Hi, guys! I hope you are ready for more practice with the Blob Brush! In this new instructional course, Simple Quick Marimekko-Inspired Layered Design, I will help you to create a striking artwork in the classic Finnish style. I have drawn inspiration from the bold shapes and colors of Marimekko, as well as artists like Liz-Kohler Brown and Ophelia Pang. In this one class, you will find all the practical skills required to use the Blob Brush and the Shapebuilder tools efficiently and effortlessly. The two tools work together so seamlessly! I have plenty of other ideas and pointers too, as I demonstrate my workflow from start to finnish (lol). I am also teaching you techniques for adding depth and interest to patterns created in this style! You will create foreground, middle ground and background layers which make your pattern so much more interesting! It will be a fun little adventure for you.

I'll be showing you more advanced Adobe Illustrator skills along the way too, but you can definitely be a beginner when it comes to learning these tools and techniques. If you are like me, you’re always learning new pattern design skills and you want to take it one step further. If you are looking for ways to scale-up your pattern and coordinate production, you may find this is perfect for creating motifs and patterns more simply and effortlessly. I call these classes "Simple/Quick" for a reason! Development of quick techniques with the blob brush for pattern design in Illustrator is the focus of this course, with the goal of helping you increase your proficiency with Illustrator techniques you may never have considered. You will conceive an energetic pattern which can be colorized to help establish the foreground, middle ground and background layers! In this course, you will learn every step. And remember, these techniques you pick up can be used for so much more than florals! Think of your favourite illustrations to draw and imagine using these methods and techniques on them!

What you learn here covers many fundamental principles in the general workflow of many surface pattern designers and graphic illustrators. It is guaranteed there are new methods and strategies to be learned each day with loads of new skills in this tutorial! And you will get more than just facts and knowledge: if you've taken other Deloresart classes, this is just an essential evolution in your artistic development. If you make a repeat pattern, it can be used to sell with companies like Spoonflower or Print on Demand sites for wallpaper, fabric or gift wrap, or to create custom products.

As far as prerequisite skills, I would recommend some knowledge of Illustrator with the goal of wanting to learn additional techniques. In class, we’ll talk about both design and technical aspects of creating the artwork. I will demonstrate them at a reasonable pace so that it will be easy to follow along. This course is for all levels. I suggest Illustrator for this class, as that is what is being featured here, but any other vector software is suitable, so long as it has the same functionality. Conceiving and executing an artwork or pattern can be done relatively quickly with this little adventure.

The key concepts I will include:

Creating motifs using the blob brush and shapebuilder tools
Many considerations for designing repeating patterns efficiently
Approaches you can take in your creative work moving forward
Designing pattern layouts in pleasing arrangements with depth of field

This is a relevant course for you to take no matter what the end purpose for the artwork you create. Let’s dive in, so you can be benefitting from your knowledge now in your art practice!

Intro to Layered Brushes and Motifs for Pattern Making in Illustrator

This short intro will give you an overview of the class.

Lesson 1: Overview, Inspiration and Examples

In this instructional lesson, I will show you how I am inspired to create layered motifs. We will visit a few boards on Pinterest to see how I looked for Finnish inspiration.

Lesson 2: Brushwork and Initial Motif Construction

Here we will experiment with the settings on the Blob Brush and I will explain how to use it. I share constant reinforcement of keyboard shortcuts throughout.

Lesson 3: Quick Motif Prep Work for Layering

In this lesson, we will look at creating a couple of the floral motifs. This lesson uses the Blob Brush and the Pucker and Bloat filter. I show you a few methods for editing shapes and explain the Convert Anchor Point tool.

Lesson 4: Motif Coloration and Layered Construction

Within this lesson, we will look at other simple little motif ideas and I will explain quick ways to adjust these. We will also begin quick-testing to help us in further developing the pattern tile.

Lesson 5: Composition and Layout of the Artwork

Building the composition is easy with the use of the techniques I will show you, as well as quick motif alteration with the Blob Brush. We will discuss how to make easy changes and how to further build out the pattern. At the end of this lesson we are ready to do some testing, which we will start in the next lesson.

Lesson 6: Finessing and Finishing the Art or Pattern

In this lesson, we will talk about testing and how I compare different iterations of the pattern. I will also give you a quick look at a transformation effects template I created in another class.

Lesson 7: Conclusion and Wrap Up with Advice

This video is the conclusion and wrap up of my instructional tutorial on how to produce a layered, Marimekko Inspired floral design. Hope you enjoyed the class!

Concepts covered:

Concepts covered include but are not limited to building brushes in Illustrator, shapebuilder tool, blob brush, finding online reference, tilde key to reposition pattern, color groups, working with the re-color tool, the color.adobe.com color theme extractor, the lasso tool, the remove anchor points function, the smooth tool, layering brush strokes, brush design fundamentals, use of the layer’s palette, creating foreground, middle ground and background, simplifying, and much more!

You will get…

34 minutes of direction from an instructor who has been in the graphic design business and education for over 40 years
Knowledge of multiple ways to solve each design challenge and troubleshoot issues
Review of my techniques and variables affecting pattern design with these methods
Plenty of great reference

Project Description: For your class project, you will create a motif using brushes you have made. Make several brushes and experiment with the use of several different ideas mentioned in the lessons. Once you have your motif (or two) use them in a simple pattern repeat as outlined in lesson 7. If you want to go a step further, add a couple of simple coordinates. Post your project here!

Tara Creighton

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