Making Patterns in Small Sketchbooks
In my "The First Zine" post, I shared how I became fascinated with patterns after using some as a background in a sketch. I'm always browsing Domestika for fun courses, and I discovered one by Polina Oshu, an artist and surface pattern designer, called "Botanical Patterns in a Sketchbook: Conquer the Blank Page." It was a lot of fun using Posca acrylic markers in a small sketchbook to create patterns. Here are the first three results I achieved.
The flower pattern was actually the third piece I worked on, and I believe it shows. It turned out much cleaner and neater compared to the others. By this point, I had become more accustomed to the pens and learned how to apply the paint in a more refined manner. Since this design is also the least complex of the three, I think it helps the piece stand out.
However, the yellow background on this piece was not ideal. I used a mustard matte acrylic paint instead of a Posca pen, which wasn't what I had envisioned. Nonetheless, I decided to push through and started to create marks without following a rough draft or putting much thought into the placement. I began to go by "feel."
The first piece I worked on does show my inexperience. It's a bit clumsy and rough around the edges, but I did enjoy the color combinations, and the overall composition wasn't bad. To give some context around the size of the small sketchbook.
I really enjoyed the course by Oshu. She did an excellent job covering key design theories and provided many useful tips for achieving great results.
