Jazz Blossoms Art Deco Pattern

Tags

Adobe Illustrator, Ai, art deco, design, graphic, pattern, pattern motif, Photoshop, spoonflower, tulips

Using Adobe Illustrator, I created the motifs for this design. Then I assembled them into an initial pattern layout.

I exported the initial layout as a .png file and opened it in Photoshop. I applied the offset filter to wrap around 1/2 the vertical and 1/2 the horizontal distances. This moved the empty black areas to the center for editing.

I chose this method because the center of my design had the spacing just as I liked it but needed the outer edges revised. After applying the offset filter, my outer edges will now align perfectly with each other when I tile out the pattern in repeat.

Next I selected each quadrant, cut and Edit > Paste Special > Paste in Place, to get each on its own layer. I used layer masks to hide the excess black areas of the top 2 quadrants. Then I selected the top 2 quadrants and moved them together straight down to meet up and align with the bottom 2.

Then I cropped the tile to the new top edge.

I used a layer mask to hide the excess black area of the lower right quadrant. Then selected both right side quadrants and moved them to the left to overlap and align, closing up the extra black space.

I cropped to the new right edge. Now I had a repeatable tile with the excess black removed.

To test the revised design, I entered the pattern tile in Photoshop’s pattern library. Edit > Define Pattern and selected this new pattern tile. Then in a new larger document Edit > Fill > Contents: Pattern and Custom Pattern: select the new pattern. An alternate to test filling in a new document is to add a pattern fill layer to the same document and scale the pattern down.

Looking at the test repeat of the tile, I could see that the repeat was working, but there were a number of changes I wanted to make.

If you compare this test to the final design below, you’ll see that I removed one each of the duplicate vertical rows of medium size motifs, changed the centers of the largest diamond motifs, and rotated the tile 90 degrees for a more horizontal emphasis.

©2018 Alice Frenz all rights reserved.

My Jazz Blossoms Art Deco design is available for sale on Spoonflower and Roostery

 

Sketchbook: Adding Color

Tags

colored pencil, floral, illustration, ink, motifs, pattern, Prang, QSDS, sketchbook, Susan Shie, watercolor

This week I’ve been trying out some of the new art supplies I purchased for the QSDS (Quilt and Surface Design Symposium) class I’m taking this weekend. The class is Lucky Drawing: Freehand Sketchbook 2 Day, with the wonderful, amazing artist and teacher Susan Shie.

I started at the top of my page with a set of Loew Cornell watercolor cakes that I already had. Then switched to my new Prang semi-moist 16 watercolor oval pan set recommended by Susan for the middle and bottom rows of flowers, leaves, and insects.

The Loew Cornell colors were very chalky and too opaque, covering up my ink line work. They also flaked off the paper when I tried adding colored pencil on top. The Prang colors were much more transparent; letting the ink line work show through. Colored pencils layered over the Prang watercolor paint very nicely. I definitely preferred the results with the Prang set.

You can find out more about classes taught by Susan Shie on her Turtle Moon Studio website.

©2017 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

 

Read about the scarf I design from this artwork in this post “Lady Beetles Scarf”.

Appalachian Spirit Animals

Tags

appalachian, design, illustration, mouse, owl, pattern, raccoon

Custom brushes in Photoshop were used to create this repeat design. I drew the animal and tree shapes with Pit india ink on Strathmore drawing paper. To keep the informal, hand drawn look, I made very few edits to them before creating their Photoshop brushes.

 

©2017 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

Psychedelic Succulent Motifs

Tags

active wear, floral, mood board, motifs, pattern, psychedelic, succulents, textile design, trend

This mood and motif board is for my Op and Pop trend observation and corresponding leaf and flower motifs. I photographed succulents in my garden and drew the leaf and flower motifs in India ink pen in my sketchbook. I then selected my favorites, scanned them, cropped and retouched in Photoshop, then assembled my board layout in Photoshop.

My idea is to combine the current popularity of succulents with a poster style reminiscent of Peter Max, in bright psychedelic colors. I also would like to incorporate some Op Art curving stripes into my final pattern inspired by the work of Op artists such as Bridget Riley.

To me, the current popularity of succulents, Mason jars, and hand letter reminds me of the 60’s and ’70s popularity of mushrooms and snails motifs, organic typography, and the psychedelic neon color posters everyone hung on their walls. I think it’s something about their curvy shapes and casual beauty. Though I don’t recall snails and mushrooms being a decorating theme at any weddings I attended back then…

I had so much fun putting this board together! I hope you enjoy it.

©2016 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

 

See my colorful Psychedelic Succulent design
created using these motifs here.

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Pattern Design on the iPad

Tags

app, camera, design, ipad, iphone, Kaleidomatic, kaleidoscope, pattern, repeat, tile

This design only needed a small amount of editing in Photoshop to create a final version I was please with. Most of the design was create through experimentation with Kaleidoscope apps on my ipad.

While playing with the app Kaleidoscope Camera by Binary Noise Ltd. on my iPad, I discovered that the play of daylight and shadow on the dimensional fabric of my solid colored peach comforter and dark red pillows created interesting shapes.

I played with many different compositions, saving those I liked to my iPad camera roll. Next I opened them with the app Kaleidomatic by Stuffmatic and played with them in more complex compositions. You can find instructions for using this app at Kaleidomatic.com. The following are instructions for how I used it.

Open Kaleidomatic and touch the button in the lower left corner to open a design saved on your camera roll. These designs were first created using the app Kaleidoscope Camera with my iPad’s camera.

Touch two fingers to the screen then move and twist them to change the pattern. Pinching will zoom out. Spreading your fingers apart will zoom in.

If you touch with two fingers and first hold them steady on the screen before moving them, a box will appear showing the placement of the kaleidoscope piece in relationship to your photo. The box will stay visible as you move your two fingers around to change the pattern, but will disappear when you lift them off the screen.

Sometimes I find I want to see what’s happening in the box. Other times I just start playing without it.

Change the shape and arrangement of the reflections with the scroll wheel at the bottom of the screen. Shown here are “Grapefruit” and “Meadow”.

When you are ready to save a design, touch the arrow in the lower right corner to go to the save settings.

Select to save as a tile, and change the color scheme if desired.

“Plain” keeps the colors unchanged. I liked how this design looked “Burned” so I saved once as “Plain” to keep the original colors, and once as “Burned”.

Touch the lower right corner button to go to the final save screen.

Turn “High Quality” on. Press the green button to save to your iPad camera roll. A progress bar will appear across the top of the screen. When complete, the app turns back to the kaleidoscope design screen.

Here’s the final saved tile from the design above. The saved tiles I’ve tested in straight repeat with Photoshop and on Spoonflower appear to be very accurate.

Since I don’t have to spend time perfecting the repeat, I have more time to make edits for design aesthetics. I use Photoshop for editing, then test the revised tile again in repeat until I’m pleased with the design.

©2016 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

 

Read more about using apps for pattern design in these posts:

Kaleidos Pic app by Fluocode

Kooleido app for iPhone

Echo I

Tags

diamond, grain, pattern, repeat, symmetry, wood

I created these abstract pattern designs from some doodles I made in an old iPad 3 app called Touch Sketch. The app was based on Mr. Doob’s Harmony procedural drawing tool which is still available to use online here.

After saving the Touch Sketch drawing to my camera roll, I open it in Kaleidomatic by Stuffmatic.

©2016 Alice Frenz all rights reserved.

These designs are available for sale on Spoonflower and Roostery

Lilacs and Bitty Bugs

Tags

bugs, floral, lilac, pattern, purple, tiny, twigs

This design is inspired by the tiny twigs and florets of my Spring lilacs, where I imagine purple bitty bugs hiding among the tufts of lilac florets.

This pattern will be available on Spoonflower soon.

Jazz Trio

Tags

design, floral, orange, pattern, purple, repeat, spoonflower

A trio of abstract shapes, reminiscent of flower forms, appear to spin and pulsate to a sparkling jazz melody.

 

Pattern Ideas using Kaleidos Pic

Tags

app, creative, design, ideas, iphone, motif, pattern

I’ve been playing with using apps on my iPhone and iPad to create ideas for pattern designs. In this example, I’m using a motif from my November sketchbook with the Kaleidos Pic app from Fluocode on my iPhone.

First I saved my sketch to my camera roll on the phone. Then I used the folder icon in the app to locate and open it.

Next I open the choice of shapes for my tile by touching the hexagon icon.  Use 1 finger to move the tile to the portion of the image you want to use. You can rotate the shape and change its size by using 2 fingers. It’s a little bit fussy, so just be patient and remember to switch back to 1 finger before trying to move the tile after scaling and rotating it.

Now you can adjust the size of the design tile by moving the blue slider button. Then touch the check mark to see the design tile in repeat.

You can touch the flip button to see how it changes the pattern. Use the back arrow to change the tile selection, shape, or size. When you have a pattern you like, touch the save icon.

 

 

Use the blue button slider to select the size you would like to save. The larger the size, the more repeats that occur within your saved image.

The app doesn’t display your saved image. You’ll have to go your camera roll to view it.

I like to use Photo Transfer App to send the images from my phone to my computer where I can then use them as reference for my designs.

image saved from KaleidosPic to my camera roll

 

©2014 Alice Frenz all rights reserved

 

November Sketchbook part 3

Tags

acorns, bugs, design, eyes, fancy birds, floral, geometric, ink, line drawing, mandala, owl, pattern, sketchbook

More pages from my November pattern motif sketchbook.