OK, this is all new to me.  I haven't been in school for years!  I really like this idea of doing "mind maps" in this way -- I usually hold it all in my head if it's for something visual.  It is a nice exercise for clarifying things.  Also, creating a mood board is something I usually don't do, so that was a good experience as well.  

My pattern will have to do with Valentine's Day.  This is my brain storming exercise:

I'm really drawn to food, and Valentine's Day is all about chocolates and flowers, so that is what "spoke" to me the most.  

Here is my mood board I created:

I had to include the retro card, because it brought me back to my childhood when we would exchange little cards like this with everyone in class.  :)

Sketches will be coming!

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January 2, 2013

I finally did a bunch of sketches of the motifs.  It was really fun.  I don't know how the bunnies got in there but they did. lol.  I want to do something with candy and hearts still.  Not sure if I will use the bunnies.

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Experimenting with Illustrator. I had thought I knew the program really well, but there were some things I didn't even know existed.  In this one, I played around with the width tool (on the eyes), and the appearance panel layers-- especially opacity, the scatter tool, which I love!  Also the arc and spiral tool, which I never really used before.  Very fun!

January 3, 2014

It took an obscenely long amount of time because I'm still learning some things about Illustrator, but here are some candies:

January 7, 2014

Well, I decided to nix those candies. I drew some new bunnies and candies.  I decided I liked them without the line better.  Also, I didn't want a "literal" palette with the brown for the chocolates.  These are the motifs I created:

I'm experimenting with creating patterns now.  I tried out a simple square pattern.  I never used the hearts (above), so I may use them in another one I'll try later.  

Here is the first one I made though:

January 8, 2014

I've been having fun with the pattern.  Here is another version using Method 2 and a different color palette:

January 10, 2014

Made a new pattern with Method 3 today.  I am surprised that I like it!  I knew it wouldn't work to do all the layering with the bunnies, so I went back to my candies.  I kind of like the retro feel color.  What do you think?

By the way, I noticed that when I upload these candy ones here, the color is a lot duller than when I open the file in my browser.  Not sure why...

January 14, 2014

I made a half drop pattern.  I found this to be difficult and I had to try it several times.  the first time, when I used my original square bunny tile, I couldn't make it work because of some overlapping.  So I made a new square tile using the same motifs.  Then I attempted a half drop tile again.  I had to test it many times because it didn't look right.  This was the hardest pattern to make so far.... And I think I like my original square one better!

What do you think?

January 31, 2014

I took a long hiatus because I've been so busy!  But I want to get back to this, do all the demos (I just have the mirror one and the last one to do), and figure out what to submit for the Valentine Challenge!

Here is my Half Brick Pattern.  This is my favorite one so far, but not sure about the colors...

Here is a Mirror Pattern:

February 5, 2014

This is my submission for the Valentine Challenge (I also submitted at Faye's class).

I decided to go with the darker palette for my pattern:

So that is my wrapping paper pattern.  And this is my card that goes with the paper:

Hope everyone has a nice Valentine's Day!