# Learn to Design Arts and Crafts Patterns - Part 1 - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/learn-to-design-arts-and-crafts-patterns-part-1/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Illustration & Drawing · Solid intro · Rated 7 /10 # Learn to Design Arts and Crafts Patterns - Part 1 By Gareth B. Davies · Updated July 2026 Bärbel Dressler · Pattern designer & history nerd Intermediate · 224 min A history-heavy deep dive into William Morris's world that teaches drawing and color technique but stops short of the actual repeat-building. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Flearn-to-design-arts-and-crafts-patterns-part-1%2F637805026) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## A history lesson first, a pattern course second Bärbel Dressler opens this course with an unusually long runway. Roughly a third of the 224 minutes covers the Arts and Crafts Movement's origins: the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace, the Gothic Revival influence of Pugin and Owen Jones, John Ruskin's writing on workmanship, and William Morris's path from aspiring clergyman to design icon. It goes deep enough to name John Henry Dearle and May Morris, the uncredited hands behind many patterns popularly attributed to William Morris alone, and to trace the founding of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company through its stained glass years into wallpaper and textiles. This is not filler. Dressler uses the history to justify specific design choices later, tying Owen Jones's "design from function, then ornament" principle directly to how a pattern's motifs should relate to its layout. But it does mean students expecting to open Illustrator in lesson two will wait a while. Anyone who wants technique with zero preamble will find the pacing frustrating. ## The drawing and planning sections Once the course moves into practice, it settles into a clear rhythm: characteristics lessons on theme, composition, repeats, layout, and motif, followed by drawing exercises for basic leaves, lobed leaves, large flowers, and small flowers. The method is consistent throughout: sketch a directional guide line first, treat it as the "skeleton," then flesh out the shape around it. This applies equally to a simple forked leaf and to a layered chrysanthemum drawn with two rows of petals seen from above or in three-quarter view. The color scheme lesson is a genuine highlight. Dressler counts the actual colors used in canonical Morris and Dearle patterns like Acanthus, Strawberry Thief, and Golden Lily, landing on a working range of six to eighteen colors, then walks through building a personal palette by numbering each color as it's introduced and reusing shades across motifs to keep the count manageable. It is a concrete, replicable system rather than vague color advice. The postage-stamp repeat technique, sketching a motif structure on a small square, tracing it across a grid, then cutting and rotating quadrants to test how elements meet at the edges, is the most distinctive skill taught here. It is a genuinely old-school drafting method rarely demonstrated with this level of specificity, and it will be useful well beyond Arts and Crafts work. ## Where it falls short The course's structure works against its own promise. It is billed as teaching a complete pattern from history through digital repeat, but the transcript-level content stops at drawing and color palette planning. The Illustrator coloring and digital repeat steps that the course description highlights receive comparatively little depth relative to the extensive history and hand-drawing sections. Students hoping for a thorough Illustrator walkthrough may find that portion thinner than expected. The bonus rose exercises are a nice addition but reinforce that this is fundamentally a drawing-and-history course with an Illustrator finish, not an Illustrator course with historical context. For the right student, an intermediate illustrator who wants to understand the "why" behind the style before drawing it, that tradeoff is worthwhile. For someone who just wants to move fast into digital pattern-making, it will feel slow. The standout The postage-stamp drafting method, using small taped and rotated grid squares to test and refine a repeat before committing it to a full-size drawing, is a genuinely useful analog technique rarely explained this clearly elsewhere. ## What you will learn - · The social and design history behind the Arts and Crafts Movement, from the 1851 Great Exhibition through William Morris, John Henry Dearle, and May Morris - · How to identify the style's core characteristics in theme, composition, layout, and motif - · A step-by-step method for drawing stylized leaves (basic, lobed, forked) and layered flowers using directional guide lines - · How to plan a pattern's intention, themes, and motifs before drawing - · A traditional postage-stamp technique for drafting a repeat structure with post-it notes and a grid - · How to build an Arts and Crafts-style color palette by counting and matching colors from reference patterns Best for: Illustrator-comfortable pattern designers who want a rigorous, history-grounded route into Arts and Crafts style and don't mind a slow build toward the finished pattern. Skip it if: Beginners with no Illustrator experience, or anyone wanting a fast digital-only workflow without hand-drawing or historical context. Clarity of Instruction Organization of Lessons Actionable Steps Helpful Examples [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Flearn-to-design-arts-and-crafts-patterns-part-1%2F637805026)