Fabric design process - creation of a 1970s style floral PART ONE
I've been meaning to design some 1970s style fabric for a while and today was the day! Actually today was something like the third day - I procrastinated for a couple of days doing shop admin.
These are done in Photoshop, using a One by Wacom tablet and pen. Tomorrow I will try the same thing in Illustrator and see if I can get a smoother work flow.
First step was to draw some of the classic five petal flowers with circles in the centre. This shape is almost as iconic as a love heart! I wanted a hand drawn look, so instead of building the flowers using duplicated graphic shapes, I have hand drawn each flower. I like the way the petals are irregular.
Next I filled the flowers and added stalks of varying widths. For some reason I couldn't figure out a way to fill the shapes easily with the Paint Bucket tool, and ended up having to colour them in felt tip style. It's odd drawing on a screen and tablet compared to a sheet of paper, because you can't turn it around and draw from different angles. Or perhaps you can? I will check the tablet settings.
Next step - add colour. I used a blend called 'multiply' to make the colours mix where they overlap. This gives a vintage feel as it mimics the effect of a registration error (which can occur when layers of colour are printed one over another). It is a hallmark of the cheaper fabrics used for doll's clothes.
I tried various different centres for the turquoise flowers. Here are dark centres.
And here are tiny white centres. With background colour centres for the daisies.
Hmmm but maybe remove the daisy centres?
So many decisions. At this point I have to put it away as I just can't 'see the wood for the trees'!
Before finishing for the day I added green stalks. I'm not sure about them though.
Tomorrow I plan to shift the colours.
Well I was quite pleased with the day's work. I like the way the stalks became a key element to the design and gave it a unique touch. It is easy to copy an existing vintage design but more challenging to start your own from scratch. Well, I hope I can add a bit of value by creating something new.
What would be a good name for this design? Which version do you prefer?