All you need to do is practice! This is what I have heard all my life and what I am often telling my art students. If you want to get better at something you must practice it. Although I know this is true I actually got to experience first hand the progress you can make while doing very focused practice.

I am often someone who enjoys learning many different things, from crocheting to watercolor, sewing to scrapbooking. I will try something once and sometimes get bored and move on. Practicing a wide range of skills can be very beneficial for a lot of reasons from learning to work with new materials, problem solving, and building a personal preference and aesthetic for what you like. However, focusing on a specific skill and practicing for a long period of time can really help make improvements.

I have always loved patterns, from roaming the aisles at Joann’s and admiring the fabrics to stopping into Paper Source and dreaming of projects to make with the assortment of patterned papers on display. The idea of becoming a surface pattern designer has always been a dream in the back of my head. Not having time or feeling like I don’t have time and a fear of failure and lack of confidence has really held me back from exploring that dream until this year.

At the start of the year I made a resolution that I was going to take action steps towards becoming a surface pattern designer, that meant learning all I could about the industry and practicing as often as I could. I started with the goal of creating a pattern collection each month. I went in with the idea that I just need to practice the process of creating and not to worry too much if my designs weren’t perfect (I often have an issue with perfectionism). Taking the pressure off of myself to create really good designs was helpful. I always tell my students that we have to create a lot of bad work sometimes to get to the good stuff. I also know that developing a personal style is important in the industry and that takes a lot of time and creating a large body of work.

So I began my journey of creating as much artwork as I could while learning everything about surface pattern design. As I mentioned that my first goal was to create a collection per month which was a good goal. As I started to work on my patterns, I found I really just liked drawing and practicing. This meant that I was creating much more work that I had anticipated. Of course, I wasn’t always creating amazing work but I was starting to build a creative practice. After a couple months I had started entering every Spoonflower design challenge, and drawing or doing something to learn and practice surface pattern design every day. After 8 months, I am now in a place where I am designing a pattern every day. I love my new creative practice and it has been amazing looking back at the growth I have made. I am starting to see an emergence of a style and I have created over 200 patterns. Here is a look at my progress . . .

These are some designs I created a while ago way before my 2021 resolution, when the idea of surface pattern design was just a seed planted in my head:

Now I do want to preface that I have a degree in drawing and painting so I definitely have had a lot of drawing practice, however, arranging motifs into patterns was still very experimental for me. Looking back I can see that my designs were a little random, pretty flat (which Is still kind of my style), and the movement isn’t great. Now let’s look at some designs I have created more recently that I am proud of . . .

Recent designs from Summer 2021 :

It is good to reflect back on where you started when you are feeling stuck or discouraged. Looking back at my first designs I am so proud of what I have accomplished with practice. My motifs are more interesting, my designs have more movement, my color palette is more cohesive, and I have more connection with the subject matter. I encourage you to take some time and pull out an old piece of artwork and compare it to something newer. I find that in the process of comparing and analyzing you always learn a little something about yourself, such as I apparently enjoy drawing food and flowers!

Here are some strategies or tips to working on developing your own daily art practice . . .

Mentally prepare yourself that what you create doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s really the process of creating that you learn from, not always the end product.
Schedule your daily practice, write it down somewhere or set a reminder on your phone etc.
Create parameters. It can be hard to start creating with endless possibilities. I set some guides for myself such as color palette, theme, or type of design.
Daily prompts can be so helpful! Sometimes I don’t want to over think what I am creating so I like to use daily prompts for my drawing. Sometimes artists will provide prompts for you if you sign up for their newsletters such as Bardot Brush, or they post prompt lists on Instagram. You could always look for prompts online such as Inktober. Or you can set a theme yourself to create prompts such as . . . creating things inspired by animals for the week/month, or plants, etc.
Reflect back on your work to identify things to work on. Sometimes I will look at an unsuccessful piece and think what did I not like about this or what isn’t working. This helps guide you to focus your practice on things that need improvement.
Reworking older work. I sometimes go back to patterns I didn’t like and rework them with different colors or move motifs around.
Enter contests. This can be daunting but I go into it just expecting to do it as practice, not to win anything. I love entering Spoonflower’s weekly challenges, I then go through the winners and analyze them, what did they do well? What could I practice or incorporate into my designs?
Artist studies. Sometimes I like to look at artwork of an artist I admire and then try to recreate or create something in a similar style. This is great practice to learn the process an artist may have used. Please don’t share that work as if it is your own, this is just for practice.

If you are looking to build your own creative practice I hope this is helpful! Even if you aren’t looking to build a career or do something with your artwork it can still be beneficial to have a creative practice. For me, the ritual of creating daily and carving out that time to draw is a form of self care. It can be a great way to relax, build confidence, or just be more mindful as it forces you to slow down and focus on one task. Do you have a creative practice? If so, what do you do? Do you have any tips that have worked for you? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments.

Happy creating!

Practice Makes Progress