Magical Patterns: Simple Watercolors and Pencil Drawing

1. Intro: Hi, there. My name is [inaudible]. I'm an artist and illustrator. You might have come across my work over the Internet, over books, and magazines. I spend my time between London, [inaudible] which is my home town. Today, you're welcome to my class at my current studio in [inaudible] I would like to teach you some techniques which could be very useful in your commission and personal artistic projects. First of all, I will show you how to create a pattern from any kind of drawing or painting. I promise you will be amazed by [inaudible] how simple it is to create a telling pattern. I'm sure you will find a way to use it in your practice. I also will share with you my secrets of drawing and give you some insights of my creative process. For the last 10 years, I've been supporting myself by drawing and taking part in the artistic projects. So I just want to let you know it is possible to make a living as an independent artists. That's why I decided that it is time to share my experience with you and make a useful class. I specialize in drawing, painting illustrations, [inaudible] and [inaudible] by nature and mostly I draw plants, minerals, stones, and the universe. I sell rings and I also do visions of various products such as, for example, a new collection of silk scarves with my pattern sprayed to the lead. I love my job because all I need to do is to develop my own stamp. The more I wear it, the bigger is my audience and therefore more people are interested in working with me. In my class, I will demonstrate a few ways of creating patterns from either a detailed drawing or then a single watercolor painting. Then I will show you how to edit in color into Photoshop. As a result, we will have and the timing image ready to be printed in wallpapers, clothes, posters, or anything else, such as these card deck or silk scarf. This lesson will teach you a traditional approach and modern that involves a post-production process that I personally find very useful for creating an outstanding graphics. It is a perfect class for designers, illustrators, or anybody who wants to create something new. I hope you will enjoy and get inspired to learn some creative magic. Thank you for your attention. Let's start. 2. Creating a Simple Texture: Hello, and welcome to my class. I would like to share with you my love to the watercolor technique. I would say beside the simple pencil, watercolor is my main tool. I get my inspiration from nature and I find water colors very organic and alive. All my minerals were created with watercolor, maybe that's why people like it the most from my portfolio. I have to admit that I do a lot of post-production to make a final crispy illustration of the mineral. I prefer to use rational watercolors which are made in my hometown, St. Petersburg. Since we have white nights during the summertime, the brand took this notion as a name for their famous watercolors. As for travel ling set, I use the English watercolors of the best quality. Now, let's try to do a quick, easy, watercolor painting for transforming it into a pattern. Stretch your watercolor paper to prevent wrapping. Also, you can use a block of paper that's compress stretched, meaning the pages are glued together on all four sides, ready to be painted on. The weight and texture of different papers influence the painting a lot. Watercolor paper is divided into three categories according to the surface of the paper, rough, hot pressed, and cold pressed. I prefer to use cold pressed. It is the most commonly used watercolor paper surface as it allows for a good amount of detail while also having some texture to it. I love water color texture. I like to combine different paintings in Photoshop. Now, I will demonstrate the creation of the marble pattern for a background of those finished paintings. Choose the paper that fits your style the most. Then finally, good watercolor. I have three brushes, one will be enough. You can use a watercolor pencil, it's optional. Then you can use a sponge or a napkin and a masking tape. I have a small watercolor paper here, and I find it very practical to use outdoors. All your tools will fit into a small pocket. It is amazing. Of course we need water. So let's start. As for the reference, we would need a picture of the marble. Or if you have a real object, it is always better to look on the real thing. Luckily, I have a piece of marble in my studio. Look how beautiful it is. It's always hard to start. I'm using one of my favorite colors called indigo, because the white in watercolor comes from the white of the paper, not the paint itself. The usual advice is to paint from light to dark. To start with the lightest colors and tones and build your way up to the darkest. A masking fluid or tape is very useful for blocking of areas where you don't want the paint to be. It is important to check before if the paper tape works with the chosen watercolor paper. So I apply paper tape and it will remain with the rough texture after I take it off. It's really useful if we need to create a straight line. That can be really helpful to keep the lines clean. Regarding the brush, I prefer to use good quality synthetic brushes. It's better to have just one good brush rather than a handful of cheap ones that spray out and drop hairs. This wide brush is very useful for creating thin and wide lines. I need to create some vertical lines. The texture of a marble is pretty chaotic, so it's quite easy to draw. As we're creating a pattern, we don't have any center of the painting. It is important to feel it until the edges. Once a color of paint has dried, you can add additional layers of water color to add dimension, texture and collaboration. Because the lightness is already given by your paper, it is important to choose the color of watercolor paper. Color of the paper does have an impact on the painting. So I'm taking off the tape. It's not really useful here, but I just wanted to demonstrate that technique. Now, I'm taking a thin brush for getting some details. I sometimes go too much into the details. However, it is better to keep your watercolor painting clean. Watercolor paint is transparent. You can see it through the layers of color you've painted, making it near impossible to hide mistakes. But it is possible to erase some color using a sponge or a napkin. I love this, I think, because it's challenging. Sometimes it's hard to control the paint, so it's very important to relax and enjoy the process. Watercolors are fast. They dry fast and you can finish painting within one day or even half an hour. I prefer to use paper as the palette rather than a plastic pallets, so I can see how the color appears on the paper before I apply it. I think I'm close to finishing the work and looking at the result, I would say that I definitely need much less lines for the marble texture. But no worries. I always can fix it in Photoshop because I don't worry about the original piece of that particular work. Well, here's my result. Now I'm going to work in Photoshop with the picture before I transform it to the tiling image. I think it should be brighter. So I use the curves to change the contrast and brightness of the image. It is better to use the curves than the levels because you definitely have more control over it. I would say it is quite a dedicated process and it takes time. As soon as the image is ready for the pattern, go to the image size and check the pixel dimensions. You have to calculate the half a width and height sizes. Then you simply go to the filter offset and type in those measurements. The picture will be cut into four pieces and they will be rearranged. In the next scenes, I will show you how to do the same trick in their real life with an actual painting. As you can see, we have lines here and now we need to cover them by using the stamp tool. Make sure you erase all lines on the borders of these four parts of the image. It's quite an interesting process. As you're done with that, go to edit, define it as a pattern. Title your pattern. After saving your pattern, go to the right, press the little button pattern, and choose the scale of it. It is very interesting to see how the image can be tiled and repeated endlessly. You can experiment with the scale until you find the best result. So here's the marble texture that I have created in about 30 minutes. Now I'm creating a selected area to demonstrate how to fill it with this pattern. I have to create a selected area, go to the right, and again, and choose the partner. You can save your collection here. Then experiment with the scale of the pattern again. I also would like to show you the trick first rasterize the layer with a pattern, then press control or common I on the keyboard. I'll go to the image, adjustments, invert. You can get unexpected and great results while using the magical effect. I fix the levels, and I also would like to change the colors. So it looks more like a black marble with the green shades in it. So this is it. 3. Creating a Pattern with an Abstract Watercolor Painting: Hello, thank you for enrolling into my class. I would like to show you some magic here. Here is a puzzle that consists out of watercolor pieces, and I will show you the trick now. I'm having one center here with an eye and I need to swap the places of those pieces diagonally and those pieces as well. Now we're having a new center, and then up, we're changing those two pieces again and we're having new center and then back again, and an eye. I will show you how to do it. I am having watercolor pieces you have seen already and we're going to do something similar to it from scratch. This is some other drawings, the tail drawing. We will work with that in the next unit. Now we're doing very simple watercolor painting that will consist out of rounds as well. First of all, you have to take care of mixing very nice colors like your favorite ones, because the work is going to be very simple and it's really important that the colors are really great. I love something like dark blue, so I will start with the blue and then go further. Let's do it fast. I'd like to teach you how to do it. It's very easy. You start with the first layer like a base, bright color wet layer, then you just drop a little bit of color to its edge. Feel free to connect it to the neighboring circles so that the color flows through them, resulting in nice gradients and texture. Now you have to take a metal ruler or any other ruler and then measure their horizontal and vertical center, and you cut it. Be careful, it should be perfect. Then you probably know what I'm going to do next. You just take those pieces and swap the places, resulting in new empty center. Press it so it stays together, and draw again. Before scanning it, I'm adding the second layer to create more textures. As we scan the image, we need to select all four pieces using the Pen tool. It's more precise like that. Then make selection, Okay, then you take the selecting tool and cut. Then when four layers will be cut, you delete the background, we don't need it. Then you have two merge all four layers in one picture, and here I'm using the rulers. It's really helpful. When all four pieces are together, you can see the lines and we cover them by using the Stamp tool. It's really wonderful. Look how great it works. You almost don't see the lines. It takes time and we actually need to do it because you cannot avoid those lines if you merge four different images. Now we have to select the cropping tool and expand the areas so we can place four images in here. We take this image, all four layers, and copy them to check how the pattern would look like. Well, it's pretty okay, but it has some dirt in between, then you copy two parts and place this above. As you can see, there are some lines again, and I will show you how to fix it. It's better if you merge four layers in one, Command E on Mac and Control E on Windows. Now just use the Stamp tool again. Make sure you're working only on one layer, don't select the other layers. It takes time, yes, I know, but it's better to do it that way. Here, I just correct only this part of the layer, not that layer on the right. Then we just delete the rest layers and copy this corrected layer again, but make sure the one with corrections is on top. In order to make every edge of the pattern tiling smoothly, we will crop the central area of the image by finding a prominent point like this one, and then drag the crop area down to the bottom part. You have to find exactly the same point you have started from, for example, here. It should be really correct so the pattern will be tiled. I think this point. We have started with this point, and on the right, we have the same point. Now press "Enter" as you finish. Now it's going to be very easy. You just go to Edit, Define Pattern, and then you name your pattern and go here on the right and press button Pattern, and then you can change the scale, any that you like. Really easy. It's ready. No lines, no dust, nothing. It looks perfect. Then you rasterize the layer in order to make the corrections. Actually it's better to make the corrections before creating a layer, but since I just created a pattern, I would work with it now, in the saturation and levels, and I like Selective Color. Go to Neutrals and change it a little bit. Blacks as well, little bit more bluish, and whites, more yellowish. That's how I like. Then you can also take Lasso tool and select the area, and fill it with the pattern the same way. Really easy. Voila. Well, this is it. I hope you liked it and you'll be able to create something even better. In the next unit, we will do something more sophisticated. 4. Creating a Pattern with a Detailed Watercolor Painting: Here is a simple watercolor painting. We will work a little bit here and here to make it more sharp. This is a synthetic brush, and this is watercolors for traveling. This is a folding brush, which is very nice. You can put it in the box. As I live in the medical lifestyle, I needed traveling [inaudible] let's start. Now we have finished the flower and we have to cut the image in four pieces. We take the metal ruler and measure the half on each side. Metal ruler is the best if you need to cut something with a knife. Then be careful with the cutting process, so it's really straight. Now, it has been cut and we need to change the places of the pieces diagonally. Now we have an empty center here, and you have to press the paper and work in it. Let's start. We have finished the new center. I think it's okay, and we have to swap the places again to see how the flower looks like in the new surrounding. Imagine that it is going to be tiled as a pattern. Now you take these two pieces and put it on the other side. We have a new center and we have to draw in it again. Now I'm finishing the drawing and I add some thin lines. I think it's always better to do it in the very end, and it's also better to draw the darker parts in the end. I change the places every now and then to see how the pattern looks like from different sides. From any side, it is really different so you have to check it. I think it looks all right. Let's see what we have for the flower, add one last detail. Well, and now it's time to scan these drawings. We have scanned the image and I suggest you to scan the work in the high resolution, higher than 300 dp. Then we have to select the parts using the tool called Pan tool or just press the letter P on your keyboard. It's rather than just selecting it with a selecting tool. Make selection and then they have to be on the correct layer, selected and then take the select tool and cut. Now, everything is correct. You can see all layers here and we merge it, common or control E to merge the layers. Now we take in the stamp tool and it works like a magic stick. You can erase all the dust and rubbish in your image using this stamp tool. It's really necessary in this case because all these four parts, and they were not together and you cannot avoid the lines, you just be patient and correct it, clean it until it's perfect and nobody can see that there was four pieces separated from each other. Now we are working with a color of the image adjustment, selective colors and then start with gray. I always make it a little bit more blue and white, yellow and black [inaudible]. I think gray can be a little bit, needs more green in it. Curves are really important for the contrast, it's better than using levels to the curve. It's more professional, as you might know already. We can take away the dirt from the wider ground using the curve just to make the image more contrast and bright. I think it's better now. Then also, we can use a channel mixer in adjustment, select blue and then work with it. Then, our second view is hue/saturation and that's select for example cyans and change with the hue. Look carefully now, go to edit, define pattern, and then name the portion. Okay, and then go here and just press the button pattern. Then you just need to change the scale. You can make the pattern smaller or bigger. You will be able to do this changes later in the layer. Yeah, I think this is good too. Well, I hope you like it. 5. Creating a Pattern with a Detailed Pencil Drawing: Hello. Here's my recent and almost finished drawing. In order to create such a detailed drawing, you will need knife, a pencil B2, and an eraser. If you need to erase something like here, for example, you better take the knife and cut it, so then you will have a very sharp eraser. It's really handy if you need to make some very tiny adjustments. Tip number 2, it's always better to have a live model than the picture, pictures are good too. Tip number 3, it's really important to keep your pencil sharp, so make it sharp, don't forget about that. With this sharp pencil, I can draw very thin lines and I will draw some curvy lines in order to fill the gaps in the composition. If you have to add some realistic volume to the drawing, you have to add darker shades next to the edge, but not right at the age of the object, so it looks more natural. I will adjust some dark shapes to the finger and to the braid, and I will draw until I'm completely satisfied with the drawing, so it's really detailed. In order to not get bored, I listen to the audio books quite often, and just forget myself in the drawing process. When you feel satisfied with the drawing, after a while, I understand it took a while to make a detailed drawing. Proceed to the scanning and then to the post-production for Photoshop. In order to create such a clean image, you have to work in Photoshop a lot. First, you have to select all the details. It's better if you select it using the pen tool like I'm doing now. Then you select the image and cut or copy it, so it's separated from the main layer. All details in my drawing are separated, and then you have to take the Dodge Tool for the lightening. If you want to work with meat tones, next to the size, there is a bottom meat tones. If you need to work with shadows, choose the shadows. I do it in there eye, here in the drop and there in the wooden bowl, and then you have to work with the curves to make some details, small contrast, I need to make the eyebrow darker. When you feel that your image is ready to be a pattern, just go to the edit, define pattern, and name your pattern. This image is really easy for transforming it into the pattern because all the details are separated from each other. Then you go to the right, press the bottom pattern and change the scale, and vuala. I hope you like it. Now I would like to teach you how to color the image in Photoshop. You need to select the area. I'm selecting the leaves now with a pencil, and then you press "selection," and then in other parts you have to choose, "Add to selection." Not new selection but add to selection. You can use the Lasso as well, and even Magnetic Lasso for selecting the part. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work. Then you copy leaves from the image and then select pixels, create a new layer, and now you can color it with a gradient. Choose the colors, the green color's for the leaves, and then you make the gradient and change the opacity and style, darken, color burn, lighten, screen overlay, you can experiment and see what fits to the image. Overlay is predefined, then you select pixels in other part of the image and change the gradient for coloring in other parts of the flower. Pretty nice. Color multiply is always good, and the overlay is also good. I would use them both. Overlay and then copy the layer and just choose the second option. You can always change the opacity. You have to experiment with that. Now, I need to take the brush and choose the color. For example, I want to add some yellow in the middle of the flowers, choose the size and add some yellow shades, looks much more fresh now. Then I want to make it a little bit darker on the corners and the edges, then change the opacity, and you can copy some levels to make it brighter, work with levels, and always add something with the brush. But make sure you select the pixels of the layer, so you don't color the background. When you will be done with you're final image after tons of experiments with layers, you can create a very nice and easy pattern by just copying the flowers and go to flip vertical or horizontal. It's an easy way of creating a magical pattern. Another way is different, you go to image size and you calculate the half of width and height from here, and then you go to "Filter," "Offset" and insert the half of width and height here. It's the same what we're doing with our watercolor paper drawings in the previous units, but the Photoshop does it automatically. Then you fill the center with something, just take something from the same drawing, already colored, place it in the center, and go to "Edit," "Define pattern," "Name your pattern." Flower power, and I create a new document. You can fill the selected area with the pattern. It can be really useful for some things, and I will show you how the whole pattern looks like. Just change the scale here, and vuala, this is it. I hope you like it. Thank you for your attention. 6. Final Thoughts: Hey. I also would like to give you some creative tips. First of all, work with different media and find your favorite technique. Also find your unique style and symbols, so your drawings and paintings would be recognizable. Don't wait for the inspiration, start to work and it might come. If it's not coming, go to see nature or visit a museum. Stretch yourself, every now and then. It is very important to make pauses in between sessions. Try to draw or paint while listening to music or audio books. When I listen to the audio book, it helps me to get myself on the drawing process, and after, when I look at the result, I always recall some episodes from the book, which I find very interesting. I also encourage you to create an online platform with your portfolio. Well, my experience show that it is very important. I work mostly over the internet and I have a constant flow of creative jobs and offers that drop into my mailbox almost everyday. Well, this is it. I hope you enjoyed it and stay inspired and be creative. Bye bye.