Pizazz Design Story

Say hello to my new pattern design – Pizazz!

new pattern design fun bright pattern Australia

This pattern design came about when I was putting together an application for the Uppercase Surface Pattern Design Guide (side note – I didn’t get selected but there were sooo many applications, I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy and check out the designs!).

I really really REALLY loved Parrot Fish Party who I created last year, and knew I wanted to explore this ‘fun fish’ idea some more. So I had a browse through one of my marine reference books, and decided I was going to draw some beautiful anthias (Pseudanthias spp.) and a longnose filefish (Oxymonacanthus longirostris).

I sketched the outline and main features of the fish in pencil, then traced onto watercolour paper. I used watercolour pencils to then draw the fish and add all the vibrant colours and patterns!

new pattern design fun bright pattern Australia
fish illustrations in progress
new pattern design fun bright pattern Australia
completed filefish – I love the colours of these fish!

Now I had my beautiful fish, I knew I needed a background with some oomph! Most of my artwork is done on A4 sheets of paper that I then file in a ring binder, so it is easy to flick through and match pieces together.

I found a couple of star collages that I did last year, and found they matched so well with the anthias! I made these collages using normal printer paper that I had painted with some fun acrylic paints. I sat one night with my scissors and glue stick and ended up creating the stars. The base is a piece of card I got from Reverse Garbage for about 10 cents I think! At the time I had no intention for these collages, I just enjoyed making them as a fun and relaxing activity!

new pattern design fun bright pattern Australia
painted printer paper ready for cutting
new pattern design fun bright pattern Australia
one of the collage stars

Finally I needed just a few more abstract shapes for the background – I decided to go digital for this! I have not really used an iPad for creating art but for this design I knew I could make the abstract shapes I wanted quite easily. I drew the individual shapes in Adobe Fresco on the iPad and then imported them into Photoshop on my computer.

new pattern design fun bright pattern Australia
digital shapes made on the iPad

So all these elements – hand-drawn fish, star collages, digital abstract shapes – were put together in Photoshop where I waved my magic wand and voila – the pattern was made!

The name Pizazz was suggested by one of my Facebook members and I thought it suited this design so well – so this is Pizazz!

new pattern design fun bright pattern Australia

This design has now been added to my print library, and is available for licensing!

I would love to know what you think it would look good on?

I'd love to know what you think!

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