Tools for Designers

Tutorial

3 Genius Ways to Recolor Patterns in Illustrator Quickly

Recoloring your surface pattern designs doesn’t have to be tedious! In this post, I’ll walk you through three different methods I use to recolor patterns in Adobe Illustrator — whether you’re batch-creating colorways for Spoonflower, adjusting a single shade, or automating your entire recolor workflow. 🎨 Method 1: Recolor Artwork Tool in Illustrator This is […]

Tutorial

5 Amazing Time-Saving Tools That Will Blow Your Mind

Let’s skip the boring parts of design — here are 5 automations for Illustrator and Photoshop that I rely on every week! 1. Magic Background Remover (Photoshop) This script is a lifesaver when you’ve scanned watercolor or gouache paintings on white paper: Once it’s done, you’ll have perfectly transparent PNGs with all that white paper […]

Tutorial

Automation and its Amazing Benefits to Artists

Hey there, fellow creatives! 🎨 Are you tired of getting bogged down by repetitive tasks in your design adventures? Well, hold onto your brushes because automation is here to save the day! What’s the Buzz About Automation? Think of automation as your trusty sidekick in the bustling world of art. Imagine being able to resize […]

Tutorial

Fast & Easy Creative Ideas for Pattern Collections with ChatGPT & MidJourney

If you’ve ever sat in front of a blank sketchbook, wondering what on earth to design next, you’ll know the value of a good brainstorming process. I’ve been experimenting with AI tools like ChatGPT and MidJourney to speed up the “idea-to-sketch” stage of my pattern design workflow — and the results have been magical. If […]

Magic Watercolor Background Remover

Tired of spending hours removing the background on your watercolor scans? Me too! That is why I created the Magic Watercolor Background Remover. This is an Adobe Photoshop script that will remove the background from your watercolor scans in seconds (It took 2 minutes to remove the background of 131 files).

Photoshop Scripts - Automate your work - Part I

Have you ever wondered how to make your design process in photoshop more streamlined? There are a few tools Adobe offers to help you automate: actions and scripts. Actions are a series of steps that you can record and then replay. Here is how you can do it: In Photoshop, open the Actions panel You […]

Script

Photoshop Scripts - Automate your work - Part II - Creating a new document

In the second part of this series, I am going to walk you through creating a new document with a specific set of dimensions. While you can quickly create a new document in photoshop without a script, this will work as a building block for what we will do later. Here is what we are […]

Photoshop Scripts - Automate your work - Part III - Defining a Pattern

Toady we are going to use scripts to define a pattern from an image. This is going to be a little more complex, because we are going to use ActionDescriptors. What it means is that we are going to use objects called ActionDescriptors that emulate a Photoshop action. This action will take the current open […]

Tutorial

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 […]

Tutorial

Top 5 ways to make more out of your art motifs

You have spent all this time painting the cutest flowers. You scanned them and removed the paper background, and vectorized them. You start building a pattern and realize you don’t have enough motifs. So you paint some more… rinse and repeat, amiright? I have figured out a way to make those initial motifs go a long way and I am going to share it with you now.

Script

Unlocking Creative Joy: The Ultimate Guide to Adobe Scripts for Happy Surface Pattern Designers

Hey there, creative souls! 🎨 Are you an artist or a surface pattern designer looking to sprinkle a little magic on your workflow? Well, gather ’round because we’re about to dive into the whimsical world of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator scripts! Trust me, once you get the hang of these nifty scripts, you’ll wonder how […]

Script

Unlock Your Pattern Export Superpowers with Export-O-Magic!

Are you a surface pattern designer tired of the tedious, time-sucking process of exporting pattern blocks? Say hello to Export-O-Magic, the Adobe Illustrator script that does all the heavy lifting for you! Let’s dive into why this magical script is about to become your new favorite design sidekick. What is Export-O-Magic? Export-O-Magic is a fun […]