Creating a paisley pattern design in Adobe Illustrator is an easy process which we demonstrate in out Illustrator for Textiles courses. The design itself was popular in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries and utilizes the earlier Persian droplet motif.
The main producers of Paisley pattern shawls were the weavers of Paisley in Scotland, between 1800-1850, their hand and Jacquard looms allowing them to create shawls of up to 15 colours.
To create our Paisley design in Adobe Illustrator go to: File > New > create a tile 200 x 200mm. Then go to View > Show Rulers, and View > Snap to Grid. Now use the Pen tool to create the basic raindrop. Or create a large circle and two smaller circles half the radius inside. Then delete the anchor points to first give a Yin-yang shape, then the droplet.
Next select anchor the points, right-click and choose Average then repeat and choose Join – this makes the lines into a closed shape. Add a Fill colour with No stroke. Next copy the shape and create a small ellipse 10 x 10mm. Drag this ellipse into the Brushes panel and create a New Pattern brush. Apply this brush to the copy of the shape. Put it overthe first shape and right‐click > Send to Back. Copy it and scale down. Tweak the anchor points to fit the shape better.
Now create a circle on the inside 20 x 20mm. In the Appearance panel add a few strokes: 5, 10 & 20 pts ( the top stroke should be the smallest). Create a small Hexagon in the middle with a yellow fill. Try the Effect > Distort & Transform > Pucker & Bloat > 34%. Note that the fill can be a bit buggy – if it doesn’t work try a 6‐pointed star. Copy & rotate this a few times.
To create the repeat pattern first group the shapes, copy, scale and change the colours. Copy the hexagon, scale and change the colours. Lastly add a square of background colour. Then select all the shapes and go the Object drop-down menu and choose Pattern Maker. Change the tiling and add additional shapes if desired. This will create a new swatch in your Swatch patterns which can then be added as a fill to a garment.
Whether you’re a complete beginner or self-taught, our courses will help you gain self-confidence in your Illustrator workflow, as well as adding to your professional skill-set. See many examples of our Illustrator clients’ work on our Facebook page.
Other related Illustrator Blog Posts:
Illustrator workspace
Illustrator basics
Illustrator clipping masks
Illustrator live trace
Illustrator brushes