Watercolor Fabric Swatches

1. Intro: to say I love fashion is kind of an understatement. Over the last 15 years, I've traveled to Milan, Italy, as a buyer for Marnie. I've managed retail locations for Chanel, and I've started looks for hundreds of women. I've also designed and produced my own looks along the way. Hi, I'm Chris V. And as an artist. Naturally, fashion illustration is one of my favorites. I love capturing the movement of the body along with the flow of a fantastic garment. But painting fabric prints can be tricky. So today I'm in the studio to show you how I translate prints onto paper with watercolors. I'll go over simple prints, classics, animal prints and a few designer prints you may even recognize. I'll share lots of tips and tricks and what I do when mistakes happen because we all know they're gonna happen. I'll show you what tools I use and a few designs that I convert into different color ways. Illustrators can benefit from this class fashion illustrators and designers, surface pattern designers or artists just looking to try something new. So whether you're a beginner or an experienced artists, there's a project in here for you. So come along with me while I paint watercolors, fabric swatches. Let's do this 2. Tools & Materials: I want to talk about what I'm using to do. These projects, for starters, a ruler, a pencil and eraser or some masking tape to create the swatch areas. And you're going to need plenty of paper towels to clean up messes. Something to hold water for your paints, brushes large and small, and I'm also using a flat brush for whiter areas. These are water brushes, but regular brushes will work fine. In fact, my detail brush is a regular brush, and I love it. I'm using a Windsor and Newton Cotman water color tube set, but you can use whatever paints you like. I'm also using gel pens, metallic and regular, as well as white and black sharpies. I'm using a set of prisma colored colored pencils, but you can use any type you like, For example, my brush pens or just a basic set. I bought it target, and they were great. My paper is a cancer £140 cold press paper with lots of texture, so it holds water, and I don't have to worry about the paper buckling too much. As for my workspace, I just set it up. So what? Everything is at arms reach and I can grab paper towels quickly if I need them now. I'll see you in the next video to talk about getting inspired. 3. Getting Inspired : I want to talk to you a little bit about getting inspired. One of my main sources of inspiration is pinch arrest. So I have lots of stuff on my board. This is my Pinterest page, where I have created a special board for this class, so is loaded with examples of textile swatches with different textures, different patterns, florals, classics and everything that I've used in my projects in the class are included here in this board, so you can refer back to them at some point. So another great resource, of course, is going to be Google. And I just did a search for fabric prints and, um, a lot of things will come up. I have here a shop that sells fabrics. I've pulled up fabric designers. Um, if you hit the images tab, you will have an endless source of prints of all kinds. And of course, you can narrow your search to special types of Prince, um, and get lots of examples that way as well. Another resource that I used a lot in my, um, fashion illustration is vogue dot com because I can at my fingertips pull up prince that are trending right now, Um, new innovations in prints. Um, right now, stripes are really a big deal. Um, all kinds of color blocking, ah, themed prints. So you can find a lot of really cool stuff on this website. Another way that I find fun princes to look at. My favorite fashion designers like Diane Von Furstenberg has some gorgeous floral print examples on the North from dot com website, which is another great resource. Uh, so I'd like to talk to you a little bit about magazines as well, because between the home decor magazines and fashion magazines, there are so many print examples that, um, you can use as well if you have some fabrics in your fabric cabinet or even in your closet that inspire you. I definitely feel free to use that as well. For this project. Anything goes, and I will see you in the next video to get started on creating your fabric swatches 4. Creating Swatch Areas: in this video. I'm going to take my pencil eraser and ruler, and I'm going to show you. Ah, one way to create fabrics, watch areas and I'm going to make 262 square inch boxes. Ah, by just marking off two inches going up down to the side, I'm gonna do the bottom 22 inch lines on the bottom, and then go and do 32 inch lines in this in the middle, one on this side and one on the right hand side. And then I'm just gonna feel in the bottoms and the tops of these boxes, and we will be all set to start. You can see how very quickly this can come together. And all I do at the end of this is just erase and fill in a race. Lines that are too long filling lines there to shorts. My boxes, they're nice and clean, and then I'm ready to go. But of course, there's always masking tape, um, three long strips down the two sides and one down the middle. I make it very quick and easy to mask off the same type of area. And then, of course, three shorter ones going across did. They don't have to be exactly, you know, two by two. They don't have to be exactly anything, just as long as it's a nice area for you to work in, and you can be a little freer with your paint. 5. Stripes: So now we're going to tackle some stripes and we're just gonna do the easiest pattern in the world. Straight stripes. And you can always use a straight edge or mass them off for cleaner lines. But I really prefer a an organic look when I'm painting patterns and we're going to move right into a ah more interesting striped pattern. This one is a very artistic, um, rougher look, and I'm just going to start out by it, creating a beige stripe. Ah, that's a little bit thicker going to cross. And now with my detail brush just going across with some darker blue paint in between those based stripes. And now we have our fabrics watch. I'm just going to go through and dark in those lines, being careful to keep them kind of squiggly like the image. And now, with a flatter brush, I'm gonna tackle some very artsy stripes that are super rough. And I'm gonna be doing more than one layer on this one because it's just gonna add more dimension to it and look more like the actual print. So I'm going to start in with some blue stripes and let that dry and Now we're gonna tackle the next print. This one's a lot more detailed and requires, um, a little thinner lines sent Hence the gel pens. So I'm gonna start right in with the blue. And with more complicated patterns like this, I don't Honestly, I don't follow them Exactly. I do a print that is reminiscent or looks like the actual print. And that's one of the things I want to show you in this class is that you don't have to work yourself to death to make, to paint a print that looks, uh, almost identical to, uh, what's in a fashion image or a HomeGoods image or anything else. So with my brush, I'm going to start in by, um, by laying down some color, starting with an aqua. I'm going to repeat that in this similar stripe, you've noticed some of the lines air doubled. Um, just like in the pattern. But it's just not gonna be exactly the same thing. And with a darker blue green in the center gonna pull that color in, and then, um, I'm going to replicate the beige background on some of this white space Now, once I have that done I'm tackling these red stripes with, um, the detail brush being really careful kind of stay right alongside each of these blue stripes and boom, I botched it. So here's another mistake, and what I'm gonna do is just go back through and thick in each line. So they all look like the original one. I had to think in Thickened to cover the the air that I made, and I think it looks quite nice. Um, none of my lines air super clean. But I'm gonna show you a little trick for that. And you're gonna need a ruler and gel pens, and I'm gonna use a little bit lighter blue this time. And what I'm going to do is just outline the edge of each colored stripe that I made with the water color and literally just clean it right up. You just have to line up your ruler on the edge of your painting, and it just sort of cleans up the edge. And I'm just going to go through and do that with every single one until I have them all finished. And there we have it. So now I'm going to take some dark blue and I'm going to just put another layer of dark blue on this, um, other strike print. And that's what it's going to do, is it's going to give it dimension. It's gonna make it pop. And on the original print, it wasn't a solid color. There were multi tones. So this is gonna help bring out that look because I'm not going to completely cover each strike. I'm gonna leave some of that original paint showing, so now you'll have a depth. Now this next print is super bold and solid and very, very easy to replicate. So it's literally just going to be, um, a beige stripe on each side. And then you'll have white in the center and then literally dark blue down the middle, and you just have to. It's funny, Uh, you have to be more careful with these bold prints on getting your lines straight, because it's going to really show it's gonna really pop. Um, the detail tends to get lost when you have a lot of of of smaller stripes. That can kind of, um, you know, Carrie Carrie, the visual load, but in this case, you have to be a lot more accurate. So it looks clean and ah and bold. And if you're not confident of your lines, you can even mask thes off. Makes it a lot easier now. This next print is going to be a really interesting take off on the strike because it's it's wavy, but it's not regular waves. It's really irregular waves. Uhm, the cool thing about replicating this one is that the irregularity kind of alternates. Um, so you'll see. I can go thick, thin, think thin and then on the next one, start thin, thick, thin, thick. And that's the formula that I've found to make this print much easier. So really, these prints are all about breaking them down to their ah, basic elements and then working on Ah, um, copying What? That look is through those basic elements and you can see very quickly. I've got that print all done 6. Polka Dots: so I'm just going to start in with one of the most basic prints, and that is the polka dot Um and I'm just going to do black on white with the Sharpie. Keep it really simple, and this will make it a lot more accurate than a paintbrush. So that's, you know, you kind of a canned assess your tools and to see what is going to have the best effect for each one of these prints, and you're certainly have artistic license on that. And the standard polka dot print creates polka dots in a straight line. But then each every other line alternates in location. And that's all there is to that prints so simple. Um, but I want to show you some other fun things you can do with the polka dot. So there's a lot of graphic and artistic prints that take the poke it out to a whole nother level. Ah, like this one here that is a Siris of black circles, so it creates a white polka dot on a white background within a black circle. It's kind of a completely different take on it, and you can see how rough and graphic and bold and beautiful. It can be. It's almost an abstract sort of look, even though it's just as regular as the first print we did this one eyes just rougher, and it's, um, just has a bolder look to it now. This next one is going to be a completely different like a drop painting technique, and I'm going to do this in different these dots and different sizes. But I'm going to do multi colored, a multicolored thing like you saw in the image, and I'm just speeding this up because it's a very basic technique. I'm just dropping paint into water circles that I created, and you could see a botched that one up. So I'm just gonna enlarge it. There's always you know, there's most the time you can fix mistakes and that you're going to see some mistakes throughout this class that I've left in just to show you how I handle them. I'm gonna do an awkward one over here, so have combined red and purple on the first few dots now going into aqua and, um, adding some purple to the awkward of Tie it together. I'm gonna go with an orange over here. I'm just playing around having fun with this. And it's not exactly like the photo that inspired me. But you can see how easily this could be A textile print, another little boo boo. I just cleaned up there with my paper towel. You know, water and paper towel, Um, can, uh, fix a multitude of issues with watercolor. Um, it seems like a very Messi and uncontrollable medium. But there's really a lot you can do to adjust your painting, and I'm going to start with a yellow, but I think it's just too light. So I'm just gonna add some orange in the yellow and blend the two and add one more polka dot in the corner and you could see how on the corners and the edges you can kind of keep your repeat pattern as it as it were going and looking like a fabric swatch by just painting in parts of your pattern like I did in the top two. I'll be doing this throughout with all the patterns so you can see how they would look as an actual fabric swatch. Now, this next one, um, I'm just going to create an orange background for, um, it's going to be another graphic polka dot print. Very rough and artistic. Um, but I'm gonna need an orange background for it. I'm not gonna blend this perfectly. I want this to look like it's been water colored. Now, while I'm letting that dry, I'm going to go ahead and start on the next Ah, the next print. And this one's going to be more regular like the top one, but it's gonna have a twist to it. So I'm making large red polka dots. But on this one, the, uh, print the, uh there's going to be tiny white dots inside each red dot so literally it's polka dots within a polka dot So a really different take on this pattern. So we're gonna let those polka dots dry, and we're gonna move on to the next watch. I'm gonna need a beige ish background for this one. So I'm using a medium yellow with a little bit of brown in it. Now, while we're waiting for that to dry, the orange has dried in the meantime, and I'm going to take some navy blue and just paint some rough, overly ish circles or just going to be really rough. And I'm going to follow that pattern thing up above and to the sides until I got my page all filled up, just like the red dots are going to be in a row. Now they'll be one more step to that one. But in the meantime, the red dots have dried. So I'm really excited to use this new Sharpie white pen and it's this liquid you have to shake it up. And when you push the the tip, it kind of retracts into allow a little bit more pain or a little less pain. So this will be my first time trying it out. And so far I really like the, um looks like the white is nice and bright. It will be perfect for this. Ah, this application, the dots I can keep pretty small. So, um, it's pretty perfect. And I'm just taking these dots in a spiral pattern from the center to the outward, a little bit like a tribal print. So very, very easy to dio. And now that the, um brownish has dried, I'm going to go ahead and drop some very thick, as thick as I can get it. Ah, white water color circles and I'm going to space them out sort of diagonally. Um and I want them to be as bright White is I can get it. So as soon as they dry, I'm gonna drop another layer on there. But in the meantime, I'm gonna let that dry, and I'm going to finish our orange and navy print of above by encasing all the Navy circles in red and that will conclude that print design it's creates a complicated looking piece with a very easy technique. So a really fun want to do. And the colors are great. And finally the white spots have dried and I'm going to take my gold metallic sharpie. And there are Siris of squiggle lines and dots that are shaped like circles but offset from the white so they almost end up looking a bit three dimensional. Ah, in relationship to the beige background. So this is a very, very interesting print. I've never done one like this before. And ah, it's quite interesting to Dio. And I'm just gonna lift this up so you could see how that one sparkles with the metallic and I'll see you in the next video 7. Classic Prints: So in this first example, I want to show you a checked pattern, and it's just, quite simply, a line of stripes going horizontally and then of line of stripes going vertically in the same sighs to create contrast where they cross. And this is a very basic checked red pattern, like a picnic tablecloth. And I'm just showing you how you can add interest by adding a second color. And besides, polka dots and stripes that's about as basic as you can get or is classic. And this next one, I'm going to need a tan background. So I'm going to let that dry while I start these. This next one, which is going to be a classic plaid and plaid, was, um, first done in Scotland as a tartlet tartan to identify the families. Ah, there. And it kind of spread all over from there. Ah, and this is going to be a classic grey, white and red, uh, plaid. So I'm just laying down some gray and I'm gonna leave the white unrelieved two white stripes and let that dry while I start. Well, I actually finish this, uh, one here that's meant to be a herringbone herringbone also originated in Scotland, and it was inspired by the herring skeleton of a fish, the herring fish. So, um, you have little lines going down in a row all on one side, and then you have another row of lines going down the other side in the opposite direction to form like a V, And I am just going to continue this all throughout. So you were going down and then up on the other side, down on one side, up on the other side. And that is, quite simply, all there really is to a herringbone print. It's just a game of patients. So I have sped this up for you, so you don't have to sit through the entire process on mine. And now we're able to move on to finish our plaid tartan, um, print. And I'm going to start by taking a darker gray and ah, going across our vertical thicker stripes with a darker, thinner one. And it's pretty much like a layering game, Ah, to create one area that's darker than another going in another direction. Crossing over. It's a bit complex, but very easy to replicate when you break it down just into stripes and with very much thinner line, I'm going to go down in between my white stripes and gray stripes with a much darker one in black. Then, with a detail brush in between the white and gray stripes, I'm going to come down with a line of red and then do another very thin line of red going horizontally in between the dark gray stripes. So it looks like a complicated print, but one broken down. You can see it's very easy to dio next. We're moving on to a Chevron pattern, and all Chevron really means is a bunch of zigzags, so you could do one color. You conduce to colors. You could do five colors. I've seen so many different versions of the Chevron pattern in this particular one. I'm going to do the light and dark ah, tones of this muted green and just very simply, controlling your brush to go one direction and then the other angling it and just very simply, we've completed that one. The next pattern we're going to tackle is an argyle, and an argyle is it looks very intimidating, like some of these other prints. It's really very very simple. It's a combination of straight lines and diamonds, and that's it. And it's all a matter of lining them up. So the diamonds fit inside the crosses of the dotted lines. Um, are girls can come again in single tones in combined colors. Mine's gonna be a two color with black and yellow. And I'm just gonna line these up and just place my diamonds within the core of the intersecting light, and we'll just add the yellow diamonds, and that is all there is to it. So that is a quick and rough argyle, Aziz. You can see I'm going to show you another method of making a very much more precise argyle if you prefer a more precise look. So you start with the crisscrossed lines first and start adding, ah, equally spaced lines throughout until you have an entire grid and then start adding your diamond shapes in alternating points so every other crisscross will be the black diamond. And then, after you're done filling all those in, you can take a pencil mark and kind of just site out your diamonds for the yellow and start dropping the yellow in and very quickly. You have a much more precise looking argyle print. Now the next one's going to be a paisley. This is one of my favorites, so that Paisley is broken down into teardrop shapes with embellishment inside, so this particular paisley print has double outlines. I'm going to go ahead and just quickly sketch a leaf pattern on the inside or floral pattern, um, and then surrounded with scallops. But the key to a paisley pattern is taking each one of these shapes and changing its direction. It's never in a row. It's never, um, side by side. It's always going in all these different directions, and I've just sped this up for you. Ah, so I take you through the whole process now going to take my gel pens. And since this pattern is so very small, I'm going to do the detail with three of these colors and, um, pick an area to color. I'm gonna leave some white space, but I'll go ahead and do this, um, center area botanical outlines with the green. And then within the two outlines, I'm gonna do the dark blue to give it some definition. And then finally, I've chosen the yellow over the orange eso. It doesn't overpower the other colors to complete the scallops on the outside 8. Floral Prints: Now we're going to start in with some florals. I'm going to start with this very layered and complicated floral print right off the top. Uh, I'm going to start in with some green, but there are a lot of colors in this print, so I'm going to be letting parts of that dry and Well, um, the green is drying. I'm going to be starting in with some yellow, and I'm just going to keep layering different colors. Some of them will be blending into one another. Some of them will be separate. Um, now I'm on a blue green, There's an olive and I'm just keeping my eye just like the other prints of just keeping my eye on the original picture and just doing my best to drop color where I see it, um, on my swatch, I just doing my best to let my eye find where all the little details are and just copying that. So now you can see I'm going through with a second layer and doing some outlining and some deepening some texture airing, and it's just a matter of layering Now. I'm just kind of blending some of these together because this. This is a lot of blended colors that are running into one another. So I'm just adding a little water here and there. And I'm starting to feel like I'm pretty satisfied with how this looks. So that is the finished product. And we're going to move on to a more illustrated looking floral designed and again keeping , keeping my eye on the photo. I'm just going Teoh, start filling in my swatch with laurels, Floor outline, leaf outlines stems, um, and capturing the essence of this print with some of these larger flowers on the top. Um, so on the right, we sort of have this medium sized flower and Ali, uh, pedal coming down from the top from another one. So we're starting. Teoh, get that look of the repeat pattern. And then here is this joy enormous flower. I'm gonna put right on the right hand side with the beated center, and I'm just speeding this up so you can just see how this is emerging. Just a little bit of a game of patients to get all the little details in there that you want. But you don't have to spend, you know, a ton of time on it. Just keep it moving. And now with my water brush, I'm just going to drop some light gray, Uh, mostly towards the center of the florals. For those pedals, some of the leaves gonna have non creating a little shadow there, some of these air darker than others. And I'm going back through and just adding a little glazing to deepen and and give some of these Samore dimension. And I was starting it with this peachy pink, but that's a little two PCI. So I'm gonna lighten it up at a limb or red, and I've come up with this perfect pink. But now I have to make it all look the same. And this the peach on the left side of the print is almost dried too long. So I'm just gonna add some water and try to lift some of that up and more water. But it's just not quite coming all the way out, so I'm gonna have to just shift the color of my background just a little bit. It's just not really coming all the way off, so I'm just gonna add a little red to my peach. It's gonna be slightly darker, and I'm just gonna have to cover the entire background with that darker color. But I'm pretty happy with the way that looks. Now we're moving on to a very, um, lovely kind of a country floral. It's a little bit more detailed. Ah, but not too much detail. So, uh, I'm going to use my brush pen for this one. And mostly because of the color, I really wanted to capture the color of this green. And it's the closest tool I had. I would have preferred a gel pen because I could, ah, go a lot more quickly and have a lot more detail. But, um, I love the way this color is coming out. I just have to be careful not to press too hard on this brush pan and create too many thick lines because this is a really delicate print, and you could just see how I am building up the pattern. And I am completing this vine design. The florals air kind of, um s symmetrically placed. And by filling in the vines in between the florals, it keeps me on track and keeps me from ah, losing sight of where the next range of flowers should land. And now here's the next set of vines and I'm starting my last means said of florals there getting the fines all around. And now I'm starting in with E, uh, line detail that runs right through the background and being very careful not to pressed. You heard in that gel pen. Some of these lines, you're gonna end up dotted just because I just can't press that hard. And and that's okay in this case because these lines have a break all around the vines and the florals. It's a very unusual line pattern. So dotted line is not going Teoh hurt the look at all. Now with my detail brush. I'm just gonna drop a little green paint on each flower that is on the right hand side and then through every little leaf. And this is a good time to stand back and just make sure you got the green everywhere you want, and that one is done. So next I'm going to start in with a palm leaf botanical print, and I'm just laying out where my main for branches air going to go, and I'm just going to start right in with E palm leaves. And ah, this is just a foundation because we're gonna have to go through and really fill in on this print. So now I'm starting in on the second palm, leave 3rd 1 and then finally the fourth. So these is gonna be our foundation for the print. And now I can just start, um, glazing to using a darker color over some of these and just filling in the other branches all around, um, in different directions. So builds interest. And you could just see it's just a layering game. I'm going through with this darker color now and giving it some riel depth, making sure I don't have too many point. You know, too much white space on this one, and we're done with our palm leaves. This next one is going to be a very abstract looking leaf print, and it's abstract because the leaves are not realistic and the the lines running through them are going in very odd directions. But I that's what I like about this print is it's different. It's very eye catching. It's very bold. So, as I mentioned before, the Boulder prints are easier to capture because they're simpler. But they're also a little more precise in that mistakes show a little more easily. So you just want to take your time. Make sure you're getting your lines going in the right direction and see him breaking off into that odd direction with that leaf. Ah, line Egx going on the other side. I'm just, you know, meticulously going through with my micron and making sure the details right. Keeping my eye on my original photo. Now, this larger leaf really shows how that, um, abstract line work really pops on this one. Okay, so another that micron work is done. I'm going through. And I'm adding a darker gold than what I created with the background with being very careful to keep a space around the micron pen. So this darker gold is never touching the black lines. Um, just like in the original print. And I'm just being very careful to keep it as even as possible, going around those leaves very carefully. And now that one is completed. So the next one's going to be, um, this very again abstract leaf print. So, uh, creating that darker beige background, But I first laid down a much lighter beige background to use as, ah, the leaf color on two of these rows. So I am just going to lay down the sections I'm gonna be doing. And now I'm gonna work on the other side of the print in the same way and lastly, covering the center and I'm going to be creating, uh, these leaves in dark red. So I darkened that stem first and just working through all of the's leaves and you'll notice there s symmetrically placed to the 1st 2 rows. So just being careful to kind of maintain that balance and we are finished with that one. 9. Animal Prints: So it's time for some animal prints, starting with the leopard, which is just a two color friend, and I've done it once for you. So I'm gonna go ahead and do it again so you can see exactly what that process is. And it's really just a combination of irregular squiggles and you'll notice every time I do one. It's going in a different direction. Most of these air semi circles Ah, but they're very irregular shaped. So I'm pressing on my brush a lot to create these thick, thin semi circles and lifting my brush a lot to create, um, different patterns within the semi circle. It's really quite easy once you start laying your brush down and making sure that each of these is going in a different direction every time you do it. I'm also making sure that I have larger ah semi circles next to smaller ones that I'm creating medium ones. So they're all different sizes as well as going in different directions. You'll notice they're not touching each other either. That's another similarity, and then every so often there's just kind of a line in between these semi circles Now, some of these look like they're going in a full circle, but it's really just an extra squiggle dropped in. And that's all there is to the leopard print. Next is the cheetah. First I'm going to drop down a tan background and let that dry. Then I'm going to start with some brown irregular shaped marks and again going in different directions. Um, some larger, some smaller, and that will start creating an irregular grouping of these marks. And I'm just going to speed this up for you because I'm just going to continue throughout until my entire swatches filled with marks in this brown color. Now, with my black gel pin, I'm going to create semi circles and almost full circles around these brown dots. And these black semi circles look an awful lot like the leopard print, and I think that's why the cheetah and leopard are associated with each other a lot. Their markings are very, very similar. It's just that the cheetah has a two color marking and the leopard has just a one color marking. And I'm just going to continue on throughout this print, creating these semi circles around the brown until they're all filled in and again, they're all going in a different direction. They're all irregular sizes. And now we're moving on to a cow print. Now mine's gonna be brown and again I've already done it. So I'm going to read, Do it for you here and show you how I replicated that one. So again, that marks are very irregular large ones next to small ones and then medium ones in between . And the crazy thing about the cow print is that the markings are all over the place. I mean, you have squiggles, but they're really irregular. And then the large squiggles have small ones kind of going off of them. So they're very AJ oddly shaped. And you can see I'm just creating small squiggles off of medium and large ones and then very small squiggles in between the medium and large ones so that these shapes are just very, very irregular and very random looking. Um, but very quickly, you'll see. It's starting to take some shape now, with an almost glazing effect. I'm just gonna run over my spots again. Ah, and the dark light will create kind of a dimensional its own to make it look more realistic , and I'm just going to continue in looking at my swatch image. I keep adding different markings until I have it all done. Now we have the zebra, so the zebra is going to be white with black stripes, and I'm just going to do a lot of sixth in curvy stripes going in a diagonal direction. And I'm going to be nestling thin stripes next to Thich ones and the thick portions deck to the thin parts of the next one. And I hope that makes sense. I'm just showing you here how I'm going to create a thin one next to this thicker stripe and the nestle of thin one between those two. And then I'll go thicker again on the other side. So just like the other prints, you're going to be creating different looks next to one another. Um, another characteristic of this is how down the back of the zebra you have this mirror image looking effect. So I'm just going to replicate that in this print, and obviously it won't be exact, but it will be enough. Ah, One trick and I've shared this. I think I've mentioned this before. Is that the I will tend to correct, Um it will tend to make the mirror image look more similar because the I wants to fill in the blanks. It's very interesting, and it's not really the I. It's the brain, but it's a vision issue, so that is a phenomenon of vision. So on this side, you'll see I'm doing the same thing I did. On the other side is curvy lines, pressing my brush down and lifting it up to create thick and thin looks and then nestlings thicker ones next to thin looks. It just creates a very interesting dynamic effect, and I'm just going back and darkening some of these lines and filling in the swatch to create a square shape. And once you start working these swatches, you'll see they'll just start to take shape, and it's a lot easier than then It looks or than it appears, and that is our zebra swatch. So next is a reptile skin, and this one looks like alligator print. So again I'm going to create a background. This one's going to be a light gray, and I'm going to start right in with some odd irregular shaped rectangles so that is the characteristic of the alligator or crocodile. They're both very similar with their scales. And I want to point out what I'm doing right now. I dropped too much paint in this one square, so I'm pulling from it and painting other squares with that extra paint. And that is one of my tricks for evening out. Ah, areas when I have over saturated Ah, one spot. Ah, but they are sort of irregular rectangle shapes and you'll notice there's a pattern of them going in sort of a winding line. It's not straight, but it does have ah ah, pattern to it. Now I'm going through and I am creating a shadow effect with my black gel pen and being very careful to stay on the same sides on each scale. This will give the illusion that he scales are raised or three dimensional. And I'm just gonna quickly do the same to each scale throughout. And now on this other thing, this next step, I'm going to just draw some lines through each scale just to give it a little bit of texture. Um and I'm just again going to quickly do it to each scale. The same thing. Just a few straight lines going up and down. And there we have our alligator or croc print. Now, the next one is going to be the giraffe. So I'm going to go ahead and just keep the background white and start creating these oddly shaped rec time tangles. Trap is a Lloyds. Some are gonna be triangles, but they're all gonna be in this crazy, oddly shaped rose just like very similar to the, um, the reptile print. But the rectangle would be more oddly shaped and be a lot larger. Now they're gonna be more flat in appearance. So not a lot of dimension or texture to that. And just like the reptile print, the rows of rectangles will kind of be ah, in these wind e sort of rose their in rows. But they're kind of oddly and circular Lee shaped. Um, my best advice is to just keep your eye on the original photo so you can kind of do your best to copy it. Ah, in your style that will help you know where to place each of these rectangles and just finishing the edges. Gonna go ahead and add a little extra color to some of these that have lightened quite a bit. And there we have it. The giraffe print see in the next video. 10. Designer Prints: So I'm gonna take you through a few designer prints, starting with the famed Burberry plaid. And it's I'm starting off with some gold colored squares. I'm going to make three of them across my swatch is going to be a little more ob long swatch, and once that's dried, I'm just going to take some black paint, which is gonna come out more gray and start out with some pretty bold striping. And obviously, this is not gonna be identical to the print. It's gonna be my version of it. Eso I'm going to make these lies little chunkier than what they are in the actual print because I want them to really stand out. They're not gonna be, is black. Could be a little lighter. Um, no, I'm gonna start my vertical lines. That side got three lines. Um, I'm probably going to get on Lee two rows of black lines on my horizontal and just because they don't fit and my brush strokes are pretty chunky, I really like that, though adding my red stripe down the center of each of these gold squares with my detail brush and going all the way across doing my best to keep it as even as possible, and I lost my breaststroke there, so I really wanted to keep it one brush stroke, because it's very difficult to come and land in the same exact spot again. But I'm happy with the way that looks. I'm just darkening some of these gray lines, and that's our print. Now moving on to a Christian your print. It's a very playful, abstract version of a daisy, and ah, I'm creating sort of a negative space print. Ah, so I'm just sketching out these very round, bubbly looking flowers and filling in the space around it with black and again there s symmetrically placed. So I'm just going to I'm not drawing as many flowers as there are in the actual print, but you'll see it'll looks still look very, very much like the print, so it saves a bit of work. Um, not having to do quite as many flowers and still get the look. So my apologies. I thought the camera was running on the first run, but that just means you get to see me do it a second time, and my second time is always a bit better. So Ah, now I'm filling in this bulbous center. The centers air really quite large on this with the yellow. So it's very dramatic. And this is a big characteristic of this print. So you want to make sure that you get that you get those really catchy parts and I am again very happy with the way that came out. So now we're going to move on to Abra Broke a volley print, and he is so ah, very famous for his animal prints. So I'm going to enjoy doing this, um, tiger stripe that you see on this trench coat ad, and I'm gonna lay down this rusty reddish brown, let it dry and then started with some black striping, and this is very much like zebra, but it's just a little bit chunkier and thicker stripes. So I'm just gonna keep my eye on the pattern and start building in these thick, thin, chunky lines, being careful to alternate, not putting too thick ones next to each other. But make sure I put a thin next to a thick, create a lot of interest, and it's just gonna be a matter of keeping this going. So I'm just gonna speed this process up for you. Um, just keeping my eye on my photo and just keeping each line a little different than the next . You're noticed that disease slight u turns here and there. And these slight, jagged e lines that go after the side just add a little interest and give the effect of the authentic print pattern. And that completes the tiger print. Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed the designer Siri's. I hope to try some of these yourself. It's really fun, and I will see you in the next video. 11. Final Thoughts: thanks for hanging out with me in my studio today. I am so glad I got to show you my process for creating beautiful fabric prints with watercolor and a few other fund tools. I hope you decide to create a project of your very own. And if you do, you can do that by going to your project. Page and hitting create projects. If you have anything you need, I am here for you. Just reach out to me in the community section and I would be so grateful for your review so I can keep improving my classes. Whether you're creating designer of Prince social media posts, surface pattern design are just enjoying your swatches. Thank you so much for joining me in water color fabric swatches. Bye for now. 12. Bonus Video: