Drawing: The Art of Patterns

Hi! 😃

My name is Sheena! :) I have always had a passion for sketching and painting and loved art for a very long time. I always try to read new books about art and find tips and advice to improve my skills. I'm not very good but I'm hoping with practice I will improve!

I checked out the book Zendoodle 
written by Susanne Schaadt. It was a wonderful and helpful book with lots of detailed steps and guidelines. The best part of the book is that it goes very in detail into the designs such as mastering your leaf shape, flowers, stripes and dots.

This art book focuses on patterns, details, and taking simple shapes into complex drawings and doodles. I would really recommend checking this out!

I practiced many different patterns from this book to improve my precision and details. The book had a multitude of pattern options to include in your drawings. Above is a image of the cover of the book. And to the right is an image of the overview and selection of patterns to draw.

The key to accurately creating the designs is too use different pens so you can create thicker and thinner strokes and more detailed designs. "I would recommend using thin and fineliner black or jet black pens 0.4mm on 120 gm copying paper". (Schaadt)  I used multiple pens such as sharpies, Nano- Liner pens, Micron pens and BIC pens. Unless I was coloring in big spaces I used very thin/fine liner pens. "Black ink creates a lovely contrast with the white background of the paper making the patterns clear and bright." (Schaadt)

Here are the pens I used:

Next I practiced many different patterns such as the leaf, semi circle, flower, flash, zig zag and many others. I would then use these patterns, shapes and design in a final drawing. It was actually a lot of fun to make the unique design and making my own! Practice:

After this I finally took all the advice and tips and put the pieces together! I used many of the designs but the key in making this mandala drawing was creating and keeping consistent symmetry throughout the whole drawing. "The symmetrical construction based around the center further enhances the calming and ordering effects of the patterns in the most delightful way" (Schaadt)  Here is my final drawing! I enlarged the photo so you can see the patterns:

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post! In later posts I will using similar designs and patterns and create different drawings.

Do you like to draw using patterns? Comment Below 😄

Schaadt, Susanne. Zendoodle: Meditative Drawing to Calm Your Inner Self. Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Search, 2015. Print.