From Abstract Handmade Marks on Paper to Seamless Surface Patterns in Adobe Illustrator

1. Introduction & Overview: Using handmade marks in surface patterns is a great way to add a unique character and tangibility to your digital work. Creating pattern elements on paper with the tools and materials which you have at hand is an exciting and liberating experimental process, and you don't have to be an experienced mark maker or have great drawing skills to create original marks which you can then digitize, and use in surface designs, printed products, design project or sell as digital assets. I'm Evgeniya from Attitude Creative. In this class, I will share with you my special tips, tricks, and techniques, which will enable you to go from graphic handmade marks to digital seamless patterns in Adobe Illustrator with ease and confidence. This class is designed for everyone who is interested in creating patterns from handmade marks, regardless of their level. Whether you are a beginner who wants to get into designing seamless patterns, a part-time designer who wants to boost their creativity, create a number or fresh patterns for their portfolio, and learn a few new techniques along the way, a graphic designer or illustrator eager to add a new skill to the workflow or an artist experienced in creating marks, and looking to learn an effective way to digitize physical artwork, and turn it into service buttons, this class is for you. In the beginning of this class, I will share with you tips for choosing tools and materials for creative marks with desired aesthetics, give you some technical tips and creative ideas for creating an abstract pattern elements, and step-by-step guide you through the process of digitizing new marks, and preparing them to be used in patterns, both as vector graphics and as a raster elements if you are into a more realistic and textured marks, then I will share with you free versatile approaches to create a seamless patterns, and a number of quick and easy ways to create multiple pattern iterations. Towards the end of the class, I will show you how to color and recolor both vector and raster pattern elements, how to take advantage over illustrated tools when applying patterns to create designs, how to manage patterns swatches in illustrator, and extract pattern swatches for use outside the illustrator, and how to export your final designs. To make sure you get the most out of this class, I have provided a number of downloadable resources, and additional tips added as notes to the videos throughout the class, as well as a table of contents to make it easier for you to navigate through the class. To celebrate the launch of this class, we're running another student contest in which you can win one a year of Skillshare premium membership. To participate, post your project in this class before Wednesday, 17th of April, 2019. Leave a class review, and follow us here on Skillshare. I cannot wait to see your handmade marks and patterns you create from them. Join me in this class, and let's make something awesome. 2. What You Will Need for This Class: For this class, you will need some mark-making materials of your choice. You can use anything you want and you should be able to easily get started with what you already have at hand, such as; some white paper and a marker, solid graphite pencil, or a thick pen or liner, and if you're feeling experimental or you offer certain aesthetics, in the next part, I'll run you for the different tools and materials and the outcomes to expect when using them. But firstly, here's a quick overview of what you'll need. First of all, you will need some paper. Since we will be digitizing the marks, most importantly, your paper needs to be as smooth as possible and they have no obvious texture. 80 GSM photocopier paper, or heavier cartridge, or drawing paper are all good general choices. As well as special bulletproof or coated paper if you're planning to use markers or inks, or hot pressed smooth watercolor paper if you're into watercolors. To create marks which will be used as elements in your digital patterns, you can use anything from markers, calligraphy pens or brushes and even basic soft pencils, to inks and paints such as acrylic, gouache, or watercolor. In this class, I will be showing you how to work with graphic marks, which can be easily digitized in recolored in Illustrator. You will only need one color of paint, ink, pen, marker, or whatever you decide to use. If you're after solid shapes, you should use black or very dark color. If you want to have some transparency in texture in your marks, especially if you're using gouache or watercolors, use something. It is a ledger like blue or deep green. If you're using inks or paints, you will need some brushes or some other applicators. I'll talk about the differences between marks created using different kinds of brushes in the next part. To digitize your marks, you only need a scanner, but if you don't have one, a digital camera or a phone camera will do just fine. To adjust and clean up your marks, you will need Adobe Photoshop and you will need Adobe Illustrator to create your patterns. That's the basic overview of different things you'll need to complete this class. In the next part, I will share in more detail what kind of marks you can create using different tools and materials. 3. Choosing Tools & Materials: If you want to go beyond the basic tools and materials for mark making, the main questions you need to answer when choosing tools and materials are what will sort of aesthetics you're after? What size of marks you want to use in your patterns? As far as aesthetics is concerned, the materials you use will determine how much texture you will be able to create within the marks and whether you're marks will work well vectorized or if it would be better to keep them as a raster elements. Generally speaking, marks created with acrylic or gouache paints, inks, markers, and pens can be used both in the vectorized form and as raster images, if you want to have more realistic looking marks containing some texture. On the other hand, marks created using dry media, such as graphite pencils, charcoal, and chalk pastels will look considerably better in raster because they contain more texture and some gradation of tones. Any marks with tonal gradation and different levels of transparency, such as watercolor marks, should be best kept as raster to preserve their visual qualities for the sake of realism. When dealing with any liquid based media, the type of applicator will determine the overall character of your marks and most importantly for using them digitally, the quality and character of their edges. Softer, fine paintbrushes will create more predictable and even marks with cleaner edges. On the other hand, hard synthetic brushes or traditional calligraphy brushes will create marks with rougher edges and potentially more texture within the marks. Foam brushes are great for creating controlled marks with sharp edges. Pretty much all kinds of drawing and graphics tools, such as markers, broad pens, calligraphy and art pens, and calligraphy brushes will create solely the graphic shapes with well-defined edges. Whilst you will be able to vectorize most of the marks you create, which means that technically it will be possible to enlarge them to any size, consider what size you want the elements in your patterns to be. Especially, if you are creating marks which have a lot of details in them, which might not look fantastic when enlarged. Of course, this is also a matter of personal preference, but a general rule which I like to follow if I know that I might be using large elements in my patterns, is to create large marks to begin with, so if anything, I would need to scale them down, but not up. So if you're after large, nice-looking marks, you might need to use inks or pens and larger brushes or other types of applicators to easily create marks in any size. But if you're off to solid graphic shapes with pretty clean edges, regardless of their size, you can use markers, calligraphy pens, liners, or other kinds of pens which create marks with well-defined edges, which can be vectorized and blown up in size and still look pretty good. So these are the main things to keep in mind when picking what materials to use to create your marks. Since there are many different options and going through all of them in detail will take too long, I have attached a PDF which has a tools and materials comparison chart with some visual examples of marks and tips on how they should be best used. So be sure to the download it from the attached resources in the project tab and refer to it for more details. Again, don't worry if you don't have a lot of tools and materials to experiment with. Just grab what you have at hand and join me in the next part, where I'll be sharing with you ideas for making abstracts pattern elements. 4. Ideas for Creating Your Pattern Elements: What marks you decide to make for your buttons is completely up to you. One of the reasons why I love abstract patterns made from handmade marks, is how experimental the process is and that you can fully express your individuality and create unique designs. You might already know what marks you want to create, but to help you get started, here's a short overview of different marks you can create. Firstly, you can create different individual marks. These can include different lines, waves, zigzags, arcs, random squiggles, spirals, or coils. Almost symbolic shapes for example crosses, lightning bolt, ticks, love hearts, or any other symbols you might want to do. If you're into hand lettering, book calligraphy, you can also consider creating some letter forums without compositions because, why not? The character of this marks will depend hugely on the tools you're using because most of them will be strong base. So when creating this marks, explorer scale and the relationship between the size of the elements and the width of the brush pen or any other applicator you're using. You can also create geometric shapes, blobs, or organic shapes. These can be created as outlines or as failed shapes. When creating outline versions of this type of marks, explore the relationship between the size of the mark and the thickness of the outline. If you are creating sealed shapes, pay attention to the edges of the marks and refine them if necessary. You can also try creating elongated marks or strokes, which can be then made into continuous button elements or arranged in the patterns as they are. You can also consider creating some more experimental or expressive marks, which will be different depending on the tools and materials you are using. For example, you can use the tip of a brush and rub it onto the paper, or you can press a brush onto the paper sideways like this. Independent on the type of the brush, you will create different marks. If you're off to some rough marks, you can roll your brush on paper or you can drip [inaudible] paint or ink from it. So go weld and experiment. Apart from creating separate marks, you can consider creating marks in clusters. Which then can be used as they are and treated as one element with an A pattern or design, or can be rearranged into a surface button with some small adjustments. Generally, there are two ways you can go about creating earmarks. You can either create a number of separate marks and then mix and completely rearranged them digitally to create repeated buttons, or you can create a basic composition for a pattern tile consisting of different elements on paper right away. Then just tweak it later digitally to make it repeat. The latter is great. If your batter is creating an arranging elements on paper. The way you want to use a lot of different elements in your pattern. The former is great if you want to have a lot of building blocks to experiment with digitally. Both ways are good for different reasons. So I suggest you experiment and see what works best for you and the patterns you have in mind. So that's a quick overview of different marks and approaches to try out when creating them on paper. I have included all of them as a PDF download for this class. So be sure to download it, refer to it when you start to create new marks, and try out different suggestions. For more inspiration and mark making examples. Be sure to check out my Pinterest board dedicated to handmade marks, used in designs and patterns linked through which you can find in the north to this video and in the class description. In the next part, I will be sharing with you some technical tips for creating consistent and experimental marks. 5. Technical Tips for Mark-Making: All your marks will look differently depending on what tools and materials you choose to use, the size in which you create them, and the way you go about mark making. In this part, I will share a few tips to help you create marks of a desired character and keep them consistent, as well as a few ideas for creating experimental marks. First of all, find a comfortable position to work in and keep the angle at which you apply marks consistent. If you're creating marks using the large brushes in the work and on a horizontal surface, I recommend doing is extending up, that is will make it easier to keep the brush on the same angle. Next, consider the motion with which you create your marks. You can create marks carefully and slowly to have more control over the shapes and make them more predictable, or you can create mark fast and make them more dynamic. In some cases, more off and aggressive and maybe a little unpredictable. Practice how you start and finish your marks, if you are working with liquid media, the way you put down a lift your mark making tool will affect the shape of your mark, so don't trash and see what motion now allows you to create marks your after. If you want to have sharp endpoints on your marks, you might need to double back on yourself. This can be a little tricky at first, especially if your brush or nip is running out of ink or paint, but practice makes perfect. Try to keep your marks within a certain scale. Consistent scale is important to be able to have the same level of detail across different marks, if they are going to be used together in a piton and kept in the same relative scale to each other. This will make your work look more considered and realistic. If you are using liquid media, you can create very different marks depending on how much paint or ink you pick up with a brush or any other type of applicator. Using a brush which is not fully loaded, will allow you to make marks bismol texturing them increase, streaky, uneven marks. Esoom brush will make it easier to create solid graphic shapes, keep the edges cleaner and create olga strokes which are evenly filled. Change in how much pressure you apply when working with liquid based materials will allow you to vary the thickness of the marks. This is particularly useful if you're using pointy assaults artist brushes or calligraphy brushes, this will allow you to create a lines of varying thickness for all the mark by changing the amount of pressure you apply while creating them. If you're using dry media, consider applying a good amount of pressure to make darker marks so they are easier to digitize. If you're not used to working with your chosen tools and materials, your first marks might look a little unconfident, but don't worry and carry on experimenting to get more confident and to find a way of creating marks which suits you. Remember that ultimately, there is no right or all the way to create marks, so let go and enjoy the experimental process. Mark making is pretty addictive and you might end up creating way more than you anticipated, but all the marks you create can have a number of different applications besides patterns. It is a win-win in any case, even if the number of marks you have in front of you is a little overwhelming, and if like me, you're creating a lot of different experiments using different tools and materials, consider labeling your experiments so they can be quickly identified in future. Create as many different marks as you want and when ready, move on to the next stage of digitizing your marks. 6. Digitising Your Handmade Marks: To digitize your marks, you can either scan them, which is the best way. Or photograph them, if you don't have a scanner available. If you scan in your marks before you start, make sure that they are dry. If you have used some volatile material such as chalk pastels or charcoal, fix it to paper using a spray varnish, or hairspray. Scan in mark is a pretty straightforward process. I'm going to be using the inbuilt Apple software for scanning, which can be found in the printer and scanner section of the system preferences. All of the basic settings which you read will be the same regardless of what software you are using. First of all, you'll need to create a pre-scan overview. After it is done, define a selection of the area you want to scan like this. Then set the color mode to black and white. We won't need color, and this will save you time converting images to grayscale later and take less space on your hard drive. Then set the resolution to about 1200 DPI. You can go a little higher or lower, say to 600 DPI. But in any case, don't go below 300 DPI as this will affect the image quality and the file size. I'm going to use 1200 DPI because it is the best compromise between the size and the level of detail. In the file format options choose TIFF, which is uncompressed and saves images in the highest quality. Give all your scans understandable names and number them, specially if you have good old of things, go scan. If your scan scanning different media types, include it in the filename, for example, like I I'm doing here. That's about it for the scanner set up. You don't need any advanced settings which can vary in different software. So when ready, take a scan and wait for the results. If you're scanning at a higher resolution, this might take a while. So make sure you don't move or shake your scanner while it is scanning. Scan all the marks you want to use in your patents, and put them together in a separate folder so it is easy to find them later. If you don't have access to a scanner, you'll need to digitize your marks using a digital camera or as a last resort, a phone camera. If your photographing marks, make sure you do it in an even light. Good natural light, close to a window, but without direct sunlight, it's best if you're working with reflective media, such as acrylic or inks, specially if you're planning to use the roster versions of your marks. Not just surfaces so consistent and clean. If you're photographing in natural light next to a window, you can use a sheet of white paper or card to reflect light and get an even exposure. Dependent on the size of your marks and what you want to create, you need to think about how close you want to photograph them. If you don't want your patent elements to be very large, you can photograph the whole lot together. On the other hand, if you want to have large elements, then you need to photograph each element or area closer. Whichever approach you take, try to photograph all your marks to be used in the same patent from the same distance to ensure consistency in scale and detail. When photographing your marks, make sure your images are sharp and everything is in focus. So keep your lens parallel to the paper. When you've taken photographs of all marks you want to use, transfer the image files to your computer, put them in a separate folder, and rename them for easy reference. So one way or another, digitize all the marks you want to experiment with. Then let's move on to cleaning and preparing marks to be used in patents. 7. Initial File Prep in Photoshop: After you have digitized all of the marks, but before you start using them in Illustrator to create patterns, you will need to open them in Photoshop and make a few changes and adjustments to them to be able to achieve the best possible results when using them. So open the first image file containing your marks in Photoshop and let's quickly prep it for use. The marks you have created can be used in many different ways besides patterns. So it is a good idea to keep the original scans or photographs untouched so you can always access them as they are. If you have scan or photograph your marks in a TIF or JPEG format, respectively, the first thing to do to ensure that you don't override the original file is to resave it right away in a different format. So press command Shift S,or Control Shift S in windows to open the Save As dialog, and in the Format option here, choose PSD. Saving your marks, which we're about to edit in a PSD format, will allow you to have a document with multiple layers and keep all the adjustments within the document so you can copy them into another file which requires the same edit or reference the settings in the future. You can keep your files under the same names as their original versions in another format. So just set the format here to PSD and click Save. After you have saved a new copy of the document, double check that your file is in GrayScale color mode. If it is not, go to the menu Image, Mode, and select GrayScale. Keeping your document in GrayScale is particularly important if you want to use roster images in your buttons within Illustrator. So be sure not to skip this step. Because of how Illustrator interprets image size, you will need to change the resolution of your images in Photoshop to 300 dpi if you have scanned them at a high-resolution or photographed them at a lower resolution. So go to the menu Image and select Image Size. In this dialogue, firstly, set the units to pixels and copy one of the pixel dimensions values you see here. Then, make sure it says pixels per inch here and change the resolution to 300. After this is done, you will see the pixel values change. Now, makes sure that width and height values are linked and then paste the value you have copied in the respective field. By doing this, you'll change the resolution of the document but keep the pixel dimensions as they were, and that's what Illustrator will take into account when you start placing the roster images into it. After this is done, see there is something and that's a Bicubic Sharper, then click Okay. So that's the Initial File Prep done. Now, we can start cleaning up and adjusting the image to have nice clean marks to use. 8. Cleaning & Adjusting Your Marks in Photoshop: To create clean, consistent, and high-quality patterns using your digitized marks, you will need to quickly adjust them and remove any dirt or defect. First of all, go to the layers panel, which you can open from the window menu if you don't see it in your workspace. Here, click on the Add New Fill or Adjustment layer button and select levels. As soon as you enter a new levels adjustment layer, the properties panel containing the levels auctions should pop up. Here you can make any adjustments you need. Start by dragging this white point indicator to the last. This will make the paper background in your image lighter, and the objective here is to make the background completely white. To make it easier to see whether there's anything else in the ground, hold down the Alt key then you drag the white point indicator. This will change the view. So you will be able to spot any artifacts. Try not to blaze the image too much as it will affect the look of your marks. If you cannot get rid of the specs or do it on the background completely, don't worry, yes you can manually remove them instead. After you have adjusted the white points in your image, you can also adjust the black points by moving the black point indicator to the right to make the darker shades in your image darker or black. If you want, you can adjust the contrast within the image by moving the midpoint indicator here. If you're working with a scanned image, this will be a pretty straightforward process. But if you are dealing with a photograph which doesn't have an even exposure fraud, you might need to use a number of levels adjustment layers, and add masks to them to compensate for differences in exposure. Start the same way I've just shown you, but if you see some darker areas after applying the first levels adjustment layer, go and add a second one above. Select it and adjust the levels so there's no darker background areas left. This will make the lighter areas to light. That's when the masks are useful. Click on the "Layer Mask" thumbnail for the second levels adjustment layer in the Layers Panel so it shows a frame around it. Then select the Brush Tool and set it to soft round brush in the Options bar here. Then increase it's size, which you can do either for the Brush Options here, or by pressing the square brackets on your keyboard. Then set the foreground color in the Tools Panel to black, and paint away the areas, you should go to bleed by your second level adjustment. Using a large brush size so you can work faster and create smoother transitions between areas with different lighting. If you accidentally paint away too much, set the foreground color to white and paint this adjustments, but in like this. After you have sorted out the levels in your image and your background is now white and even, you can do some menu retouching to hide any dirt or specks on the background, or even to clean up the shades of marks, so you don't destroy the original image before you do any retention. If your background layer is locked, unlock it by double-clicking on it in the Layers panel. Then select it. All adjustment layers in your document, and group them together by pressing Command G or Ctrl G in Windows. Because we have used nondestructive adjustment layers, you can revert to any state of the image at any time, or even drag this adjustments over to another document of the same original light levels. Keep this group safe. Then create a copy of this group by dragging it over to the New Layer button here. Hide the original group, and then select the visible one above and press Command E, or Ctrl E in Windows to merge it's quantums into one layer, which you can now retouch as much as you want. There are a number of retention and cleaning methods, and a lot of different tools which you can use. One of my favorite tools is the Spot Healing brush, which can be used for removing specs from the background and for retouching the marks. To use this tool, set the type in the Options bar to content aware, and set the size and hardness here depending on what you are cleaning up. Then simply click on the areas you want to retouch, for example, like this. I usually keep hardness set to about 80 percent to blend pixels together, but to avoid creating smudges in my marks. But be sure to try different options to see what works best in each particular case. Using the spot healing brush, you can also retouch the edges of the marks to some extent. But if you want to clean them up quickly and predictably, you can also do it by using the brush tool. So you don't destroy this layer, creates a new empty layer just above it. Then select this empty layer, switch to the brush tool, set it to a small hard brush, and set the foreground color to white. Then if you have some details in your marks which you're not truly keen on, carefully paint all over them, for example, like this. After you have cleaned up your image, if you have created a separate layer to paint over your marks, group these two layers together. Then replicate this group and emerge the quantums of the copy in the one layer. Now, this layer can be used to copy marks to place them into an Illustrator document so you can vectorize them. If you want to create solid calligraphic vector marks, the prep is done and you can skip ahead to the next part. But if you're planing it to keep the texture within your marks and want to use them in their original roster look, there are a couple more quick steps. Before you carry on preparing new marks to be used in their roster form, check out how sharp they are. If you want them to be a little sharper, select the Immersion layer with your adjusted marks, then go to the menu filter, sharpen, and select Unsharp Mask. Check preview here, and adjust the settings until you like what you see. I usually keep fresh whole set to zero, radius set to between 1 and 2 pixels, and the amount set to between 50 and 100 percent. A little bit of sharpness is good, but don't go over the top because you can always easily make your plan will work sharper, but making it less sharp and more natural is not as easy. Apply changes here, and now onto the final preparation step. Go to the menu, select Bold selection. Make sure that the channel here is set up background gray, check invert, and make sure that new selection is active here, and click "Okay." You will see the selection appear in your document. Now, hide all layers and groups in your document, and create a new empty layer. Select it, then set the foreground color to black, and press Alt Backspace to fill in the selection for the black color. Working with a selection this way and then fill it with a black color instead of removing the white background from the image ensures that you won't have any other colors in your marks apart from black with varying levels of transparency. When you start using and coloring them in Illustrator, you will have nice clean colors and no white [inaudible] which will be visible if your marks a place over a dark background. Because of how this process works, there is some room for experimentation if you want to have more opaque marks in comparison to what you see in your first filled selection. What I like to do is create two more empty layers, then select the one in the middle and press Alt Backspace twice to fill in the selection twice, which makes it darker and more opaque. Then I select the top empty layer, and fill this selection in three times like this. In the end, I have three layers within the same marks. The first one, which is filled in the ones in this quite light and translucent into darker and more opaque alternatives, and name them accordingly. 1x fill, 2x fill, 3x fill so it is easy to remember what's what and when it comes to place in these marks into Illustrator, I'll have a choice which one to use. I recommend you do the same if you want to have more flexibility when you start using your roster marks within Illustrator. That's all the prep done. deselect everything by pressing Command D or Ctrl D in Windows, those and save your PSD file with your marks which are now ready to be used in Illustrator. Repeat the same process with other image files containing your marks which you want to use in your patterns. Keep them open in Photoshop so you can copy and paste them into an Illustrator document which we're about to set up. 9. Setting up an Illustrator Document: Now we are ready to move on to using Illustrator. First of all, we need to create a new document. You can create it in any size you want, but there is a little trick to keep in mind. Because of how Illustrator works, the relationship between the size and resolution is not very straightforward. If you are planning to export your work at 300 DPI and especially if you want to use roster elements, if you are set in the art board size menu in pixels and not using any of the print presets here, make sure you set the pixel size to be quarter of your desired final export dimensions. For example, if you want to create a 4,000 by 4,000 pixels work at 300 DPI, you will need to set up a 1,000 by 1,000 pixel document in Illustrator. Then finalize the size of the exported image in Photoshop. It might seem confusing and weird, but that's what you have to do. I am going to create a 1,200 by 1,200 pixel document. Which means I will be able to easily export images at 72 DPI in the optimum size for most social media and create pretty large images of 5,000 by 5,000 pixels when exported at 300 DPI. I'm going to be using pixels as units throughout the whole process, but you can use any size and units you want. When you set up your document you can choose the number of art boards to create. Art boards are used to export final artwork in the desired format. That's what these dimensions refer to. You can change the number of art boards and their dimensions from within the document while its working. To begin with, you can create just one art board. For this class, we won't be needing any bleeds which are used as a runoff area for print, so keep them set to zero. In the advanced options which you can open here or by clicking on "More settings" in older versions of Illustrator, select the desired color mode. If you're creating work for print, select CMYK. If you are creating work for digital purposes or for print using services which accept files in RGB, select RGB. I'm going to work in RGB. Raster effects don't really matter in this case. But I usually set them to 300 DPI just in case I decide to use some for example, green later on. That's the document setup. Before you proceed give your document a name here, something relevant to what you're creating. When ready click ''Create'' to create your new document. After creating a new document, press Command S or Control S in Windows to save your document. Select where you want to save it and set the format to AI. Then click "Save". The document is now ready and you can start bringing your marks from Photoshop into it. 10. Bringing Your Marks into Illustrator: There are several ways to address our images to illustrate our documents. But because of the way we are going to be using them in illustrator, the fastest way is to copy and paste them from the photoshop documents. In the photoshop document contained in your marks, choose the layer which has the version of the marks you want to copy. Select the merged one with the white background if you want to vectorize your marks or any of the layers with transparency if you want to use them as rooster elements. Then switch to the rectangular Marques tool or Lasso tool, and create a selection around the marks you want to use in illustrator. Use the lasso tool to select all the shaped marks so you don't get the bids of other marks into the same selection. Double check that you have the correct layer selected, and press Command C or Control C in Windows to copy this election. Then go back to your illustrator document and press Command V or Control V in Windows to paste them in. You can select all the marks or just a few of them. If you want to vectorize your marks, copy them across as one selection. On the other hand, if you want to use your marks as rooster objects, it is best to copy and paste each mark separately. Easy to save time later on. If you want to place all of the marks from the same document and vectorize them together, sometimes with working with screech files, you will not be able to copy the large selection to the clipboard. In this case, just bring them in a separate selection. After you have added all marks you want to try using in your pattern to your illustrator document, you can either vectorize them or keep on using them in their rooster form. I will be using vectorized elements for my demonstration for the rest of the class and they will highlight any differences for using the rooster elements along the way. But most of the process will be the same regardless of whether you're using vector or rooster elements. Apart from the next two parts about characterizing marks, which you can skip if you planning to only use rooster elements in your patterns. 11. Vectorising Your Marks: To vectorize your marks, you will need the Image Trace panel. Open it up for the Window menu. Using the selection tool, select the image containing marks you want to trace, zoom in so you can see them closer, then go to the Image Trace panel, and straight away set the view here to Tracing Result, enjoy the preview option at the bottom of the panel. When the initial tracing preview is done, you will see your marks as a vector shapes and the result will depend on what marks you are working with and it will trace in settings where used by default and now you can adjust all of the settings here to get the best result possible. Firstly, make sure that mode is set to black and white so you will only get solid black shapes without any shades. Then open the Advanced Options here and check, "Ignore White." When you image is traced, you will only have shapes which you see in black color and no background to worry about. Then uncheck "Snap Curve To Lines" option here to create smoother looking shapes. Make sure that create is set to fills and the method is set to the first option here to create separate cutout puffs. These settings are going to be universal regardless of what you are tracing. But to fine-tune the tracing result, you will need to work with these sliders here. The threshold set in controls how much of the original image will be converted to black, and what will be kept as white. One hundred and twenty-eight is a midpoint and if you increase the value, you will get more black shapes in your tracing result, and vice versa. Experiment was the setting because it is all about personal preference and all marks you're working with. The offsetting controls how precise the tracing is in relation to the original shapes. The higher the value the closer the traces will be to the original shapes. With low values, the result will look smaller and have less points. In most cases is we'll produce safe and reasonable results at around 50 percent but be sure to try other options for comparison. The corner setting controls how many sharp bends in the shapes will be converted in the corners. At higher values, it reduces the number of points and consequently the amount of detail in the tracing result which can make the marks will cluster realistic at close inspection. So keep it in mind if you want to use the marks in a relatively large-scale and try out different values to find the optimum result. The noise setting controls how much detail you will have in your tracing result. At higher values, it creates less points and less detail, but at low values, you can get something too fussy. But it all depends on the marks you are vectorizing and your personal preferences. So there is no right or wrong here. Most importantly while adjusting all of these settings, be sure to keep an eye on the number of anchor points shown at the bottom of the image trace panel. The more points, the longer it will take to process the image. Don't forget that you are going to be creating repeating patterns using your traced marks. So if you have a mark made out of polygons or points, your computer may slow down considerably when you start using it in a pattern. So try to keep this number as low as possible when adjusting these settings. After you have got your after and the number of points looks reasonable, click on the "Expand" button in the Control Panel here. If you don't see this button, roll to the Object menu, image trace, and select, "Expand." This will convert your traced image into puffs with a black till color. If you go to the Layers panel, you will see all of the paths your marks are made of contained here in a group. If you are tracing several marks, you will need to spend a few moments to create individual compound paths for each mark. To do this, select the group with all marks and the press "Command Shift G or Control shift G." The Windows to ungroup the selection, you might need to do it a few times in the tracing result contains groups within groups. Now using the selection tool, select your first mark, including all of the details around the edge of the shape. Basically everything which should be seen as one mark. Then press "Command 8 or Control 8" in windows to create a compound path from the selection. Compound path effectively turns multiple shapes into one manageable object. So before you move onto using numerics, repeat the process with all of the marks you have traced. So that's the basics of tracing your marks in Illustrator. Next I'll show you how you can clean up and simplify your paths to make things a little easier for illustrator to handle and then will be ready to start making patterns. 12. Simplifying & Cleaning Vectorised Marks: Creating patterns from trace elements can take a while to process, especially if your computer is not very powerful or if your marks are very complicated. If you're dealing with some shapes which have a huge number of points, there are a few things you can do to make your shapes more manageable. You can also use the same techniques if you want to adjust or tidy up your shapes if you feel that they are a little rough. The quickest and easiest method of reducing the number of points in your marks is by using the simplified path function. To use it, select a mark you want to adjust, enroll to the Object menu Path, and select Simplify. In the Simplified path options dialog, firstly check preview. When applying the default settings, the preview might look pretty awful. But don't worry, because you can adjust these settings to get the result you want. The main purpose in using this function is to reduce the number of points in your marks. Here, you can see the number of original points and the number of points after the adjustments are applied, so keep an eye on these values. Was playing around with the settings above. The curve precision slider controls how close in your shape will be to the original one. The higher the value, the less changes you will see here, but even when the curve precision is set to 100 percent, most likely, the number of points will be reduced so you won't need to go far down. In keeping this value between 98 and 100 percent, will allow you to reduce the number of coins whilst keeping your marks detailed. The angle threshold below controls how smooth or sharp the shapes are. A higher value means more sharp corners which result in more points. But when reducing the curve precision, high values in angle threshold help keep shapes closer to the original. I usually set the curve precision to 99 or 100 percent, and adjust the Angle Threshold setting if it doesn't increase the number of points too much, so there is still a reasonable difference between the original and current number of points. Straight lines option here, I usually keep unchecked, and they recommend you to do the same, to have smooth curves in your marks. If you want to quickly compare your adjusted mark with the original, you can do it either by turning the preview of an on again or by checking the shore original option here, which will show an outline or the original shape. When you are happy with the level of your adjusted paths and the reduced number of points, click "Okay" to apply changes. If you want to simplify a number of marks of similar size and level of detail, you can select them all and simplify them all at once using the same settings. But if you're working with different marks, or just want to individually adjust each mark, work on them separately. If you want to clean up your marks and remove some elements from them to make the shapes a little simpler, you can use the Eraser tool and remove any bits you don't want. To change the size of the eraser use the square brackets on your keyboard and make it small enough to work around finer points and details in your marks. For example, like this. When you're using the Eraser tool, keep an eye on new paths in the Layers panel, and if you somehow manage to split your marks into a number of paths when you are done using the Eraser tool, combine the shapes back into a compound puff by selecting them and pressing "Command 8" or "Control 8" in the Windows. Another thing you can do to manually adjust and clean your shapes is to use the Smooth tool, which is located under the same button as the Pencil tool in the Tools Panel. To use the Smooth tool, firstly, use the Selection tool to select the shape you want to adjust. Then switch to the Smooth tool and start painting around your marks edge, like this. This tool is particularly great if you have created some not very rough marks or organic shapes, and we want them to be a little smaller in certain parts. There's a few ways of adjusting and simplifying your waterized marks. Use any of these techniques when and if necessary, and remember, it is all about finding the balance between the number of points and the look of your marks. Either way, get all of your shapes ready and be sure to save your Illustrator document so you don't lose any data. Now, we can finally move on to creating patterns. 13. Creating Patterns: Introduction: Adobe Illustrator makes it super easy to explore different kinds of patterns, tile them in a number of different ways, and create pattern iterations. There are a few different techniques which you can use to create seamless patterns, and in this class I will be sharing with you how to make the most out of using the pattern options tool to speed up your patterns making workflow and enable you to feel your pattern portfolio with a lot of different patterns very quickly. In this class I'm going to share with you how to create patterns from single element tiles, patterns from multiple elements, and patterns from continuous elements which run for the pattern tile. Each of the following parts will technically build on top of each other and increase in complexity as we go along. I will be sharing different tips and tricks along the way so be sure to watch all of the parts in the right order so you don't miss anything useful, and have a full picture of all of the different things to try out when creating your patterns. The first two approaches can be used with both vectorized and raster marks. While the third approach can only be used with vectorized shapes as adjusting continuous raster elements to make them seamlessly repeatable is another story, and a separate for the shop technique. Which I might add to this class there's an additional video in the future. Let's begin by exploring what you can do when creating patterns from a single element tile, and at the same time check out all of the different settings the pattern options tool has to offer. 14. Patterns from Single Elements: While I was creating a pattern using a single element might seem like something very basic, using just one element allows to concentrate on the different tiling options and experiment with different amount of negative space in your pattern, and scale of the pattern elements. All of which significantly affect the character of the patterns. You can use any element you want. For demonstration, I am going to use this ink brush mark here, which I have already edited in Photoshop and traced in Illustrator. To begin with, we'll be exploring pattern composition. To avoid getting destructed by colors, for now, keep your mark in a black color and roll into color and pattern elements later on. I'm going to be creating patterns from this shape in a new document, which is set up exactly the same way as I have shown you earlier in this class. I like using separate documents for different kinds of patterns generally. But when working with hand-made marks it is also a good idea because otherwise Illustrator might start lagging because the vector shapes are quite complex. When working with raster elements working in separate documents also allow us to keep the files a little more manageable. Before I start creating patterns, I like to hide the artboards so I don't see any destruction lines behind my pattern. To hide the artboards, press "Command Shift H" or "Control Shift H" in windows, and use the same shortcut to bring them back later. To create a pattern from one element, select it with the selection tool, and then go to the menu "Object, "Pattern," and select "Make." This will launch the pattern editing mode in which you can create seamless patterns straightaway, see how your patterns will look when repeated, and explore different options in the "Patterns Options" panel which will pop up. All of this other options which will affect the way your pattern is created. In these ones though, adjust the real options which will only affect what you see here. To see a preview of your repeated pattern, in the copies drop down here, choose the desired number of copies to be shown. Five by five or 7 by 7 is usually enough to spot any issues and get a good view of your pattern. Just below the copies menu, you can check "Dim Copies" and set that a positive value. This is a great option which makes it easier to see which elements are from the original file, and which ones are copies generated as a preview. This is particularly useful when working with more complex patterns. But I usually have it set to about 70 percent and uncheck this option when I want to see a proper pattern preview. Below, there are two checkboxes for displaying tile and the pattern edges. The way they loop will depend on the tile type you select and the other settings here. Keep 'Show Tile' checked so you can use it as a reference. Uncheck 'Show Swatch Bounds' so you don't get confused by them. Before you start experimenting with different tile of options and settings, uncheck 'Size Tile to Art' and 'Move Tile with Art' options here. So you can freely resize the tile and move pattern elements. So this is the initial setup done, and it will be the same for every pattern. Now we can start exploring all of these options in creating different patterns. By changing the size of the pattern tile, you can control how much spaces there is between the pattern elements. This is super useful when working with a single mark. If the tile is larger than your mark, there will be gaps between the copies. If it is smaller the marks will overlap. If you make your marks overlap, you can control the way they are arranged with these options here, which are pretty self-explanatory. Technically, the same effect can be achieved if you check 'Size Tile to Art', and instead insert the desired spacing values below. This is good when you have specific spacing values in mind. But in most cases, I stick to controlling spacing with the tile size instead. Because it works better with all sorts of patterns. You can change the width and height value separately from each other, or you can link them together and change them simultaneously. Whichever way you use them, it is always a good idea to keep these set to whole pixels and avoid decimal values. So explore the settings and see what you can create. Using just these tile of settings makes it easy to create array of different patterns. But the best feature available in pattern options is the ability to choose between different tile types and the offset options. The standard grid type repeats elements in a grid going up, down, and sideways. Brick by row and brick by column allow to offset the tiles horizontally or vertically. For both of these tiles types, you can select different brick offset values, and they will be on standard half drop will have brick repeat. The last two hexagonal tile types will create more complex repeats by tightening directions offering more options for you to choose from. All of these options will enable you to create a lot of different patterns very, very quickly. So go wild, experiment, and see how many different patterns you can create from a single mark of your choice. The great thing about using the pattern editing mode and pattern options is that without leaving this view, you can create multiple pattern swatches, which can be then used to fill in shapes. So when you like what you see, simply click on the 'Save a Copy' button here. This will save the current state of your pattern as a new swatch, and you can carry on editing it here afterwards. When working with a single element, you can also experiment by scaling it right here if you want. Just keep in mind that you can also scale the pattern itself when it is applied. We will look at it later in this class. So there is no need to create multiple scale versions, if the only difference between them is the size of the elements, but the spacing is changed proportionately. As technically it will be exactly the same pattern and it just creates extra work. Instead, concentrate on experimenting with different amount of negative space in different tile types. If working with raster elements, use them at 100 percent scale as they were added to Illustrator. After you have created a number of different pattern swatches, click 'Done' to save your last buttons swatch and exit the pattern editing mode. If you ever need to edit any of your pattern swatches in future, simply double-click on the desired pattern swatch in the "Swatches" panel, and this will open it up in the pattern editing mode. So that's the basics of creating repeating patterns from a single element, and using the pattern options tool. Experiment with creating a few different single element patterns and explore different tile types, and different amount of negative space in your patterns. Next, let's have a look at creating repeatable patterns from multiple elements. 15. Patterns from Multiple Elements: The next technique I am going to show you is slightly more complex and involves creating patterns tiles from multiple elements. For these type of patterns, you can use any elements or shapes you want. For example, it could be different versions of the same type of element. It could be multiple copies of exactly the same element. It could be a combination of completely different shapes mixed together to create exciting and playful patterns. To start creating a pattern out of multiple elements, select all elements you want to use, and don't worry about their arrangement just yet. After you have selected them. Go to the menu Object, Pattern, and select Make. Now in the pattern editing mode, the first thing you need to consider is the size of the tile. It doesn't need to be the final size just yet. But it is a good idea to create a tile which we'll be able to fit all of your elements to begin with. The size of your tile versus the size of the elements, will dictate how tight or loose your pattern will be and even though your pattern density can be easily changed and I will show you how later on, start with the size of your tile, which will make it easier to arrange everything the way you want it to be. I'm going to start with the 500 by 500 pixel tile. Double-check that the move tile is art option is not selected and keep the rest of the settings in the patterns options the same as we used before. Before you can start arranging elements within the pattern tile, you need to decide how you will do pattern to repeat and set the tile type option accordingly. It is important to make this decision now because depending on the complexity of your shapes, it can be quite tricky to change this later, after the pattern has been arranged. I am going to use the simplest tile type method here, which is grid. But feel free to experiment. If you're using just a range of marks which are not prearranged in any way. Before you start working on your tile, you can select them all and drag them all away from the tile so you don't see them repeat and can concentrate on properly arranged in everything from scratch on an empty tile without getting distracted by random elements. If you are working with a number of different shapes and you don't need to perfectly align them with each other, go to the View menu and uncheck Smart Guides if they are checked. You can arrange a patterns elements anyway you want and it is completely up to you whether you start building your tile from the center or from one of the corners. I am going to start from the top left corner. As I find it easier to work out how everything can repeat when I'm working with a pattern options to start by selecting the first element using the Selection tool and drag it into a desired position. You can also rotate and scale your elements when position them. To make this process faster and avoid switching between different transformation tools, use bounding box around your selection, which can be enabled for the View menu if you cannot see it when an object is selected. If you are scanning your elements, remember to hold down the Shift key if you want to constrain their proportions. To rotate an object using the Selection tool and the bounding box, place the cursor just outside any other corners or middle points of the bounding box and then drag the cursor whilst holding down the mouse patterns. After placing the first element in your tile, you will see how it is repeated. You can now start adding more elements to the tile and arranging them to create a desired composition. This process is experimental, so you just need to start placing the elements and take it from there. Creating patterns takes a lot of tweaking to get everything just right. But being able to see real-time preview of all repeats is a huge help and you can easily spot any uneven gaps between the elements by looking around the copies. You might also want to reflect some of the elements to create a better dynamic flow or create more variety if you're using the same or various similar shapes. To reflect an element selected, press the O key and then hit Enter. This will open the reflect dialogue. In here, you can choose which way you want to reflect your element. Select the desired reflection option, and click OK to apply changes. Then press V to switch back to the Selection tool. You can carry on arranging your pattern tile. Whilst arranging your elements, you might realize that the tile is too big, then you cannot cover it with the elements you've got or it is too small to create the desired gaps. If this happens, simply try changing the tile size here until you like the way your tile repeats and then tweak the elements in your pattern to create an even an unbalanced composition without any obvious uneven gaps between the elements and without having any elements which stand out from the rest. In most cases, a surface patterns should not have one or a few specific points which draw your eyes and it should have a consistent flow throughout. Unless your goal is to deliberately create a pattern with a focal point in it. Take your time getting the space in arrangement of the elements just try it, and when you're ready, click down to save your pattern as a swatch. This approach will work for any patterns which have different elements, which are arranged in relation to each other to create an even coverage. Because of the shapes used in this pattern, it was one of the more complex patterns to arrange and to get everything working together and create a nice flow and coverage. But there are other types of shapes and arrangement. Some of them will take less work. Remember that you are not limited to create these arrangements. You can go for a more grid-like arrangements, like here or here. If you want to create a pattern with a more even gridded arrangement of elements, most of the process will be the same. But when you start arranging the elements on the tile, make sure to take advantage of the distributed options on the Align panel to create even gaps between the shapes. To do this, select all of the shapes you want to distribute, either vertically or horizontally in one line and then go to the Align panel, which you can open for the Window menu if you cannot see it in your workspace. Here, set align to selection and then distribute your shapes either vertically or horizontally, dependent on what you want to do and if your object were not in one line to begin with, you can align their centers or sides using these buttons. When working with this patterns made from similar shapes, finetune the scale and rotation of all of the shapes so they all work well with each other. When creating even gridded patterns like this, the tile can be made out of just one line of elements, or it can be made out or groups of elements arranged in a number of rows and columns, which can also be offset from each other to create a different design within that pattern and together with different tiling options, this will allow you to create a few different patterns from the same elements very easily. You can also turn your single element pattern tile into a multi elements patterns tile, which consists of a number of the same elements. To do this, simply copy the Mark a few times, and then arrange all of the copies on the tile. This might seem like something weird to do, but it can be really useful for taking your patterns filter and creating patterns iterations from them by randomizing the position of the elements, coloring them into different colors within the patterns, or in the elements and we will look at all of these techniques shortly. This is the second technique for creating repeating patterns. Next, we will have a look at a more complex approach to creating repeating patterns from continuous elements. 16. Patterns from Continuous Elements: The third type of buttons, which I am going to show you how to create, contains continuous elements. We should go for the pattern. This means that these buttons are more complex to create, because you have to adjust the shape to make the patent seamlessly repeatable. Unlike the previous two techniques, which can be used with vector and raster elements alike, the following technique can only be used with vector shapes. As an example, I am going to use these radial lines, which are created using a five millimeter, so that calligraphy pen. You can use any types of shapes or lines. For example, straight lines, zig-zags, lines created using different brush heads, always varying thickness. You can start to adjust one element. To keep it simple, we're going to use a number of elements. In any case, the technique I am about to show you is the same. Place your shapes in the center of your art board. If your shapes are rotated on a funny angle, rotate them, so that they are all either horizontal or vertical, to begin with. Then select the line segmented, in the tools panel. While holding down the ''Shift'' key, draw a line which is a little bit longer than your shape, like I'm doing here. If you have horizontal shapes, do the same thing, but make your line horizontal. After you have drawn your line segment, go to the tools panel, and set the stroke color to black or any other color, so you can see your line. If you have more than one continuous button element here, select the line through the selection tool and drag it, although one of other marks was holding down shift and hold keys, it doesn't need to be aligned precisely, as long as it goes roughly from the middle of your mark. Repeat the process until all of your future pattern on elements, [inaudible] line segment, roughly placed over their middle. After you have the required number of line segments, select all of them, but make sure you do not select any of the pattern elements. Then go to the align panel, select aligned tool selection, and then evenly distribute your line segments, using one of these options, depending on whether you're working with horizontal or vertical lines. After you have done this, press ''Command'' G or ''Ctrl'' G into Windows to group them. Then change the aligned tool option to art-board, and align this group to the center of your art board, both vertically and horizontally. This action will most likely of serfdom from your marks. But it doesn't matter because we will move into Marks in the moment. Next ungroup this lines by pressing ''Command'' G or ''Ctrl'' G in the windows. All these lines still selected, right-click on one of them, and in these menu, which will pop up, select, make guides. When you do this, you should notice your lines change that color to whatever color, you have set for guides. Now you can move your marks back, so they're roughly centrally aligned with the guide. Next on the lyceum marks, and think at which point, you can curve them at both ends and join them together, to make them seamlessly repeat. In some cases, the shapes will dictate where the marks should be joined. For example, if you are working [inaudible] waves was exact. In other cases, if you are working with straight lines, you can choose yourself. Select the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle from one side to another, marking where the original seam can be created. Your rectangle can be any size, but it should be shorter than your marks, and you shouldn't leave some space around them in the direction, where there are no seams. Once you have created your rectangle, will alter the transform panel, and adjust it's dimensions to sound even more precise, in the whole and even the pixel values. Remember or note down this values because you will need them later to create seamless repeats. If you're creating a pattern from vertical elements, know the height value, and know the width value, if you are working with horizontal shapes. After that, go to the align panel and align your rectangle horizontally and vertically to the center of your art-board. Then with the rectangle still selected, right-click on it and select main guides. The guides created with this rectangle, will be the edges of your pattern on tile. This preparation might seem a little pedantic, but it really makes creating patterns from continuous, but uneven marks easier and when it is done, you can move onto adjusting the marks, to make them seamlessly reputable. Adjusting marks, might take more or less effort dependent on what kind of marks you are working with. For demonstration, I am deliberately using this waves, to show all different things you might need to do. But if you are working with straight lines, it'll take less steps and less effort. So the points where your rectangular guide and the linear guide intersect, is where your paths can be trimmed and then reconnected. So you need to make sure that the shapes at the opposite ends of your marks are aligned. There are a number of different ways, to adjust the shapes. My favorite, is by using the puppet work tool. If you have an older version of illustrator and don't have this tool available, you can read about an alternative tool in the note to this video and apply the same logic when using it, as I'm going to show you in respect to the puppet work tool. To use the puppet warp tool, firstly, select one mark, you want to adjust, using the selection tool. Then switch to the puppet work tool and click on the distinctive parts of the mark, where it changes direction. For example, after edging the pins, you can start dragging them around and this way, transform you mark in a desired way. Your main objective is to align these parts, so that they can be easily joined together. But you can also use this tool to fine tune your shapes. It makes things a little smoother, straighter, or more even if you want. Because of how this tool works, more than one pin, will affect other segments. So you might need to slightly tweak all of them to get the desired result. So play around with this tool and you will quickly get the hang of it, and that will be able to adjust the marks in no time. Go through all of the marks, you want to use in, your pattern and repeat the same process to get the future connecting parts roughly match. After you have adjusted all of the marks, switch to the rectangle tool, and create a new rectangle exactly the same size as the one you used to create this guide. Then select it and align it centrally to the art board so it is exactly in the same spot as this guide rectangle. After this is done, switch to the direct selection tool and select and delete two opposite sides of this rectangle, which do not go across any marks. You should be left with two lines. Now, select these lines and all of the marks of your future pattern and the go to the Pathfinder panel. If you cannot see it in your workspace, well open it from the Window menu. Here, click on the Divide button. This will cut all your marks along these two lines. Ungroup the results so you can see individual paths in the Layers panel. Select all end bits and delete them. You are on the left, use the marks within this rectangle. Then look for the paths in the Layers panel, then delete any paths which do not have any fill color which was created between the marks when we applied the Pathfighter divide option. Depending on what marks you're working with, you might end up with a lot of separate paths for each mark. So go through every mark one-by-one. Once again, create compound paths from each of them. When everything is sorted out, switch to the selection tool. Select all of the marks and go to the Transform panel. Refer back to the height or width [inaudible] of this rectangle depending on in which direction your elements should repeat and the go to the x or y position value. Subtract half of their respective dimension of value of the rectangle from it. Simply type in minus four or by the required value after the position value you see in the respective field and press "Enter." Keeping your marks selected, press command C or control C in Windows. Then press command F or control F in the windows to paste the copy over the shapes in front so that they are exactly in the same position. With the copy in front selected, go back to the Transform panel. In the same field as the previous time, get the whole respective dimension value of this rectangle by typing in plus followed by the number, after the position value you see in the required field or like this. You should see two copies of each mark, which touch in the middle. Now, you can join your marks in pairs and clean up the points where they connect. To do this, firstly, select a pair of touching marks, go to the Pathfinder panel, and then click on the Unite button. This will join the two shapes together. Repeat the same process for all other pairs of shapes. After merging shapes together, you will end up with some small or not so small kinks along their edges dependent on how precise you were when adjusting the shapes. Next, you will need to remove these. This can be done in a few different ways. You can select a mark, then switch to the pen tool and move the cursor or a point you want to delete. You will see the pen cursor with a minus symbol. Now, you can simply click on this point to delete it and then on any other points around the middle of your marks to make your marks seamless. Alternatively, you can use the direct selection tool. Select individual points or a number of them by shift clicking on them and then carefully merge your selected points into position using the arrow keys, or by carefully dragging them with your mouse. Apart from these two tools, you can also use this move tool, which we have already looked at earlier in this class. Carefully workaround emerged parts to make the shapes smoother. If you do use this move tool, make sure you don't modify any other parts of the marks, especially those along the rectangular guide. Otherwise, your marks won't tile seamlessly. So adjust the middle areas of all of the marks any way you want and remove the seams where you have united them together. After you've have adjusted all of your marks, switch to the rectangle tool and create a new rectangle yet again, exactly in the same size as these guide rectangle. Then centrally align it with the art board and the guide rectangle and go to the Object menu. Arrange and select, "Send to back." This will place this rectangle below all of these shapes on the same layer. Keeping this rectangle selected, go to the Tools panel and set both the fill and stroke colors to none. Then select the rectangle and all of your marks and drag the selection into the Swatches panel like this. After you have done this, deselect all of these shapes. Then double-click on the new patterns which you have created and it will open in the pattern editing mode. Because we have placed an unpainted rectangle below all other elements, it has been used as a mask as you will see if you go to the Layers panel. All overshooting elements are now hidden and the tile size is determined by the size of the mask. Now, if you need to adjust the arrangement, or spacing of the elements in the direction which doesn't affect the tiling, go to the Layers panel and inside of the mask, select any pattern element which you want to adjust and merge it into position using the arrow keys. Make sure not to do anything with this unpainted rectangle which defines the mask and is now on top of all other elements. Also, If you want, now you can go to the Pattern Options panel and change the dimension of the tile, which doesn't affect the seams. In my case, I can change its width. When you are happy with the position of your pattern elements, click "Done" to update your pattern. That's how you can create a seamless pattern from continuous vector elements. Even if it seems very laborious to begin with, with a little bit of practice, you'll be able to create these patterns very quickly. These were three different types of patterns and now you should have enough to experiment with. Create as many different patterns as you want. Next, let's have a look at some quick and easy ways of creating pattern iterations. 17. Quick & Easy Pattern Iterations: One of the main reasons why I prefer using Adobe Illustrator for creating patterns, is how easy it is to create a lot of different pattern iterations once you have your base pattern ready. In this part, I am going to show you a few quick ways of taking a pattern and transforming it into a number of new patterns, which will have a completely different feel. As an example, I am going to use this pattern I have created from a number of triangles. The tile looks like this, and it is repeated in a grid. To create an iteration of your pattern, firstly, you will need to create a copy of the patterns swatch in the "Swatches" panel. To do this, simply drag the desired pattern swatch over the new swatch button here. Here's a copy of the original patterns swatch and you can now double-click on it and edit it anyway you want and not worry about destroying the original pattern. To create iterations of your patterns, you can scale, rotate, reflect, and move objects within them. All of this can be done manually if you wish, but you can also do it using the "Transform Each" function, which can be found under the "Object" menu. It is a huge time saver because it allows to easily and quickly generate tons of different pattern variance, which can be as predetermined or as accidental and experimental as you want them to be. Let's check it out. Select all of the elements in your pattern by pressing the command A, or Control A in Windows. Or if you're working with a pattern within a clipping mask, go to the "Layers" panel, and shift click to select all of the pattern elements, but don't touch the rectangle you used as a mask. After you have selected all of the elements you want to transform, go to the menu "Object", "Transform", and select "Transform Each." This will open the "Transform Each" dialogue, which has a number of different options for transforming your pattern elements. Before you start doing anything here, be sure to check "Preview", so you can see all of the changes as you make them. Then set the reference point here to center to make it easier to work with and predict the transformation results for each object. In the "Options" here, make sure that "Transform Object" is checked. Now let's have a look at how we can transform all these elements. The first, and probably one of the most useful "Transform Each" option for creating pattern iterations is "Scale". If you're working with an extra elements, you can change their scale up and down and by doing it, basically change how much empty space you have in your pattern. But if you are working with raster elements, make sure you only scale the elements down to avoid pixelation. You can scale all the elements and maintain aspect ratio by setting both horizontal and vertical values to the same number. Or you can distort elements by using different values. It will depend on what you want to achieve. When I design my patterns, I usually create a number of versions with different element density by changing the scale values in a uniform way. For example, first of all, I will create a pattern with a 75 percent scale of all elements. For this pattern iteration, I won't be changing, any other settings here. I will keep "Random" unchecked. All elements will change their size to 75 percent. If it was checked, each element would change size to any random value from the range between 75 and 100 percent, which is also a good option, but I will save it for a separate pattern iteration to save a new pattern swatch based on these changes, firstly, you need to apply "Transform Each" settings, by clicking "Okay" here. Then click on either "Save a Copy", if you want to carry on creating iterations from this pattern, or click "Done," if you want to work with something else. If you save a copy, and then decide that you want to go back to the way the pattern looked originally, make sure you do not undo the last steps to get to its previous state. Because this will also undo creating a new your pattern swatch. Instead, after saving a copy with a new pattern version, click "Cancel" here, and then go back into editing the pattern swatch you were editing before like this. Using a copy of your original pattern, select all of its elements. Again, go to the menu "Object", "Transform Each." If you are going to use it a lot, it is handy to memorize and use this shortcut, which I will be using from now on. Now you can create another scale version of your pattern or apply any other changes to it. I also scale to 50 percent, so I will have an even looser pattern. I recommend you to follow the same process and create a few versions just as different scale values, uniform and non uniform, if you want to have a number of patterns to choose from when applying them, as each of them will have a completely different character. Treat scaling elements in your pattern is an exercise to create versions of your patterns with different element density. Don't worry about the actual size of the elements in your pattern just yet, as you will be able to scale the whole puzzle when it is applied, and rule into it a little bit later. Now let's have a look at the other "Transform Each" options. I will continue working with what I have here, but you can open the copy of your original pattern or any other patterns swatch you want to use. Again, select all pattern elements, and open the "Transform Each" dialogue. This window always opens with the previous settings you've applied. Remember to set the scale value back to 100 percent, if you don't want to change the scale of the elements whilst changing other settings here. Another way of creating pattern iterations is by randomly moving pattern elements. To do this, firstly, we need to check "Random", and then adjust the "Move" settings here. This is an experimental process, so you need to play around with these values, in watch what happens with your pattern, and stop when you like the result. When "Random" is checked, each pattern element is moved by a random value between zero and the number you save here for horizontal and vertical directions. When you are using the "Move" options here, keep an eye on your pattern preview, and make sure that all pattern elements are still within or touching the tile edges here. But other than that, you can experiment as much as you want, and your pattern will still be similar. Click "Okay" when you like the new arrangement of the elements, and save in new pattern swatch. After randomly moving each element, you can also have a look at different tile types and offset values to randomize the local field pattern even further, and to avoid having very obvious element clusters which are repeated throughout. Remember that after moving elements using the "Transform Each" function, you can finalize your pattern by manually moving some elements around to create a nicer flow and distribution of shapes in your pattern. Don't forget to save separate pattern swatches for all different pattern arrangements that you like. Another thing you can do is rotate all the elements within your pattern. Again, open a "Transform Each" dialog, and reset the scale values back to 100 percent, and move values to zero pixels. Now let's have a look at the "Rotate" option. Depending on what you want to create, you can use a set rotation angle for all elements if you keep "Random" unchecked. Or you can check it, and randomize on what angle each element is rotated. If you're working with random values, the result is not very predictable. Just change the angle value until you get the composition you like. This is the third fun option you can experiment with using the "Transform Each" function. You can also use them in combination with each other all at once, or apply them one after another, as I have just done with this pattern by firstly scaling its elements, then moving, and then rotating them. The benefit of applying different settings one after another is that you can create more pattern versions, but you can go about it any way you want. Here, you can also check boxes for reflecting objects vertically and horizontally, which can be useful though reflection cannot be randomized and it is applied to all elements the same way. If you're working with patterns made from continuous elements, you can easily create pattern iterations from them too. But when you do, make sure you change their scale only on one axis, the one which doesn't affect the way pattern is repeated. For example, if you're working with vertical elements, change the horizontal scale, but keep the vertical scale set to 100 percent. Also, avoid moving the elements in any way which will affect their tiling and avoid rotating them. On the other hand, reflects in elements should be okay. Experiment with different "Transform Each" settings, create as many pattern iterations as you want, and don't forget that you can always adjust individual elements manually to fine-tune your patterns and make your pattern elements arrangement work with the tile type and upset value you have selected. Next, we'll have a look at how you can create different versions of your patterns by coloring and layering elements within them. 18. Colouring Your Patterns: So far, we dealt with the shapes and structure of patterns and creative iterations by change in the tail type, modifying the arrangement, and transforming pattern elements within the tile. The next logical step is creating pattern iterations by using different colors and by layering pattern elements. Let's begin with coloring. You can recolor old partner elements in one color. Just some rather than black, or you can use multiple colors. To color all elements in your patent into one color, select all of them, and then fill them in with a new color, either by setting a fill color on the tools panel and using the color picker, over choosing a color swatch in the swatches panel. You can use any colors you want and in this class I'm not going to go into choosing and combining colors, but if you want to learn about it, be sure to check out the color related parts in my other classes, links through which you can find in the notes to this video. If you have some color swatches you want to apply to your patterns, load them through the swatch libraries menu button here. Find your swatches in the user-defined section, if you have added them to the illustrator folder, or click on the other library. Make your swatch file stored elsewhere on your computer. For example, I have this swatch group which I love. To edit to my swatches, I just need to click on this folder icon here, and there's a group will be added to my documents swatches. Now I can easily apply any of these colors to the elements in my pattern. If you're using the roster elements in your pattern, you can also easily recolor them right here in Illustrator. But to be able to do this, your roster elements have to be in gray scale color mode set in Photoshop. If you're using transparency, which you showed, you will only be able to recolor them using spot colors. Spot colors have a dot in the corner of the color swatch thumbnail in the swatches panel. If the colors you have in your swatches are not spot colors, you will need to convert them. To do this, double click on the color swatch you want to convert, and in the swatch options dialog, set color type to spot here, and click Okay to apply changes. Then repeat the process and convert all other colors you want to use the color roster elements to spot color swatches. When this is done, go and applies both colors to the elements in your patterns, and save color version as a separate patterns swatch. Another thing you can try is recoloring your partner elements into two or more different colors, and that we'll have in pattern tiles consisting of multiple elements, even if they are just copies of the same work is very useful because it allows a lot of room for experimentation. When you use multiple colors in your pattern, be sure to pay attention to how your pattern looks when repeated. Using different colors can help to create a certain rhythm in your pattern. But it also can create some undesired focal points, so make sure your color distribution is even, and there are no elements which jump out. So far, we have been creating patterns which have no background as such. That's what I usually like to do so that I can easily lay my patterns in the background when applying them and not worry about creating even more patterns swatches. Part of the reason why I don't like creating patterns swatches with backgrounds, is that when creating patterns from scratch, using the button options tool, adding background gets a little tricky due to the way the patterns are generated. If you have any elements which go outside your tile, they are parts which fall outside the tile will not be visible in the repeats, and they will be covered with a background rectangle instead. If you really need and want to include a background color in your pattern swatch, you will need to make sure that all objects in your tile are actual objects and not generated copies. The fastest way to do this is by extracting a patterns swatch, which will be regenerated based on what you have here, but contain all of the elements required to be within a tile, which can be repeated in a simple, grid fashion. You can preview the boundaries of this repeated area if you check this box here. In most cases, it will look very different from your original tile shape. But there is no need to worry about how complex it is, as you can easily extract this pattern swatch. To do this, exit the pattern editing mode, and then drag the desired switch to the art board like this. Here you will see all of the pattern elements and an unpainted rectangle below them, which determines the size of the patterns swatch. Make sure you don't move any elements around and go to the layers panel and locate the group containing your patterns swatch. There locate the unpainted rectangle at the bottom of the group and create a copy of it by dragging it above itself while holding down the Alt key like this. With the second rectangle selected, now you can go and fill it in with any desired color. After this is done, make sure that the unpainted rectangle is still at the bottom of the group. Tilted rectangle is just above it, and all other pattern elements are above both of them. Then select group and drag it back into the swatches panel to define a new pattern swatch. Now, if you open it, make sure you don't change the size of the tile, or move pattern elements at the edge of the tile as it will stop the pattern from being seamless. If you want to add a background this way, you should do it after all other pattern manipulations. When using multiple colors in your pattern after you have worked out the way the colors are distributed, you can easily swap them around or replace them with some other color swatches. To do this, select all elements in your pattern tile, and then go to the menu, Edit, Edit Colors, and select recolor artwork. In the recolor artwork window, check recolor art here, and go to the assign mode. If you're happy with the colors used in pattern, but just want to swatch them around, click on the button here. If you want to experiment with applying some other color swatches you have in your document, select the desired color group here, and then cycle for different color variance using this button. You can also manually edit each color using these color sliders or recolor your pattern in the Edit mode using the color wheel. If you need to learn more about using different options of the recolor artwork tool, you can do it in my other classes. Thanks to which you can find in the notes to this video. After recoloring your pattern in desired way, click Okay to apply changes, and make sure you don't save changes to the color swatches. Then don't forget to save a copy of your patterns swatch feature in your new colors. If you have some overlap in shapes in your pattern, using multiple colors can also help to add an effect of layering and depth. I will share a few tips about layering the pattern elements in the next part. 19. Layering Your Pattern Elements: Your pattern might already have some overlapping shapes, which you can color differently to create a layering effect. But to create a more complex layering, you can consider adding even more elements to your pattern, which can be the same elements as already used in the pattern, or some other elements copied from elsewhere. As an example, I am going to use these pattern, makes from randomly arranged copies of the same mark, which already have two different colors applied to them. I could add some other shapes to this pattern, but better, let me quickly show you how you can push these patterns further in a different way. let's stick into only use in purpose of the same shape. Firstly, I will copy all these elements, then paste them in the front by pressing "Command F," and assigned a different color to all of them. After pasting and recoloring popular elements this way, it is always a good idea to retain the whole selection with the new pattern elements, so they don't cover what's below. Then they can manually layering all of them, and layer them with the other elements by moving them around, and using their Arrange options which can be found in the Object menu or applied using this shortcut, which are extremely useful to remember. Apart from the menu or rearrangement of the pattern elements, you can also consider using the Transform Each functions which we looked at earlier in this class. If you want to apply the same transformation to all elements colored in the same color to save yourself some time manually selecting all of the elements, you can just select one of them, and then go to the menu Select, Same, and select Fill Color. Or if you have this button in the Control Panel, you can do it from here. Then open the Transform Each dialog, and set up Horizontal information using any of these options depending on what effect you want to achieve. Apply changes, and then rearrange the elements order using the Arrange options if you want to lay that object in a specific way. Whilst you're experimenting, remember to save different stages of your pattern development, then separate swatches to have more to choose from, or to be able to easily go back to a specific stage later, and create something else based on it. Experiment, use layering in your pattern elements. Check out how you can mix different marks. We use the same marks in different colors or sizes. Keep in mind all the tricks and techniques covered previously in this class including Transform Each function, the Recolor Artwork tool, and the Arrange shortcuts, and create as many different pattern iterations as you want. Next, we will be looking at how to get the most out of use in pattern swatches when applying them to shapes, and creating designs. 20. Tips & Tricks for Applying Your Patterns: After you have created all of your pattern swatches, it is time to explore how you can use them to fill in the shapes and create surface designs. Before you start applying your pattern swatches, check what you have visible in your document and hide any of the layer containing your pattern elements or any other developmental materials, so they don't get in the way. Then create a new layer to work on. To apply a pattern, firstly create a shape in a desired size you want to fill with it. I'm going to create a square in the same size as I have said for my art board and align it to it. To fill your shape with a pattern, select it and then set its stroke to none. Then make the field color active. Then go and apply the desired pattern swatch to it. Applying pattern swatches seems like a very straightforward thing. But there is much more to it because there are also plenty of possibilities to transform patterns within the object they fill-in, which allows to create a lot of different surface designs, even when using just one pattern. If you select a pattern-fill object with the "Selection Tool", and then press "Enter". This will open up a Move dialogue here and check transform object and give the transform patterns checked. Now if you start changing any of these values, you will be moving the pattern within the object. While as the object will stay where it is. Make sure that the "Preview" here is checked, so you can see the changes before you apply them. Being able to move the patterns within the object they used to fill is a very useful if you need to perfectly position your pattern. For example, aligns with the shape in a certain way, or make sure that a certain fragment of the pattern is in a desired spot in the overall design. In a similarly , you can change the scale of the pattern within the shape. To do this, select the pattern, switch to the "Scale tool" and press "Enter". Again, uncheck transformed object here. Make any desired scale adjustments here, and apply changes. Scaling patterns within the shape is very useful, is it allows you to fine tune the scale of your pattern in relation to the overall format very easily. You can also very quickly create a number of scale alternatives without needing to create separate patterns swatches. Apart from changing position and scale, you can also rotate the pattern within the shape. To do this, select the pattern-filled shape. Then select the "Rotate Tool" and press "Enter". The process here is the same, uncheck "Transform Object", set the desired rotation angle and apply changes. Using this technique, you can very easily and quickly go from a vertical or horizontal pattern to a pattern going on an angle which will have a completely different fill, in comparison to the original. But the great thing about transforming patterns within the object is that the transformation settings will be kept even if you choose to apply a different pattern swatch to the object. If you click on the swatch for the second time, it will reset the transformation settings and use the pattern swatch in its original form. Since you most likely have a number of patterns watches in your document, you will need to create a number of artboards and objects to fill with them. To do this, switch to the "Artboard Tool", make sure that "Move/Copy Artwork with Artboard" option here is active. Then drag your artboard sideways both holding down "Alt" and "Shift" keys. When you create equal to your artboard, check its position value here and make sure it doesn't contain any decimal point. Create as many artboards as you need for your patterns. if necessary, change size of the individual artboards using these settings in the control panel. When you have all your artboards ready. If you have the latest version of Illustrator, you can click on the "Rearrange All" button here and setup how you want your reports to be displayed by setting the number of columns and space in between the artboards. If you don't have this option available, you can drag the artboards manually to rearrange them in the desired way. When all of the artboards are ready, switch to the "Selection Tool" and go and apply different pattern swatches to all of the shapes. Or experiment with different transformation of the pattern within the object we just apply it to and create multiple pattern application iterations. If you have created pattern swatches, which you don't have a background, you can also lay your actual patterns when applying them by creating two or more pattern-filled shapes or each other, and filling them in with different patterns. The quickest way to do this is by copying one shape and then pressing "Command F" or "Ctrl F" in windows to paste the copy on top and then assign a different pattern swatch to it, in combination with different transform options I have just mentioned. This way, you can create a whole range of different surface designs, even if you're starting with just a few pattern swatches. Play around and see how you can combine and layer your patterns. If you haven't already added a background to your design, you can quickly do it now by copying a pattern-filled shape, pasting it in place, and then sending it to back. Then whilst it is still selected, assign in the desired fill color to it. Experiment was applying your patterns and don't forget that you can also copy shapes filled with patterns from one document and paste them into another if you want to layer them or to use as parts of one overall design. Create as many different surface designs as you want. Next, we will have a look at management pattern swatches and extracting pattern tiles for use outside illustrator. 21. Managing Your Pattern Swatches in Illustrator: By now, you should have a number of Illustrator documents with pattern created from different elements and their various applications. This is all great if you just want to use them separately and export them as they are. But if you want to be able to use them in any other document without needing to copy a pattern field objects every time, you will need to save your pattern swatches as a swatch library. To save your pattern swatches, go to the swatches panel and removal anything you don't want to be in your pattern swatch library. Just keep the pattern and the colors used in them. Then go to the menu in the top right corner of the swatches panel and select save swatch library in AI format. You can save your swatches inside of the Illustrator swatches folder but it is also a good idea to store them somewhere else for safe keeping. To access your pattern swatches in any other Illustrator document, load them through the swatch library menu button here. If you want to collect pattern swatches created in different documents in one swatch library, the easiest way to do it is to load them all in one document and then add them to these documents swatches, which might take a bit of time dependent on how many separate libraries you have. When you have all of this swatches in the document swatches panel, save a new swatch library and you're done. This is useful if you want to keep all patterns in one place or share them with someone else. But if you are keeping them for your own use, having separate libraries containing different types of pattern can be better, as it will be easier to located any specific pattern. If you're working with roster elements and want to be able to use your patterns in Photoshop or if you just want to be able to use your pattern outside Illustrator, you will need to extract a pattern swatch. This is a similar process to what we have done when adding a background to a pattern swatch. So make sure you are not in the pattern editing mode and then go to the swatches panel and drag the desired pattern swatch from it. After this is done, go to the layers panel, located the group with the pattern swatch. There select the unpainted rectangle at the very bottom of this group and drag it outside, in just above the group containing all the pattern elements. Then select both the rectangle in the pattern elements and press command 7 or control 7 in the windows to create equilibrium mask. So [inaudible] your pattern tile, double-check that the size of this style isn't a whole pixel ratings here and if it does not select the whole mass group for the selection tool and bring the values to the closest whole numbers. If you want your pattern swatch to contain a background color and it currently has none, you can do it by copying the rectangle, which is used as a mask. Fortunate, at the very bottom of the group containing your pattern element and fill in it with a desired color. If you have a creative Cloud version of Illustrator, now, you can add your pattern tile to your creative cloud library to be able to access it in the other apps or you can export your pattern tile to be used in any way outside Illustrator and we will look into export in your pattern tiles as well as export in [inaudible] surface designs in the next part. 22. Exporting Patterns for Use Outside Illustrator: Whether you want to export your finished surface design or an extracted pattern swatch, the process is the same. Firstly, make sure that what you want to export is placed on an artboard, and that the artboard size corresponds to the size of the design or patterns swatch you are exporting. If you need to add a new artboard for your extracted patterns swatch, simply switch to the artboard tool, and click with it on your pattern tile. The most important thing to double check to ensure that everything will be exported perfectly is the size and position of your artboard. With your Artboard tool active, check that the size of the artboard doesn't feature any decimal pixel values. Then set the reference point to any corner, and double-check that the position values you see here are all whole numbers. If you move any artboards, make sure you move the designs with them. If necessary, switch back to the selection tool and realign them using the align tool, so everything is placed perfectly. When all of your artboards and designs are placed correctly, you can export them in any desired format. If you need to export your work in any raster format, go to the menu "File," "Export," and select "Export As". Pick the desired format here, then check "Use Artboards" and either use "All" or specify artboard numbers you want to export. Click "Export" when ready. In the next "Options" window, make sure to select "Art Optimized" anti-aliasing to export smooth shapes and avoid graphic artifacts in your exported files. Set the desired resolution. If you're exporting your work for online use, you can set the resolution to 72 dpi, and if you're exporting for print, best set it to 300 dpi. After exporting your work at 300 dpi, If you open it in Photoshop and open the image size properties, you will see that the pixel dimensions of your image, are four times larger or 4.16 times larger, to be more precise, than the size you have set your artboards to in Illustrator. If you want and need to, now you can reduce the pixel size here, but keep the resolution set to 300 dpi if you need a smaller high-resolution image. Sometimes exporting at resolution higher than 72 dpi will result in having an extra pixel around your work, even if you have a perfect artboard position in Illustrator. This is particularly annoying if you're exporting pattern swatches to be tiled outside Illustrator. To work around this issue, instead, you can export your work in PDF format and then resave it in any design raster format in Photoshop. To export your pattern swatch as a PDF from Illustrator, go to the menu "File", "Save As", here, select Adobe PDF format, and again specify an artboard or artboards you want to save. Choose the desired location to save your file, and click "Save". In the next dialog window, go to "Marks and Bleeds" settings and make sure nothing is chipped here. Then click "Save PDF." After your file has been saved, go and open it in Photoshop. In the Import PDF dialog window, which will open, select the page or number of pages you want to open and double check that the resolution here is set to 300 dpi. Click "Okay." After opening your file, inspect the edges to ensure that there is no extra pixels around and resave save this file in any desired raster format. It will be good for using in any desired way. Apart from saving the pattern swatch in a raster format, if you want to use it as a pattern in Photoshop, select the whole document by pressing Command A or Control A in Windows, and then go to the menu, "Edit" and select "Defined Pattern." In the next dialog, give your pattern a name, and click "Okay." Now, you can use this pattern to fill selections or pattern up your layers in Photoshop, but this is a different story. If you need to learn how to use and make the most out of the pattern of your layers in Photoshop, be sure to check out my class, create an organic abstract patterns in Photoshop. That's how to export your work from Illustrator in a little trick to overcome technical glitches to ensure that you have a perfect pattern tile to use outside Illustrator. Next, I will share a few final tips and ideas for using your patterns and wrap up this class. 23. Final Thoughts & Conclusion: Remember that using different tools and materials will allow you to create very different marks and patterns with different aesthetic qualities. So if you're after a specific look or just want to experiment, try out different media, and refer to the materials overview given in the beginning of the class and shared in the PDF document which you can download from the class resources. There are a lot of ways you can use and apply your patterns, including using them in printed products, which you can easily create. Using print-on-demand services like Society6 or Spoonflower, you can package them together and sell as digital assets on platforms like Creative Market, or you can use them in your own design project or product. Regardless of how you want to use your patterns, it is always a good idea to create some more caps to see potential applications which always make your patterns come to life and look even more exciting. Remember that all handmade marks you create and digitize can also be used in separate designs or art works which are not seamless repeats, so keep them handy and experiment with putting them together in different ways. When using your patterns in designs together with other graphic elements, consider experimenting with combining them with no fonts clean sans-serif typefaces, geometric shapes with crisp and clean edges, and the thinly stroked shapes and linear elements to achieve contrast and add more visual interest to your work. If you want to combine different patterns together, either to use as a part of one design or as a collection, there are a few considerations to keep in mind, and I cover them in my class, creating trendy designs using abstracts patterns in the Illustrator, so don't hesitate to check it out. If you need some more inspiration and ideas for creating and using your patterns, don't hesitate to check out my Pinterest boards dedicated to mark making and abstract patterns, links to which you can find in the notes to this video. If you love patterns and want to learn more different techniques for creating patterns and pattern elements, be sure to check out our popular class, creating trendy abstract patterns in Illustrator and creating organic abstract patterns in Photoshop to add more different techniques to your creative toolbox. That's it for this class. I hope you have enjoyed it and learned something new. I would be really excited to see your patterns and how you decide to use them. So be sure to share you experiments in the project section for this class, and tag us @altitudecreative and use the attitudeskills hashtag when you post your work on Instagram. Don't forget that for the first three weeks of this class, we will be running a special contest, and you can win one year of Skillshare premium membership. To participate, post your project in this class before Wednesday, 17th of April, 2019, leave a class review, and follow us here on Skillshare. If you like this class, please leave a review so more people could discover it. If you have any sort of questions, leave a comment on the community board for this class, and I will happily answer and provide feedback. Remember that there are a few downloads guided to this class which you can find in the "Your Project" tab here. There are a lot of notes [inaudible] to the medias containing additional information for clarifying certain points, so be sure to read through them. Be sure to follow us here on Skillshare to be the first to know about our new classes, and don't hesitate to follow our page on Facebook to see what we're up to, get all the latest updates, send us private messages if you need to get in touch about something, and not to miss if you're featured in our students spotlight gallery. Thank you for watching this class and I hope to see you in our other classes.