Hi Reader,

This week I did something that both intimidated and excited me: I signed up for a free 5-day Photoshop challenge with illustrator and pattern designer, Sarah Watts.

I haven’t created any patterns for a while and thought this might be a way to get back into pattern-making again. And while I’m good at making patterns in Adobe Illustrator, I’ve realized that the textures I like to add to my art might actually translate better in Photoshop.

The first exercise was creating a flower motif that we would turn into a pattern a few lessons later.

Sarah demonstrated two ways to create a simple flower. We could draw directly in Photoshop or scan in an existing drawing.

I knew immediately which route I wanted to take. I decided I would use one of the coneflowers from my most recent mandala. In fact, I couldn’t wait to see how the coneflower would look with some added textures and effects.

But then something nudged me to try both approaches. Maybe it was curiosity, or simply the excitement of learning something new. Even though, I was convinced it would be a disaster, I decided to try drawing directly into Photoshop, something I’d never done before.

The process was surprisingly easy. Using some simple selection tools and a few brushes, I produced a very basic flower design that I actually liked.

In the next lesson, we worked on adding colors and textures to our flowers.

I was surprised to discover that I actually liked the flower I drew in Photoshop better than my original coneflower drawing. I managed to capture something fresh and unexpected.

The next day, we created a very basic pattern using our flower motifs. I refined the colors of the digital flower and created this pattern:

And here’s the pattern I made with the coneflower:

After I finished the patterns, I sat staring at my screen, genuinely shocked. The coneflower didn’t translate into a beautiful pattern as I thought it would. But the digital flower looked happy and fresh.

How could the thing I was sure would fail turn out to be the thing that worked?

This experience reminded me of something I've been learning over and over in my creative journey: our assumptions about what will work best are often wrong. The path that feels uncertain frequently leads to the most surprising discoveries.

That’s why I’ve learned (rather grudgingly) to trust the process. When I do that, I give myself permission to be a beginner again. I let go of the need to control the outcome and focus on showing up with curiosity instead.

It’s in these moments that good things usually happen. 😀

That got me thinking about the possibility of approaching more things in my life this way.

💡What if I was less attached to what I think would work and more curious about the possibilities?
💡What if I took more risks?
💡Tried more things I was convinced would never work?

Might I be surprised by the results?

I’m beginning to understand that the best discoveries happen, not when we rely on what we know, but when we trust ourselves enough to venture into what we don’t know yet.

What would you try if you trusted the process a little more, Reader?

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Until next week,

Inside My Sketchbook:

I decided to try re-drawing the bear I worked on last week. I think this version came out even better than the first. I also practiced some florals.

Pictures of the Week:

Scrolling through my photos this week brought me to this lovely photo of Bella in her favorite spot on my bed. Well she thinks it's her bed.... The other photo is Benji and Bella enjoying the open window. I'm really glad they get along so well.

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