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Lizard PatternS (Part I)
This project is a part of a larger collaborative endeavour, main purpose of which was to create a series of illustrations and patterns for textile to be used by a fashion designer in her clothing line (see Part II and Part III).
A key inspiring motif for the whole collection is a series of slavic folk tales featuring Copper Mountain Mistress, a goldsmith patron and a protecting spirit of gems and valuable minerals; specifically the following subproject was focused on creating a repeating pattern for textile featuring motifs of these tales.
The stories featuring Copper Mountain Mistress are well-known for a very rich visual inspiration; according to these slavic tales, the character of the Mistress, being a respected patron of specific localities which are rich with valuable minerals, always has a loyal retinue assisting her. And being able to transform into a lizard herself when needed, such a retinue consists of a considerable amount of lizards.
As a visual element, an image of a lizard is a very flexible and endearing element to use when creating a repeating pattern, which was a very exciting project to work on, considering that my client was looking for a thematic pattern to include in her collection inspired specifically by this detail of the stories.
As a visual element, an image of a lizard is a very flexible and endearing element to use when creating a repeating pattern, which was a very exciting project to work on, considering that my client was looking for a thematic pattern to include in her collection inspired specifically by this detail of the stories.
During initial stages of the development, I came up with two main versions of a unit meant for creating a repeated pattern; or, as it is more useful to call them in the context of creating patterns, so-called "tiles" (as seen below, each of the two versions featured a pair of lizard).
It's also worth mentioning that as this was the very first part of the project, me and my client were only starting out to define a specific visual style for the whole project, and hence fitting materials/mediums for execution of the idea. This is the reason why the two following prototypes were made using ink pens and markers, the materials which were not fixed and could be changed later.
After early experiments using only the first type of the tile, it became apparent that a tile configuration (a way the tile is mirrored in the context of creating a pattern) plays a very big role in the general look of the whole pattern. Image below illustrates this in a clear way.
Also, another important visual element that had to be considered was inclusion of gems as another nod to the inspiration of the collection. The placement of gems differed in both types of tile configurations: in the horizontally mirrored option, they were placed in a space created between lizards' tails (first picture below), while in the vertically mirrored one, the precious stones were scattered sporadically across the whole pattern (second picture below).
After numerous experimentation attempts it became clear that specific parameters of a repeating pattern (namely type of tile configuration used, distance or even overlap among individual tiles, pattern shapes etc) were very influential factors in forming a pattern's general feel.
When horizontally-mirrored tiles created a cleaner look, the use of the vertically mirrored tiles would form a less geometric and a more organic look. My client preferred the general feeling of the latter pattern, so together we settled on the second type of the tile.
As there was also the second option of the individual tile, some experimentation was carried out using only this version (as seen below).
Even though this second version of the tile could potentially be a base for some quite interesting pattern variations as well, my client was drawn the most to the first type of the tile after all.
After settling on the final shape of an individual tile, as well as a type of a pattern grid, it was decided to fine-tune the visual style of the drawing used for the pattern.
The layered watercolor technique turned out to be very fitting for the character of the pattern, as well as the mood of the whole collection; that is why it was decided to keep this technique as one of the main ones in approaching the whole collection.
The layered watercolor technique turned out to be very fitting for the character of the pattern, as well as the mood of the whole collection; that is why it was decided to keep this technique as one of the main ones in approaching the whole collection.
And after establishing the style, three main colors were chosen for the use underneath the ready pattern
Last but not least, the black color of a background was added to the collection too as an additional/secondary option
