Plaid Creature

Art-Bab-ble [ahrt-bab-uhl]
noun; verb (used without object) -bled, -bling

1. free flowing conversation, about art, for anyone.
2. a place where everyone is invited to join an open, ongoing discussion – no art degree required.

A few weeks ago I was accepted. YAY!
I started checking out their content, most of which is from libraries, museums, and various other public/private institutions. My interest in pattern making was spawned, sparked, and secreted (…ew…wrong word) after watching the New York Public Library’s series entitled “Design by the Book“.

For this online-only miniseries, Design by the Book, the Library partnered with the leading design blog Design*Sponge to invite five New York City–based artists to sift through our collections in search of inspiration.

One of those artists was Julia Rothman.
An illustrator, pattern maker extraordinaire.
After some searching, I found this entry by her on designsponge which explains the very basics of how to make a pattern.

This is my attempt at making a one using PS CS4.
My focus: The famous Italian film star: Marcello Mastroianni (8 1/2, La Dolce Vita)

First things first.

While you can use any box shape for patterns, I decided to keep it simple with my first go around.

For the Ruler (personal preference) I set my median X, Y values at zero instead of at one.

Now that my surface is ready to go. All I need to do is set the mood with a little Beethoven.

Overtures like that get my… creative juices flowing.
So powerful.
But after his openings, to be honest, he does tend to get a little fucking boring.
BRING ME EVERYONE! EEEVVVVVEERRYYYYOONNNEE!!!!

Ok, but seriously. I tried to set the mood with some Nino Rota, but soon realized it wasn’t working out because it was little too carnival-esque. Next best thing, John Barry’s score to Goldfinger.

Then I just started drawing. Making sure not to touch the edges and to stay somewhat in the middle of the space.

A little Marcello here…

A little Marcello there (plus ladyfriend)…

And VWALA! We have our base design to start from. Now, following Julia Rothman’s how-to, I need to split this illustration into four quadrants.

I found the best to way to achieve this was by creating guidelines and then using the marquee tool and Command+J (MAC) to split them.

Next, move each quadrant into their polar opposite positions.

TA-DA! Obviously, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what’s going on here. At this point, I’m following the same principles as before: No Edges/Stay Centric.

PROBLEM! At this point in my process I had an extreme creative block. I tried putting on some Barry.

No dice.

Tried some Air.

Still no dice.

TOTAL CREATIVE BLOCK!!

Solution:
CHINESE FRIED RICE W/PORK!
Never illustrate on an empty stomach.

+++2 HOURS of Illustration Later+++

I tested the pattern to see how it would look and noticed that there was some dead space at the top of Marcello’s head (as well as his necktie – see below). There was also dead space to the right and left.

At first I tried to do it by tweaking the tops and bottoms.. but when working with patterns, I realized pretty quickly it’s best to never mess with the edges and to use the marquee/command-j function instead. Or at least, it’s the best way I could figure out.

After splitting the image across the X axis and moving/re-merging it, I came up with this work-around for the tie/hair situation. Not exactly my finest hour, but I think it’s doable. Now onto the other dead space I mentioned earlier (which in the above-image is located at each of the four corners.)

Command+J again.
Dead space bad. Must fill.
One thing I noticed that’s difficult about making patterns is trying to get a sense of the composition as your building/adding elements. You’ve really got to see and think of things in terms of infinity.

There you are! My little Marcello.. AWWWWWW… Look at my lil Marcello… AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW…

….

Here’s what the semi-final pattern looks like.

After some initial testing I decided to shrink the pattern in half.

Here it is:

Feel free to tile your desktop with it.
Or, if you’re super-lazy, here’s a 1900×1200px wallpaper for you.

(just click the image for the full rez)

Overall, this process wasn’t too bad for me. The main issue I had was trying to figure out the composition as I was creating the piece. I imagine it would have helped to do some better concept planning before hand as well as constructed similar sized elements. Perhaps I’ll also add some color next time.

This is Dr. Salvatron broadcasting live from my personal studio in Wicker Park.
You’re comments/critiques/suggestions are quite welcome!
+TRANSMISSION COMPLETE+