Are you an artist or illustrator that works in traditional mediums and are interested in surface pattern design? Do you possibly paint with watercolors or use gouache or even sketch with color pencils and want to learn how you can take your traditional art work into the digital medium for commercial use as surface pattern repeats?

Well, in today’s class I am going to walk you through how I digitize my traditional artwork and translate them into surface pattern designs using Affinity Photo V2 on the iPad. Working with traditional mediums doesn’t mean you have to always create your repeat by hand and in this class I will show you my process for taking traditional artwork into the digital realm that still keeps its handmade look, but offers a quicker streamlined process.

If this your first class with me, welcome! If you are a returning student, welcome back! I am Jen and I will be your creative guide throughout this course. I’m a freelance graphic designer, illustrator and educator based out of the midwest and I run Bella + Sophia Creative studio. If you want to learn more about me, check out my youtube channel: The Creative Studio. I shared helpful creative tutorials on art, design and more as well as behind the scenes of the work I do as a creative freelancer and educator

So, in today’s class, we are going to be exploring the creative place where traditional art meets digital art and it is a fun place design. While I often work digitally, I really enjoy working with watercolor and other traditional art mediums like paint, gouache and color pencils. When you work traditionally by hand, people think it is difficult to translate to a digital product, but in reality you can still take those pieces of art to a digital format. I like to do this for easier access when it comes to any commercial projects or projects that require digital files. Creating surface pattern designs with traditional work is a fantastic way to do this. As we work together today, we will go through the process of prepping your art for use in a repeat pattern, learning how to create the pattern in affinity photo, exporting your final file and some of the ins and outs of the new version 2 affinity photo app.

If this is your first time taking one of my classes relating to surface pattern design - Definitely make sure you check out my previous surface pattern design courses - I have a variety that cover everything from basic level topics that walk you through the entire process of designing from concept to final pattern to more advanced classes that explore building specific types of repeats like half drop patterns and more. While this class is focused on using the Affinity apps on the iPad, I also have courses that walk you through the design process using the desktop affinity apps on a computer.

What the class is about

In this class, I will walk you through my process on how to create a repeating pattern from traditional art - in my case watercolor work - using the Affinity Photo versions 2 app. I will first walk you through preparing my art work for use in digital formats. We will go over how to get your work onto your iPad. We will walk through how to photograph using your iPad camera to make it easier to isolate your design elements. We will go into how to isolate your design elements and then we will also review exploring color variations of your artwork. Then we will begin to build out the repeat pattern using the design elements in affinity photo version 2 iPad app. Finally, we will test and export the final for for use with print on demand sties like spoonflower.

Make sure to check out the class resources for some helpful tools you can utilize while working on your class project. You will find them in section 2.

Tools needed

iPad with Affinity Photo 2 installed

Apple Pencil or stylus

Scanner and computer

Premade art work in a medium of your choice on non textured white paper

Who the class is geared toward

This class is geared towards anyone interested in learning how to translate their traditional or analog art to a digital medium and create repeating patterns with them in Affinity Photo 2. Whether you are a beginner or pro, this course will go through all the steps necessary to bring your traditional art work into the digital space.