How to create a damask seamless pattern in Illustrator

In this tutorial we will learn to create a damask seamless pattern based on a few vector flowers.

Difficulty: Intermediate

Completion time: 1-2 hours

Tools: Adobe Illustrator CS3

Resources:

- Designious Floral Vector Pack 66

What you’ll be creating

Creating the basics

STEP 1

Create a document of 600×600 px in CMYK color mode.

STEP 2

Grab the Rectangle Tool (M), hold the SHIFT key and draw a reasonably large square.

STEP 3

Grab the Rotate Tool (R), hold ALT key and click the middle of the square (toggle on Smart Guides – CTRL+U), press Enter and set Angle to 45 degrees. Hit OK.

STEP 4

Go to View > Guides > Make Guides (CTRL+5). Toggle Rulers (CTRL+R) and drag two guides like below.
To make the placement right, go to View > Smart Guides (CTRL+U). It will tell you when you’re in the right point and also has a magnetic effect.

STEP 5

Open the “Designious Floral Vector Pack 66“, grab the Selection Tool (V) and select the flower I did.

STEP 6

Copy it (CTRL+C) and paste it into our drawing (CTRL+V).

STEP 7

Using the Selection Tool (V), hold SHIFT key and resize it. Then grab an anchorpoint from the middle of the flower and place it on the vertical Axis.

STEP 8

Go back to the “Designious Floral Vector Pack 66” and pick another flower. Paste it in our drawing.

STEP 9

Resize it like in STEP 7. Use the Selection Tool (V) to place it like below. Erase the extra areas with the Eraser Tool (SHIFT+E).

STEP 10

With the second flower selected, copy it (CTRL+C) and paste it in front (CTRL+F).

STEP 11

Go to Object > Transform > Reflect (CTRL+SHIFT+T) and select Vertical. Hit OK. Then place it vertically opposite to its original.
Use the Eraser Tool (SHIFT+E) to erase the unwanted areas.

STEP 12

Select the second flower using the Selection Tool (V). Hold the ALT key and click-drag it.
As you did with the first flower, place this one like in the image below.

STEP 13

Repeat STEP 11, place it symmetrically on the other side. Don’t try to get it perfectly right.

STEP 14

Copy the first flower, then grab the Eraser Tool (SHIFT+E) and erase the bottom area and the left side.

STEP 15

Place the remaining shape like I did. Then repeat STEP 11 for the symmetric one.

STEP 16

Add the same shape in different places, but resize it, reflect it… go wild!

STEP 17

Copy the second flower inserted and place it like I did.

STEP 18

Select the largest flowers from the top, copy them (CTRL+C) and paste them to front (CTRL+F).
Rotate them with 180 degrees, make them smaller and place them like below.

STEP 19

Copy the first flower inserted, grab the Eraser Tool (SHIFT+E) and erase mostly everything, except some nice leaves and the middle area.

STEP 20

Feel free to add more small flower pieces to fill up the shape.

STEP 21

Select all artwork (CTRL+A) and go to Object > Group (CTRL+G). Select the Eraser Tool (SHIFT+E), hold ALT key and erase half of the entire artwork.

STEP 22

Copy the remaining artwork (CTRL+C) and paste it to front (CTRL+F).

STEP 23

Go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Select Vertical and hit OK.

STEP 24

Grab the Selection Tool (V), make sure Smart Guides is toggled (CTRL+U) and move the copied shape.
Use an anchorpoint as gripping point when you move it, hold the SHIFT key and place it like below (place the gripping point on the vertical guide).

Making the pattern

STEP 25

Select all artwork, then go to Object > Group to make it a group.

Now the “geeky” part begins.

STEP 26

Resize the shape to have Width below 300 px. Then click the highlighted buttons below – on the top bar.

STEP 27

Hold ALT+SHIFT keys and click-drag to the left to make a copy of it. Leave a few pixels space between the edges of the two. Do the same in the right side.
Click the highlighted buttons, it will make an even distance between the shapes.

STEP 28

Select all artwork, then use the Selection Tool (V) to resize it till the left and right shapes have their vertical Axises very close to the edges of the Artboard.
Hold SHIFT and ALT keys to preserve the proportions.

STEP 29

Select the middle shape, then delete it. Select the left shape and set X to 0 px. For the right shape, set X to 600 px.

STEP 30

Select both shapes, then go to Object > Blend > Make.

STEP 31

Select all artwork (CTRL+A), hold ALT key and click-drag another copy. Place it with the bottom area of the first shape near the tangent point of the shapes below it.
Set X to 450 px (3/4 of canvas Width) and Y to the closest integer value. In my case it was 465 px.

STEP 32

Select the copy made in STEP 31. Make a copy in a similar way, but place it below the original.
Hold the ALT key to preserve X value when copying. Set Y to 135 px (600-465 px).

STEP 33

Go to View > Outline (CTRL+Y). Toggle on Rulers (CTRL+R) and Smart Guides (CTRL+U). Drag guides from the rulers to the shown axises of the shapes. Toggle off Outline view (CTRL+Y).

STEP 34

Grab the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a rectangle with the corners in the intersection of the guides.

STEP 35

Select all artwork (CTRL+A) and go to Object > Expand. Then go to Object > Path > Clean up.

STEP 36

Select all artwork again (CTRL+A) and go to Pathfinder window (Window > Pathfinder) and click the “Crop” icon.

STEP 37

Remove Stroke and set the color to pure black #000000.

Saving as swatch

STEP 38

Open the Swatches palette (Window > Swatches). Select All colors (besides “[none]” and “[registration]” – the “no” and “sniper target” icons – these two can not be deleted) and click-drag them onto the “trash can” icon.

STEP 39

Select all artwork and click-drag it into the Swatches palette. Click the bottom right icon in the swatches palette and select “Save swatches”. Name it “Damask”.

Done!

The source file is available for download in the link below.

  Damask pattern (2.1 MiB, 2,793 hits)