Adding Patterns to Your Paintings

Artist Mia Whittemore often creates patterns as a way to add texture and visual elements to paintings. Here, Mia demonstrates how she develops new patterns for use in her own work. First, Mia works on a beginner-friendly tossed repeat, where a single element is repeated, but in different directions. Mia is using a stem of leaves in her example and fills the space, continually changing the orientation of the stems, often having them fall away at the pattern’s border.

For geometric plaid patterns, Mia starts in the center with a set of vertical lines and works her way out, repeating the set. She then draws the line set horizontally working from top to bottom. She repeats the process, changing colors and line width each time. For complex patterns—patterns with more detail, shapes, and elements—Mia starts with a single shape (for example, a rose) and places that pattern in a variety of angles and configurations around the page. She adds more flowers, stems, leaves, and other designs to create more dimension and complexity. Any space that looks empty is a great place to add an element, says Mia. Finally, Mia demonstrates how to make a “ditzy” pattern, known for its small elements repeated often. She starts with small flowers of one variety before adding a contrasting-shaped flower at the same scale. Finally, she draws small leaves and dots. These patterns can be drawn straight on—no need to show your elements from a variety of angles.

After demonstrating how she designs her partners, Mia explains how she uses them in her paintings. Mia prefers simpler patterns for backgrounds so that they don’t pull focus from the subject of the painting. She likes to add plaid patterns, like a tablecloth, to contrast with round floral shapes. She also looks to borrow colors from the subject in the patterns. Finally, Mia discusses how to create repeating patterns that can be used on fabric, wallpaper, and more.