June was a bit of a mixed bag for me, went through a phase of being pretty inspired in May to a bit of a slump, then settling on an idea that helped me produce a few patterns pretty fast, then back into another slump.

Inspiration is a rollercoaster at the moment it seems.

My main idea was to concentrate on single element patterns with limited colours, trying to focus my mind a bit more, and it worked.

But then my momentum got slowed down by other commitments taking up my time and I struggled to get it back. But as a focusing idea it really helped and I definitely think I will do some more like this in future.

The squiggles and confetti patterns were made from hand drawn marks I then scanned in and converted to vectors, this was an experiment I did after watching a Skillshare class: From Abstract Handmade Marks on Paper to Seamless Surface Patterns in Illustrator

I still need to finish the whole class as I got carried away experimenting but I’m really happy with how they came out, especially the squiggles.

I also came across a neat little script called Random Pattern Pro for Illustrator that I used for the ditsy florals and dots, I have always struggled a little with randomness as I am generally a person who likes symmetry so this script was a godsend, especially for doing such small busy patterns.

It wasn’t free but so far it’s been worth every penny to me, and while it doesn’t always produce a pattern suitable for what I wanted it can give me a good starting point for making it look more random.

Still trying to get my head around the new WordPress editor, things that are meant to make life simpler are sometimes far more confusing, but I’ve worked out columns now so that helps with adding links and images a bit.

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Post updated November 2022 to add direct links to available print-on-demand products.