After finishing a few watercolour paintings, I was itching to design a new pattern. I love the entire process of designing a seamless repeating pattern and I wanted to get right down to it: the sketching, inking, vectorising, creating motifs, choosing a colour palette, and just tinkering about in Illustrator. I couldn’t wait to begin, but I needed to tackle the very first step: gathering inspiration.
I normally fall prey to the notion that I have to go somewhere specific to get ideas; usually a place which is obviously aesthetically pleasing or interesting. This time, though, I wanted to train myself to look at the little details in my daily routine. I wanted to challenge myself to look beyond what is obviously pretty, and instead gather inspiration from the things that we normally take for granted, or don’t even give a cursory glance.
So for this exercise, I decided to gather inspiration from my daily school run. Each time I sent my son to his playschool, I kept my eyes peeled. I took note of the little white flowers on the shrubs that line the playground in front of his classroom. I paid attention to the weeds that grow by the side of the road where I park my car. I noticed the creeper plant on the tree trunk just outside his school. I took photographs and when I got home, I started sketching. The sketches became vectors, the vectors became motifs, and the motifs came together to form not just a pattern, but an entire mini collection! :-)
I’ve named this mini collection “Wild Garden” - simply because the plants that inspired it - or more accurately, the weeds - grow in the wild, and in front of a children’s garden, ie kindergarten.
