Ways of making repeat patterns

Our current textiles project is looking at repeated patterns, so now seems like a good time to look a some ways of creating repeats.

Block patterns: "Divide and conquer" method
I call this method "divide and conquer" because it involves cutting you4r design into quarters. This tutorial covers it very well: draw a large design in the centre of your paper, cut into four VERY ACCURATELY and stick back together so that the white space at the edges of your design becomes the middle of the paper. Now draw something to fill in the white spaces. Because your original design was at the edge of the paper you can now join it up.


This tutorial covers the same process but in photoshop.

Geometric patterns: Tessellations
Tessellating shapes are shapes that can fit perfectly together. The 20th century Dutch artist MC Escher was famous for (among other things) very complex geometric designs like this:

Escher's designs look very complex but were made using simple mathematical principles. He took shapes that tessellated (such as squares, equilateral triangles and hexagons), cut shapes out of their sides and re-arranged them to create more complex shapes. Scroll down here to see his designs simplified to their base shapes. Here's a very handy tutorial from a very excited maths teacher

And here's a fun website where you can mess around with tessellations. I made a few quick ones myself, and they look something like this

Although they look relatively complex, they're made entirely from triangles and squares.

Software
Today artists have a vast range of tools that can make designing repeat patterns a whole lot easier. Editing software like Adobe Photoshop and vector software like Adobe Illustrator can create complex patterns with just a few clicks. I've never used Illustrator, so I won't be looking at it here but oddly 50% of the hits that come up if you google repeat patterns are Illustrator and vector tutorials.

Using Photoshop you can make repeat patterns from photographs and from complex images. I'll be uploading a few of my own photoshop patterns in the next few days.

More on repeats coming soon!