Transcripts
1. Welcome: Argyle patterns
are a classic from the traditional cozy sweaters to the modern preppy revival. Argyle patterns are a super versatile style
that is clearly here to stay and they're also really
fun and easy to create. Today I'm going to show you how. Hi, my name is Chelsea. I'm a surface
pattern designer and illustrator based in
Brisbane, Australia. In this beginner friendly class, I'm going to walk you through
the entire process to create two different versions
of the argyle pattern. The first will be a square
based version, like this one. The second will be a taller rectangle version like this one. By the end of the class,
you'll have created two super versatile argyle templates that you'll be able to use over and over again anytime you want to create
a new argyle pattern. Although this class is
aimed at beginners, I do hope that
experienced designers will also be able to
learn a little something. Today, we'll be
using an ipad with the appropriate and
an apple pencil to create our argyle
patterns. Today. If you're ready to
learn the process, go ahead and grab those
and I'll see you in class.
2. Project and Resources: The project for this class is
simply to follow along with the method that you
learn in class to create your own argyle pattern. And then to upload an image of your final pattern into
the project gallery. To submit your project,
all you need to do is click on the Projects
and Resources tab. And then click Submit Project button over here on the right. Upload your images, give
your project a title, add a bit of description
if you like, and then click on the
green published button, right up here at the top. I've created a few resources to help you get started
with this class. The first is a Pintrest
board featuring a whole heap of lovely
inspiration for you to check out. As always, please remember
to only reference the images for general inspiration and never to copy from
them directly. I have also included a
J Pick with a couple of premade color palettes that you can use to help you get started. Simply import the image into procreate and then use
the color pick a tool. This JP also includes a list of example canvas sizes that will
work well for this class. I can't wait to see
what you create.
3. Basic Diamond: First things first, let's start by creating a
brand new canvas. Click on the plus icon in the top right hand corner and then click on this
other little plus icon. For this class, I'm going
to be working on a 3,000 by 3,000 pixel
canvas at 300 DPI. If you want to
create your canvas at a different size
for any reason, just make sure that
you're creating a square canvas that is at a size that is
divisible by three. Remember that I have included a canvas size cheat sheet in the resource document I
mentioned in the last lesson. Go ahead and check that
out if you need to. Okay, so 3,000 by
3,000 pixels, 300 DPI. And in case you are curious, I always have my
color profile set to this top SRGB option. Okay, Click on Create. For this lesson, we're
going to be making the most basic argyle
pattern with three colors. Two for the solid
background diamonds and another color for the
top criss cross lines. The first step is to set
your background color. I actually don't often use the background
color option here. Most of the time I tend to use a filled layer as my background. But with this particular
style of pattern, I actually find
it more useful to use the built in
background color feature. I'm going to use this
light cream color. Next, I'm going to select my second diamond color click out of layers and into
the color picker. And I'm just going to drag and drop to fill the whole canvas. Click on the arrow tool
to select that square. Click, rotate 45 degrees, and then click Fit to Canvas. You should now have
a diamond that fits perfectly within the
edges of the canvas. Click on the arrow
tool to deselect. If you want to be
really sure that your diamond is exactly
the right size, you can click on the
arrow tool again. And then click on one
of the blue nodes. And make sure that
the dimensions written here are correct for your canvas size 3,000 by 3,000
pixels is correct for me. If your dimensions are correct, come over two layers, you might have to click it twice and click the plus
to add a new layer. Then join me in the next lesson, where we will add the
criss cross lines on top to create the
argyle pattern.
4. Criss Cross Lines: Okay, so making sure that
you're on your new layer, choose the third color that you want to use
for your pattern. This is going to be for
the Criss cross lines and I'll be using this red. Now go ahead and
select your brush. I'm going to be using
the monoline brush that you can find in the sketching
section of procreate. If you want to use
another brush, just try to make sure that it's another monoline style brush. You don't want it to have
any tapering at the ends. Set your size slider. I'm going to make mine
as big as it goes. Now we're going to use the
quick line feature to draw a perfect line from the top
to the bottom of the canvas. If you already know how to do
this, you can go on ahead. But if you're not familiar with the quick line feature,
this is how it works. I'm going to draw a line right across the canvas
from top to bottom. In fact, I'm actually
going to start above and finish
below the canvas. When I get to the
bottom of the canvas, I will keep holding
my pencil down until I see the
line snap straight. Now if I drag my pen around, I can see that the angle of
my straight line changes. But I want it to be
perfectly vertical. With my pencil still
holding on the screen. I'm going to take my
finger and tap and hold. You'll see that my line snaps across to be perfectly vertical. If yours has snapped
to some other angle, just drag your pencil
around like this. And you should see your lines
snapping in increments. Move it around until it
is straight up and down. Once you've got your
vertical line there, release your pencil first
and then your finger. It's a quick three step process. I'll do it one more
time because I know it can take a couple of
tries to get used to it, But once you do have it, it's a really great feature to use. Draw your line, keep
the pencil down. Your line will straighten.
Tap your finger down, the line, snaps vertical. Release your pencil and
then release your finger. Now, I think I actually want my line to be a little
bit thicker than this, but my brush size is
already at the maximum. What I'm going to do is draw another line
next to the first one to thicken it up
that's a bit too thick, I think something
more like that. Then I'm just going to drag and drop to color fill
between the two lines. Okay, you've got
your straight line right down the middle
of the canvas. Now we need to snap it into the exact middle of the canvas. To do this, select the arrow tool and then
down the bottom here, click on snapping and make sure that magnetics and
snapping are both on. And all the way up to max. Now we're going to drag our line until it
snaps into the center. We're looking for our yellow guidelines in both directions. I like to use my finger
instead of my pencil for doing this part because I feel like I have better
control that way. Looking for your
yellow guidelines in both directions and release. Once it's in the middle, then click on the arrow
tool to deselect. Now we need a little bit of space around the canvas
for this next bit, zoom out until you can see all four corners of
your canvas clearly. Click on the arrow tool again
to re, select your line. And then come back to
the bottom here and click rotate 45 degrees. What we're going to
do now is extend the line so that it reaches
across both corners. To do that, I'm going to zoom
in using the safe area on the side here and
making sure that I don't zoom over my
selection at all. Then down the bottom, I'm going to click on free form. Then click and drag on
the middle blue node, dragging it up and out until the bounding box extends
over the corner like this. It doesn't matter how far over, as long as it goes fully
beyond the canvas like this. Now I'm going to do the
same on the other side. I'll carefully move down to the other corner of my canvas, again, making sure to only touch well away
from my selection. Then we'll do the
same over here. Click on the middle
blue node and drag out until the bounding box
is outside of the canvas. Once that's done, I'm
going to zoom back out and make sure that both sides are still crossing the
corners, which they are. And then click on the
arrow tool to deselect. Come up to your layers panel, swipe to the left on the top
layer, and click Duplicate. With that top new
layer selected, click on your arrow tool, come down the bottom and
click Flip Horizontal. Click the arrow tool to deselect
and then come back over to your layers panel and pinch to merge the
top two layers. There you have a complete
argyle patent tile. Join me in the next
lesson where we will double the
tile into a repeat in a way that is going
to make it super easy for us to play
around with color later.
5. Double the Tile: Okay, let's dive into
repeating our patentile in a way that really sets us up for the most usability
with our file. Over in your layers panel, swipe to the right on whichever layer is not
already highlighted blue. Both layers should now be blue. And then click Group. I'm going to click the little arrow to condense the group. And then I'll swipe
to the left on the new group, and
click Duplicate. I'm going to repeat
this two more times until I have four
groups in total. You may notice that I always swipe and duplicate
the bottom group, which is the original group. I do this because with procreate there's a little
bit of quality loss. Each time something
is duplicated by copying the original, I keep that loss to a
minimum compared to if I were to make a copy
of a copy of a copy, where there would essentially be triple the loss of quality. That's just something
handy to keep in mind when you're duplicating
anything in procreate. When you've got
your four groups, swipe to the right on each of them until they are
all highlighted Blue. Click on the arrow tool and then down the bottom
click Uniform. And make sure that magnetics and stapping are both
still turned on. Click on the blue node in the top left hand corner
and make sure that the chain link between
the numbers is blue so that both dimensions
will change together. Now you're going to type in
half of your canvas size. For me that's 1,500 pixels. Your selections
should now snap into the top left quadrant
of your canvas. Come up to your layers panel. You might have to click it
twice to get it to open up. Now we're going to
move the groups into each corner of the canvas. I like to move mine in a
clockwise direction so that I know easily which
group is in which position. The top group is exactly
where I want it, so I'm not going to touch it. I'm going to click
on the second group and then click the arrow tool. I'm going to drag this selection until it snaps into place in the top right hand corner.
You'll know it's in place. When you get the yellow
guidelines appear in both directions,
that one is done. Come back to layers and
select the third group. Click on the arrow tool
and drag this one until it snaps into the
bottom right corner looking for your
yellow guidelines. That's done back up
to layers And select the last group arrow tool and drag it into
the bottom left. Click on the arrow
tool to deselect, Suddenly we have
an argyle pattern. All right, before
we go any further, now is the time to
double check our repeat and make sure that everything
is lining up correctly. To do this, zoom
right in close to the very center of the canvas
where the four groups meet. So far, this is looking perfect. I can't see any dread of white lines or
anything like that. But to make even more certain, I'm going to come
up to my layers and just tick on and
off the visibility of one of my groups just to make sure that everything
looks right right here, where the layers
join, which it does, it looks like my repeat
has worked perfectly. I'll just do a quick scan around the rest of the canvas as well. Everything looks perfect. Now, if you're
checking your canvas and you are seeing
a white pixel line, that would indicate that at some point something
hasn't lined up correctly, or possibly that a
selection was accidentally nudged or tapped,
if that's the case. Unfortunately, there isn't
really an easy fix for that. Your best option is
going to be to go back and start fresh
right from the beginning. And just make sure that you take extra care with each
and every selection, especially when you're
snapping things into place. Always make sure that you have both a horizontal and
vertical yellow line before you release
your selection. Next we're just going
to tidy up our layers a little bit to make the file
super easy to work with. Come over to Layers and click on the arrows To expand
all of the groups, click on the top
criss cross layer. Not the group but the
individual layer. Then swipe to the right. On the other three
criss cross layers, you should have four
highlighted layers. Click to group.
Your layers should look exactly the same as mine here with the new group
and then new group. And you want to click
on the second new group to bring out the fly out menu. And then click Flatten. All your criss cross lines
should now be on one layer. Now I'm a firm
believer in putting in a little bit more
effort up front to make my life easier
in the future. Because I plan to use this
exact canvas again and again as a template whenever I want to make
an argyle pattern. I'm going to take just a moment now to name and
organize my layers. Starting with the crosses layer. I'll bring out the fly out menu. Click Rename. You can call
yours whatever you like. I'll be calling mine crosses. Click on the next layer down, which based on the order
that I arrange them, should be the top left. But I'll just double
check by ticking the layer and the top
left disappeared. Yes, that is still
in the right spot. I'll click and rename
that top left. Now, just repeat that for
all the remaining layers. That one should
be the top right, is that should be
the bottom right. It, I'll rename, that's the bottom left. Now I personally find it
really annoying to have all these unnecessary
new group labels. I'm going to move all my
layers out by swiping, right, to highlight
them all at once. Then I'll click and drag them all to the very top
of the layers panel. Then I'll just swipe to the left and delete the
now empty groups. You should be left with just
the five remaining layers, your crosses plus
your four diamonds. The final step to make this canvas as easy
as possible to use, again, is to alpha lock
each of the layers. You can do this either by clicking each layer and
then clicking Alpha lock. Or you can use two fingers and swipe to the right
on each layer. You'll know that alpha
lock has worked if the gray checkerboard appears
on the layer preview. Now you have a perfect
argyle pattern ready to use exactly as it is also set up so that you
can use it over and over again to make as
many argyle patterns as your heart desires. Join me in the next lesson, where I'll show
you how to create multiple color variations.
6. Recolour: We finished the last lesson with a complete three
color argyle pattern. And now we're going
to have a bit of fun playing around with
color combinations. If I go back to my Pintrest
board here for a minute, you can see that there
are a whole bunch of ways to color
an argyle pattern. Some of the most
common examples I've noticed add in a fourth color and alternate either with these opposite diamonds
or row by row, or I've also seen
one or two where the colors alternate
column by column. I personally really
like the ones where the opposite
corners are changed. That's how I'm going to do mine. But you can pick whichever
style you like best. Before I make any
changes to my pattern, I want to save a copy of this canvas to keep
it as a template. To do that, I'm just going to head back out to the
procreate gallery and then click to rename
this canvas Argyle Template. Now whenever I want to create
a new color combination, all I need to do is
swipe to the left on my template canvas
and click Duplicate. Open up the new canvas. Now I'm free to
make any changes I like without affecting
the original canvas. First I'll pick out the extra color that I want
to add into my pattern. I'm going to go with this green. I will come to my layers panel and click on the layer
that I want to change, which is going to be
the top left click to bring out the fly out
menu and select Fill Layer. It's that easy. Now I also want to change
the opposite corner. I'll select the bottom right
layer and do the same thing. Click the Layer and
click Fill Layer. Now I could call that done, but I don't really like how this red looks on
top of the green. I'm going to change the crosses layer in
exactly the same way, pick a new color, click the layer and
fill the layer. Then I can also go in and change the background
color if I want. I like to use the classic
view for this and just play around
with the colors, which can be a lot of fun. But for this pattern, I think I'm just going to go
back to that cream color. Okay, Take your time and have some fun playing around with the colors in your own pattern. I'm sure you'll
probably find this to be the most addictive
part of the process. Then when you found a color
combination that you like, join me in the next lesson, or I'm going to show
you how to very quickly use this square template
to create a tall, rectangle version of
an argyle pattern.
7. Tall Argyle: While this square version of
the argyle pattern is great, you may have noticed that
it's much more common to see argyles as tall
skinny diamonds. In this lesson, I'm going to
show you a super quick way to change this square pattern into the tall skinny version. First off, we're going to
make another duplicate of your canvas so you can keep the original square
version of your pattern. If you've been
playing around with different colorways and
have multiple canvases, just pick whichever
one is your favorite and then swipe to the
left to duplicate. Then open the new canvas. Open your layers panel. And we're going to select all of the layers at once
as we have before by swiping to the right on
each layer until they are all blue with them all selected. Click on the arrow tool and then click on the
top left blue node. For this step, we
want to turn off the chain link between
the dimensions so that it is gray and not
blue in the first box, which is the x axis type in the number that is two thirds
of the size of your canvas. This step here is why I
mentioned at the very start of class that whatever
canvas size you choose, you need to make
sure that the number is divisible by three. Because what we're
going to end up with is a canvas with a two
to three ratio. If you downloaded that
free class resource, remember that I included a cheat sheet to some of the
canvas sizes you could use. That cheat sheet also lists the number that you will
need to enter at this step. It will be the number to the right of your
starting canvas size. For me, my canvas
is 3,000 pixels. Two, three is 2000, and this is the number
that I will enter here. You'll see my patterns
squish over to the left, creating that tall, skinny
design that we're after. The next step is to come up to the Wrench tool and click
on the canvas button. Then this top option,
crop and resize. Your screen should
now look like this, with the black grid on
top, along the top here. Click on Settings.
We're going to change the dimensions to match the size that we just
made our pattern. Making sure that the dimensions and chain are gray, not blue. Click to turn on
the snapping tool, and then click in the
first dimension box type. The number that you
used just a moment ago. That is two thirds
of the canvas size. Again, mine is 2000. Click in the next
box and you'll see that your black grid
snaps across the canvas. Now we just want to
drag it across so that it lines up perfectly
with our patent tile. Just click onto the canvas and drag it across until it
snaps into the right place. Click done again in the
top right hand corner. And your canvas and pattern is now set up in the
two to three ratio, which gives you that
classic tall argyle look. When you come over to
your layers panel, you can see that all
of the names are still in place and relevance. So this version of your argyle
pattern is now complete. I'm going to come back out
to my procreate gallery. And I'm going to click to rename this canvas argyle
template tall. Now I have two argyle
templates ready to choose from anytime I want to
create a new argyle pattern. Now join me in the final lesson, where I will show you a really quick method
for repeating out your patent tile that's
going to make it the perfect image for you to share
to your project gallery.
8. Repeat Your Pattern: We've set up our canvases
so that they are completely editable
up to this point. But now that I've landed on a
pattern that I really like, I just really want to see
it repeated a few times. The fastest way that
I've found to do this is to copy and paste
my entire canvas. I'll do this by using three
fingers to swipe down, which brings up the
Copy and Paste menu. I'll copy all then
three fingers, swipe down again
and select Paste. If your procreate settings are set up differently
than mine, or if the three finger swipe doesn't work for you
for some reason. You can also access the copy and paste options by clicking
on the rent straw, and then the Add button, and then click on Copy
Canvas, then Paste. Either way you do it once
you hit the Paste button, if you open up your layers, you should now have an
inserted image layer that has your entire
canvas on it. If it's landed somewhere in the middle of the
layers like this, I like to drag it up to the top. Then we're going to
make three copies by swiping to the
left and duplicating, remembering what I
said earlier about always duplicating
the original layer, which is the bottom one. Duplicate again and again and again until I
have four copies. We're now going to highlight
all four layers at once by swiping to the right
until they're all blue. Then click on the arrow tool. We're going to do the
same thing that we did to shrink down the
patent tile in lesson six, which is to click
on the blue node in the top left hand corner. Make sure the chain link is blue and then type in
half of your canvas size. My tile shrinks up into
that corner again. Now if you find it
distracting to have the original layers visible
underneath like this, just come back over to
your layers and turn off the original five layers
by unchecking these boxes. Now we just need to move these small ones
into their places, same as we did before. I'll select the second layer and move it over to the right by using the arrow tool and looking for my yellow
snapping guides. I'll move the third one
down to the bottom right. The last one down
to the bottom left. That's it, Just pinch to merge the four layers together
and I'm all done. Now this image here would be a perfect example of what to upload for
your class project. If you just come up
to the Rent tool, click on Share and then Jpeg Export however
you would like. I tend to air drop
line to the computer, then you're ready to upload
it to the project gallery.
9. Thank You: Thank you so much for
joining me in class today. I hope that you enjoyed
the process of creating your own argyle pattern and that you'll make good use
of your new templates. If you have any questions about anything that
we covered today, please feel free to reach out using the class
discussion board. I'd love to be able to help. Please remember to upload your project to the
project gallery. And if you have a spare moment, it would be really wonderful
if you could leave a quick review as this helps other students
to find the class. Thanks again for
joining me for now.
10. Sessions on Skillshare: Hi, everyone. I'm super
excited to announce that I'm now offering one on one
sessions ia Skillshare. If you've been enjoying my
classes and want to dive even deeper into Surface
Pattern Design in Procreate, this is your chance to get some personalized one
on one guidance. These sessions will be all
about helping you grow and elevate your pattern design
skills within Procreate. If you're ready to take
your creative journey to the next level, I'd
love to work with you. You can find all the
specific details and book your session via the link below or through my
skill share profile. I hope to work with you soon.
Chelsea Jay, Surface Pattern Designer & Illustrator
