How do my patterns begin?

My patterns tend to begin with compositional sketches to get a feel for the movement and flow - whether it’s a standard tile repeat or half drop. With my current project it is important that I can capture the liveliness of the fauna I’m portraying, and so I try to keep my pencilwork loose and erratic.

You can see this here in a few of my sketches for my current ‘mix & match’ hedgerow pattern series. The pictures below show the different iterations my patterns go through while still in the early stages. I often redraw the roughs a few times, making small adjustments here and there, and gradually adding further detail in areas.

Below is a sneak peek at how the pattern is coming along with linework and colour. It will be complete and on my website in the next few weeks, please check back soon!