I shared this spread in progress over on Instagram, and it got lots of love! I was relaxing with my art journal after a long day oil painting and decided to play with shape, pattern, and color.

I started by grabbing about 8 colors and squeezing them onto my palette. I then sponged through a couple stencils, glued down a piece of patterned paper, and got to work just....making marks!

These were the first thing I drew, outlining them with some more lines. The neon and marks were added later with paint pens.

More doodles. Scallops this time! Colored with some neon paint and those new Silk acrylic glazes. The dots were made with a q-tip, a little trick I learned from Connie the last time I was at her place!

And here's what the entire spread looks like! I just love looking at....so much going on! I was using my paintbrushes in new ways, putting down color after color, and then adding more with pens and ink.

When was the last time you played with repetitive patterns? Do you give into the urges to draw random things, or do you feel like you have to stick to a plan?