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Indian floral patterns have been a reoccurring element within fashion and interior design from ancient modern til modern times. And today they are seen everywhere, as popular as ever, on clothing, wallpaper, furnitures and all kinds of home textiles.
It's a fairly complex pattern and may seem difficult to create, but in this class you'll get all the knowledge, skills and tools you need to make an indian floral pattern of your own.
THIS IS WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
- The history behind the pattern - the story on how this particular pattern style evolved and became the classic it is today.
- Different styles, what influenced the indian floral designs and what characterizes the patterns.
- With some fun illustrating exercises we'll practice how to draw like an 18th century cloth painter so that you can mimic the style in your own Indian floral pattern.
- How to plan your pattern
- How to layout your pattern
- How to create a color palette for your pattern
- How to create your motifs
- Digitalizing your illustrations - how to scan and vectorize your pattern motifs in Adobe Illustrator
- How to color you motifs - both analog and digitally
- How to assemble your motifs into a pattern repeat
- How to create a half drop pattern swatch using the Pattern tool in Illustrator
- How to create a half drop pattern swatch the old fashion way in Illustrator
This is an intermediate to advanced course, so you should be familiar with Illustrator and also know a bit about how a pattern repeat works and is constructed.
Warning! Some lessons contains a lot of drawing and illustrating and if you feel that drawing isn't your strong side yet a tip is to take my other course first, called "Artistic Illustrations - Learn how to draw from objects and images".
TOOLS AND MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED:
- Sketching paper, pencil, eraser, ruler, ink pen of some sort (fine liner, ink brush pen with a small tip, old school ink dip pen etc).
- A block of square post-its
- Optional if you want to use watercolor for coloring your motifs: water color paint, water color paper.
- Scanner or your smartphone (for digitalizing your sketches)
- A printer
- Adobe Illustrator
Tip! A wacom drawing tablet (or similar) is recommended when coloring your motifs digitally
Share your work on Instagram too with the hashtag #IndianFloralWithBarbel
LINKS TO MUSEUM ARCHIVES & EXHIBITIONS FOR INSPIRATION
Tip for search: indian floral, indienne, indian textile, chintz etc.Victoria & Albert museum
Search the collections - archivesThe Metropolitan museum
Search the collectionsThe Manchester Art Gallery
Search the collectionsDeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum in Colonial Williamsburg
Printed fashions exhibitionCooper Hewitt
Search the collectionsLet’s connect!
- Blog & website
- Instagram
You can also find me and my patterns here:
- Bear Bell Shop
- Spoonflower
- Society6
Overview
Syllabus
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- Intro
- Welcome & class overview
- The History behind the pattern - Part 1
- The History behind the pattern - Part 2
- The History behind the pattern - Part 3
- The History behind the pattern - Part 4
- The History behind the pattern - Part 5
- Styles & Characteristics
- Motif elements
- Color
- Composition
- Indian floral drawing techniques
- Exercise 1 - Leaves
- Exercise 2 - Simple flowers
- Exercise 3 - Complex flowers
- Exercise 3 - Complex flowers - continued
- Exercise 4 - Branches
- Planning your pattern
- Layout plan
- Drawing the motifs 1 - The branches
- Drawing the motifs 2 - The flowers
- Drawing the motifs 3 - The Leaves
- Digitalizing your motifs
- Coloring your motifs with gouache
- Digitalizing your painted motifs
- Coloring your motifs digitally
- Coloring your motifs digitally - continued
- Building the repeat
- Building the repeat continued
- Half drop pattern swatch with the pattern tool
- Half drop pattern swatch done manually
- Class project & End note
