I was working on a new project and this class is perfect to test my skills and new solutions.

What I was looking for is a chaotic pattern, where various illustrations overlap and fit together.

that's the first trial, too chaotic and intricate:

Tentacle - image 1 - student project

After that I polish and clean it to a better balanced solution:

Tentacle - image 2 - student project

And this is the final result applied to the project:

Tentacle - image 3 - student project

if you want to see all the bottles here's the behance link.

I would like to thank Evgeniya & Dominic Righini-Brand for this class. Everything is very interesting and well explained.
I recommend to give it a try if you are interested in pattern design.

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During my experiment I've changed a bit the workflow to suit my usual route and I want to share it with you. You need to follow the class to understand all the passages and the differences.

Hope it can be useful:

1) put everything together from the beginning, create the pattern file and drag illustration directly here. As you can see I cut illustration in a very fast and coarse way from original file.
Convert it in smart object.
double click to open it.

Tentacle - image 4 - student project

2) Create a very dark background layer ( best contrast), than put illustration layer on top and select the part you want to erase.

Tentacle - image 5 - student project

3) When selection is done don't erase the illustration background but better create a layer mask. Note that borders are jagged and something is missing. now if you double click on mask layer can set the mask parameters.

Tentacle - image 6 - student project

4) The great thing of masks is that you can add and remove from layer without affecting the original image.
Here's a detail of the job on a tentacle. A tablet (like wacom) is recommended to speed up the work.

Tentacle - image 7 - student project

Tentacle - image 8 - student project

5) And this is the final illustration, no jagged borders and the original image is still there (as shown in the thumbnail).

Tentacle - image 9 - student project

6) hide the dark background layer and save

Tentacle - image 10 - student project

7) Voilà, the smart object doesn't have any background and you can mix them together in the main file.

Tentacle - image 11 - student project

8) Put all the illustration in a folder.

Tentacle - image 12 - student project

9) Duplicate the folder and create the cross

Tentacle - image 13 - student project

11) Duplicate the cross folder and convert it to a single layer than follow the video class instructions to obtain this.

Tentacle - image 14 - student project

12) Fill the empty space

Tentacle - image 15 - student project

13) Add a color regulation layer, create the pattern (follow video class for more detail).

Tentacle - image 16 - student project

14) I always have a test layer on top (with a background layer below) to apply the pattern just created and see it smaller to check if the repetitions of your work are good.

Tentacle - image 17 - student project

That's it!
Hope you enjoy!

Matteo Manenti

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