Practising repeat in Illustrator

My main aim this week was to create a selection of wallpaper repeats based on the drawings I completed last week. After having a workshop based on repeat in Illustrator I also wanted to get to grips with how this works, as its a large part of my learning agreement, and I believe it is a very important skill to learn. 

To make it easier when learning more about the technique, I looked at a design I created a few weeks ago, and tried to replicate this in repeat. I encountered many problems, such as file sizes being too large, and the normal hiccups when using Illustrator when you're not used to it, such as how different the interface is from Photoshop, and rasterising and tracing images. However I feel that the design below is starting to look like a successful repeat.

After getting to grips with the process I felt confident in trying to create new patterns using the elements I created last week. As mentioned in the last post I wanted to create designs that resembled the botanical nature of my research, and I feel the print below achieves this due to the writing and layout of the flowers. I chose to use writing that wasn't actually a word so that it didn't detract or distract from the design itself and I feel this is working well.

I also changed the backgrounds to involve patterns such as the example below. I really like how this example turned out as I feel the colour is working well, as well as the scale (taking the time to make a visualisation helped me with this). I am concerned that the colours aren't looking like the palette I created for the collection, but as I like the designs I will see how the rest of them develop and consider whether to change my palette at a later date.

Now that we have finished for christmas, I will probably work on some surface pattern ideas and designs over the break to bring back in January.

My first exposed screen!

Yesterday I decided on the motifs that would be going onto my screen. I arranged these so that the space could be used effectively whilst having a selection of motifs to work with. I also kept some motifs together so they could be used together when printing, for example the two birds and the line of leaves.

 We were asked to print these out onto A3 acetate so that they could be exposed onto a screen. 

This is what the screen looks like now that it has been exposed and I'll be using it in the print room next week to create my first fabric samples.

My first motifs on Illustrator

This week I have been working out the basics of Illustrator. I used my hand drawn motifs as inspiration to create my computed ones. To start with I designed some basic bird and leaf shapes.

I then tried to replicate the hand drawn qualities of my mark making motifs on the computer which involved experimenting with the different textured brushes and line tools.

The next idea that I tried was combining my solid black motifs such as birds and leaves with the mark making motifs to create patterns inside the motifs.

I loved this idea as it joined all of the elements together, however I decided that for my final screen i'd separate the elements so that I could layer them using different colours, or use the elements separately, therefore not restricting the possibilities in the print room.

After learning the basics, I tried to create a composition with the motifs I designed using colour to get an idea of how they would develop in the print room. This should hopefully lead me to making decisions about which motifs to put onto screen next week.