She encouraged us to slow down in middle of creating.

Instagram posts, Facebook posts, Pinterest pins are always lingering as a creative. There isn’t a day that goes by where you are resting from the hustle of gaining new followers while also balancing life. What I loved about Bonnie’s last few lessons of module 1 was she encourages us to slow down and take in this precious time as creators of surface pattern designs.

This time of pouring our hearts in patterns seems to take longer. In fact, the thought of a “signature style” seems quite intimidating at the moment. In reality though, my physical art of wood burning has evolved over the years, the more I practiced at it. I can’t expect that surface patterns designs would be any different. Before she was licensed, Bonnie Christine made around 100 patterns without outside opinions or deadlines.

This is the process I want to rush. It’s almost instinctual to just get through this stage onto sending off my surface pattern designs off to companies. Within my heart though, I see exactly what Bonnie Christine talks about. You can always tell who rushed this stage. Simply knowing how to make surface patterns is not enough. If you take the time to make them, make them well.

Some thoughts as I finish the first Module:

1. Bonnie Christine has created a natural flow in how I interact with Adobe Illustrator.
2. There is a huge chance that I will walk into her lessons and not get lost as she says terms.
3. Shortcuts are a surface designers best friends.
4. I went from knowing about percent of Adobe Illustrator’s functions to knowing at least 90 percent in about a week from this Immersion course.
5. Mistakes were made for a year now because I refused (at first) to spend the money on Immersion.
6. Patterns for products don’t seem as intimidating to make now that I know what each tool is used for within Adobe Illustrator.
7. My favorite tools that I learned more in depth this week are truly going to impact my patterns. The draw behind tool, puppet tool and magic wand tool are just a few I could see myself using.
8. I’m feeling inspired to create courses in wood burning, but am intimidated over the large task of doing it.
9. Slow down while learning and making patterns and do it for the process.

Module 2 is coming up next week!

The only clue I have is that it is labeled “Illustrator Mastery.” That term alone can seem quite daunting considering that I barely dipped my toe into Illustrator this week, but I’m excited! She asked us to brings lots of sketches and many uses of different mediums to the course. Obviously, paint strokes will differ from pencil strokes, so I plan on experimenting with some this weekend.

Also, a fun fact. Bonnie Christine sent snail mail envelopes to each one of us with an envelope to open after we finish each module. She put three “golden tickets” into three envelopes to win seats to her in person event. I’m sad to say I didn’t win, but I’m so thrilled for the people that opened theirs to find golden tickets!

If you’d like to see how the week has gone for Module 1 of this surface pattern design course, check them out here!