If you’ve never used pattern layouts to build patterns, this is your sign! Using layouts makes the pattern making process easier by giving you a space to fill that is clear and cohesive, so you never suffer from “blank page syndrome”. It also helps you create patterns with a better flow compared to patterns made by drawing single elements and moving them around the canvas. Ready to use pattern layouts with me? Lets dive in!
Watch the Tutorial
If you’re a see it on “paper” person, keep reading below. Otherwise, check out this quick video tutorial in my new iPad Art Break Series on Youtube:
The Steps
1. Start by choosing your canvas size (either square or rectangular). I like to work at 1500 x 3000 pixels when I work with rectangular blocks, so feel free to follow along with me and use that same size! Then turn on the canvas grid by going to Canvas -> turn on the Drawing Guide, tap Edit Drawing Guide, and bump the grid size all the way up. Create a diamond shape on your canvas using that grid as your guide (you can draw loosely or use Quickline by drawing a line and holding down your stylus to create a perfect line).
2. Find a reference image of your choosing (or pull from my Flickr Galleries which you get a link to when you sign up for the Everything Bagel Brushset).
Fill in the center of your canvas with shapes, being sure not to touch the edge of the canvas and feeling free to go slightly outside the diamond to make a loose composition.
3. Merge your sketch layers with a white layer (yep, just fill a layer with pure white!) so that you basically have a white sheet of paper with some drawings on it. Then duplicate that layer so you have 4 total, tap the Move Tool, turn on Snapping in the Move Tool settings, and snap the four layers to the corners of the canvas, so in the end you have a new diamond in the center that needs to be filled.
4. Fill in the center with more shapes just as you did at the beginning so that your diamond shape is completely full of interesting shapes.
5. If you’d like to check the flow of your pattern at this point, save the canvas as a JPEG, by going to Actions -> Share -> JPEG in the Procreate menu. Then go to Add -> Insert a Photo and insert your pattern image. Make it smaller (exactly 1/4 the size of the canvas using Snapping to lock to the grid) then duplicate that layer and place it in the four corners of the canvas. If you see anything that needs to be updated, you can edit your original repeat block.
6. Once you are happy with the overall layout of your pattern, you can start inking! Add color to each shape, keeping each color on it’s own layer so you can change colors later if you want to.
7. Once you have inked everything in the first diamond shape, add a background color (on a new layer) then group all of the colored layers. Repeat the same moving process you did with the repeat blocks in Step 3, but rather than moving a single layer you’ll be moving the whole group.
8. Fill in the center diamond again, and play with color options. I like to change colors by tapping on the layer, tapping Select, making sure Color Fill is on, then tapping colors in the color wheel to quickly flip through colors. Duplicate the document in your Gallery and color each one a different way so that you can try a few different color versions.
make it professional!
Want to learn how I take my patterns from simple images in Procreate like this to professional, sellable, licensable patterns? I share the whole process in my free mini-course on Affinity Designer!
Affinity Designer Foundations
- Learn how to vectorize your patterns so you can scale them to any size
- Create professional patterns that licensors ask for in any file format that you need
