637 Making a seamless pattern of paint splotches

- [Instructor] In this movie, I'll show you how to create these splotches of paint that I'm using to simulate this Chuck Close effect, and in the end we'll have something that looks a lot like this. Now I happen to have come up with 25 splotches that are arranged in a pattern of five rows and five columns. Certainly you can create more if you like, but I'm going to focus on these 25 for now. And so the first step is to go up to the File menu and choose the New command. And assuming that you're working in pixels, you'll want to dial in some value that's divisible by five, such as 1,000, which is going to be pretty big actually for a pattern.

So a width of 1,000 pixels along with a height of 1,000 pixels as well. The resolution value doesn't matter. You might as well be working in the RGB mode, and notice that my profile is set to Adobe RGB in case you're following along. Even if your dialog box looks totally different and much simpler to boot. Now I'll click the Create button in order to create that document, and I'm going to start things off by creating a canvas texture effect. The first step to make that happen is to go up to the Layer menu and choose New Fill Layer followed by Solid Color.

I'm going to go ahead and call this layer texture, and then I'll click OK, and now you want to make sure both your hue and saturation values are set to zero, then take the brightness value to 50%, and click OK. All right now you can just get rid of the background because we don't need it, and then with that texture layer selected, make sure that you're working with your Rectangular Marquee tool, and then right-click inside the image window and choose Convert to Smart Object, and that way we can apply a handful of editable smart filters.

Starting with, up here in the Filter menu, under the Noise submenu, this guy right here, Add Noise. So I'll go ahead and choose that command, and I'll set the Amount value not to something crazy like 400%, but something slightly less crazy like 20%, and then I'll set Distribution to Gaussian, and turn on the Monochromatic checkbox and click OK. Now we're not going to be using this filter mask and it's just going to take up room here inside the Layers panel, so I'm going to right-click on it and choose Delete Filter Mask. It's up to you if you follow along with that one.

All right next, notice if I zoom in here that I've got a bunch of single pixel noise. I want to smear things up a little bit by returning to the Filter menu, choosing Blur, and choosing Gaussian Blur, and we're looking for a radius value of just one pixel by the way. And as you can see, that definitely chunks up the noise. At which point I'll click OK again. All right now let's turn this noise into texture by visiting the Filter menu a third time, choosing Stylize, and choosing Emboss.

And I just went with these values here. It really doesn't matter what you do, but I've got an angle of 135 degrees, a height of three pixels, and an amount of 200%. Which might be the default settings for all I know, but these are the settings I used. All right now emboss is always going to turn your texture mostly 50% gray, with a bunch of highlights and shadows. I want to lighten it up a little bit by going up to the Layer menu, choosing New Adjustment Layer this time, and choosing Levels, and I'm going to go ahead and name this new layer output boost because I'll be boosting one of the output values, and click OK, and specifically it's this guy right here.

Which is going to lighten the blacks. And so I'll click inside the first Output Levels value and press Shift + Up Arrow until I've raised the value to 100, at which point I'll press the Enter key and hide the Properties panel. All right now we want to add the pencil lines, and I'm going to do that using the Rectangle tool, just because it's the easiest way to work. After all, the line tool, even though it allows you to add arrowheads which we don't need, otherwise just draws very thin rectangles, so instead I'll go with the Rectangle tool, and then I'll just click up here near the top of the image, and I'm going to change the Width value to 1,000, which is the width of the actual canvas, and I'll set the height value to just two pixels, and then I'll click OK and we'll end up with this thin line.

Now you want to go up here to the Path Alignment icon up in the options bar, and make sure that Align To Canvas is selected. If it's not go ahead and choose it, and then choose Top Edges like so, and then you want to turn around and choose Left Edges in order to nail that guy to the top of the canvas. All right now we want to create a couple of copies of it, and the best way to create a copy is via the keyboard. It's really just a keyboard equivalent, there's no command, and that shortcut is Control + Alt + T, or Command + Option + T on the Mac.

And that will enter the Free Transform mode, and then you want to turn on this Delta icon right there, the triangle, and set the Y value to 200 pixels like so in order to make a duplicate of that line. After which point I'll press the Enter key or the Return key on the Mac to accept that change. All right now you want to make a few more duplicates, and so I'll press Control + 0 or Command + 0 on a Mac to zoom out, and then you want to add the Shift key, so I'll press Control + Shift + Alt + T, here on the PC, or Command + Shift + Option + T on the Mac, until you have a total of five lines.

One way up here at the top, and then four more as we're seeing fairly dim on screen right now, but they're going to have a pretty big impact. All right now go ahead and grab your black arrow tool, which Photoshop calls the Path Selection Tool, but it has a keyboard shortcut of A for arrow, and now you just want to marquee all five of these lines like so. Make sure that they're selected, and then press Control + Alt + T again. Command + Option + T on the Mac, which will allow you to duplicate these lines.

Then you want to right-click anywhere inside the image window and choose Rotate 90 degrees Counter Clockwise. And then once you've done that, you'll see that you have a bunch of duplicates of your paths. Now what you need to do is click on this top left point in the reference point matrix on the far left side of the options bar. Turn off that little Delta icon, and then set the X value to zero, and set the Y value, apparently not to zero, because that's going to position align these all the way at the top of the document. But rather let's try 1,000, and see if that doesn't work, and it really should, so I'll just go ahead and press the Enter key or the Return key on the Mac to accept that change, and just to make sure everything's the way it needs to be.

I'm going to zoom way in and click off of the paths to deselect them, and if you're working along with me, you should see these lines tight to the top left corner of the canvas. All right I'll go ahead and rename this layer. Let's say pencil lines. The idea is that Mr. Close actually uses pencil lines in order to create a grid across the photographs and the artwork as he's painting it. All right, to simulate those pencil lines I'm going to double-click on an empty portion of this layer, very important.

Don't double-click on the thumbnail. Double-click on an empty area in order to bring up the Layer Style dialog box, and then we want to modify the Underlying Layer slider settings by pressing the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac and dragging the right half of this black triangle over to the right-hand side. And you can see as I do it that the pencil lines are actually dropping away inside the artwork so that we're seeing the texture underneath. Now I don't want to go this far so I'm going to take the left half of the triangle back to zero and I'll take the right side of the triangle down to 150, which is the value you can see above my cursor, and then I'll change the opacity value to 50% to produce this effect here.

At which point, I'll go ahead and click OK to accept that change. All right now to start painting in some splotches. I'm going to zoom out a little bit and I'll create a new layer by pressing Control + Shift + N, or Command + Shift + N on the Mac, and I'm going to call this layer splotches 77. The reason for the 77 is that's going to be our brightness value, so I'll go ahead and click OK, and then I'll grab my Brush tool, which you can get by pressing the B key. If you're working along with me, you want to right-click inside the image window, maybe set the Size value to something like 100 pixels, though we might be varying that along the way.

Make sure the Hardness value is set to 100%, and then go up to the Window menu and choose the Brush command, and take the Spacing value down to 10% so that you end up with smooth brush strokes. All right I'm going to hide the Brushes panel, and I'm going to go up here to the Color panel, which you could get by choosing the Color command from the Window menu, and I'll go ahead and click on the fly-out menu icon in the top right corner and choose HSB Sliders, and that's going to allow me to change that Brightness value to 77% like so.

And now you just want to paint in some random splotches, and I decided I didn't want any of my brush strokes here, my splotches, to overlap each other, so I'm just trying to keep them in independent squares. Sometimes they want to go out of the squares, so just go ahead and do that. There really is no wrong way to paint these things, and you might even find it helpful to sort of erase inside of a splotch. So for example in my case I'm going to switch to the Eraser tool which you can get by pressing the E key, and you want to go through those same steps.

You want to right-click and make sure your Hardness value is set to 100%, as it is in my case, and then I'll increase the size of my brush to something like this, and I'll paint a hole in this splotch right there, and then I'll press the B key to switch back to my Brush tool. I'll reduce the size of my brush a little bit and paint something like that in there, and then I'll paint here and I'll go ahead and paint kind of a donut over on this side. Maybe another dollop here, and so these are a little bit random, definitely painterly.

We definitely want some expression associated with our brush strokes, so not having them look exactly circular is definitely a plus. All right I'm going to reduce the size of my brush a little bit and I'll paint another brushstroke with a hole in it right there. All right now what we need to do, a couple things. First, we need to change the blend mode from Normal to Multiply for this entire layer, so not for the brush but rather for the layer like so. Then I'm going to press Control + 0 to center my zoom. That's a Command + 0 on the Mac, and now we need to make sure we don't have any straight edges, which we undoubtedly do at this point, because I'm running into the edge of the canvas.

And so to find where those edges are, go up to the Filter menu, choose Other, and then choose Offset. And we're looking to offset the image, that is wrap it around itself to the tune of plus 200 pixels to the right, and 200 pixels down. So plus 200 for both values. Make sure that Wrap Around is selected down here in the bottom left corner, and click OK. And now we can see that sure enough we do have some very straight edges. For example right there, and so you can just paint them away like so, and they'll disappear all over the place.

And this guy right here, I'm going to have to reduce the size of my cursor to accommodate it, and let's see if I have anything else. It looks like everyone else is in good shape. You are going to see stuff like this, where there's a little bit of a repeated splotch on the other side of the canvas. All right having done that, I'll go ahead and create yet another layer by pressing Control + Shift N, or Command + Shift + N on the Mac, and I'll call this guy splotches 66, and click OK, and now I'm going to take that brightness value down to 66% like so, just because it's easy to enter, and now I'll start painting some more brushstrokes.

For example I'll paint a kind of donut right here, let's say, and then I'll change the blend mode to Multiply so that I can see these brushes interact with each other. And I'll paint a guy in here. Probably want to be zoomed in a little more than this if I want anything resembling smooth strokes, and so I'll go ahead and paint here, and right here as well. So it's no problem painting over something on another layer, but I'm trying to avoid any of the brushstrokes on any given layer from actually running into each other.

All right so I'm going to paint over this guy right here so that we have a little bit of additional interaction, and I decided to do a kind of crescent number around this area, which means because I'm not working with a tablet right now, I need to switch back to the Eraser tool, which I can get by pressing the E key. I'll reduce the heck out of the size of that cursor and paint this little area away, and I might paint this away as well. Obviously if you're a little more careful than I am then you'll get better results.

All right I'm pressing the B key to switch back to the Brush tool, and I'm painting in this guy right there. And I'll go ahead and paint a big brush blob right about there, and it's occurring to me that I have a straight edge on this brushstroke right there. If you see that, if you notice that and you probably will, then switch back to that layer, make sure to modify that brightness value, and set it back to 77%, and then paint that guy in like so, and you'll get the result you're looking for.

All right now I'll switch back to splotches 66, set the Brightness value to 66%, and I'll paint in a blotch here, and another one right there let's say. And I'll paint a big one all over this guy, and I could work with a bigger brush of course if I wanted to get it done faster, and then I'll paint one in right there, and I'll drop down to this guy, and paint another blob all the way around it. And I think I want a smaller blob right here, and I'm just doing this based on, really nothing at all at this point.

I just want some variety associated with each one of these splotches so that it looks at home in the final composition. And we don't get results that are too regular in other words. All right I'll go ahead and paint in a guy here, and something big I think right about here at this location. Just some beautiful blobs, and I think that's going to take care of it. Now, the reason I've made you watch all of this so far is so that you can see how to go about making sure that your splotches do not have straight edges.

And so what we're going to do is with the splotches 66 layer selected, go up to the Filter menu and choose that first command, Offset, and that will repeat the last offset you applied. The problem is now the splotches 77 layer is out of whack, and so go ahead and select it. Return to the Filter menu, and once again choose that command, and that'll offset it so everything is aligned properly. Then switch back to splotches 66 and get rid of any straight edges. So you're going to see them up here in the top squares by the way, just so that you're aware of where they're going to appear inside the artwork, as well as over here in the left-hand squares.

And so I violated my rule, these guys are now running into each other, but that's okay. All right I need to paint this one in a little bit. I might have a problem over here with this guy so I'll just paint it in some more, and let's see if I have any problems coming off the second row. I don't seem to so I might make a problem for myself, and paint this up. But you don't want to go too high. Don't paint up in this row up at the top, because then you'll create new problems. All right now for the third layer of splotches if you're still interested.

I'm going to press Control + Shift + N, or Command + Shift + N on the Mac in order to bring up the New Layer dialog box. Call this guy splotches 55, and right from the get go, I'm going to set the blend mode to Multiply, and then I'm going to change the brightness value up here in the Color panel to 55, which is darker by the way. All right and then I'm going to paint in here let's say with a dark blob, and I'm going to paint a big blob around this area here, and again I could have made my brush a little bigger.

I'm going to paint kind of a crescent at this location let's say, and to make it more crescenty, I'll press the E key to switch to my Eraser tool, increase the size of my cursor a little bit, and paint this guy out. Maybe not that far though. I'll do that again, just paint this region out a little bit. All right now I'll press the B key to switch back to my Brush tool and I'll paint in a pretty big blob right there, and an even bigger one that exceeds the square around this region, and then I'm going to paint a donut around this guy, like so.

And obviously you can go your own way. You don't have to do a single thing the way I am in order to get great results. All right I'm going to zoom out a little bit here. Press the B key to switch back to my Brush tool, and I'm going to paint in this blob, and then I'll drop down here and paint in another one at this location. We're looking for a cross-blob I think right about here, and then I'll paint in another one more or less around this guy. Again I ran into the neighboring splotch. That's not really all that big of a deal.

Just trying to be as careful as the project warrants. And then I'll go ahead and paint over here so another kind of donut shape around that guy and maybe a little bit down here, and across these two guys. And then let's drop over here, obviously we need some paint on this one if we're going to have two brushstrokes per cell. And I'll add one here. All right now we've got to go through the whole offset procedure, so press Control + 0, or Command + 0 on the Mac in order to zoom out, and I might just paint a little extra dollop over this area.

All right now go to the Filter menu and choose Offset, and then drop down to the next layer, return to the Filter menu and choose Offset. And finally select splotches 77 and do the same thing, choose Offset. Now go back to splotches 55 and check out that first row. That is to say the intersection between the first and second row, so this guy needs to come up a little bit. This guy does as well, and then we have a problem with this one not coming down far enough. And this guy is crossing the line, so I'll just go ahead and paint it in a little bit.

This guy needs some more paint as well. This guy needs a ton more paint, as you can see right there, and so does this one. I'll reduce the size of my cursor by pressing the left bracket key and paint that into place like so. And I end up with my 25 random splotches. At which point I can see that I have a little bit of a problem. Some of my splotches don't have splotches inside of them, and so I'm going to switch to the splotches 66 layer, increase my brightness to 66%, and then paint in some more stuff like so just to make sure we have as much variety as we need.

And I might even paint a little more in this area to boot. All right and that's it, and then at this point all you'd need to do to turn this into a repeating pattern is go up to the Edit menu and choose the Define Pattern command. And you can call this 25 splotches, or what have you, and then click OK, and now to make sure everything is working the way it should, I'm going to press Control + N or Command + N on the Mac, in order to once again bring up the New Document dialog box, and I'm going to change my width and height values to 4,000 pixels just so that we have room to repeat.

Click the Create button and then because I don't care about naming this layer, I'll drop down to the little black and white icon down here at the bottom of the Layers panel, and I'll choose the Pattern command and that should automatically arm you with your most recently created pattern. At which point you can just click OK. All right now just to fill the screen with this pattern, I'm going to press Shift + F, and I'm going to zoom on in as well. And then presumably you would just want to hunt around your image and make sure that you don't have any harsh transitions.

And that's how you create a seamless pattern that contains a total of 25 randomly drawn splotches of paint here inside Photoshop.