Making Patterns!

I've had a dream, for many years now, of creating scarves from some of my colour mixing charts. Wouldn't that be fun - to have the chart wrapped around your shoulders when trying to choose a triad? I've even created draft patterns to choose which colour mixes would go together. However I haven't had the skills to actually create the repeating patterns to create the files I'd need to send off to be printed on wool or silk or perhaps a fine cotton.

You may have noticed I've been a little quite for a while... 

The world of surface pattern design is huge and something I am just beginning to dip my toe into. I've been working on getting to know and understand Illustrator, on fully utilising my iPad and Procreate to create and edit my sketches and studies to convert them to vectors, and on scanning and editing many of the sketches and studies that have lived a lonely life in my sketchbooks for so long.

It's a lot of fun but ties up endless hours. My drawings are detailed so the files are massive. I want the colours to remain realistic, so that limits my colour choices a little. I've had Illustrator crash and lost hours of work.  But I am having a really great time creating a new life for some of my many sketches, drawings and paintings.

I'll show a little here, but have added a gallery to my website that I'll update periodically. I have about 15 themes in mind, including specific floral themes such as my favourite - Gymea Lilies - along with Roses, Orchids and Bird of Paradise. I have ideas for  a number of penguin themed products including mugs, fabric for children, wallpaper borders. I'd love to spread the word about these fabulous birds and share all my studies.

I have a huge collection of motifs for Harvest themes, which is what I am currently working on. I have always loved the many gourds, squashes, pumpkins and melons that appear in the northern hemisphere 'fall'. As well as all those colourful leaves! We don't get them so much in Australia but I have loads of sketches, studies and photos to play with. 

I plan some more patterns with stones, like this one, created from one of my paintings - that could be so nice as curtains in a study. Or cushions on a plane sofa. 

I want to do some patterns for notebooks or even sketchbooks using all the sketches I have done with pens, pencils and other art tools. 

Then there are all those watercolour swatches! A scattering of blue watercolour, or a mix of blues, greens and turquoise. Overlapping (massive files!) or scattered on a colourful background, or lined up in neat rows. So many options.

It's been a huge journey for me to even make a pattern as I am SO analog. Paper and pencil, foundation pen in a paper diary, calligraphy with dip pens, watercolour. Sketchbooks. Learning a new skill takes a lot of time and a lot of frustration but I am enjoying the challenge.

Here is a little bit more of what I am doing. I've taken this collection of flowers from one of my big floral paintings Red Cadenza and vectorised it, reducing the colours and details quite a bit but keeping that richness. Then I've created a half drop repeating pattern, flipping the motif and played with some different background colours. I think this would be gorgeous as a fabric.

Here is the pattern repeat. Not too complex, but pretty in a very traditional way. I've created this pattern using crimson, pink and a lovely cream in the background but it could also be green or yellow. 

The scale is interesting too - seeing different sizes really changes the look and probable usage of any pattern. 

Spacing also plays a part - the ratio of background to pattern. Lots to explore. The care required when making the initial motif from an existing painting is pretty intense.

Repeat and pattern based on a small segment from my painting Red Cadenza.

For my Gymea Lily theme, I've created just one pattern so far. I think it would be stunning as wallpaper or curtains. These massive flowers deserve to be large! 

Repeat and pattern based on an ink and watercolour painting of a Gymea Lily.

Another aspect that I've really enjoyed is the mathematical relationships between shapes and how new shapes are created when you mirror, rotate and reflect an object. I explored this back in my university days, printing photographs flipped and reflected to create kaleidoscope patterns. This curly squash was scanned from a sketchbook, cleaned up in Procreate and vectorised. Rotated and mirrored, it creates fabulous negative shapes that no longer look like the starting point. 

The three patterns below, using a different curly squash sketch, are all identical apart from the background colour - which seems to change their shapes entirely.

Wishing you well in whatever challenges you have set for yourself. Learning something new is always worth it. What would you like to see as a petter? 🙂

Michael Harding Watercolours

Michael Harding watercolours have been available since 2021, but I haven't had a chance to try them until he visited Sydney at the end of last month. Thanks to Parkers for organising a really interesting talk about the Michael Harding oil paints, mediums and Watercolours.

It was a really interesting talk about his life and the influence of his 6' tall grandmother, who was an art teacher and who encouraged him to see what was there - such as the blue haze in the shadows.

Studying art in the UK, he looked at a Rembrandt and wondered why other paintings didn't look so radiant. An eccentric guru named Graham and the terrific Ralph Mayer's book The Artist handbook led him to begin making his own oil paints, just as the old masters had done. Just starting with the background colours made a difference to his paintings and he was amazed at what was possible. His many challenges and developments are really interested to read, but eventually he released a full range of Oil paints in about 2000 - 2009.

Fast forward many years and four reformulations, his watercolour range was made available during the long Covid shutdowns. This range has 135 colours, 92 single pigment colours, 30 opaques. They contain pigment, gum Arabic, a small amount of honey and a biocide (anti fungal).

These photos of the painted watercolour cards show the full range. I was able to try 50 colours, and will add those below.

Michael and his wife had been travelling for some time so many of the colours were no longer available to try. Either of these yellows would work as a bright primary yellow.

Michael Harding Watercolours - Titanium White, Chinese White, Warm White, 

ellow Benzimidazolone, Yellow Lake

Indian Yellow and Indian Yellow Deep are similar, with just a little more of an orange tinge to the second. This is always difficult to capture. The three reds are also rather similar - the PR170 just a bit more crimson and the PR254 exactly as you would expect for this rich mid red pigment.

Michael Harding Watercolours - Indian Yellow, Indian Yellow Red Shade, 

Scarlet Lake, Pyrrole Red, Rose Doré.

These are fairly true to colour, though the brilliance of Opera Rose is always challenging to capture. Alizarin Crimson is marked as fugitive but is still, as always, very pretty. Just keep it for a sketchbook.

Michael Harding Watercolours - Cinaquasia Maroon, Perrindo Maroon, 

Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Rose, Opera Rose.

These purples are very close to their actual colour.

Michael Harding Watercolours - Magenta, Amethyst, Potter's Pink, 

Corinthian Purple, Perylene Violet.

There were a lot of purples to try! The Lapis was very pretty. Only available when the genuine high quality stone is available.

Michael Harding Watercolours - Belladona, Deep Purple (Dioxazine), Ultramarine Blue, 

Lapis Lazuli, Cobalt Teal blue Shade

There are some useful convenience greens in the range. These are fairly accurate.

Michael Harding Watercolours - Caribbean Turquoise, Aqua Green,  

Phthalo Green Yellow Shade, Bright Green Lake, Hooker's Green

Sap Green is darker than in many ranges. Forest Green may have had some contamination - I only had a tiny dot of paint to play with. 

Michael Harding Watercolours - Sap Green, Forest Green, Perylene Green, 

Green Gold, Turner's Yellow

Quinacridone Bronze is almost the same pigment mix as Winsor & Newton Quinacridone Gold but is far prettier. This is an unusually brown version of a Burnt Sienna made with PR101.

Michael Harding Watercolours - New Gamboge, Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Bronze, 

Italian Burnt Ochre, Burnt Sienna

Purple Haze and Moonlight are the same pigments as Daniel Smith Shadow Violet and Moonglow, but with different ratios producing more grey purples with less granulation. 

Michael Harding Watercolours - Transparent Oxide Brown, Permanent Brown, 

Neutral Grey (N5), Moonlight, Purple Haze.

Michael Harding Watercolours - Cosmic Blue, Neutral Tint, Vine Black, 

Lamp Black, Ivory Black

It was great to finally have a chance to explore some of this range from the UK. They were a pleasure to paint out.