This is a design process for my Magnolia pattern.
Rough skethes at a very early stage. I was exploring the layout idea with wallpaper design in mind.
Trying to figure out the shapes of magnolia flowers.
Rough sketch with sumi brush combining magnolia flowers and branches.
Making motifs to scan into computer.
A lot of motifs… I probably used one-tenth of them…?
I’d done a layout but wanted some fillers or more textures on the background.
So I put silhouette of the flowers and branches. Then I found the white outlines were too much on my eye and decided to trim them.
Here’s the final design! I made a lot of colourways and you can see them on my Spoonflower shop. It’s been interesting to see how I tend to create pattern designs. Last year I had a really bad creative block but it’s getting better now. I just try to not think too much and once I decide a theme or motif and layout style, I do some rough sketches and then just jump right in to make motifs – a lot of them. Then scan them into my computer and fiddle around. I’m still a slow designer but at least I’ve started creating again!