How to Make a Paisley Pattern in Photoshop

Paint paisleys in Photoshop.

With multicolored designs and swirly shapes, paisleys are an instantly recognizable artistic effect. But en masse, they can take a while to draw. Instead, create a paisley pattern that you can reuse, with Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop’s drawing and painting tools let you get creative with your paisley, but then make it quick to paste in copies of the design to satisfy your exact pattern requirements. Create a passel or pack of paisleys with Photoshop.

Instructions

1. Start Adobe Photoshop. Click the “File” menu and select “New.” Type “PaisleyPattern” into the “New” box. Type the dimensions for the pattern – not the single paisley itself – into the “Width” and “Height” boxes, such as “4” and “5” respectively. Select “inches” from each of the two dimensions drop-down menus. Click the “OK” button to open the canvas.

2. Click the paintbrush icon near the middle of the “Tools” pane. Click the small drop-down arrow on the second-from-the-left button on the paintbrush toolbar at the top of the screen. Choose the solid black dot brush head.

3. Double-click the colored square near the bottom of the “Tools” pane. Choose the main color for the paisley and click “OK.”

4. Position the brush on the canvas. Draw the paisley shape, which is similar to a slanted, rounded hourglass. Paisleys aren’t perfect and lend themselves to a blobby, amoeba-like shape. Balance the sizes: The larger paisley you draw, the fewer you’ll have room for on the pattern canvas.

5. Click the paint bucket icon on the “Tools” pane. Click inside the paisley to fill it with color. If you prefer a different fill color, prior to clicking the paint bucket, switch colors in the “Color Picker,” then create the fill for a dual effect.

6. Click the “Lasso” tool on the “Tools” pane near the top. Draw an outline around the paisley. Don’t worry about getting white space from the canvas in with your selection.

7. Press the “Ctrl” and “C” keys to copy the selection. Press the “Ctrl” and “V” keys to paste in a copy of the paisley and drag it into place. To resize the pasted-in copy, for a varied pattern, click the “Edit” menu. Click “Transform,” click “Scale” and shrink the pasted copy.

8. Continue to press “Ctrl” and “V” to paste in copies of the paisley to fill the canvas. Consider an up-and-down pattern, diagonal or something splashy where the paisleys appear at all angles and partially off the canvas around the edges.

9. Click the paint bucket icon once more. Click the “Foreground” menu on the toolbar and select “Pattern.” Click the drop-down menu next to the pattern box. Click the small arrow in a circle icon.

10. Select “Save Patterns.” Type a name for the pattern, such as “PaisleyPrint” and click the “Save” button.

References

• University of Washington: Painting

Resources

• Bowling Green State University: Adobe Photoshop CS5 Tutorial