Patternesque

It's taken me the best of THREE days to complete this pattern, initially drawn out on paper in a couple of hours but I've completed it.

Last term I made this...

It was a logo idea that I toyed with using but didn't. It was thrown together in a few hours. I later returned to it in the group project, drawing over each line to use the pattern over some of my designs. Because of the way the laser cutter follows line it was not possible to use the above design.

When sorting out ideas for this collection I've constantly thought of this to use in some of the designs just as an engrave, so I had to redraw it out but properly this time. It's been freshened up as a design for my work, not as a logo. I'll hopefully let you know when and where it is used.

I scanned the drawing into Illustrator ready to layer up.

The three large/ main flowers were drawn over first, using the repeat and rotate tools to make them ultra perfect. You can just make out that they have been outlined.

I then started work on the most time consuming bit of the design, the fan flares which in this picture look like fish scales so far but one has been filled in with tiny lines that flare out into dots.

Make a copy of the main fan and keep it safe.

Then repeat the fan to build it into the pattern, using the circles at each corner of the shape to keep them inline.
In this image I've started to trace the other sketched shapes into Illustrator, one of them I couldn't get to match so I redid it and used that. This change didn't matter to the design.
I'm using various colours to tell each part of the design apart.

 Now I've dropped the back design sketch, I have everything I want from it and is now just making this confusing. But I'm introducing shapes from the past to bulk out the design as was always the plan. Here I'm laying them out to get an idea.

Repeating the pattern over. You'll notice a couple of the fan flares are orange at the bottom, they are like that because they've been redone to jump under the lines crossing over them, contrasting the colours meant I could see them as I worked.

Putting the bulking images back in I put them on one layer and copying them onto another, I could view one layer as a template to place each object then unview it as I cut each image into place alongside the pattern.

The difference between the last image and this one is this one is much cleaner because the shapes have been put in the pattern neatly. Nearly done now!

Selecting all main layers concerned with the pattern I copied them, made a new layer and pasted the design into it adjusting the size so all lines were the same (0.025pt) and it was the same colour.
I then put this into a new file so I have just the design with no working out.
Et voila, best look good when lasered!