Tea's Computer Graphics - Tutorial

A SUPER QUICK SEAMLESS PATTERN TUTORIAL
for Adobe Illustrator

Difficulty Level: You will need to know your way around AI so I would class this tutorial as an intermediate level.
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Are you eager to put theory into practice?  To speed up the process I've included source file for you to download.  The elements used here are just simple doodles, but they will do for the purpose of this tutorial.  I want to share with you an easy technique to follow that you can use to construct and define a seamless pattern correctly, with no gaps.

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Click below to download the source file and the finished pattern:

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You can follow along with the steps of this tutorial using your own artwork too if you like. This will give your pattern a unique one-of-a-kind look.

STEP 1.

Launch Illustrator and start a new document (10 x 10 inches) or open the downloadable source file above.

STEP 2.

If you are starting with a new document, create 3 layers:
Layer 1: pattern bounding box
Layer 2: background
Layer 3: pattern elements
The source file already has these 3 layers.

STEP 3.

In the first layer draw the pattern bounding box using the rectangle tool.  The bounding box is just an unfilled and unstroked rectangle which coincides with outer boundaries of a pattern tile.  It is important to place it behind all of the elements.   Make it 10 x 10 inches and align to artboard.  Copy and Paste (i.e. Paste in Front) this rectangle in the 2nd layer and fill it with whatever background color you want  (no stroke).  Lock this layer.

STEP 4.

The 3rd layer is where we play with pattern elements.  When arranging the elements we must keep in mind that elements that overlap the edges of the bounding box (and the artboard, in the case of this tutorial)  need to be copied to opposite edges.  The easiest way to do that is to select an element at the edge and copy it to the opposite side (with element selected go to Object >Transform > Move > and enter 10 inches in the Position Field (either Horizontal or Vertical). The minus sign (symbol − ) is used to to indicate that an element will be sent to the left or downwards.  Then hit Copy.

STEP 5.

Inside the bounding box we are free to place copies of our elements randomly to fill in the space.  We should pay attention not to overcrowd the inner area, to achieve balance in design and to avoid any optical gaps along the edges. When we are happy with the setup we are almost done.

STEP 6.

Now we’ll select and merge the 3 layers.  Then with everything selected we go to Edit > Define Pattern. New Swatch dialogue box appears  Name your pattern and we're done.  You can test your pattern by filing any any shape you wish.

I hope you find it useful.

© Tea Pecarina

Here there is another Seamless Pattern AI tutorial
describing a slightly different technique:

BASIC TECHNIQUE FOR SEAMLESS PATTERNS

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You can submit your images to Shutterstock too, they will sell them for you!
They accept illustrations, (vector and raster, even creative doodle art), photos and footages.  It's free to join the Shutterstock Submit. Shutterstock also has a wonderful Forum for Submitters, and there you can get all the support you need, as soon as you join,
even before your first 10 images get approved.
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Did this tutorial work for you?
Feel free to comment or share your tips.