End
- Photoshop
- Pen & Paper
Start by Sketching
Call me old fashioned, but I begin everything I make by sketching on paper. Putting pencil to paper feels like a low pressure way to work through ideas before committing to production-level digital artwork. You can make a repeating pattern out of any kind of image your heart desires, so pick your favorite medium and start doodling. For this project, I took my paper sketches and fleshed them out on my iPad.
Set Up Your Photoshop Canvas
You’ll want to decide the size and resolution of your canvas depending on the end use you’re planning for your pattern. I want the option to use this pattern for small print applications, so I’m setting my canvas to 5in x 5in at 300dpi. Any rectangle ratio will work for this method, and as you gain more experience in pattern making you’ll find that you can use different rectangles to achieve different types of repeats.
Putting the Pieces Together
In the center of your new document, start arranging your drawings, making sure to leave white space around each of the edges.
Define Your Left & Right Pattern Edges
Before this step, I like to make a copy of all my layers and group them together just in case I want to revisit that initial arrangement later one. Next, merge your new layers together and use the marquee tool to select the left half of your canvas. Copy and paste it into a new layer, then shift your new layer to the right so that the cut off edge of your illustration aligns to the right edge of the canvas. Shift the right side of your illustration to align with the left side of your canvas.
Define Your Top & Bottom Pattern Edges
Now we’re going to do the same thing for the vertical halves of your illustration. Merge your two layers, select the top half, copy and paste it into a new layer, and align it to the bottom of your canvas. Align the bottom layer to the top of your canvas.
Draw Some More!
The two steps you just followed are what create the seamless edges of your illustrated pattern. However, if you were to repeat this tile, you’d have a repeated area of white space in between each tile. We want to make this repeat feel full of things to look at, so this is the step where your imagination can run wild. Fill the white space in the middle of this tile with drawings, details, and as many spangly bits as your heart desires.
The Fun Part
Test your repeat! Merge all of your layers together, then use the rectangle marquee to select the whole canvas, then select Edit —> Define Pattern. Be sure to name it something you’ll remember. Create a new, bigger canvas, and within the new canvas select Edit —> Fill and select Pattern from the dropdown. Select your preset, and voila!