Creating Repeat Patterns with Photoshop, Illustrator and Artlandia Plug-in Software

Artists that hope to license their work to the giftwrap, scrapbook, wallpaper, and fabric industries need to create repeat patterns to enhance their art collections. But producing ONLY basic and simple repeat patterns is no longer adequate. Manufacturers expect to see a variation of basic, half-drop, tossed and much more to make a collection more interesting.  Below is information on how to create them.

In the past, surface designers painted repeat patterns by hand but more and more are now using Adobe Illustrator. Vector software such as Illustrator allows the artist to easily alter colors, icon shapes and also enlarge icons without losing resolution. Raster software such as Adobe Photoshop is often used by artists that scan paintings into the computer and isolate icons for use in patterns. Read "What is the Difference between Photoshop and Illustrator?" to learn about raster and vector images.

Below are links to video, written instruction, and e-book tutorials on how to create various patterns in Photoshop and Illustrator. Also below is a description of Artlandia plug-in software for Photoshop and Illustrator that AUTOMATICALLY creates all kinds of patterns.

Tutorials on Creating Various Repeat Patterns in Photoshop and Illustrator
Some of the following tutorials use Photoshop offset, clone tool and layer mask to simplify the repeat process when creating patterns. It may seem a little complicated at first. But once the concept is understood, creating various repeats is very simple and fast to do.

video - "Photoshop Tutorial: Creating Patterns/Basic and Basic-Offset Patterns"
Note: The instructions to click in the corner of the image window while the move tool is selected (in order to open the offset controls) may not work for all versions of Photoshop. An alternative method is to open the dialog box by selecting Filter/Other/Offset.

video (3 parts) - "Make a custom repeating pattern in photoshop - part 1," "Make a custom repeating pattern in photoshop - part 2," "Make a custom repeating pattern in photoshop - part 3."

video - using Photoshop & Second Life fashion software - "Make a Half-Drop"

written tutorial - intricate toss pattern with examples in using it on clothing "Classic Illustrator Tutorial: Create Beautiful Repeating Patterns"

written tutorial - "Creating Repeating Patterns in Photoshop Tutorial"

e-book instructions using Photoshop by Tara Reed (two available - $87 for both): "Basic Repeat Borders & Patterns" and "Half Drop Repeat Patterns"
http://www.artlicensinginfo.com/repeat-combo.html

Software that Automatically Creates Patterns
Plug-in software for Illustrator
SymmetryWorks 5 software by Artlandia is a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator. It works best with vector objects (Illustrator created objects) but also supports jpg and other raster file formats. Thus Photoshop raster images can be imported into Illustrator and patterns created with the plug-in. It allows artists to automatically create 17 repeating patterns such as all over, tossed, spot, half-drop, quarter-drop, step, sliding, composite, counterchanged, gradations. The cost is $275 for the full version of SymmetryWorks 5 and $399 for SymmetryWorks LP (version with additional features). Check out the comparison chart for more information. Note: Because the company states that the software works best with vector objects, I suspect that it may be slow when creating raster image patterns.

Plug-in software for Photoshop
SymmetryShop 3 software by Artlandia is a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. It allows artists to automatically create 17 repeating patterns and supports vector images but is more limited in what can be done than what can be done in SymmetryWorks. Check out the comparison chart for more information. The cost is $341 for the full version.

Note: The cost is $539 to purchase both SymmetryShop 3 and SymmetryWorks 5.

I do not own either software package because I just discovered it when doing research for this article. However, they both look VERY impressive and will make pattern creation very fast and easy. I recommend that artists at least look at Artlandia website and try out the demo versions for Photoshop and Illustrator plug-ins. Also read the user comments and see what artists have to say about SymmetryWorks! Note: There are no user comments for SymmetryShop 3.

Make sure that you read the comments section of this article! Artist Dori Melton has used Artlandia software and comments on problems that she had with it.

I welcome any comments and additional information pertinent to this article. Please write them in the below comment section.