Revolutionize Your Pattern Design: A Step-by-Step Guide to Leonardo AI Magic
Lately, I’ve been incorporating Leonardo AI into my pattern design workflow — and it’s been a total game changer. As a surface pattern designer who works primarily with watercolor motifs, I wasn’t looking to replace my hand-painted elements, but rather to expand on them and speed up some parts of the creative process. Here’s how […]
Lately, I’ve been incorporating Leonardo AI into my pattern design workflow — and it’s been a total game changer. As a surface pattern designer who works primarily with watercolor motifs, I wasn’t looking to replace my hand-painted elements, but rather to expand on them and speed up some parts of the creative process. Here’s how I’m using this tool to create cohesive, AI-assisted artwork that still feels like me.
Training My Own AI Model with My Artwork
Leonardo is one of many AI tools out there, but what makes it stand out for me is the ability to train your own model. With the paid version, I uploaded a dataset of my own scanned watercolor illustrations — birds, flowers, and soft vintage-inspired elements in my usual style. Think: delicate petals, flat shading, and organic lines.
Once uploaded to the Leonardo Data Set Editor, I trained a custom model that I named Victorian 2. This model is exclusive to my account and mimics the style of my artwork when generating new images. Below are a few images that I uploaded to train the model.
Results: The Good, The Bad, and The Very Victorian
After training, I started testing prompts with my new model. Some results were beautiful — roses, peonies, and leafy elements that followed the same shapes, lines, and textures of my hand-painted work. They blended seamlessly into my existing style.
Others? Not so great. A few birds turned out cute, but weren’t on-brand. Some bows looked off. But that’s the beauty of the process — you can test, refine, and skip anything that doesn’t match your aesthetic. Below are a few of the results. Pretty!
Crafting Prompts That Work
Prompt writing is an art in itself. For example, I asked Leonardo for “five isolated large rose elements” inspired by the Victorian language of flowers. I specified that I wanted the images to be 2D, flat, and simplified, without heavy shadows — more in line with my watercolor work.
Being specific really helps guide the AI. Repeating the style cues (like “flat,” “large-scale,” “vintage,” etc.) makes a big difference.
Blending AI with Hand-Painted Elements in Illustrator
Once I have the images I want, I download them and import them into Adobe Illustrator, just like I would with scanned paintings.
From there, I mix AI-generated motifs with my own illustrations. In one design, the lemons and birds are painted by me, while some of the roses came from Leonardo. The key is that they complement each other and contribute to the richness of the final pattern.
Final Thoughts: AI as a Creative Assistant
Using Leonardo AI doesn’t replace my art — it supports it. It helps me generate more options, spark new ideas, and fill in the gaps when I want to explore a different scale, motif, or style variation. The trick is to stay in control of your aesthetic and use AI as a collaborator, not a creator.
I’ll continue to experiment and refine my process, and I hope sharing this peek behind the scenes inspires you to explore what’s possible too.