Pattern exploration

After coming home from an intense new experience with hot yoga, and being sunburned and not wanting to go outside I had a random creative burst!  :)
While using printed fabrics for my illustrations is fun and all, sometimes I just have a particular design in my mind, and found fabrics just won't cut it. I have toyed with the idea of making my own printed patterns, and today I actually got down to doing it. And it was surprisingly fun.

I forget how flexible adobe illustrator can be, and how much fun I had fooling around in graphic design class. Seeing as most of my finished work is in digital format, it makes sense to have my own collection of digital patterns. One of my main concerns was how to make the pattern symmetrical and repeatable. That was surprisingly way too easily accomplished in illustrator. This is what i did!

I started out with 1 line and created this object. 

 I repeated the object, rotated it, overlapped it, and changed the stroke to create different looks!

Its repeatable! Woot!

After repeating and getting rid of a few green background squares, it looks like this. 

So it was a very simple process, very simple design, and  I hope to try more unique and intricate patterns in the future. This was all done in under 20 minutes, and the exploration on just that one object is endless! 

Problem solved! And its so much fun making these! Seriously, why hadn't I tried this sooner?!
-kicks self in butt for being lazy-

Bun [WIP]

Ive been going through lots of magazines that I had gotten from the library as discards and choosing my favourite pages. Ive been creating a binder full of poses, colours, pretty clothes and awesome hair... and needless to say, I have been drawing lots too! Most of the pictures are in my sketchbook and not yet scanned, but here is one that I started on the computer.
I decided to draw an asian girl this time, and I love profiles. So I'm really looking forward to this one completed! I had originally told myself that the next drawing I do will be using a burnt orange colour and an aquamarine, but I prefer the deep reds and light greyish blues for this one.

(This is how I had been wearing my hair for the past month, minus the bangs, but not anymore! Snazzy new haircut ;D This is a tribute to my bun.. which I will miss!)

This post also proves that I am not dead, and indeed being somewhat productive. XD 

In other news, I have recently become addicted to Pinterest and have been browsing it for hours and pinning different things instead of being productive. I now have tons of pretty images in my head-- and on my pinboards! I plan on collecting more images first hand in toronto for this long weekend! Ill bring my trusty digital camera (which I hope to soon be replacing with that d7000) and I hope to take some pretty sunset shots from the CN tower. Which I have never been on before, despite me living here my whole life. 

Hope everyone has a lovely long weekend! 

Tanya