Seahorses

I’ve been drawing florals for some time now, it’s a stable design element that sells well, but I’ve been interested in drawing ocean life for some time too and am only now starting to get into drawing and designing with that idea.

I’ve sketched some seahorses, and since this months Make it in design live hub is on the half-drop repeat I’ve come up with a simple half drop repeat design using the seahorses I’ve sketched.

So here’s a short runthrough of how I turned some sketches into a finished design…

I sketched several elements on both paper and procreate in black and white. I like to sketch in black ink then use illustrator to turn the sketch into a vector image.

I sometimes put the vector image into photoshop or procreate and colour it in to see how that looks coloured in.

I can use Photoshop or Illustrator to make the pattern, both have their different uses, but if the image is mainly line art I use Illustrator.

Once the pattern is finished I put it onto the Spoonflower website shop where you can order fabric with the prints on.

I use a couple other print on demand sites too, but all fabric patterns go to Spoonflower. I then use mockups to create an image showing the pattern on a product. This mockup came from the Spoonflower website, but you can buy them ready to use or make your own.

The final job is to come up with a name for the pattern, this one I simply called Seahorses.