I have been working on the first brief for both the Intermediate and Advanced tracks of the MIID Winter School and have enjoyed learning new techniques in Illustrator CC.
Intermediate Brief Week 1: Bright Blooms
I had a specific technique in mind for the Intermediate and was glad to finally try it out! I photographed a range of different flowers and then used both the image trace and recolour artwork options in Adobe Illustrator CC to create a range of motifs within the specified palette for the brief.
Advanced Brief Week 1: American Prairie
I decided to go with a design reflecting the natural habitat of the American prairies. I had a lot of fun researching the flowers and animals that live there. I also finally learned how to use and incorporate the Pantone color books into my swatches, which is something I have not had to do previously.
My pattern tile includes a bison resting amid various American prairie wild flowers: black-eyed-susans, Cone flowers, Indian Paint Brush and various grasses. There were so many more to choose from but I felt that this selection had a good range of heights and silhouettes.
I first sketched out each motif in my sketchbook, and then scanned and imported the motifs into Illustrator CC. Each motif was coloured using the watches provided and I had fun playing with the recolour artwork option to make some alternate patterns.
The fur of the bison was painted strand by strand in Illustrator CC and I am pleased with the result! I used a custom art brush that I created just for the fur.
MIID Winter School Advanced Pattern Brief 1 in Progress – American Prairie from Squibble Design on Vimeo.
I have uploaded both these patterns to my Society6 and Redbubble stores and am going to have some fun with coordinatig patterns so keep a look-out there!