Patterns at Play a Studio Note Book Spiral Swirls
An origin story of how we at PM artist Studio create and use patterns as artistic tools!
The design we wanted to feature is our PM Spiral Swirl (P calls it leaves). It has been a signature design from the start, in fact, let’s start there…
A simple sketch is all one needs to create a world of possibilities. The original sketch is tucked away safely in a journal of P’s (unknown at this moment). In this picture and on the page opposite is a reproduction of what I sketched for this story.
In the beginning, many of P’s sketches were in pencil or fine black ink. Since that time we have learned that fatter and more pronounced lines make for a better transition to digital designs.
Many refinements happen at this stage. Lines are removed, edges cleaned and even pieces added to make the connections required for a successful pattern. This is also one of the stages that take the most time, but is also quite fun!
Understanding how and where the pattern is going to be used is something P and I feel very strongly about. In fact, it is one of the main reasons we created the printable paper designs to start… it is all about scale.
A pattern is born, scale has been determined – now colors can be introduced as another way to play!
The fun of play continues beyond color and scale, now utilizing layers. Layering on top and behind other patterns can be done in creative ways both digitally and with media – like texture paste, stencil butters, paint and more.
The PM Spiral Swirl is a signature pattern that is used in a majority of our paper sets. Our collection includes twenty-four printables for purchase and download along with five laser-printed products in the shop. The laser prints or what we call LPs were discovered as gel plate tools purely by accident.
Not that we didn’t know they would since we have done laser transfers with our photos, we just hadn’t realized what an awesome tool they would be for patterns. We came upon it really by accident after I had printed some P’s “Basket Scribble” for the squares we were using to make collage squares with squares like the ones I used in the tag you see below.
Although our focus is on the Spiral Swirl pattern I wanted to give the basket scribble a cameo. From a laser print to…
My first gel printing and transfer. Might I add using a metallic transparent purple (#7 in P’s Paint Guide). I am darn proud of this and had to include it, also could have gotten more pulls from this particular LP, but it had to be in the book.
Before P was using the transfer LPs we had a major aha design to product moment. Again more of an evolution of our designs to more tangible tools, this is where the stencils and masks started to become a true focus. Again born from the need for tools that fit our needs. All of which we use on the plate, with texture paste, stencil butter, paint, sprays, and frottage!
To hear more details as we go through the book join us on the July #MakersCreativeCollab for #PatternsAtPlay video
