the evolution of a flower stick

flowers are everywhere in the studio (which consists of my desk and chair). not real ones, more like the stick-figure-flowers shown below (i actually don't like to have flowers or plants around me - with very few exceptions).

flower sticks, sharpie marker on paper

i had started working on a 50's inspired floral collection a couple of weeks ago. i am glad that the first pattern in that collection is finally taking shape. here's a snapshot of my wall showing how my concept for the above motif evolved.

concept generation process for floral motifs

in the middle are the initial gouache sketches i shared a few days ago, to the left is a basic lilly pond idea inspired from those sketches,  and to the right are the more evolved flower sticks. i like to think of my style as being simple, bold, and playful, so to get this collection going, i decided to come up with three patterns, each displaying one of these characteristics. so these are my simple flower sticks. i drew several of them, scanned them, used the "live trace" tool in illustrator, and here i was, with a bunch of motifs to choose from (they might all look the same, but they are not, obviously).

flower stick motifs live traced in illustrator

in order to make each motif look exactly the way that i wanted, i went in and edited the paths by adding/deleting/moving/modifying anchor points. below are before and after snapshots of the same motif.

flower stick motif, before

flower stick motif, after

once i had around 10-12 motifs i liked, i was ready to move them around and play.

flower stick pattern development

here's where i got after a few hours of play. i have to say it is not as simple as i usually like it to be, but i am trying to stick to my 50's mood board, so overlapping some motifs seemed necessary. eventually, i might decide to ignore the 50's and trend forecasts altogether, but for now, i am following my self-imposed guidelines.

simple flower sticks pattern in repeat

either way, i love making patterns.  to me, it's all play and no work!