anika mari

I tried my first pixel pattern and immediately got the idea to try to use to create a pixel pattern from one I’d designed using pen and paper. Since I’ve been using the cut leaves for a lot of other projects lately, I thought I’d continue the trend.

Just wanting to try it out, I selected one of the squares in the pattern to work from.

I created a new layer on which I could draw over the original, but correct mistakes. I filled in the pixels over the dark area of the pattern. When zoomed in on, there are many variations of gray at the edges of the original image, so to create the pattern only in black and white I used my best judgment to decide where to define the line. Before long I had the job finished.

I tiled it to see how it would work.

Seemed ok to me, but I had wanted to also make another version which would likely have a bolder look, just to try a different technique.

For the first try, I decided which blocks to color in black as I traced, depending on how dark the edge of the line of the original drawing was.

I made the decisions as I went, and sometimes it was rather arbitrary, but I tried to only trace over the parts that were a mid gray or darker.

For the second, bolder version, I colored all the pixels black that were even the slightest bit gray.

In effect this took the decision making out of the process, so if the end result turned out to look better, it would make tracing future patterns more straightforward. However, I’m on the fence about the results.

I’m not sure it looks all that much different from the first version. It’s slightly bolder, but I can’t completely decide which I like better.  When viewed full size the bold slightly wins over the delicate version, but then again, I keep changing my mind one minute to the next. I suppose I’ll have to decide what “rule” to follow for tracing each pattern as I trace it.

I completed a color variation, green on blue, for both the delicate and bold versions.

I think tracing an original drawing was a worthwhile exercise, but I’m not sure if I’d want to use these particular patterns for anything. They are just not quite “it” for me.

I was thinking that the black and white wrought iron pattern sketches that I developed while in Mexico might translate well to a pixel pattern. I’ll have to try that out.

I’ve visited this site now and again over the years and have browsed through and drooled over the patterns in their pixel patterns gallery. Now that I’ve been taken up by the spirit of pattern making, I decided to try out making a pixel pattern of my own.

I opened a new little (25 px square) photoshop document, and arbitrarily filled in individual squares with the pencil tool, taking care to keep symmetry along the diagonal.

When I was done I copied and pasted the 25px square image into a new 50px square photoshop document, copied the layer 3 times and rotated and placed each to finish the pattern motif.

When the motif is viewed full size, the pixels tend to blend together a little bit for softer look.

The real fun came when I put the pattern together. I selected the motif and defined it as a pattern, then opened a new photoshop document 550px x 600px, and filled it with my new pattern.

View it full size here.

For a quick variation I added a pink background.

Full size here.

I have an idea for how to translate my other pattern designs into pixel patterns which I’ll try out next.  I’m not sure how or if it will work, but even this first try was a fun quick way to make a pattern.

The process reminded me of making paper snowflakes.  Folding up a plain white square of paper, arbitrarily cutting little bits and pieces of various shapes away, then unfolding the holey paper to reveal the final creation.  Whenever I cut away pieces for a paper snowflake, I imagine how it might look when it’s unfolded.  My brain doesn’t work that way though, so I’m invariably surprised by the final result.

Same thing happened with this pixel pattern.  When I arbitrarily filled in the little squares on the canvas, I thought I had a vague idea of what it would look like, but discovered that it’s hard for me to picture the final result accurately when all I see are squares.

I’ll have to try it again and see what other designs I’d come with.  It would be cool if I could eventually have a little more control about what the final pattern would look like as I’m making it.