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

Progress...

Hello!

Crikey! Life has been a bit busy lately so here's a round up of what's been going on... I've no patterns to show on this blog... It's a bit brief and to the point!

I've been on Beth Kempton's amazing Do What You Love course.
We're in the final week and I've really thrown myself into the course and spent a huge amount of my time on it and I'm really feeling the benefit. It arrived at the perfect time for me as there were a couple of things that I really wanted to tackle. With the structure and support of this course I feel like I've really moved forward. If you're feeling a bit lost in life or have a dream but aren't sure how to move towards making it a reality, I strongly recommend this course. It really is very special.

I missed this month and last month's Tigerprint competitions...
As you will know if you read my blog, at the start of the year, I had made it my intention to enter every single Tigerprint competition this year. However due to currently being a bit snowed under, I've decided to opt out for now. The last couple of briefs have been particularly challenging (Mother's Day Florals and human character for kids) and I just couldn't give them the time needed to create something I would be proud of. I am disappointed about this so I hope that I will return to it later in the year.

I've enrolled on Lilla Roger's MATS course...
I'm so excited about this, I can't describe! I've seen how other people's work has developed as a result of taking this course and longed to do it. I love Lilla's book and can't wait to start in October,

Thanks for reading,
Frankie xx

Hello May! Progress etc...

Good morning!
A little bit of what's happened in April and what lies ahead for May...

1. Life has started to get a bit busier and I'm back using the Pomodoro Technique again. I don't follow it to the letter - I don't log every task that I do but I have started making sure that every time I start a task I hit the timer. I haven't been doing it for a while because my timer broke and I didn't replace it. It really does make a huge difference to my day - I'm not so confused about where all the time has goes and I don't end up spending the whole day on one task.

2. On Monday I started this course and it comes highly recommended. I'm so glad I took the plunge - I've been feeling a little bit stuck lately - like I've been busy but not getting anywhere. The course is all about really focussing in on yourself to find out what you really want so it's helped me to start making those things happen. It's really exciting and I'll post a full review of Do What You Love For Life in my Essential Resources when I've finished.

3. I completed 2 lots of freelance work in April for Postcards for Peace http://www.postcardsforpeace.org. It's a great organisation that I feel really honoured to be associated with. Three of my postcards are already in the shop and more will be available soon. You can read my blog post about it here.

4. I've started painting again! Hurrah! On Easter Monday I made an A3 seamless repeat hand painted with gouache. It was quite an undertaking and took me a while to stitch it all together and make it repeat in Photoshop the next day but I loved it and it made me realise what was missing in my work: more of my own 'handwriting'. I know a lot of people work straight into Illustrator as that is their chosen method and really fits their style. However, it's not so fitting for me and I've realised that my reason for trying to just draw with my wacom was out of fear/avoidance/convenience/laziness/speed. I've been yearning to find my own style since I started and I really believe that the only way I will do this is by taking the time to experiment lots to find the tools and marks that express 'me'. And of course, once you make a start on these things, they end up being really great fun.

May for me will be...
Birthday fun, continuing my course, building my portfolio, launching a competition on my blog, reaching out to friends old and new, honing my style and making things HAPPEN! What about you?

Thanks for reading!
Frankie x

I'm almost back.... In Progress

Hello, hello, I’m almost back!

Apologies for the silence lately - I’ve been away to the wilderness of home and had very little in terms of wifi access so it wasn’t possible to keep up with the blog. However as from next week I will be continuing my Studio Tuesday and Word Wednesday features and hope to bring more regular features to the blog. Please get in touch if there is something you would like me to blog about. I’m open to ideas as I want to continue to grow my blog as a resource and inspiration to other budding surface pattern designers. 

Whilst away I worked on my entry for the March Tigerprint competition which was all about black and white designs. I found this to be a really challenging task and I’d really recommend having a go at designing with a limited palette in this way if you wish to really focus on shape and line. 

My research for the competition can be found here on my Pinterest board. My initial thoughts where around: 
Mark making - using a variety of lines and textures.
Negative space - look at the space between motifs
Cross hatching and clipping masks
White on black - invert conventional, paper & pencil contrasts.

Damask, hand drawn geometrics, Fair Isle and optical illusion style patterns all seem to lend themselves well to this no colour, all contrast palette. I particularly like how hand drawn geometrics look in black and white - I think the formal palette really contrasts with the irregular shapes and spaces.

I ended up focussing on mark making and found myself utilising some new skills that I picked up on a Skillshare course in making brushes for Photoshop and Illustrator. Using a variety of media - charcoal, graphite stick, acrylic paint and pencils I set about exploring the different quality of lines and textural effects I could make. It really felt like Fine Art drawing class all over again and I enjoyed being playful and exploring different media. I took black and white photographs of my study sheets as I didn’t want to scan charcoal dust or wet paint and worked with Photoshop to clean up the images. I then traced my marks in Illustrator and created scatter and art brushes.  Warning: it’s addictive! Once you start making brushes you can’t stop and I also played around with scale using lots of different media to find out which ones work best. You could also photograph found objects such as twigs, coins, soil, etc to create brushes - I’ve some beach photos that I’m still to work with for this purpose. 

The circles and hearts were drawn with art brushes from my mark making experiments. They look so simple, casual and quick and are not what I would normally submit for a competition but I think (and hope that I’m right in thinking) that they work. Despite their simple appearance, a lot of technical effort and thought has gone into creating the marks and I think that both of these designs have a sense of rhythm, balance and style to them and would look great on gift bags/wrap, suitable for male or female. 

The geo stripes above came from some scatter brushes I designed  from marks made using a Derwent Onyx pencil. The Onyx pencil is great for thick dark lines - it’s perhaps my favourite pencil to draw with. 

My garden doodle was first drawn in Photoshop using my Wacom. I have a nice brush from another Skillshare class that I use for this. I find it very similar to a pencil and I really love the line quality I get when I trace it in Illustrator. This pattern is more in keeping with the kind of style I feel good about - busy, multidirectional repeats using lots of motifs. I think this design might be suited to gift wrap.

The geo poppy design just came from a doodle drawn straight into Illustrator. I felt this pattern really worked in black and white. When working in black and white I became much more thoughtful about the negative space - and I really like the negative space in this design.

On reflection I think there’s a lot of room for development with my designs and studies for this competition. I’ve realised that I rely on colour an awful lot to balance my designs and perhaps I need to pay more attention to the use of space, shape, line and texture. I feel more attention to such details would go a long way in helping me to hone my style and I’m keen to reintroduce hand drawn ‘signature’ elements into my Illustrator work. I wouldn’t say this competition boosted my confidence but it has certainly been great food for thought.  If I get shortlisted I’ll be surprised but either way I’m glad of the learning experience!

I know I say this every month but I think for any budding surface pattern designer the Tigerprint competition is an essential resource. It really has helped me to consider my work in a commercial setting, work to external deadlines and up my game by striving to learn new skills. It’s easy to get trapped in a little bubble of your own when you first start to work alone in a studio. This is a great way to take your first steps to going public with your work too and it’s a great confidence boost if you make it to the shortlist. 

Good luck everyone who has entered, now I’m off to get me some colour!

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

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

Progress... ilovepattern is growing

Hello!

Hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend. I've had a little bit of time off this week which was fun but has meant that the pressure is really on next week. I have three collections to complete as I want March to be completely clear to start some new projects. I've also decided that I am going to make a few changes to my blog which I am really excited about as they involve connecting with other designers.

I've usually just dedicated my Friday post to documenting my progress in the studio. I am going to continue to do this occasionally but have decided to make a few changes.

My intention for this blog has always been for it to become a useful resource for other surface pattern designers. Having taken some modules from the ABSPD I wanted to continue to develop my skills and broaden my knowledge of surface pattern and share my experiences.

I'm not trying to create a course here - there are fantastic courses out there, particularly ABSPD which I have written a review of here and MATS. Nor is it a showcase for what's current in surface pattern - this is already perfectly presented by Marie Perkins over at Print & Pattern. What I am hoping we can do together is create a knowledge base of surface pattern design whilst showcasing new talent alongside more established designers.

A few of the new features I am writing are as follows:

Motif Monday - a chosen motif, examples of it - how and why you used it in your own work.
Studio Tuesday - in the studio with... a lighthearted look at how different designers work - established and new.
Word Wednesday - great for showcasing your lettering or typography skills.

Please do get in touch if you have an idea for a post or wish to be involved. You can email me at: ilovepattern@yahoo.co.uk

Cheers and have a great weekend!
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

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