in the studio: drawing and painting patterns

If you like shades of blue and just a little bit of shimmer, I think you’ll like this painting when it’s finished. It’s on a 12” x 12” stretched canvas and has intricate pattern layers similar to those in my mixed media work.

The photo below shows a glimpse of my pattern drawing process (though it’s the pattern design for a different artwork—watch for images of that finished piece coming in the next few weeks). I start by making a small drawing and repeat and iterate until I’m happy with the basic design. Once that is done I use tracing and graph paper create the repeat.

The process to create each pattern usually takes quite a few hours so I hang onto them and sometimes reuse them in a different context. I love how the drawing look as a stack in the studio, on papers with varying textures and opacities.