Patterns

lines and dots

Take a piece of paper and put a light colour on it. Try some lines and dots on top of it with different colours. Stick to colours that make nice contrast.

Pastels are easy to be sharpen with a cutter. You can keep one of the ends sharp for details and the other end blunt for backgrounds.

You can make a confetti pattern by cutting stripes in different colours, or use a hole punch for dots with nice edges and contrast to the background. Look at the leftovers and put them together into a pattern. Once you start experimenting new possibilities and ideas will pop up. Give it a go.

Use oil pastels over wax pastels if you want to have light colours on top of dark colours. You need to apply fixative, if you don't want your pattern to get blurry, because of the oil pastels.

Cut a simple shape you like out of a piece of paper. You can use it as a frame and motive for your collages. Don’t hesitate to use colored paper.

Try you ideas on small swatches. Once you find your colours and motives you can go big. Pattern making might take some time, is meditative and very satisfying.

Have a wonderful day.

Juliana