Hurdles: Pushing Through (Making & Uploading the First Patterns)

[00:00:00] diane gibbs: Hey, it’s diane gibbs here with another episode of Creatives Ignite, and I am stoked. Oh my gosh. Okay. Let me just give you a little background. My name’s diane gibbs. I’m a designer, an illustrator, and I’m working on being a surface pattern designer, and this year are solo episodes. I’ve done 12 and a half years of interviews with all kinds of people, and now.[00:00:30] 

[00:00:30] Instead of holding myself back, I’m putting my feet on the fire and you are helping me out with that accountability. Anyway, today and yesterday and Saturday and Sunday have been incredible. Let me tell you, we have Snowmageddon here in Mobile. It snowed from 7:00 AM till about 4:00 PM yesterday, and I live on the Gulf Coast, and it never snows.

[00:00:56] It barely ever snows. If it snows it. [00:01:00] Melts right away. Like there’s nothing on the ground. There are no snowmen. Never do we get powder and never do we get more than an inch or an inch and a half maybe we got six inches. So it’s like, um, I have been doing patterns and patterns and patterns and patterns. I really worked, I, I really, last week I should have put an episode out.

[00:01:22] I started working on these. This one pattern and [00:01:30] man, I got in my way Saturday. I really kind of got unstuck. Um, I meet with a couple people that I was in Bonnie Christine Immersion in 2023 with, and they told me what their process was for getting, doing colors and you know, I just think I’m getting in my own way.

[00:01:47] I’m just making a problem where there isn’t a one. I’m not great with color, so I really. I need some, I need some crutches for color. [00:02:00] So got that. And then Saturday night I was whipping away and then I got up early, like a little before six on Sunday. And I worked until I went to church. And then I, soon as I got back fan, I was working on patterns again.

[00:02:16] And I made so many patterns. And you know, usually you’re working in kind of a. Had a color palette, but you’re usually working like in a collection and it’s only, you know, 12 [00:02:30] patterns or six patterns or something. But you know what, when you put stuff on Spoonflower, it doesn’t matter. You can put up lots of different ones and lots of different colorways.

[00:02:38] So you know what I was like, I’m not, I’m just gonna go for it. I just made a lot with these little feet, so now I’m still taking the teacups. So here what I did was I’m just tweaking these tiny little things. This was actually, you know, feet that I’d cut out with scissors. They’re not that large and I’m just, I’m not trying to make [00:03:00] them perfect.

[00:03:00] So I could have just taken one half and flipped it and mimicked it and done fine. But I really wanted. I had, um, six, yeah, I had six different sets of legs and I just scanned ’em in, made ’em all black, and then started just really working with the shape. And at this point I’m still okay, right? I’m, I’m tweaking things that I definitely know how to do.

[00:03:23] I’m adjusting things so that maybe it’s a little bit better. Um, and I’m just kind of putting ’em in pairs. I was gonna [00:03:30] do one and then do the other side. By flipping it, I just mirrored the image and I’m just fixing a little bit of things. And then I’m saying, okay, well can I use these?

[00:03:50] And I’m making my pattern from a 500 by 500 pixel base. So I’m making that stuff and then I’m kind of putting [00:04:00] them in these little sections. So I have really high angles on some of the body part, like the waist part. Then I just adjusted and I’m just setting it up so that I have my pattern. And then this is where I really have trouble.

[00:04:15] I just gave up because I was working with color and I was like, what am I gonna use? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Okay, so this is the color palette that I just found on somebody on Pinterest, and then I went to her Etsy, and that link will [00:04:30] be in the bio or thing down below. From that, I got these colors.

[00:04:36] Now I ended up adding a couple more that were a darker or lighter green and stuff like that. And then this is me playing just it’s, I’m taking one of those sets like. Just one of the ones that I had drawn and I’m trying to do a diagonal diagonals are actually very difficult for me. Um, I will attack it again, but this [00:05:00] was a complete fail.

[00:05:01] This is what I think. I was working on this on Saturday night and I’m like, okay, well what about color? I’m still adjusting, still having a little bit of trouble. I am using. The Navy, I believe. Um, I don’t know if I’ve changed it or not yet, but I, I’m trying to use like, this is the blue gray, and then I’m like, okay, well have these spaces, what about that?

[00:05:21] And then I could not get it to work. So your left side has to be mimicked on your right side and your top has to be mimicked on your bottom. And I [00:05:30] couldn’t get things to work out. So at this point, I. I’m just, I couldn’t do it. I need to go back and watch. Um, I just didn’t like that when I looked at it.

[00:05:42] And then I was trying to get it closer and there’s a lot of little tweaking. This I think was about an hour of me working and I ended up never doing anything with this, but I think it’s to just play. So this is where it begins.[00:06:00] 

[00:06:07] I end up starting the next day. I kind of delete some things. I keep some of those elements so I could kind of see, and then I’m trying to make rows. I don’t have enough, and then I’m using Pathfinder to. Make it even. But again, the top has to match the bottom and the left has to match the right. So anyway, I didn’t ever get this, but I did finally, but I had [00:06:30] to tweak it a good bit.

[00:06:31] But again, you have to do that. And then I made it smaller and I can show you how to do that another time. But I’m playing it with colors. I find some that I like and then I decide to just put together a little board for myself using the color palettes and then just on another piece of illustrator so that I could put all my um, things together.

[00:06:52] I do end up using notion for some basic things like assets, some other things I could draw or cut, [00:07:00] and I put my color palette in there and. You know, I’ll use that notion board later

[00:07:11] because now I’m making, Ooh, I really like this little cross circle thing. Then I made this like, I don’t know, it was like a body shape. It didn’t ever work, but I thought I’d leave it in here and show you. I’m doing this at 4000% fast. [00:07:30] I made a little space invader guy again. I’m making some neat shapes I think that I can use in other places.

[00:07:42] I’m connecting their feet, connecting their bodies, and now I start making this kind of hounds tooth sort of looking. I start filling it in, adjusting. Some things I didn’t ever [00:08:00] even do anything with. I really liked this one. Ended up putting that on Spoonflower, not this one. Ended up putting that on Spoonflower.

[00:08:09] It’s probably still needs a little bit of tweaking, but

[00:08:19] you know, I’m figuring out, I have a basic color palette, so I’m figuring out what works and what doesn’t. I thought, oh, well, maybe I can repeat. It kind of looks a little architectural to me. [00:08:30] I think it looked better as just like a little arch. I don’t really like the red and black one. I didn’t end up using that one.

[00:08:37] Ended up making the center cross bigger. Really like that one? Like that one. I really like this one. I was like, oh, this will be my hero.

[00:08:51] Didn’t put that one up, but I can. ’cause I kind of like it.[00:09:00] 

[00:09:05] I just find things I start repeating

[00:09:11] and I just see if it works. It kinda looks like a bandana. I ended up calling this one American Cowboy Bandana, I think. But again, it’s just legs. Those legs made a lot of miles. I got a lot of mileage off those little legs. [00:09:30] Still gotta finish the teacups.

[00:09:35] That one didn’t work. I tried it. You know, I think you should try, but it looked not good to me, so delete.

[00:09:46] Tried with a diagonal in there. Uh, it was okay, but it wasn’t great.

[00:09:55] Added a couple more colors.

[00:09:59] This [00:10:00] is me scanning Rescanning, the teacups.

[00:10:12] Because after I’d done all these legs, I still didn’t have any teacups. So I was like, okay, I’m gonna redraw these teacups. And I did fix a couple things. You know, they’re not perfect. I am gonna do some in Photoshop. It [00:10:30] probably won’t be part of the same palette, or I don’t even know if it’s gonna be part of the same collection, maybe.

[00:10:40] But it’ll be a Photoshop pattern. Anyway, it’s weird that I’m doing both. I think, okay, I love this. I start, okay, I’m putting my legs on, and then I’m like, okay, oh, I’ll make some leaves. And then I was like, kind of looks like a mustache. Oh, I’ll make some eyes. Oh, didn’t like the eyes. Oh, made. Nope. [00:11:00] Then I was like, oh, I’m gonna do something.

[00:11:02] Making the shadow. Nope. Didn’t like that. I was like, okay, I’m just gonna move it to the middle. I am gonna see what it looks like with just mustache and no. One of the things with the punts is that I don’t have every body part, you know, I don’t, they, I don’t all have, some just have eyes and no mouths, and some have legs and no arms and some, you know, but it’s just a, a hint of something.[00:11:30] 

[00:11:31] This one I didn’t do too much. I just wanted to draw on, kind of like I did on my real one. I drew it. On there

[00:11:43] still was trying. The shading didn’t work. This, what I don’t like about Illustrator is that I can’t get it the way I want it, so I add some legs. This is why I like doing some in Photoshop, because I just think that watermelons have a. [00:12:00] I don’t know. There’s more vibrancy now. I decided to put the pattern, that simple, bold graphic pattern that I like so much in the background, and that’s kind of where I ended.

[00:12:14] I was like, okay, yeah, I got it. And this is kind of the end of whatever day it is that we’re on. And I realized that I have a problem. ’cause when I zoom in, you’ll see I have an issue with. [00:12:30] Like something’s not lined up. So then what I don’t like here is the legs are too close to the pattern side. The background pattern I saw I was keep reducing, reducing, reducing, reducing.

[00:12:48] Because what you just saw was the legs and the background were almost the same size and there was just too much tension and stuff. So this is me trying.[00:13:00] 

[00:13:01] I’m figuring out my process as I go, and this is you watching me figure that out because everything’s not super simple and you know, if you don’t do something all the time, you kind of have to relearn when you go back to it. And that is super frustrating. At least it is for me. Because most of this, as I look at it, when it’s smaller, I like it.

[00:13:28] It kind of makes these circles around [00:13:30] the legs. It kind of makes a nice pattern. But what I realized is that I didn’t have enough rows and I needed an even number. I needed to not do what I’m doing is big chunks and repeat. I needed to actually go two by two ’cause it was offset, you know, half drop, repeat kind of.

[00:13:50] So. I, I just am trying. I’m trying, I’m trying, and it is not working, and I don’t, I think I end up like coming [00:14:00] back to it the next day and just working on it some more. But I did finally get it, but this did not work because I was repeating left to right, but then I had this big sliver in the middle. I really needed a whole row that went all the way across, but then things weren’t lined up, and you’ll see I, the only reason I changed the color, so I could see it behind.

[00:14:21] The lighter blue color

[00:14:27] and it’s like, my goodness, [00:14:30] diane. So I ended up selecting each little element, like the top to bottom, to left to right ones and combining the left to right ones ’cause they actually touch. And then, so all this is kind of like double work, but. Maybe you can learn from me, you know, like instead of trying to force it and see how I got these lines in there and then it doesn’t match.

[00:14:57] And then if I’m trying, if you’re trying to use the [00:15:00] Pathfinder and you have these grouped elements, and then look, there’s this one little foot alone. Aha. So I ended up. I had two lines that were the same, so I, I end up trashing this so many times to try to figure it out. But for me, for future, diane, if you’re watching this, you need to just start with two lines.

[00:15:21] If they’re half drop, then make the whole entire line, the whole set, [00:15:30] top line and bottom line one thing, and then move it all the way to the, so it’s on, almost on the whole row. Then, then repeat it. Just repeat the one little thing, the tiny little thing, top to bottom. That’s what I did here. And then I ended up grouping everything and then I used the Pathfinder tool to evenly distribute, and that’s what I should have done from the beginning.

[00:15:55] I do like little patterns, so if you are a little pattern person, [00:16:00] do that. Don’t, don’t do what I did.

[00:16:07] Then I did copy paste. Uh, again, I’m grouping them. It takes a while ’cause there’s a lot of little things and I just hid the layers, you know, the up and down layers. I do think it works a lot better when the, these little background legs are, um, oh, still doesn’t work, diane. Oh, I’ll just take the size from [00:16:30] this box.

[00:16:31] It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. You have to have. You have two of the ones, same ones at the bottom. Nope, doesn’t work. Hello? It doesn’t work. Now I have these big gaps. That’s what happens when a pattern doesn’t work correctly.

[00:16:53] I like things that have hidden things, you know, like, uh, two meanings like [00:17:00] the steam. It’s also, you know, a person, but it’s also leaves mustache, but leaves things that are hidden. Maybe not everybody sees. Now, this is what I should have done the whole time, whole way through. Now I have it. I select them all.

[00:17:18] I redistribute, I get rid of the top and or the bottom, and the left and the right, and then I just repeat it. Now it works and I don’t have any problems, and it works a lot better. So I’m able to focus on the [00:17:30] teacups and the pattern in the background. Helps just to support it. Now I’m on Spoonflower. If you go in, you go to your dashboard after you’ve logged in, you can either hit upload a design, or you can go to your dashboard and then go upload.

[00:17:43] But here’s how you make it. In my document setup, I have to make it the same size as the tile that I had made, and I had made a 500 by 500 pixel tile, which is not 600, I’m sorry, 900 pixels [00:18:00] square is six inches. So kind of get you an idea. So what you end up doing is you drag, you copy paste the pattern in, and then you drag it out of the swatches palette.

[00:18:12] And then you take in your layers and the empty layer all the way up past the group. And then you select all, and you say, make clipping path. And then you go up to properties and you go to zero zero in your. [00:18:30] Make sure your zero zero little squares in your upper left hand corner and then it’ll be perfect.

[00:18:36] And then you say Export. Export for Web Legacy. This is all thanks to Helen Bradley. The link is, but down below I did JPEG maximum. I don’t want it to be the same size. I want it to be six inches. So I did a 900 and since it’s vector you can go up as much as you want. And then I just titled it something and I said six inches.

[00:18:58] I. And then I do the [00:19:00] same thing. Export, export for Web Legacy instead of 500 again, or 900, I did 1800. That’s 12 inches. So it’s gonna be a much bigger pattern than save as. I use the same thing instead of six inches. I changed it to 12. It may look like crap right here, but it’s gonna look great. Once we upload it.

[00:19:22] I’m gonna pick the. I can’t, you have to click accept and then it loads for a bit and then you type in your [00:19:30] title. I don’t know anything good about how to title anything right yet, so I’ll come back to you as I learn. But I did put large, probably need to do L on the other side. Um, and then just description probably didn’t great, do great on the description, but again, I’m learning.

[00:19:47] I’ll tell you what I learned.

[00:19:54] Think about what is, what is great like, and then I’d use theirs for [00:20:00] tags. I don’t know if this I, this is good. I don’t know if people are really searching, using their tags, but I would think, I know some people, they’re SEO really, they don’t, they’re not using these, they’re using. They’re just all writing all their own and you know, I don’t know yet, so this is just me.

[00:20:22] I kind of described the color space invader, like anybody’s gonna hunt, but who knows? You never know. You know, it’s kind of this hidden space [00:20:30] invader. You have 13 tags and the ones that are theirs, plus the ones I said abstract, hand drawn, I guess, you know, so that it’s, people know it’s not like totally geometric and perfect, and then you have to proof it.

[00:20:47] And that little pink box shows it would show if something was wrong, and then you just zoom out and then it’s proofed and you can put it for sale. Just like that. I think it looks [00:21:00] good as a duvet. All right, so now we’re gonna, you would upload the next one, the six inch one, or the, yeah. I can’t even tell what, it’s six inch one.

[00:21:12] Again, I, if you want it to be in a colorway, I think you have to do a dash and then after you name it and it would be purple or something and you can edit the thumbnail. Anyway, just me selecting, [00:21:30] I have no idea what I’m doing here. But again, I told you I was taking you on my journey. I think this probably matters.

[00:21:39] I also did not, um, you know, everything you make is copyrighted as soon as you make it right. But I didn’t go through the copyright thing this time for these, I.

[00:21:59] [00:22:00] And if you click on them, it kinda shows you what it looks like in fabric. It. There’s the fabric. Here’s like what a curtain would look like. A bedspread, napkins. Pillows, right? This is all spoonflower kind of does these. Anyway, these, I did a whole bunch of different colorways, but look, these are really just the legs put together.

[00:22:21] I love the red ones. I guess it’s just me. Um, but I really like the red ones. This is like a nice tone on tone. This is kind of funky. This is [00:22:30] maybe, is this the bigger one? Yeah, this is the bigger one. I. So I’m gonna go back, I’m gonna show you the little one just so you can see what the big to little kind of looks like in the same color.

[00:22:45] Can’t you see it? I’m just kidding. Um, so, you know, I mean, I don’t know if I’d wanna duvet in it, but maybe somebody would. Um, but then I also did, these are all just kind of coordinates, right? But these are opposite of each other. [00:23:00] And I just, I just had a lot of fun. I really did like these, I call this the American cowboy.

[00:23:05] These again are just the legs. They’re just the legs repeated. Everything is the legs. Literally all those little things are the legs. Um, I thought it looks cool as, um, duvet and I thought it looked cool as, you know, a whatever this, I thought, I just thought cool as sheets too. This is the small one. [00:23:30] And then, let’s see.

[00:23:32] Um, but like I tried to do a big and small, like I figured out all of it. Thank you Helen Bradley on YouTube. I did some. Light colors. I did. I like this one. I think it’s really fun. I like the, it’s not black, it’s navy. It’s ’cause Anyway, one of the rules is it’s not white either. It’s a cream. This reminded me and my sister of, uh, the wallpaper or the fabric that was on our bed [00:24:00] at our grandmother’s house.

[00:24:01] This is like a stripe, but really it’s just the legs and this weird kind of thing. But all of these except one. I had not, I had just uploaded today, which I think is awesome. And so this one is done in Photoshop. This is one of my favorites. Um, it’s my watermelons. You can go back and see. I did a lot of watermelons.

[00:24:24] Um, but I really love, I mean, I think this would, you know, maybe it’s a bit much [00:24:30] for, but it’s cute on a table or sheets if you loved watermelons. I think that’s awesome. Um, anyway. But I got over myself. I figured it out. Thanks to Helen Bradley on YouTube. I’ll put a link to which one. I just, it didn’t make sense.

[00:24:48] I knew I needed to do the tile, but I don’t know. It just whatever it, I got it now. I’m good. I actually made a video for myself. Sometimes I do that. [00:25:00] Anyway. Huge win one. I’m a win. I’m a win. I’m a win for getting over myself. And two for, I knew I struggled with color. I just need to play and I do well, I need to, I still need to work on some of these, some, so some of the things that I think don’t work on the watermelon is that it’s really tight [00:25:30] and I am not creating a scene or having any kind of texture.

[00:25:36] It’s just flat, except the illustrations aren’t flat. ’cause they’re, they’re not, they’re, they’re real. Like that’s a real thing, you know, like I’ve made physical things. I mean, it’s not real watermelon. You wouldn’t wanna eat it ’cause it’s made outta paper and glue, but whatever. Anyway, I got outta my way and I just, I think it helps me, and this could [00:26:00] be a DHD or a little dyslexia, is that I like.

[00:26:04] To do things with my hands, to push them around, like to cut them, feel the shape, kinda see. But I had so much fun making these patterns and especially like just the ones that are just really simple. Um, you know, these red stripes, I, it’s just, it’s just red. But I, you know, it’s just. [00:26:30] They’re not perfect little feet.

[00:26:33] Um, but like this one, you know, when you wanna go somewhere, like, I think I’m gonna show you this one. It might be a little bit easier to see, but like to me it’s, I would’ve never come up with this. This looks like a space invader. And I just wouldn’t have come up with this had. I had not been playing around and I love that.

[00:26:59] It [00:27:00] doesn’t like it has this weird thing that’s does, doesn’t make that circle, but I like it. It’s different. It is, it does repeat. It’s a perfect repeat. Anyway, I’m just so psyched. One I got outta my way because the palette, I just chose a palette. My friend Ellen. Um, that’s in my. Immersion group. She was like, just start with four colors.

[00:27:25] You know? You don’t have to have 18 colors and just add as you [00:27:30] go darker and lighters. And so you know what, that’s what I did. And I just think I was getting in my way of, it had to be perfect and then I was like, oh my gosh, I don’t do this. I’m not good with color. I have to have all the color ways I have to do.

[00:27:47] You know what? I don’t. I absolutely don’t. And I’m glad it’s done. I’m so psyched that I got out of my way, so I [00:28:00] hope you enjoy this. Anyway, let’s get busy.

[00:28:19] Hey, it’s diane gibbs here with another episode of Creatives Ignite, and I am stoked. Oh my gosh. Okay. Let me just give you a little background. My name’s diane gibbs. I’m [00:28:30] a designer, an illustrator, and I’m working on being a surface pattern designer, and this year are solo episodes. I’ve done 12 and a half years of interviews with all kinds of people, and now.

[00:28:49] Instead of holding myself back, I’m putting my feet on the fire and you are helping me out with that accountability. Anyway, today and yesterday and Saturday and Sunday have [00:29:00] been incredible. Let me tell you, we have Snowmageddon here in Mobile. It snowed from 7:00 AM till about 4:00 PM yesterday, and I live on the Gulf Coast, and it never snows.

[00:29:15] It barely ever snows. If it snows it. Melts right away. Like there’s nothing on the ground. There are no snowmen. Never do we get powder and never do we get more than an inch or an inch and a half maybe we got [00:29:30] six inches. So it’s like, um, I have been doing patterns and patterns and patterns and patterns. I really worked, I, I really, last week I should have put an episode out.

[00:29:41] I started working on these. This one pattern and man, I got in my way Saturday. I really kind of got unstuck. Um, I meet with a couple people that I was in Bonnie Christine Immersion in 2023 with, [00:30:00] and they told me what their process was for getting, doing colors and you know, I just think I’m getting in my own way.

[00:30:06] I’m just making a problem where there isn’t a one. I’m not great with color, so I really. I need some, I need some crutches for color. So got that. And then Saturday night I was whipping away and then I got up early, like a little before six on Sunday. And I worked [00:30:30] until I went to church. And then I, soon as I got back fan, I was working on patterns again.

[00:30:35] And I made so many patterns. And you know, usually you’re working in kind of a. Had a color palette, but you’re usually working like in a collection and it’s only, you know, 12 patterns or six patterns or something. But you know what, when you put stuff on Spoonflower, it doesn’t matter. You can put up lots of different ones and lots of different colorways.

[00:30:57] So you know what I was like, I’m [00:31:00] not, I’m just gonna go for it. I just made a lot with these little feet, so now I’m still taking the teacups. So here what I did was I’m just tweaking these tiny little things. This was actually, you know, feet that I’d cut out with scissors. They’re not that large and I’m just, I’m not trying to make them perfect.

[00:31:19] So I could have just taken one half and flipped it and mimicked it and done fine. But I really wanted. I had, um, six, yeah, I had six [00:31:30] different sets of legs and I just scanned ’em in, made ’em all black, and then started just really working with the shape. And at this point I’m still okay, right? I’m, I’m tweaking things that I definitely know how to do.

[00:31:42] I’m adjusting things so that maybe it’s a little bit better. Um, and I’m just kind of putting ’em in pairs. I was gonna do one and then do the other side. By flipping it, I just mirrored the image and I’m just fixing a little bit of things. And then I’m saying, okay, well can I use these?[00:32:00] 

[00:32:09] And I’m making my pattern from a 500 by 500 pixel base. So I’m making that stuff and then I’m kind of putting them in these little sections. So I have really high angles on some of the body part, like the waist part. Then I just adjusted and I’m just setting it [00:32:30] up so that I have my pattern. And then this is where I really have trouble.

[00:32:34] I just gave up because I was working with color and I was like, what am I gonna use? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Okay, so this is the color palette that I just found on somebody on Pinterest, and then I went to her Etsy, and that link will be in the bio or thing down below. From that, I got these colors.

[00:32:55] Now I ended up adding a couple more that were a darker [00:33:00] or lighter green and stuff like that. And then this is me playing just it’s, I’m taking one of those sets like. Just one of the ones that I had drawn and I’m trying to do a diagonal diagonals are actually very difficult for me. Um, I will attack it again, but this was a complete fail.

[00:33:20] This is what I think. I was working on this on Saturday night and I’m like, okay, well what about color? I’m still adjusting, still having a little bit of trouble. I am using. The [00:33:30] Navy, I believe. Um, I don’t know if I’ve changed it or not yet, but I, I’m trying to use like, this is the blue gray, and then I’m like, okay, well have these spaces, what about that?

[00:33:40] And then I could not get it to work. So your left side has to be mimicked on your right side and your top has to be mimicked on your bottom. And I couldn’t get things to work out. So at this point, I. I’m just, I couldn’t do it. I need to go back and watch. Um, I just didn’t like [00:34:00] that when I looked at it.

[00:34:01] And then I was trying to get it closer and there’s a lot of little tweaking. This I think was about an hour of me working and I ended up never doing anything with this, but I think it’s to just play. So this is where it begins.

[00:34:26] I end up starting the next day. I kind of delete some things. I keep [00:34:30] some of those elements so I could kind of see, and then I’m trying to make rows. I don’t have enough, and then I’m using Pathfinder to. Make it even. But again, the top has to match the bottom and the left has to match the right. So anyway, I didn’t ever get this, but I did finally, but I had to tweak it a good bit.

[00:34:50] But again, you have to do that. And then I made it smaller and I can show you how to do that another time. But I’m playing it with colors. I find some that I like and then I [00:35:00] decide to just put together a little board for myself using the color palettes and then just on another piece of illustrator so that I could put all my um, things together.

[00:35:11] I do end up using notion for some basic things like assets, some other things I could draw or cut, and I put my color palette in there and. You know, I’ll use that notion board later[00:35:30] 

[00:35:30] because now I’m making, Ooh, I really like this little cross circle thing. Then I made this like, I don’t know, it was like a body shape. It didn’t ever work, but I thought I’d leave it in here and show you. I’m doing this at 4000% fast. I made a little space invader guy again. I’m making some neat shapes I think that I can use in other places.[00:36:00] 

[00:36:01] I’m connecting their feet, connecting their bodies, and now I start making this kind of hounds tooth sort of looking. I start filling it in, adjusting. Some things I didn’t ever even do anything with. I really liked this one. Ended up putting that on Spoonflower, not this one. Ended up putting that on Spoonflower.

[00:36:28] It’s probably still needs a little bit [00:36:30] of tweaking, but

[00:36:38] you know, I’m figuring out, I have a basic color palette, so I’m figuring out what works and what doesn’t. I thought, oh, well, maybe I can repeat. It kind of looks a little architectural to me. I think it looked better as just like a little arch. I don’t really like the red and black one. I didn’t end up using that one.

[00:36:56] Ended up making the center cross bigger. [00:37:00] Really like that one? Like that one. I really like this one. I was like, oh, this will be my hero.

[00:37:10] Didn’t put that one up, but I can. ’cause I kind of like it.

[00:37:25] I just find things I start repeating[00:37:30] 

[00:37:30] and I just see if it works. It kinda looks like a bandana. I ended up calling this one American Cowboy Bandana, I think. But again, it’s just legs. Those legs made a lot of miles. I got a lot of mileage off those little legs. Still gotta finish the teacups.

[00:37:54] That one didn’t work. I tried it. You know, I think you should try, but it looked [00:38:00] not good to me, so delete.

[00:38:05] Tried with a diagonal in there. Uh, it was okay, but it wasn’t great.

[00:38:14] Added a couple more colors.

[00:38:18] This is me scanning Rescanning, the teacups.[00:38:30] 

[00:38:31] Because after I’d done all these legs, I still didn’t have any teacups. So I was like, okay, I’m gonna redraw these teacups. And I did fix a couple things. You know, they’re not perfect. I am gonna do some in Photoshop. It probably won’t be part of the same palette, or I don’t even know if it’s gonna be part of the same collection, maybe.

[00:38:59] But it’ll be a [00:39:00] Photoshop pattern. Anyway, it’s weird that I’m doing both. I think, okay, I love this. I start, okay, I’m putting my legs on, and then I’m like, okay, oh, I’ll make some leaves. And then I was like, kind of looks like a mustache. Oh, I’ll make some eyes. Oh, didn’t like the eyes. Oh, made. Nope. Then I was like, oh, I’m gonna do something.

[00:39:21] Making the shadow. Nope. Didn’t like that. I was like, okay, I’m just gonna move it to the middle. I am gonna see what it looks like with just [00:39:30] mustache and no. One of the things with the punts is that I don’t have every body part, you know, I don’t, they, I don’t all have, some just have eyes and no mouths, and some have legs and no arms and some, you know, but it’s just a, a hint of something.

[00:39:50] This one I didn’t do too much. I just wanted to draw on, kind of like I did on my real one. I drew it. On there[00:40:00] 

[00:40:02] still was trying. The shading didn’t work. This, what I don’t like about Illustrator is that I can’t get it the way I want it, so I add some legs. This is why I like doing some in Photoshop, because I just think that watermelons have a. I don’t know. There’s more vibrancy now. I decided to put the pattern, that simple, bold graphic pattern that I like so much in the [00:40:30] background, and that’s kind of where I ended.

[00:40:33] I was like, okay, yeah, I got it. And this is kind of the end of whatever day it is that we’re on. And I realized that I have a problem. ’cause when I zoom in, you’ll see I have an issue with. Like something’s not lined up. So then what I don’t like here is the legs [00:41:00] are too close to the pattern side. The background pattern I saw I was keep reducing, reducing, reducing, reducing.

[00:41:08] Because what you just saw was the legs and the background were almost the same size and there was just too much tension and stuff. So this is me trying.

[00:41:20] I’m figuring out my process as I go, and this is you watching me figure that out because everything’s not [00:41:30] super simple and you know, if you don’t do something all the time, you kind of have to relearn when you go back to it. And that is super frustrating. At least it is for me. Because most of this, as I look at it, when it’s smaller, I like it.

[00:41:47] It kind of makes these circles around the legs. It kind of makes a nice pattern. But what I realized is that I didn’t have enough rows and I needed an even number. I needed to not do what I’m doing [00:42:00] is big chunks and repeat. I needed to actually go two by two ’cause it was offset, you know, half drop, repeat kind of.

[00:42:09] So. I, I just am trying. I’m trying, I’m trying, and it is not working, and I don’t, I think I end up like coming back to it the next day and just working on it some more. But I did finally get it, but this did not work because I was repeating left to right, but then I had this [00:42:30] big sliver in the middle. I really needed a whole row that went all the way across, but then things weren’t lined up, and you’ll see I, the only reason I changed the color, so I could see it behind.

[00:42:40] The lighter blue color

[00:42:46] and it’s like, my goodness, diane. So I ended up selecting each little element, like the top to bottom, to left to right ones [00:43:00] and combining the left to right ones ’cause they actually touch. And then, so all this is kind of like double work, but. Maybe you can learn from me, you know, like instead of trying to force it and see how I got these lines in there and then it doesn’t match.

[00:43:16] And then if I’m trying, if you’re trying to use the Pathfinder and you have these grouped elements, and then look, there’s this one little foot alone. Aha. So I ended up. I had two lines [00:43:30] that were the same, so I, I end up trashing this so many times to try to figure it out. But for me, for future, diane, if you’re watching this, you need to just start with two lines.

[00:43:40] If they’re half drop, then make the whole entire line, the whole set, top line and bottom line one thing, and then move it all the way to the, so it’s on, almost on the whole row. Then, then repeat it. Just [00:44:00] repeat the one little thing, the tiny little thing, top to bottom. That’s what I did here. And then I ended up grouping everything and then I used the Pathfinder tool to evenly distribute, and that’s what I should have done from the beginning.

[00:44:14] I do like little patterns, so if you are a little pattern person, do that. Don’t, don’t do what I did.

[00:44:26] Then I did copy paste. Uh, again, I’m grouping [00:44:30] them. It takes a while ’cause there’s a lot of little things and I just hid the layers, you know, the up and down layers. I do think it works a lot better when the, these little background legs are, um, oh, still doesn’t work, diane. Oh, I’ll just take the size from this box.

[00:44:50] It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. You have to have. You have two of the ones, same ones at the bottom. Nope, doesn’t work. [00:45:00] Hello? It doesn’t work. Now I have these big gaps. That’s what happens when a pattern doesn’t work correctly.

[00:45:12] I like things that have hidden things, you know, like, uh, two meanings like the steam. It’s also, you know, a person, but it’s also leaves mustache, but leaves things that are hidden. Maybe not everybody sees. [00:45:30] Now, this is what I should have done the whole time, whole way through. Now I have it. I select them all.

[00:45:37] I redistribute, I get rid of the top and or the bottom, and the left and the right, and then I just repeat it. Now it works and I don’t have any problems, and it works a lot better. So I’m able to focus on the teacups and the pattern in the background. Helps just to support it. Now I’m on Spoonflower. If you go in, you go to your dashboard after you’ve logged in, you can either hit upload a [00:46:00] design, or you can go to your dashboard and then go upload.

[00:46:02] But here’s how you make it. In my document setup, I have to make it the same size as the tile that I had made, and I had made a 500 by 500 pixel tile, which is not 600, I’m sorry, 900 pixels square is six inches. So kind of get you an idea. So what you end up doing is you drag, you copy paste the pattern in, and then you drag it out of the [00:46:30] swatches palette.

[00:46:31] And then you take in your layers and the empty layer all the way up past the group. And then you select all, and you say, make clipping path. And then you go up to properties and you go to zero zero in your. Make sure your zero zero little squares in your upper left hand corner and then it’ll be perfect.

[00:46:55] And then you say Export. Export for Web Legacy. This is all thanks to Helen [00:47:00] Bradley. The link is, but down below I did JPEG maximum. I don’t want it to be the same size. I want it to be six inches. So I did a 900 and since it’s vector you can go up as much as you want. And then I just titled it something and I said six inches.

[00:47:17] I. And then I do the same thing. Export, export for Web Legacy instead of 500 again, or 900, I did 1800. That’s 12 inches. So it’s gonna be a much bigger pattern than [00:47:30] save as. I use the same thing instead of six inches. I changed it to 12. It may look like crap right here, but it’s gonna look great. Once we upload it.

[00:47:41] I’m gonna pick the. I can’t, you have to click accept and then it loads for a bit and then you type in your title. I don’t know anything good about how to title anything right yet, so I’ll come back to you as I learn. But I did put large, probably need to do L [00:48:00] on the other side. Um, and then just description probably didn’t great, do great on the description, but again, I’m learning.

[00:48:06] I’ll tell you what I learned.

[00:48:13] Think about what is, what is great like, and then I’d use theirs for tags. I don’t know if this I, this is good. I don’t know if people are really searching, using their tags, but I would think, I know some people, they’re SEO [00:48:30] really, they don’t, they’re not using these, they’re using. They’re just all writing all their own and you know, I don’t know yet, so this is just me.

[00:48:41] I kind of described the color space invader, like anybody’s gonna hunt, but who knows? You never know. You know, it’s kind of this hidden space invader. You have 13 tags and the ones that are theirs, plus the ones I said abstract, hand drawn, I guess, you know, so that it’s, people know it’s not [00:49:00] like totally geometric and perfect, and then you have to proof it.

[00:49:06] And that little pink box shows it would show if something was wrong, and then you just zoom out and then it’s proofed and you can put it for sale. Just like that. I think it looks good as a duvet. All right, so now we’re gonna, you would upload the next one, the six inch one, or the, yeah. I can’t even tell [00:49:30] what, it’s six inch one.

[00:49:31] Again, I, if you want it to be in a colorway, I think you have to do a dash and then after you name it and it would be purple or something and you can edit the thumbnail. Anyway, just me selecting, I have no idea what I’m doing here. But again, I told you I was taking you on my journey. I think this probably matters.

[00:49:58] I also did not, um, [00:50:00] you know, everything you make is copyrighted as soon as you make it right. But I didn’t go through the copyright thing this time for these, I.

[00:50:18] And if you click on them, it kinda shows you what it looks like in fabric. It. There’s the fabric. Here’s like what a curtain would look like. A bedspread, [00:50:30] napkins. Pillows, right? This is all spoonflower kind of does these. Anyway, these, I did a whole bunch of different colorways, but look, these are really just the legs put together.

[00:50:40] I love the red ones. I guess it’s just me. Um, but I really like the red ones. This is like a nice tone on tone. This is kind of funky. This is maybe, is this the bigger one? Yeah, this is the bigger one. I. So I’m gonna go back, I’m gonna show you the little one just so you can see what the big to little kind of looks like [00:51:00] in the same color.

[00:51:04] Can’t you see it? I’m just kidding. Um, so, you know, I mean, I don’t know if I’d wanna duvet in it, but maybe somebody would. Um, but then I also did, these are all just kind of coordinates, right? But these are opposite of each other. And I just, I just had a lot of fun. I really did like these, I call this the American cowboy.

[00:51:24] These again are just the legs. They’re just the legs repeated. Everything is the [00:51:30] legs. Literally all those little things are the legs. Um, I thought it looks cool as, um, duvet and I thought it looked cool as, you know, a whatever this, I thought, I just thought cool as sheets too. This is the small one. And then, let’s see.

[00:51:51] Um, but like I tried to do a big and small, like I figured out all of it. Thank you Helen Bradley on YouTube. I did some. [00:52:00] Light colors. I did. I like this one. I think it’s really fun. I like the, it’s not black, it’s navy. It’s ’cause Anyway, one of the rules is it’s not white either. It’s a cream. This reminded me and my sister of, uh, the wallpaper or the fabric that was on our bed at our grandmother’s house.

[00:52:20] This is like a stripe, but really it’s just the legs and this weird kind of thing. But all of these except one. I had not, I had just uploaded [00:52:30] today, which I think is awesome. And so this one is done in Photoshop. This is one of my favorites. Um, it’s my watermelons. You can go back and see. I did a lot of watermelons.

[00:52:44] Um, but I really love, I mean, I think this would, you know, maybe it’s a bit much for, but it’s cute on a table or sheets if you loved watermelons. I think that’s awesome. Um, anyway. But I got over myself. I figured it [00:53:00] out. Thanks to Helen Bradley on YouTube. I’ll put a link to which one. I just, it didn’t make sense.

[00:53:07] I knew I needed to do the tile, but I don’t know. It just whatever it, I got it now. I’m good. I actually made a video for myself. Sometimes I do that. Anyway. Huge win one. I’m a win. I’m a win. I’m a win for getting over myself. And two [00:53:30] for, I knew I struggled with color. I just need to play and I do well, I need to, I still need to work on some of these, some, so some of the things that I think don’t work on the watermelon is that it’s really tight and I am not creating a scene or having any kind of texture.

[00:53:55] It’s just flat, except the illustrations aren’t flat. ’cause they’re, they’re not, [00:54:00] they’re, they’re real. Like that’s a real thing, you know, like I’ve made physical things. I mean, it’s not real watermelon. You wouldn’t wanna eat it ’cause it’s made outta paper and glue, but whatever. Anyway, I got outta my way and I just, I think it helps me, and this could be a DHD or a little dyslexia, is that I like.

[00:54:23] To do things with my hands, to push them around, like to cut them, feel the shape, kinda see. But I had [00:54:30] so much fun making these patterns and especially like just the ones that are just really simple. Um, you know, these red stripes, I, it’s just, it’s just red. But I, you know, it’s just. They’re not perfect little feet.

[00:54:52] Um, but like this one, you know, when you wanna go somewhere, like, I think I’m gonna show you [00:55:00] this one. It might be a little bit easier to see, but like to me it’s, I would’ve never come up with this. This looks like a space invader. And I just wouldn’t have come up with this had. I had not been playing around and I love that.

[00:55:18] It doesn’t like it has this weird thing that’s does, doesn’t make that circle, but I like it. It’s different. It is, it does repeat. It’s a perfect repeat. Anyway, [00:55:30] I’m just so psyched. One I got outta my way because the palette, I just chose a palette. My friend Ellen. Um, that’s in my. Immersion group. She was like, just start with four colors.

[00:55:44] You know? You don’t have to have 18 colors and just add as you go darker and lighters. And so you know what, that’s what I did. And I just think I was getting in my [00:56:00] way of, it had to be perfect and then I was like, oh my gosh, I don’t do this. I’m not good with color. I have to have all the color ways I have to do.

[00:56:06] You know what? I don’t. I absolutely don’t. And I’m glad it’s done. I’m so psyched that I got out of my way, so I hope you enjoy this. Anyway, let’s get [00:56:30] busy.