Studio Time: Exploring Patina & Texture

When I started playing with creating the Texture & Patina collection I admit I struggled. I stared at the photos, color palettes, and ideas for about 3 days with...nothing. Bupkus. Nada.

I knew I really wanted to explore Texture & Patina because that really resonates with the core of my personal design aesthetic - organic, rustic, textural and primitive.

One of the ways I broke my creative impasse was by getting ink, brushes, and paper and just playing. I particularly loved this photo with the blue paint and rust. I wanted to figure out how to translate this into a two-dimensional design.

Here were some of the marks I made through playing. I scanned these into Illustrator and played with the automated Image Trace.

 

The marks on the left translated into the scratchy pattern below. I have two versions... one more scratchy and saturated, one a little simpler. They make great blender fabrics for quilts.

What ways have you explored to a creative block?