Retouching the Pattern

One of my early designs is a Reindeer - now it's my free pattern, by the way) After some time of brushing and polishing my designing skills I decided to challenge myself with retouching this cute pattern. You can see the obvious difference on the picture below. The size is the same, but the result is very different.

So, what were the problems with the first pattern and what needed some fresh look at?

1) Some shapes were strange: hat, for example. It has no volume on the first pattern, and the fringe is not furry. 2) The reindeer had no volume too, and the tummy was not very distinctive. 3) The colours were a little bit depressive for the holiday mood. 4) The design itself was not special, there was no charm.

I needed to fix the hat. You can see more physical shape of the hat on the second pattern: I've lowered the fringe, made it furry and got the hat more rounded and neat. I also worked on colours: the light red shade helped to get more volume.

To make the design shine I needed to fix the reindeer too) The colours were found, and I've added some lashes. Now the reindeer is really cute and sweet! Such small details did a great job. The nose is shiny, and I used the same colour palette as for the hat. The scarf got a little bit more shades of green too to reveal the volume.

The last but not the least: the backstitching! More threads for the lettering and for the hornes, adding some decor on the balls - and the pattern got some holiday spirit!

Really few steps to get the design better. Really small changes that made a huge difference. When you create a pattern, give it a day or two to rest. Take one more look at it. And think about changes that will make it better. Never be scared of some experiments with colours, with backstitching! Start with something you don't fully like, and step by step prepare a marvelous design.

Now I work harder on all of my designs. I do the first version, and then try to analyze what can be changed. Hardly there is a design where I didn't touch anything. And all the changes are for the best.