My latest fine art series is a family of patterns that demonstrates my need for balance in my artwork. When I started this endeavor, it was because I had received a pack of photos printed onhigh-quality matt paper that weren’t mine. Instead of throwing the photos away, because I felt that would be wasteful, I drew on the backs. And from it I was able to perfect my personal formula of color, line work and spunk. This particular post is basically a sneak peak of some of my newest “Balance” pieces. In mid August, my favorite ones will be put on display at Manifest in Chinatown, Honolulu.
Read on for notes on my journey through each piece.
This is the first “back of misprint” drawing that I did. At the time, I didn’t have any goals in mind. I just wanted to make good use of the paper.
While I took note of my color choices in this first drawing, the balance was elementary at best. From there, I moved to the next floral design and worked in some white space.
I did a few more florals after that but didn’t really want to limit myself. I thought it might be cool to do patterns of hip things. You know, like sloths, “underground” cartoons, surfers, shoes, etc.
With each pattern, I discovered new ways to balance my figures in the space they were placed in. For examples when creating a pattern with similar shapes, the trick to keeping it organic is 1) to hand draw each item so that they really are different even if is a simple pattern, 2) know what kind of energy you want your pattern to have, and what that means to the angles that you draw. Because I wanted my patterns to be fun and energetic I incorporated angles when placing each item 3) that I can’t always use the same Sharpies for all my pieces or they will start to look the same -__-
I eventually turned this one into a repeatable pattern that I printed on to some fabric from Zazzle.com. My personal seamstress, aka my mom, is in the process of using it for a custom button down for my older brother.
Above: pattern dedicated to the band A Violet Sun, who came to tour in Hawaii a few months ago.
Below: Some hip sloths, in addition to animals and flowers, I actually really enjoy drawing outfits.
