I talked about lines last week, and here they are again.

Last week’s design emerged from this week’s – and you might be able to spot the similarities (hint: look at those curved nine-patches). But it took me a few steps to get there….

I’ve been thinking lately about the possibilities of combining two alternating blocks in a design, rather than tiling a single block across an entire design. So I started with a nine-patch and alternated it with a block in which all four corners have a curve pointing towards the centre, making a kinda fat cross shape (which I’ve coloured in warm tones here). In the next version, the blocks are laid out on point. Can you see where one block ends and the next begins?

Separating the arms of each shape (or maybe just the hands?) with a black line presents some alternative colouring options for the squares in the nine-patches.

I felt like making those thin lines more of a feature, so added a border around the nine-patch blocks. Now do you have a better idea of where each block ends and the next one begins?

As usual, I tried a standard layout instead of an on-point one, just to see if the design becomes more interesting. Hmmm… I don’t think so?

As before, those lines create lots of opportunities for playing with colour placement.

Even if I pare it back to a two-colour palette, you can see how many variations there could be.

But I decided that the design didn’t really benefit from those straight lines. Instead, I could echo the curves in the main shapes by surrounding the nine-patches with a squircle (a square-ish circle).

For some reason I prefer the cross shapes on point, but the squircles in a standard layout. So I opted to make a feature of the squircles, and used the standard layout.

As much as I love that multicolour palette of warm tones, I think this design also lends itself to a much simpler palette. I feel like that makes it easier to see the shapes and how they play with each other.

Like last week’s sketch, this week’s could be made using squares, rectangles, drunkard’s paths (or quarter-circles) and skinny strips. I’d find it difficult to sew all those skinny strips evenly and smoothly, I think; it would take a bit of practice. I don’t usually post sketches that I’d struggle to make myself, but I’m treating this week’s sketch as aspirational – I’d love to be able to use skinny strips in this way! I know it’s possible, but it’s something I’ll have to work on.