Seamless Patterns in Photoshop

Watercolor a seamless pattern in Adobe Photoshop and learn surface design tips for art licensing and print-on-demand

Skill Level Required:

All levels

Number of Students:

3,049

Class Length:

3 hours 46 mins

One-Time Purchase:

Get lifetime access to this course with the one-time purchase option. No subscription fees. 100% self-paced, so you can watch the pre-recorded videos on your own schedule.

$65

Enroll through Skillshare:

With a membership to Skillshare, you’ll get access to my entire class catalog, including this class. New members can unlock a free one-month trial.

$168 / year. (Price varies per region.)

Your Class Project:

The essence of this class is learning how to take your rasterized artwork (paintings, drawings, even Procreate art) and turn it into a repeat pattern in Adobe Photoshop.

We’ll kick off the class by painting our elements by hand with watercolor, but you can follow along with any medium of your choice (including Procreate). Then, you’ll digitize your artwork, bring it into Photoshop, and arrange a custom seamless pattern pattern.

What You’ll Learn:

You’re going to learn the entire process: from sketching your elements, to filling them in, then digitizing your artwork– either with your phone or a scanner if you have one.

Then, you’ll learn the steps for arranging your illustrations into a professional seamless pattern! We’re also going to explore fun stuff like creating new color palettes and infusing metallic accents into your artwork.

Bonus: I’ll even show you the exact steps I take to upload designs through online through print-on-demand websites like Spoonflower, Society6, and Redbubble.

Surface Design Q&A

I’m kicking this class off by answering the most frequently asked questions I get from students about surface design and art licensing: 1) Is it possible to make money through print-on-demand? 2) What’s the difference between raster and vector? 3) Can I sell the same pattern through different companies? 4) What’s better:Photoshop or Procreate? 5) How did you get your first licensing deal? 6) How do I get my artwork noticed?

Choose Your Artistic Medium

One of the most common misconceptions is that in order to license or sell your seamless patterns, they must be vector artwork created in Adobe Illustrator. Nope! The vast majority of my surface design portfolio is NOT vector art. It’s artwork that I’ve hand-painted or drawn on my iPad in Procreate. In this class, I’ll show you how you can take any of your hand-created artwork, digitize it, and turn it into a seamless pattern. (Even Procreate artwork!)

Sketch Your Elements

We’ll start by sketching out our elements! When it comes to repeat patterns that feel like a full, snug fit, I’ve found that what works best is to create three different sizes: a big hero, a couple mediums, and a handful of details. That way, when you’re arranging your pattern together later, you’ll have a great variety of sizes, which will help you fit all your bits & pieces together.

Paint Over Your Sketch

Time for the fun stuff! This is the best part about being an artist: actually painting. I’ll walk you through step-by-step how I fill my sketch with watercolors. You’ll learn about color mixing, watercolor blooms, and brush control. You can follow along with me in watercolor or paint/draw your own motifs– all up to you!

Digitize Your Artwork

Whether you’re using a scanner or a camera, you’ll learn the best industry tips for digitizing your artwork. For scanning, you’ll learn the ideal resolution and scan settings to use. For photographing, you’ll learn optimal lighting, angle, and proximity techniques.

Remove & Replace the Paper Background

By removing the paper background from your original painting, you’ll now have the option to sell your artwork as a transparent file for apparel, kiss-cut stickers, transparent phone cases, and any other product type that requires the background to be removed.

Arrange the Pattern Block

The golden rule of seamless patterns: Whatever gets cut off at one edge must be repeated on the opposite edge perfectly. That way, when this block gets duplicated and stacked, everything will line up perfectly. Thanks to Photoshop’s “Pattern Preview” tool, this process can now be automated, which makes arranging your pattern block easier than ever before!

Fill & Resize Your Pattern

Once your pattern block is finalized, you can “fill” your pattern right into a new canvas. It’s incredibly easy to adjust the size so that the pattern dimensions are perfect for your exact needs. You’ll learn how to optimize for Spoonflower, Society6, and Redubble.

Create Multiple Color Variations

This is probably my favorite part about digital editing: it’s exploring new color palettes! There is a strategy behind choosing color palettes that sell well. More color options = more sales opportunities! You’re going to learn quick and easy methods to achieving some fabulous new color palettes to spice up your original artwork and bulk up your portfolio.

Infuse Metallic Accents

As part of the bonus for enrolling in this class, you’re getting eight high-res metallic texture files so you can infuse metallic accents into your artwork in Photoshop. You can create some pretty cool digital effects with metallic textures– I love this mix of mediums and really enjoy playing with the possibilities. You’ll learn two methods for infusing metallic textures into your artwork: full motif and spot selection.

Saving Different File Types

Once we’ve completed all of these exercises and created some truly stunning digitized artwork, it’s time for the final step – and arguably the most important. You’re going to learn the five basic files you need to have if you’re planning on uploading your work to print on demand sites like Spoonflower, Society, Printful, Redbubble, and any other print-on-demand site.

Tips for Uploading to Print-On-Demand

This is a little bonus to show you how I streamline the process for uploading to the three primary POD sites I use: Society6, Redbubble, and Spoonflower. You’ll also learn how to optimize for keywords and titles to get the most traction out of your artwork.

Want to learn how to turn your hand-painted artwork into seamless patterns in Adobe Photoshop?

Repeat patterns are key to succeeding in surface design, especially with fabrics, wallpaper, and home decor products.

I’ve sold over 100,000 products on Society6 alone. This class will teach you the exact steps I take to prepare my artwork to license and sell online.

Learning professional techniques to digitize and enhance your patterns is crucial for selling your artwork online. In this class, you’re going to learn the exact steps to prepare your seamless pattern files for print-on-demand sites like Society6, Spoonflower and Redbubble, as well as art licensing in general.

One key factor for success with passive income streams like licensing and print on demand is making sure your artwork translates beautifully from paper to screen.

This class is tailored to that process.

There is so much more to the process than just scanning in your artwork and uploading it to sell online. What you do in-between those actions can make the difference between an average piece and a best-seller.

We’ll focus on the key steps to take when creating professional repeat patterns:

• Paint or draw your illustrations by hand or import your Procreate illustrations.

• Digitize your artwork through scanning or photographing.

• Arrange your elements in Photoshop using the Pattern Fill tool.

• Create a variety of on-trend color palettes.

• Infuse metallic textures into your artwork.

• Arrange into a perfect seamless pattern.

• Upload your designs to print-on-demand websites.

Who this class is for:

• Artists

• Surface Designers

• Illustrators

• Anyone interested in creating seamless patterns for fabrics, wallpaper, or selling their artwork online.

Plus, class bonuses!

As a thank you for enrolling in the class you’ll get a few freebies as a gift from me! You’ll score:

• 20 high-res metallic textures in both glitter and foil.

• A high-res paper texture

“Cat's class was a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed her pace and how she repeats the process several times, which is so helpful, not needing to keep rewinding the video. The easy-to-follow step-by-step PLUS all the shortcuts and tips along the way were priceless. Thank you, Cat! I will be taking other of your classes!”

- Bianca W.

“Wonderful class -- detailed instruction without being overwhelming. From painting and scanning to pattern design to uploading on POD sites, it has everything you need!”

- Jeannie S.

“Cat doesn’t leave anything to chance! This course was the most detailed and well explained course, with clear actionable steps and processes that I’ve completed on Skillshare to date, and I’ve done A LOT of courses. Congrats Cat!”

- Lisa B.

“This class was literally my first foray into Photoshop. It was like diving into the deep end, and I loved every minute. I have wanted to create my own surface designs for a very long time. Finally the tools and training have been put into my hands to be able to do it. Thanks so much for the very organized and concise instruction!”

- Kay N.

“Absolutely brilliant! Thanks Cat! I'm in the process of learning Photoshop and this has clarified soooo many things for me. I started learning repeat patterns on Procreate with you and now to Photoshop...hopefully I'll get confident at this too just like Procreate!”

- Karen H.

“This class is the best ever the only and the most helpful class any pattern designer could take. Truly LIFE CHANGING!”

- Khadiga S.

Photoshop has opened up so many opportunities for me as a professional illustrator. I hope you’ll join me inside the class to learn how to use Photoshop to create opportunities in your own art business!

–Cat Coquillette

One-Time Purchase:

Get lifetime access to this course with the one-time purchase option. No subscription fees. 100% self-paced, so you can watch the pre-recorded videos on your own schedule.

$65

Enroll through Skillshare:

With a membership to Skillshare, you’ll get access to my entire class catalog, including this class. New members can unlock a free one-month trial.

$168 / year. (Price varies per region.)

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