They Draw and They Cook #12monthsofflavour: Savory

Burger pattern

One of the creative challenges I'm taking on this year is the "They Draw and Cook" #12monthsofflavor prompts. January's theme was Savoury, and my immediate thought was: burgers! then I decided to add the fries...after all, what's a burger without a side of fries? Sticking to my repeat surface pattern goal for this year, I decided to make a burger pattern.

For this pattern, I decided to hand-draw and color all the elements, then bring it together in Photoshop. It was a fun process—though I did leave out my usual vanilla milkshake (a staple in my burger order). Maybe next time!

Mock up from freepik

I love mock-ups so much. It is such a big helps in being able to visualize how cool the pattern would look on clothes and when I get the chance, I will be uploading quite a few patterns, including this one, up on my print on demand platforms.

Hanzo helping once again

While working on this pattern, I’ve been reminding myself to be more relaxed with my drawings. It’s easy to get discouraged by rejections or fall into the trap of comparing myself to other artists. But what keeps me going is drawing things I genuinely enjoy and though it is easy to get swept up on creating things for imaginary clients or possibilities, I think it's best to concentrate on artwork that I can genuinely feel happy with, regardless if anyone else does.

When I get complete creative freedom, that's when I feel my work shines the most—whether it’s for personal projects or client work and funnily enough, I've had opportunities come out of more personal work rather than anything else.

This year, I’m focusing on that balance: challenging myself with prompts like this while staying true to what I love to create....more or less. I still don't care much for some themes but it's also good practice to get out of my comfort zones!