# Watercolor a Seamless Pattern: Surface Design in Adobe Photoshop for Print-On-Demand - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/watercolor-a-seamless-pattern-surface-design-in-adobe-photoshop-for-print-on-demand/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Illustration & Drawing · Solid intro · Rated 7 /10 # Watercolor a Seamless Pattern: Surface Design in Adobe Photoshop for Print-On-Demand By Gareth B. Davies · Updated July 2026 Cat Coquillette · Artist + Entrepreneur + Educator All levels · 225 min A watercolor-to-Photoshop pipeline for turning hand-painted florals into sellable seamless patterns, taught by someone who has actually sold 100,000+ pieces. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fwatercolor-a-seamless-pattern-surface-design-in-adobe-photoshop-for-print-on-demand%2F1054728) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## A real production pipeline, not just theory Cat Coquillette's class sets out to answer a specific, practical question: how does a physical watercolor painting become a file that sells on Society6, Spoonflower, and Redbubble? The course earns its "surface design" label by walking the entire chain in order. It opens with a Q&A on the business fundamentals of licensing (non-exclusive contracts, selling the same design across multiple platforms), moves through supply selection (300lb cold-press paper, 3H pencils, a specific four-color palette), into painting and scanning, and finally into the Photoshop half of the class, where the real technical meat lives. The Photoshop segments are the strongest part of the course. Coquillette shows how to combine two scans into one document, set white points with the Levels eyedropper to correct for scanner darkening, and isolate a painted subject from its paper background using the Magic Wand with contiguous selection turned off. That last detail matters: it is the kind of small, specific technique that separates a course that actually teaches Photoshop from one that just narrates over a finished file. From there she demonstrates arranging elements into a seamless block using the Pattern Preview tool, working largest-to-smallest and applying a Multiply blending mode across layers so overlapping watercolor elements blend the way real transparent pigment would. ## Where the value concentrates, and where it thins out The color exploration section is genuinely useful beyond this one project. Duplicating hue/saturation and color balance adjustment layers, inverting masks to isolate petals from leaves, and "keying" a whole palette by filling a layer with a flat color and cycling through blend modes like Color Burn or Lighten, are transferable techniques any surface designer would reuse on future work. The metallic texture lesson and the final upload walkthrough across three separate print-on-demand platforms round out the practical side well, showing real differences between how Society6 handles pattern files versus wallpaper blocks, and how Redbubble allows a block to be rescaled per product in a way Society6 does not. Where the course thins out is in the painting instruction itself. It leans on Coquillette's own hand rather than teaching composition or color theory from first principles, so someone who cannot already paint a competent floral motif will follow the steps without absorbing the judgment behind them. The class also assumes access to Photoshop and, ideally, a flatbed scanner, and while phone photography is mentioned as an alternative, it is not demonstrated with the same rigor as the scanner workflow. As a business primer, the course is candid and specific rather than motivational filler. The anecdote about landing an Urban Outfitters deal through Instagram exposure, and the emphasis on checking whether a licensing agreement is exclusive or non-exclusive, are useful reality checks for anyone assuming print-on-demand income is automatic. The course does not pretend the artistic step is easy, but it is unambiguously built for someone who can already paint and wants the missing technical link to a sellable product. For that narrow but real audience, it delivers exactly what it promises. The standout The Pattern Preview walkthrough, which shows the block updating live as elements are dragged so a full seamless repeat can be built by eye instead of by manual math. ## What you will learn - · How to scan and clean up a hand-painted watercolor illustration for digital use - · How to remove a paper background and isolate elements using the Magic Wand and layer masks - · How to build a repeat pattern block using Photoshop's Pattern Preview and Pattern Fill tools - · How to generate multiple color palettes from one painted design using adjustment layers and blending modes - · How to add metallic foil and glitter textures to hand-painted artwork - · How to upload and configure a pattern for sale on Society6, Redbubble, and Spoonflower Best for: Watercolor or traditional-media artists who already paint but have never turned a physical piece into a sellable, tiling digital pattern. Skip it if: Complete Photoshop beginners with no painting practice at all, or vector-focused illustrators who work exclusively in Adobe Illustrator. Clarity of Instruction Engaging Teacher Helpful Examples Organization of Lessons [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fwatercolor-a-seamless-pattern-surface-design-in-adobe-photoshop-for-print-on-demand%2F1054728)