Hi everyone! 🌸

My first class went live yesterday!! Since then Class 1 has welcomed its first 34 students (and counting), and I want to start with a BIG thank you. Reading your first reviews made me cry, happy tears. After so many hours of recording, editing and fine-tuning, this is the most beautiful thing to receive. And i found out over the last years, that connecting and sharing with other artists is as close to my heart as the actual creation part.

A few words that touched me:

"So clear and enjoyable." — Sharnika
"More like a hypnotic relaxation session, but with very useful studying results." — Vesta

My goal with this class was to share the calm and joy of the process along with the techniques. Seeing that it reached you means the world to me. 🙏✨

Your questions, answered

One of my first students, Shamini asked two wonderful questions. They're so useful that I'd love for all of you to benefit from them.

Why set the grid to 200 pixels?

It’s all about accuracy. We work on a 3600 x 3600 pixel canvas inside a total artwork of 10,800 pixels. When you build your square grid automation, you zoom out and drag your symbols (with the rectangles called guides) into position with snapping on. With a small grid, like 10 or 20 pixels, the snapping points sit so close together that it’s hard to land exactly where you want. A 200 pixel grid gives snapping clear, precise points. Your automation is then locked perfectly in place before you draw a single line, and that’s what keeps your pattern truly seamless.

Why 72 DPI and 3600 pixels?

72 DPI is the default for screens. It makes exporting much easier, for example exporting multiple colorways across several artboards in one go, which we’ll do in Class 2.

The 3600 pixels is where the real magic sits. For print, the pixel count is what matters most. 3600 pixels gives you 300 DPI at 12 inches, the standard for print work like cards and flyers. It gives you 150 DPI at 24 inches, perfect for Spoonflower wallpaper. And 3600 divides beautifully by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9, which makes building more complex layouts and geometric designs so much easier.

As a bonus, in Class 2, I show you on screen how pixel count and DPI relate when you scale your artwork, in Adobe Illustrator on desktop, while showing how to optimize cross-platform workflows. You’ll see exactly what happens to your artwork, so you can prepare your files with confidence for screen, print and Spoonflower.

Curious about what happens to quality when you change DPI? I’ve explained resampling in more detail in another discussion here, in my reply to Shamini’s questions.

Before and after

She also mentioned she'd love to see the texture applied to a finished design, so here it is! 👇

The first image is the actual texture that I've made in the exact same way as shown in class. The hand drawn geometrical stiped design in the second image is drawn with raster brushes in Affinity, so it already carries a soft textural quality. In the third image, I applied one seamless texture to the background layer and another on top of the artwork (in the same color as the background, so it nicely blends and in this way encapsulates the design by 'delicious texture'! (Hehe!) Together both textures give the whole design that layered, lived-in surface.

Layering textures onto a main design is something we explore fully in Class 2.

Do you have a question about the class too? Drop it below. Chances are someone else is wondering the same thing, and I'd love to answer it here for everyone.

Happy creating!
Hanne ❤️

Direct link to Class 1:

https://skl.sh/4s6H8kC

P.S. Spoonflower's "Added Texture" challenge runs until 20 October. It's a lovely 'excuse' to try out a texture from the class, made with the same workflow 🌸 I will share my entry for this challenge with you soon (if I get it finished in time, but yeah, I mean, I just HAVE to! 😉

👉 Let me see YOURS in the Project Gallery! 🎨😍

Hanne Hova

Surface pattern designer - Affinity educator

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