Making Repeating Patterns

I have been reading a bunch of Photoshop tutorials because there just aren't a lot out there for PSP.  Granted, it is the art program of choice but in all it's evolution I still don't think it has an option for seamless tiling.  I get this site in my reader and happened upon this tutorial.  I have adapted it to PSP.  I have these pictures in the photos section under Repeating Patterns Tutorial so if you click on the pictures you can zoom to see the settings better.  

Start out going to "File"-New-using these settings. 400x400-pixels-transparent.

Go to your "Preset Shapes" and find a shape you like.  I used the black star for this one but if you don't have that you can use any shape.  Ellipse makes a nice one. In your tool options tick anti-alias, and create as vector. 

In your materials palette start out with black on foreground and background for your colors. Pull out your shape starting from a corner to the other corner making sure your shape is somewhere in the middle.  If it isn't exact don't sweat it because next you can go to "Objects"-Align-Center in canvas.  If you didn't have create as vector ticked this option won't be available.

Make sure you have your image highlighted in the "Layers" palette, right click and convert to raster layer.  This gets rid of the vector outline.  

Go to your "Selections" tool and click on the flyout choosing the magic wand.  Tolerance and Feather 0.  Use all layers and anti-alias checked. Choose "Outside"  Touch the center of your black image.  

Go to your "Crayon" tool and start making marks in the center of your image with a color or white.  You want it to show.  When you get it like you want it right click on the crayon marks (over to the right) in your "Layers" palette and Merge-Down.  

Remember to make your selection before you make your crayon marks and if you aren't prompted you need to right click in your layer palette and convert the art layer and vector layers into raster layers.

Do the next part with your basic shape still selected.

Now the fun part.  For a shape that is an odd shape I like to use patterns. For a circle or hexagon kaleidoscope is good.  I just click the dice on the pattern or kaleidoscope box until I get an image I like.  This is found in your Menu Bar under "Effects"-Reflection Effects.

Go back to the menu bar and select "Selections"-Select none.  This will deselect the dotted static line around your basic image.

You can do the next effect and have an open center or duplicate your image and do the following effect to the bottom image.  At the very bottom, the circle image is done using a duplicated image and the green image is done just using one image using offset so the center is open.  A duplicated image just makes a more complicated looking pattern.

Go back to the menu bar and select "Effects"-Offset

When the offset box pops up, make your horizontal and vertical numbers 200.  What ever size your original image is, make the horizontal and vertical half that.  Our original image was 400x400 so we use 200x200.  Check "Wrap" click ok.

You now have your pattern.  Save as a png file if you want to keep your transparent background or jpeg.

In your layers palette you will have a blank image under your design.  You can either fill that in with a color or black or white.  If you are using this for a back ground you can also make these in any colors you want and do them in pastels.  I am doing them in dark colors because I want to go a step farther and use these patterns as overlays for other images. 

Open your new offset image back up in PSP.

Bring up another transparent image just like before. 400x400, you can color it or not.  

Left click on the foreground palette and click on pattern.  The pattern you just made should be in the first box.  Set your angle to whatever percentage is pleasing to you.  And make the scale 25.

Use the paint can to the left in your "Tools" toolbar and fill the blank image with your new repeating pattern.  This will be a seamless pattern you can use as a background or you can save it to overlay it on another image.  

If you want to overlay it on another image.  Go to "Adjust" in your "Menu" bar, brightness and contrast-Threshold.  When your Threshold box comes up you can adjust it to darker or lighter. I used 40 for this one. Click ok.

This is what I got.  I saved this as a jpeg.  

Bring an image up.  You can use flowers or landscape or a photo of a person.  This can be used on anything to give it a different look.  I used a photo of leaves I had manipulated by using Corel Painter Photo Essentials. Bring up your pattern you just made.

Go to your "Materials" palette once again, find your pattern, use your paint can and fill a new layer above the image you have chosen.  Now you can go to your "Layers" palette, "Blend Mode" where is says normal.  Click on that and choose "Overlay" or "Soft Light".  I also brought the opacity of the pattern layer down to 42.  Save as a jpeg.  It just gives you another layer of interest on some photos.  This is also beautiful done on pastels.  Here is the image before and after the pattern was used on it.

This is one I did using a circle as the basic pattern and kaleidoscope.

 Using the more black setting on threshold.

Colors for a background.

Although I used the photoshop tutorial to learn this, this tutorial is my very own, made up by my own self.  If you want to use it somewhere it would be nice, as always, if you asked and not claim it as your own.  Honor system on this.  These tutorials are fun to do but they are very time consuming.