MATS – Week 1 – Getting to the Root of the Platter

Yeah, I know, really bad headline this week, but I couldn’t resist, given this week’s Make Art That Sells theme of root vegetables and casseroles. And, yes, I also know that a platter is not a casserole, but, eh—close enough. (Be easy on me: I’m starting to see patterns in my sleep. No, seriously. I am.)

The targeted industry this week was bolt fabric, and though we needed to design only one pattern, a lot of us also created a couple of “coordinates” to play off our main pattern.

FIRST STEP – Sketching

This past week was a busy one, so I didn’t spend a whole lot of time gathering inspiration. Instead, I skipped right to the sketching phase, and drew mostly from memory.

MATS 4 – Week 1 – Mini Scans – Jessica Southwick

It was a lot of fun, noodling around, but when all was said and done, and I’d scanned in my sketches and digitized them, things weren’t coming together the way I wanted.

So, it was (literally) back to the drawing board. It was in this second round of sketching that I came up with my “theme-within-a-theme” of scalloped potatoes, and I started putting together some icons for the ingredients that would go into a mean dish of scalloped spuds (butter, thyme, bay leaves, parmesan, etc.).

MATS 4 – Week 1 – Second round of scans – Jessica Southwick

So, now I had something to work with. I got everything into the computer, and started playing with color. Some of the colors made it; others didn’t. That was even more true with the icons; there were little icons I loved in black and white, but not in color. Others simply didn’t fit in the pattern well. (Sorry, little icons! Maybe I’ll find a home for you, somewhere down the line.) And, I ended up ditching virtually all of the hand lettering elements.

MATS 4 – Week 1 – Color and Icons – Jessica Southwick

Eventually, I settled on a palette and a main pattern.

MATS 4 – Week 1 – Main Scalloped Potatoes pattern – Jessica Southwick

Then, I wanted to put together a couple of coordinate patterns to play off the main design, which resulted in a sort of fabric mini-collection. The coordinates required a lot of trials (and almost as many errors), but I ultimately decided on the following two coordinates: a light, airy more random-feeling “peppercorns and thyme sprig” pattern and a very graphic, bold “onion slice” pattern.

MATS 4 – Week 1 – Peppercorns & Thyme Sprig coordinate – Jessica Southwick

MATS 4 – Week 1 – Onion Slice coordinate – Jessica Southwick

The final step was to put all these elements together into a single presentation image. Ta-da!

MATS 4 – Week 1 – Root Veg & Casseroles submission – Jessica Southwick

So, there you have it! Week one of MATS is complete. There’s a breath of relief that comes with having one under the belt. Now, on to carve a pumpkin before Lilla Rogers posts next Mini Assignment for this coming week’s industry—Home Decor!