Llew Mejia: Milli Vanilli

So I know what's running through your mind's when you look at this, why does this look like Rifle Paper Co??? And the reason is because I wanted it to look that way, and see if I could do it, so suck on that.  ;}}}}}}}}}}

Also I will say that now I understand why that lady does this style, its really easy, quick, and free flowing, not a whole lot of thought has to be put into composition for this style I felt like it was really conducive to just drawing. Instead of thinking about how the end product would look. So a lot of textures dry brushing and such, mostly rendered outside of the computer and then brought in and colored. I know that she does this type of work straight up painted so I can commend her for that.

Either way, fun experiment hope you all enjoy it and I will probably continue to do this kind of stuff here and there because I really did like working this way!

Also this..............

Alyssa Nassner: Tropical Vanilla

First off - Hooray! I finally have permissions to post my own patterns! I hope you enjoy my tropical rendition of the vanilla bean. This pattern started as a bunch of brush pen sketches in my sketch book (similar to this and this), until I remembered a pattern lesson taught to me by the great Lindsay Nohl.

Quickly putting my formal knowledge to the test, I assembled this floral repeat in record time. I spent the most time on the color, which is always the most fun / difficult part. If you're looking for some on-trend color inspiration check out The Ultra Bright, it's totally awesome, and I ended up using some of their color trend to develop my palette for this pattern.

I wanted to put a tropical spin on this pattern for a few different reasons. A. I'm desperately yearning for some Summer sun, and B. those colors are super different than what I normally do, so it was a fun experiment.

Fun fact: this entire pattern was created watching Silent Hill: Revelation - so inspiring.

Lindsay Nohl : Vanilla Flower, winding.

Tried something new tonight!

So - here's another new approach to pattern-making. I'm teaching a class in a couple weeks and I've been trying all of these new ways of putting patterns together. It's been a blast trying to figure it out but it was definitely a challenge!

I tried a pattern with a couple layers this time - large foliage in the background, and smaller bits in the front. There are actually three layers that went into this and surprisingly, I started with some swirly vine things and went from there!

I had a great time making it - sorry for the huge size, but I had to make a tall one to make it work! Hopefully it just makes the detail easier to see.

:)

Alyssa Nassner: Scarabs

Pattern by Alyssa for the week it's pretty great gotta love those scarabs!

Llew Mejia: So Metal

This week I made a pretty metal pattern, well I guess it's just the lightning bolts really? I don't know but either way its been good trying to figure out more how to use this style of making patterns, some gradients and textures and stuff to add up into a real collage-y type of pattern with some airbrush looking effects. It's got an alright repeat from far away though, so I think all in all it's another experiment that I actually liked in the end.

Also Egyptian art of any sort is the shit, plus mummies are awesome and speaking of which our guest this week is an avid mummy drawer so you will have to tune in for his pattern at the end of the week!

Lindsay Nohl: Graphite Lotus

Hello again. I've been considering how to do this pattern all day and finally bit the bullet and committed to something a little more complex and more process intensive than some of my usual patterns. I have had a great time lately drawing in my sketchbook with graphite and carbon pencil and wanted to try something today involving that process.

Here's a Egyptian Lotus flower in a limited negative space pattern. I've seen other types of lotus flowers on my trips up north to my grandparents' cabin a couple times. I remember going on canoe trips with my dad early in the morning so we could catch a glimpse of the open lotus flowers before the mid-day sun made them close back up.

It's been a couple years since I've had that experience, and it may be many more years before I get that experience again. At least I remember it fondly.

Alyssa Nassner: Roses are Beige

Alyssa did a sick etching style pattern, which is pretty unusual for her if you know her work, but I think think this is an awesome pattern.

Plus you can't really lose when ribbons/bows are soooo on trend, woot woot! She will now be making a pattern every week as well for the blog, should be pretty awesome, I'm excited!

Angela Rizza: Birds and such

Angela Rizza did an awesome pattern for the week, she doesn't really do patterns often so I decided to ask her to do one for the blog. Her work is really awesome because of the way its colored, as well as the amount of detail she crams into such a tiny space, her drawings look like watercolor but are mostly digital it's real crazy not totally sure how she does it but check more of her work out here!

Llew Mejia:Pre-Valentine

So I was trying to make a pattern that was real real girly, and could go on some leg gins, or some chocolate box wrapping paper or something, underwear's maybe too??? I dunno I guess these types of patterns are called ditzy, not sure if that's spelled correctly but regardless I attempted it. Pretty simple stuff, you know I had to throw some arrows in there for trend. Also arrows are just cool looking, especially in threes.

 I know it's a little early for a Valentines day entry but what was I supposed to do if the weeks floral was a rose, stay tuned for Angela Rizza's pattern at the end of the week!

Liz Ablashi: Sprinkled Traps

This week's guest is Liz Ablashi from Eine Kleine Design Studio, you should check it out! Plenty of great florals and other types of patterns that are great for surface design. This is a pretty cool pattern considering how deceiving it is. From far away you just expect to see a quiet forest floor, but upon closer examination, the ground is littered with small carnivorous plants ready to kill!!

Anyway it was great having her as a guest, and go look at more of her work!

Llew Mejia: Abstract Flytraps

So after doing some retro style patterns for what felt like awhile I decided to take this to an altogether different direction and try my luck at making another all Adobe Illustrator driven pattern. This is the baby born from random messing around with illustrator filters, it kinda looks like it could go on fabric and it's like a geo but just slightly more organic.

I tried to incorporate the flowers from the Venus Flytrap but also make it really subtle and add some of the nice reds that are in the mouths of this carnivorous plant.This plant is really awesome and unique because of the way it's leaves act as a cage, there are small hairs on the leaf that alert the plant when there is something heavy enough to close its trap. Once the leaf traps it's prey it basically melts it with enzymes and turns into a stomach further digesting whatever was caught.

Let me know what you think, I might try and make a few more patterns like this it was pretty fun.

Jeff Wilkson: Rats&Ivy

Jeff made a really great pattern this week, English Ivy hits a special and personal spot in his heart, he had this to say about it:

"The story here is that in the ivy surrounding our house, large rats often hide under the cover, so I attempted to make a bit of a puzzle making the rats heads' the same shape as the ivy leaves. "

I think it looks really great, and reminds me of wrapping paper, too bad the holiday season is over, because these colors are definitely appropriate. Jeff and Jenny Wilkson are a collaborative design duo that specialize in anything from packaging design to letterpress, check out their great work here!

Llew Mejia: English IV

 So first of all, I would like to wish a happy holidays as well as a happy new year to all the folks watching the blog, it's been a very good year for me and I hope the same for you all!

 Also I apologize for being lame and not posting anything during the holidays, everything is backed up a week or so, which will take a little figuring out, luckily everyone contributing is pretty flexible it seems. And I can appreciate that.

 So on to the post, I took the plant English Ivy pretty seriously and just ended up drawing a bunch of British things in a corny way obviously,( tea cups, the union jack, a gentleman) and tossed them all around.There's also some weird diamond shaped movement going on in this pattern, kinda like an ogee or damask but not indicated really. This is the last retro pattern I will be doing for awhile probably, I think I got my fix, and I hope you all did too.
I spent a lot of time just hang in out maxxin and relaxin these holidays, so it will be nice getting back into the groove of things and making some new pattern stylezz.