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Okay, I've been sitting on this for a while and I'm finally ready to share it. Bloom to Repeat is live, and it's a mini course I've wanted to make for a long time.
If you've followed along for any length of time, you've probably seen some of my denser floral patterns and wondered how they actually come together. I used to wonder that myself, if I'm being honest. It took me years to land on a process that let me paint the way I actually want to paint: loose, sketchy, a little glowy, no rules, and still walk away with something I could use for more than one page in a sketchbook nobody ever sees again. That process is what this course is. I finally broke it down into four lessons.
What This Course Is Actually About
I want to be upfront: this isn't a "learn to paint" course. If anything, it assumes you already paint some. What I'm really handing over is the layering process I use to get that dense, detailed floral look, the one people ask me about the most. It took a lot of messing up before I got here, and I'm kind of thrilled to finally lay it out start to finish instead of keeping it in my head.
Here's the rundown:
- Lesson One: Sketching and the Underpainting. We start loose. Doodled florals, no pressure, nothing has to be right. I'll show you my supplies and walk through how a handful of doodled flowers turns into a bunch, and how that bunch becomes the underpainting everything else sits on top of.
- Lesson Two: Painted Details and Building Depth. This is where it starts looking like something. I'll show you how I build up a balanced arrangement and, more importantly, how I spread depth across the whole piece so there's no one spot your eye keeps landing on once it repeats. That's really the whole trick to a seamless pattern.
- Lesson Three: Mixed Media. Once everything's dry, I go back in with colored pencils for texture. I'll also tell you how I know when to stop, because it's easy to keep going until the piece feels stiff and overworked, and that kills the loose, dreamy thing we built in the first two lessons.
- Lesson Four: Building the Repeat in Photoshop. This is the payoff, honestly. I'll show you how I take that painted bunch and turn it into a seamless, tileable pattern, using the easiest method I've found for doing it.
You Really Don't Need Fancy Supplies
I say this in the course too, but I want it here as well. You do not need expensive art supplies to do this. There are really only two things I'd call essential, which I go into more of in the guidebook, including where to look if you want to try something new without buying a whole set.
Same goes for Photoshop. I use it because it fits my workflow, not because it's the only way. If you don't have access to it, the heart of this course is still the painting. Once you've got your florals painted, Canva or Procreate can get you to a repeat too, and there's no shortage of tutorials out there for either one.
What You Get
- Four video lessons
- A full digital guidebook, practice pages, note pages, my whole supplies list
- Access to the Bloom to Repeat community, where you can share your work and ask questions
Come Hang Out in the Community
Honestly, building the community piece of this was one of my favorite parts. It's where you can post what you're working on, ask questions as you go, and see whatever new stuff I add as my own process keeps changing, because it always does.
If you've got a painting sitting in a sketchbook right now, wondering what it could become, this is for you. Go check it out, I really can't wait to see what you make.
Love, bonnets & brushstrokes,
Carrie