Designing a Pattern Collection from Start to Finish: How I Refine My Design Motifs

This week my goal was to clean up all of the design motifs for each of the patterns in my new collection.

The process looks different for every designer depending on their workflow, medium, and art style. I love using loose, organic line work in my designs, so for me this involved inking the pieces of each pattern.

Here’s a look at how a couple of them came out. The grapes are my favorite so far!

For some of my designs, like these, I cleaned up the full repeat. But for others I just inked a few motifs and I’ll be piecing the repeat together in the next step of the process.

At this stage, I just work in black and white and I’ll start adding color to the designs once I’ve completed all the repeats.

Stay tuned for how those pieces come together!

~Rachel