# Surface Pattern Design: Key Principles for Making Outstanding Patterns - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/surface-pattern-design-key-principles-for-making-outstanding-patterns/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Illustration & Drawing · Solid intro · Rated 7 /10 # Surface Pattern Design: Key Principles for Making Outstanding Patterns Updated August 2026 Di Ujdi · Illustrator & Art Explorer Intermediate · 109 min A pattern designer's honest checklist for fixing repeats, arranging color, and prepping files a client won't send back confused. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fsurface-pattern-design-key-principles-for-making-outstanding-patterns%2F1484788139) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## A designer's internal rulebook, made explicit This course does not teach anyone to draw. It assumes a working pattern designer who can already sketch florals or geometrics and sit them into a repeat, and it spends its first third articulating the judgment calls that separate a passable print from a professional one. Scale consistency gets an apple-tree metaphor: elements of one type should vary in size only within a determined range, never wildly. Color gets a numeric anchor, four to five hues for a minimal palette, eight to nine for a maximal one, plus a rule about never letting two same-colored focal elements sit next to each other in the repeat. Repeat construction gets its own logic: full drop for complex, varied designs, half drop when a simpler design needs help disguising its seams. None of this is groundbreaking design theory, but it is the kind of thing experienced illustrators know intuitively and rarely bother to name, which is exactly why hearing it named is useful. The middle section is where the course earns its keep. It walks through building an actual floral repeat entirely inside Procreate, using custom actions to flip and rotate quadrants of a canvas, and it includes a genuinely clever troubleshooting move: flatten the working sketch, duplicate it into a 2x2 test tile, squint at the assembled repeat for flaws, then mark errors in a new layer with a distinct color, scale that mark layer back down to match the original swatch, and use it as a precise guide for what to fix. It is a small technique, but it solves a real problem that anyone who has fought with a seamless repeat will recognize. ## Where the two paths diverge, and where the course thins out A second full pass covers the same pattern built by splitting work between Procreate and Photoshop, exporting element groups as PSD files and reassembling them with Photoshop's transform tool, typing exact pixel offsets to nudge duplicated elements to the swatch edges. This is useful for anyone who already owns both programs, but it is also where the course becomes narrower than its blurb suggests. Someone using only Procreate gets a real, complete path. Someone using only Photoshop, without Procreate as a sketching front end, gets comparatively little tailored guidance. The final stretch, on preparing a promotion-ready JPEG for outreach and a properly layered PSD for a signed client, is short but practical, and it directly dismantles a common piece of bad advice, that raster patterns cannot be licensed or that final files should be withheld as low-res images out of fear. What the course does not offer is much depth on illustration technique itself, or on negotiating licensing terms, both of which are gestured at but not explained. It also leans on one designer's particular workflow and pastel-floral aesthetic throughout, so viewers working in very different styles will need to translate the principles rather than copy the specifics. For an intermediate pattern maker looking to tighten up sloppy repeats and finally produce a file a client would not send back, it delivers exactly what it promises. The standout The repeat-testing method of tiling a swatch into a 2x2 test image, circling errors in a marker layer, then scaling that annotated layer back onto the working file to fix flaws precisely. ## What you will learn - · How to diagnose scale, harmony, color balance, and arrangement problems that make a pattern feel unbalanced - · How to choose between full drop and half drop repeat methods based on element complexity - · Techniques for hiding the repeat seam using element alteration, varied direction, and curved rather than straight lines - · How to build and troubleshoot a full pattern swatch in Procreate alone, including custom actions for flipping selections - · A Procreate-to-Photoshop workflow for assembling pattern elements into a clean repeat with the offset transform method - · How to organize layers, size artwork correctly, and prepare a promotion-ready image and a client-ready PSD after licensing Best for: Pattern designers who already sketch and repeat their own designs but want a sharper eye for what separates amateur work from licensable, client-ready files. Skip it if: Complete beginners who have never attempted a pattern repeat, or anyone looking for step-by-step drawing or illustration instruction rather than structural and technical guidance. Engaging Teacher Clarity of Instruction Organization of Lessons Helpful Examples [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fsurface-pattern-design-key-principles-for-making-outstanding-patterns%2F1484788139)