas of my life so some days I've found it to be quite a challenge but I've tried to keep up by doubling up on some days and doing quick, simple patterns.

Mid month, I stumbled across Laura Coyle's Illustrator classes in the second part of the month and threw myself into improving my technical skills. It's been  fantastic - so many keyboard shortcuts and ways of working I had no idea about! I spent a whole weekend doing back to back lessons and now I'm taking her basic Illustrator class a lesson a day - just to fill in the gaps in my basic knowledge.

What went well?

• Picking up new skills in Illustrator
• Resuming my activities on Pinterest - finding lots of inspiring images for my collection - just need to be aware of making too many comparisons and getting sidetracked by pinning!
• Getting into the habit of blogging - and I really love doing it!

What challenged me?

• Not enough time spent on motif development - being able to work in repeats is important but I noticed that I was spending more time on the repeat than on the motifs, so whilst the pattern might be nicely spaced and balanced I felt disappointed with the actual motifs I was working with sometimes - they might be limited in number or just very basic doodles. I love doodles and sketchy looking work but I also crave detail in my own work.  
• A lack of drawing and painting on paper this month. I've had one drawing session for my Strawberry Thief collection. I think this ties in with the above point - working on my drawing skills would help me have a better selection of motifs to work with.  
• My lemon timer that I use for Pomodoro technique broke. I kept meaning to replace it but never got round to it and I avoided using my phone or computer timer thinking that I would just keep my eye on the clock. Result? I spent way too long on single pieces of work - I would be working on smoothing the edges of a motif for half an hour or start again after working on an idea for 20 minutes. The Pomodoro technique restricts me to 25 minute sessions on a task and I find this really helps when I 'm designing. Just spending one session on the preliminary round of designing something and then working on something else for 25 minutes helps me to make better decisions. When I come back I can usually see what is wrong and what is right.  
• Not enough time spent working on my bespoke card design business. I know I have a good idea with what I am doing but I procrastinate and avoid tasks associated with it.  My work space for doing my cards and drawing was really untidy which I don't think helped at all! 

How can I go forward?

• Rethink my approach to building my portfolio and be more structured in my approach, i.e. give time to motif development as well as pattern development
• Consider starting a motif library
• Schedule in some drawing time away from the computer - outside of the house even? Exciting! 
• Buy a new timer!!
• Organise and tidy my workspace
• Challenge my tendency to 'hide' my work - be braver!
• Limit time spent on Pinterest, social network and other procrastination tools. Vampires!
• Finish my Strawberry Thief collection 

See you in February then!

Frankie x

Word Wednesday #5

Happy Wednesday to you all.

This Wednesday's words come from Pete Seeger, folk singer and activist who passed away on Monday, aged 94.

Frankie x