Turning Your Art Doodles and Lettering into Fun Patterns

[music] [Shelly Kim] Hello, everyone. Welcome to Turning Your Art Doodles and Lettering into Fun Patterns.

So a couple of things, I'm Shelly Kim. I'm a Lettering Artist, Illustrator, and DIYer. And let's be friends over on Instagram @lettersbyshells.

So today's overview, we're going to be brainstorm in Adobe Fresco and Illustrator, and then we're going to also create illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. And lastly, we're going to create all the fun patterns in Illustrator.

So yay, let's get started.

So when it comes to creating all of my patterns, I love to doodle and brainstorm everything in Adobe Fresco. And it just helps me get all of my ideas out. So I have Adobe Fresco open right now, and I'm going to be using the Pixel Sketching brush just to sketch everything and just think about what I want to consider when it comes to creating the patterns. So I personally have been loving cherries. So I'm going to go ahead and doodle my cherry here.

And then I'm also going to-- I've been really loving tomatoes. So it's just really having fun and just thinking about all the things that you are, or things that really make you happy. So I'm going to also draw-- I'm going to hand letter something. So I'm just going to write the word hello so you can kind of see how I use Adobe Fresco.

So that's my sketch that I like to do. So then I'll go ahead and open up a brand new layer, and this is when I'll be using the vector brushes. So I'll go to Vector brush, and when I tap onto it, I'm going to use the Basic Round brush. And I just want to make sure that my settings are good to go. And I think for this one, I like to turn my smoothing all the way up. So I usually think the default's around 50%, so I'll just turn it all the way up. So I'm going to then just sketch everything out, and this will make it a lot easier when I bring it into Adobe Illustrator.

So just have fun with this process.

And you can definitely create all of this in Adobe Illustrator, but I like to just draw some sketches first and just draw a couple of things that I know I want that hand drawn feel for.

So actually, I think that's fine. I'm going to draw my stem here.

Sorry, am I contemplating? I think I'm going to actually open up a brand new layer underneath it, and then I'm going to draw the stems here. So that way I can recolor them much easier if I would like to.

So then on this layer, I'm just going to draw my tomato right here and going back to that layer.

So I like to just, of course, I draw everything on different layers just to help me with my process much later.

And you can always move this around if you like to.

So on another-- I know I ended up opening up a lot of layers, and that's okay. So I'm going to now write my word hello.

So there are a couple of illustrations that I would love to use for this pattern, but I'm going to showcase how to create them in Illustrator.

So once you're happy with it, I think that's pretty good to go. Okay, one last adjustment.

Okay, one last line.

Okay, so with that, I'm going to, so you can hide the sketch layer, and you'll see all of that. So I can recolor all this now, or you can also do it in Illustrator as well. But let me show you how I would do it here. So I'm just going to find the layer that I need to color, and I'm going to use this Fill brush and just fill the illustrations.

Let's do a tomato.

Oops. Like that.

And I think it just really helps with this process just to have it on separate layers.

Okay, let me just find the right.

Actually, I think the first one was good.

Okay, so then last step, I'm going to make it a lot, let's make it a lot brighter.

And the word hello, just like that. So once I sketch everything out and I create all of my illustrations in Fresco, I like to personally, export it this way. So there's a box with an arrow outwards.

And basically, I can do a "Open a copy in" Illustrator desktop, and then it will basically, open up the file there. And then that way, I can utilize all of the files. And yeah, so let me go ahead and open up Illustrator.

Okay, so now I'm going to open up the artwork we created in Fresco into Illustrator. So yay, I think it's so fun to see the artwork here, and it's a really fast way to bring your artwork over as well. So when it comes to making patterns, I love to use an art board either 3,000 pixels or 12x12 inches. So I do have another tab that I had open. This is where I'm going to create all my patterns. I'm just going to copy this artwork over to the other tab and just add it to the other illustrations that I created earlier. I think it's a really good way to just have multiple illustrations available when you're making patterns to see if you want to change out a few of your shapes with another design as well. So I think it'd be a really fun way to just draw a couple more things in Illustrator. So let's say you didn't want to draw anything in Fresco, but you want to just do it all in Illustrator, we can draw a couple of things together. So let's draw a star together.

So I'm drawing my circle first. I use this tool here, the Ellipse Tool. So after I draw my circle, I'll go to Effect and then Distort & Transform and then Pucker & Bloat here, and let's go ahead and do about negative 50%. I think I feel good about this. You can also really experiment and see what design you're going for, but I think about negative 55% is good. I'm just going to tap on OK, and there's your star. I think it's a really fun way to make your details that you can add to your patterns. I'm going to also draw a circle as well, and let's draw...

a flower together. So I'm going to use the Polygon Tool, and let's do-- And for the first one, let's do five sides.

I'm going to do the exact same thing. Go to Effect, Distort & Transform, and then we're going to increase the size this time when you're using your...

Pucker...

Your Pucker tool. So let's go ahead and now just draw our individual center for your illustrations. That's super fun.

So let's say I want to draw another style as well. I'm going to use the same Polygon Tool, but this time, do six sides instead.

And then just do the exact same thing.

Effect, Distort & Transform, and we're just going to increase the size this time. Maybe about, yeah, 53% looks good. I'm just going to copy the same center over as well. And yeah, I feel pretty good about these. I feel like it's a really fun way to experiment and see just different styles you are wanting to add to your patterns.

So let's recolor a couple of them. I'm just going to use the Eyedropper tool here. This one's going to be pink.

This one, I'll do this purple.

I think this works. Okay. I feel good about this. So when we're making our pattern, which is the really exciting part is just to like-- It can be trial and error. You have to experiment and see what you're really enjoying and just explore the different spacing, but it's pretty straightforward, though. So out of the illustrations, I'm going to choose a few of them that I want to include. So let's say I want to include this one. Let's bring it over here, this shape. Let's do maybe this one as well, and then we'll just do this one also.

So I like to just change the colors a bit. So I'm going to do a pink one, purple-- Actually, let's do this yellow color. Yeah, I feel good about this. So once you figure out the spacing and the illustrations you want to create, let's make our first pattern together, which is really exciting. So after you choose your illustrations, go ahead and highlight them all, and then we'll go to Object, and then Pattern, and Make. And you'll see that this Pattern Options thing comes up. So I'm going to name this really fast, and then the Tile Type. So there's different options to explore from. There's a Grid option. There's this one, Brick by Column. There's just different ones to explore. I do love the Brick by Column a lot. You can also do Hex by Column or Hex by Row. I think for this one, I like this one for this design because I feel like there's a good amount of spacing I can explore and enjoy. So with this, I like to take a step back, and it's just all about figuring out the spacing if you're happy with it, and just exploring how you want the patterns to appear. So with this one, I think- I'm not too sure if I want the bigger patterns to be next to each other, and this one's down here. So it's going to look something like this or maybe-- Okay, I think I like the other way better.

So let's go ahead and explore like that.

I think my issue is, I don't want these to be in the same row. So maybe it can make the scale a bit higher, and we could just change it around.

I think I might just have to make it a bit smaller.

Yeah. So I feel good about this, and I feel just taking a step back, I feel the spacing is good, and I love how it all comes together. So afterwards, you're just going to tap on Done. And yay! So let's open up-- So after, I guess, you make your pattern, it's going to be over available in this panel here. So I'm going to open up a brand new artboard so I can see how it all came together. Let's open up a new square.

This is the artboard size, and then just tap on the pattern that we created. Yeah. So this is super fun. I feel it's a really nice way to see how it all comes together. And I feel there's many different options and things that you can explore when it comes to patterns. So let's go ahead and make another one together. So I'm going to make another artboard here. So I'm going to go back and see the illustrations. So I wanted one with illustrations only. This one, let's do my-- Let's add some hand...

lettering in there, I'm thinking. Sorry. So hand lettering, I want there to be that. Also, maybe let's do a cherry. I'm visually thinking about how I want it to come together. So if you see me wandering, that's what I'm doing.

So let's copy that and let's bring it over to this artboard, and I'm just going to just bring it all here.

And this is a thing where I have to take a step back again and just see in terms of spacing, what I'm happy with. So, of course, I want this word to be the center of it. And I just want these illustrations to add a nice fun balance, but not so much be the focus. So I'm just going to make it like that maybe, make the star a little bit smaller.

Maybe like that.

And make this dot a little bit smaller as well. Yeah. So I think I can-- I think this looks good so far. So let's highlight them all and then go to Object, and then we'll do-- First-- Where is it? Object, Pattern, and Make.

And yay! So this is the same Options.

Tile it, hello 1, and then just explore the different tile types. So this is the first option. Let's do another one.

And just exploring what you're happy with.

I think usually for hand lettering, I think Brick by Column is usually a go-to. Brick by Row. Actually, I think this one looks good. So we'll go ahead and explore this option.

So I'm going to just move a couple things around and just see how I want in terms of the spacing of the illustrations, maybe make them a little bit smaller.

I think I need to make this shape smaller as well.

Okay, so I need to figure out this here, the star and the dot.

I think that actually, we could look okay. And just taking a step back and seeing if it just all comes together naturally.

Yeah. I feel good about this. So let's go ahead and tap on Done and just open up a brand new artboard again and just see how it all came together. So let's say you wanted to add a background color. I'm going to use this. I'm just going to bring-- Make it a little bit...

I'm just going to change the color a bit so I can make sure that the cherries don't-- It's going to still stand out. So let's go ahead and actually, let's do....

a orange.

Okay, I feel good about that color. So let's go ahead, and that's going to be our background. I'm just going to copy and paste this thing over and go to our Swatches panel here, and that's where all the patterns are going to be available. And, yeah, there's the second pattern. I think it's super fun and just a really fun way to explore and just see how you can like take your artwork to the next level and add it to a whole bunch of other things. So I wanted to also talk about when it comes to patterns, I feel once you feel good about them and you are able to make different options available, you can put them on almost anything. I love to use my patterns for stationery, also, stationery, gift bags, anything. So I wanted to go ahead and share a couple of things that I made earlier. So these are a couple of other patterns. So it just bring you to perspective, here are some other options available. So this one is a tomato and cherry and, yeah, and this one's congratulations, just to see how the text is outlined. I think I made this a lot smaller in scale. This one's like a happy birthday, and this is the same thing that we made earlier. Yeah. And I got these photos, just to give a mock up version. This photo, I'll go ahead and actually share how I did that. But this one I did get this photo from Adobe Stock. So let's go ahead and make a couple of mockups available. I think it's a really helpful way to bring your artwork to the next thing to visually see how it can be applied to a product or something you are maybe hoping for, and just you have to visually see how it comes together. So yay! Let's go ahead and open up on a new artboard. I'm going to-- You basically have to save the artwork first and just copy paste over here.

So how I created the first initial mockup here? I actually used...

this tab. Okay. So I basically used this packaging beta mockup thing. So with this, you can explore and see the different options you want to do. So let's do apparel or branding graphics. Yeah, I just did packaging, and this is the one I chose. And you can see how it comes together. And I think it's really fun, it's like a really cool way to see how you can apply your artwork. So I just did a couple of adjustments. Yeah. And that's pretty much how I did it, and you can really go in detail with the adjustments here, but you get the general idea. I think it's super fun to make these available.

Okay, so let's go ahead and delete that and save this mockup first. So yeah, so this is how I did the first mockup. Again, it's Window, Mockup (Beta), and that's how I was able to bring it all together. Okay, so the next artboard-- I basically got this photo from Adobe Stock, and I just pasted it over.

So the Adobe Stock, it has many options available for you to choose from when it comes to just different photos.

I'm going to use the exact same pattern that I made earlier and just paste it over as well. And you just basically highlight these two, and then I believe it's in Object, Mockup (Beta), Create Mockup.

And how fun is that? I think it's so fun. You can see how you can change the pattern around, but you get the general idea. And I think it's just creating these photos, it's a really helpful way to visually see what's possible, and I think it's super fun. So I feel good about this. Let's go ahead and make it a little bit smaller.

But yeah, I think that's pretty much it when it comes to creating the patterns from just making the patterns, first sketching them out in Fresco or making the illustrations in Adobe Illustrator and just bringing it to how you can make up them all available in Illustrator as well. I think it's super fun.

And I guess one last thing I wanted to talk about is if you're ever feeling stuck in any way when you're making patterns in the future, I like to just talk about one last thing. So if you are ever wanting to explore different composition styles and you're not too-- You want some inspiration, I like to use the Window option, Generate Patterns. And earlier, I did fall themed pattern here, but basically, these are a couple items that generated.

Let's do pumpkin and fall leaves.

So I think Generate Patterns is a really fun way to just, visually seeing, get some inspiration. Yeah.

Okay, so let's do-- Yay! This is super fun. And it's just a really good way to experiment and just get some inspiration in terms of seeing how they were able to fill the spacing. So with me, I would typically like to do the dots and the stars in between the pumpkins, but this was a really fun way to see how they were able to utilize different illustrations and bring it all together. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me over on Instagram. I really enjoyed having this time together, and I really hope it was a fun way to bring your artwork to life and making all the patterns and see how you can apply it all. Yay! Thank you so much again, and I hope that we can chat soon. Take care. Bye!