Inside My Sketchbook

Today I'd like to show another page from my sketchbook. My sketchbook consists of a slim squared Moleskine "cahier" that's around A5 size. Perfect to haul around with me everywhere since it's small enough to fit in my handbag and light enough to tolerate in case I won't be using it after all wherever I dragged it too. It has suffered some damage on several occasions such as the water damage on the bottom of the righthand side page.

I normally don't really work with coloured pencils, which is all the more reason to give it a go as I did with these pages. I usually prefer to work with pens, markers or fine liners or basically whatever I have on hand at that particular time.

Anyhow, the right hand side page was inspired by an art deco building I came across on my travels. It was on a Caribbean island with a lot of old Spanish colonial influences that I wasn't really expecting to have much of an art deco heritage. The building was pink with blue details topped with what looked to me like abstracted trees.

The pattern I developed taking this tree resembling shape as inspiration, was one of several - this one being the most literal translation of it.

Above you can see a later version I did inspired by this motif, but interpreting it less like a tree and more like a fish like shape with scales and fins. Finally I developed the principle into an actual fish print, that I recently did a post on. You can see the sketchbook page and the translation to a digital pattern here.

The pattern on the left hand side was a continuation of some patterns I did featuring the more traditional 'shell' pattern, playing around with the proportions and placement.

Above a very basic geometric shell print, a shape that for some reason I always find very attractive and like to play around with.

In the end I found the negative space around the shell motives more interesting than the actual shapes I had started of with and decided to divide and colour it. The colouring doesn't come up too well on the scan, but the colour palette consists of mustard yellow, sage green and lilac.

I'd like to continue sharing my sketchbook regularly, perhaps some of you lovelies would like to join me 😊

I post about my work and what inspires me! Follow my journey as a pattern designer and let me introduce you to art, people and places I find inspirational here.