Robynjp: Pattern

Illustration...Saturday?

So last week the word that was announced for Illustration Friday was 'Fresh'. I've been behind all week due to various happenings, so I'm afraid my attempt wasn't very explored at all. I didn't even manage to do much sketchbook work! Oops! Here's what I ended up with and hopefully I'll work extra hard this week to make up for it.

I'm very interested at the moment in making patterns as I've got a few secret plans for the future which will require some skill in this area, so I took that route.

I didn't start out by looking at the word Fresh this week, I just went with what popped in to my mind first, something which I tackled a while back - Pineapples.

Here's one I made earlier...

There's something about a big yellow, tropical pineapple that evokes freshness and Summer and they seem to have been quite popular within Internet communities lately. So to start, some very quick, mediocre sketching at the beginning of this week and then not much progress again until Thursday. Thankfully this wasn't due to laziness but because I have had other pieces in the works.

An amalgamation of the sketching I did.

There were a few different concepts that I came up with before this one took hold. Perhaps at this point to enhance the 'fresh' idea I could have added in some juice spurts and made it a bit more dynamic rather than the very obvious wording I placed on top. I was unsure as to how this would translate to a pattern also.

First attempt at arranging this idea in to a pattern.

I changed the positioning of the pineapple so that it went sideways which I think was an attractive composition. However, the downfall to this pattern came when I added the dots in the background. I wanted to incorporate a kitsch 1950's look and used some of my sketches outside of the cut-up pineapple to create this cute dotty fill effect but the two ideas just didn't mesh in this instance.

Pineapple chunks.

Pineapple rings.

I guess I managed a bit more exploration of the idea than I let on as I tried out using just parts of the pineapple and not the whole thing. The chunks idea ended up reminding me too much of sweetcorn, it seemed too far away from the original to be recognisable. With the addition of rings, it becomes a bit more readable but it's very dull. A possible use for these would be as the front/back cover pages of a book!

Photoshop - define pattern and fill.

I ended up going back to the original design, but without the wording, and arranged the rings in a dynamic way so that it looked as if the pineapple was slowly splitting apart, one ring at a time. The addition of extra, yet uncoloured pattern brings the coloured parts to the forefront and gave the picture some depth.

A3 version, allowing more of the pattern to be shown.

Here was where the pattern ended up. I think it would make some lovely gift wrap, perhaps the spacing could be worked out as there does appear to be a lot of it and there is definitely some room for improving/playing with colours but it does have a 'fresh' aesthetic and some of the retro-look, it makes a good starting point.

The word for next week is - POWER!

Illustration Friday - "Jungle"

For anyone who doesn't know Illustration Friday is a website which provides weekly creative inspiration. A word is chosen every Friday and then you are asked to produce a piece of artwork connected to it. The connection could be very loose and you can use whatever media you like! I've always found it to be quite a fun way of coming up with new ideas if I'm stuck in my own artistic routines.

The word posted last Friday was "Jungle" and it has been something that I have worked on over this past week, I'm posting my results here today in preparation for a new word tomorrow (and also to prove to myself that I can deal with deadlines!).

Firstly, I started with some research into the definition of the word Jungle.

jun·gle

/ˈjəNGgəl/

Noun

An area of land overgrown with dense forest and tangled vegetation, typically in the tropics.

A wild tangled mass of vegetation or other things. (src)

My findings ranged from depictions of the Rainforest, 'urban' and 'concrete' jungles and even to songs i.e. 'Welcome to the Jungle'. After this I began some initial early morning (read 2 a.m.) sketching using watercolour pencil.

Flowers of the rainforest - sketchbook edition.

The flora of the Rainforest really grabbed my attention as they tend to be bright and attractive to the eye, the large flowers and entanglement of vines also reminded me of the entwining natural designs of William Morris' wallpapers and thus led me to my next few sketches, determining a pattern of my own.

Scans of the pen drawings of flowers
ready for arrangement in Photoshop.

My flowers are quite simplified and drawn in Berol pen into a sketchbook and then scanned on to the computer for the design to be completed digitally. I have other sketches for different ideas from this week, but this was the one that I focussed in on.

What would come to be the final Layout
with first set of added colours.

This was the result of some initial experimentation. Not quite a twisting Morris pattern but an attractive set up. My first colour choices didn't seem exactly right, and I found it to be the most challenging aspect of the piece. One thing I did take from the trial and error was the idea of surrounding lines of darker colours rather than leaving them as black ink as I didn't want a cartoonish look for the design. The hummingbird actually comes from a drawing I created before as the illustration to a poem by D H Lawrence.

Second colour change.

Here I tried adding darker and lighter parts to give more contrast but the colour palette still didn't seem right.

Shapely design.

The picture above was a bit of a happy accident whilst fixing the outlines. It has a tropical feel which suits the subject matter nicely and the graphic shapes would possibly make a great t-shirt design.

Looking much better.

Eventually, after a little more experimentation, this is the design which I felt fixed all the things that I was hoping to change before. I toned down the colour palette a lot so that it wasn't quite so garish. The greens are perfect for a jungle theme and the pink adds a nice tropical contrast. The white outline lifted the picture off the page and I am a fan of the offset look. The weakest parts for me are probably the pokers in the background which needed some assemblage in photoshop and could have done with a re-draw.

So there you have it, my Illustration Friday entry. Finished by midweek and with a few designs I can use for other things. Including the one below, I was very happy with how the palm fan worked out and it looks like I could still get my Morris design from this yet.