It's becoming a pattern.

Self-soothing with repeating patterns in Procreate.

Happiness is the longing for repetition.

-Milan Kundera

I long for repetition!

I’m the person who listens to music on “repeat one” for hours and days at a time. I love to get lost in it.

I make looping animations. I make looping music. I write looping poetry.

Repetition holds ancient and mysterious power for the human being. From our religious chants and magical incantations to Top 40 choruses, we love to repeat ourselves.

And lately, when I’m stressed and wanna zone out, I’ve been playing with the soothing repetition of illustrated patterns.

Something about the process of making a picture then scrambling it up so it intersects with itself in new configurations hits all my dopamine receptors. The original drawings can be super basic but after tiling the image into a repeating pattern it magically feels so lush and complex.

Here are a couple of my recent pattern experiments. We were probably listening to Joseph Campbell interviews or something while I played around on the iPad from the comfort of my human-sized dog bed. (Soothing! 10/10 would recommend!):

I like working with a limited color palette and seeing how I can apply it to different patterns:

Then, if I’m really feeling froggy, I’ll grab a copyright-free photo and play interior decorator. Who wouldn’t want Snakes & Coneflowers in Yellow Ochre wallpaper on their sexy bathroom wall??

Or perhaps you’d fancy some hot pink psychedelia in your farmhouse washroom?

And look at how much more chill this random kitchen is now!

Fixed it!

A prompt for you…

• Try drawing a pattern by hand!

• Try drawing a pattern in Procreate! (New to iPad drawing? You can take my “PRO|FOUND Procreate Foundations for Illustration & Animation” class here!)

• What’s becoming a pattern in your life? Anything showing up again and again and again? Care to write a looping poem about it and leave it in the comments?

xo,