I stumbled upon the world of surface pattern design by accident. I looked into it and it turns out I have all the skills needed to become a successful one. What is surface pattern design? The basic definition is creating art for the surfaces of mass-manufactured products. Some examples are wallpaper, wrapping paper, upholstery, quilting fabric, apparel fabric, and floor coverings.
It's a big industry and for now I'm focused on building my art licensing portfolio. Here's a look into my first theme Treasure Island and the steps I took to create it.
Step 1: Pick a Theme
I had created a color palette for the theme treasure island and I immediately knew this theme would make really fun exciting patterns.
Step 2: Paint your motifs
A motif is any design the goes into your patterns. I decide that my motifs would be hand painted since my medium I use the most in paint. Watercolor offered the lose and whimsical vibe i was going for
Step 3: Scan your artwork
Step 4: Remove white background:
I use Affinity Designer to do this because its not a subscription app, You buy it once and it's yours. I learned how to remove the background from Youtube academy and the figured out what works best for me.
Step 5: Create your patterns.
There are many different types of patterns. I recommend starting with the full drop and half drop. You can find youtube tutorials for both that make creating your first pattern easy!
Since I'm currently building my portfolio I will not be sharing my patterns but eventually they'll be on my website!
Tips for creating watercolor motifs:
-if your drawing and then painting your motifs, make sure your pencil marks are light
- create as many motifs, and variation as you can. I created 3-5 versions of my smaller motifs, and my bigger motifs a just created 1.
- the scanner will pick up everything, so be aware of that. You'll want a defined edge that you can see. It can be light or dark depending on your style.
Tips for Scanning:
- I got my scanner on FB marketplace for $20 so search that in your location before you go and drop a bunch of money.
- The scanner i use, Canon scanner lide 220, it works great. But any scanner you see that the internet says is good for scanning artwork and can do 300 dpi will be great.
Tips for digital pattern making:
- pick a color palette and theme
- start with an art board so you can layout your motifs, color palette, an your whole growing collection in front of you
- play with size, color, layout, composition, swap in and out motifs
-if something isn't working for you, try a different way.
-I played and play and played with different motifs, and sizing and colors until I liked the color, composition. I had a feeling each time I knew the pattern was complete so search for that "feeling" all creatives get.
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