It has been AGES since I've shared with you one of my experiments. So today I thought I'd show you how I played around and built out this layered pattern.

I've decided to call the method I used to build out the pattern my outside of the box technique. I know, super cheesy, but that's me.

I started by creating a digital painting using overlapping layers of dots in Adobe Photoshop. I used brushes by Kyle T. Webster. I love them and plan on trying out some of his other brush packs soon.

Then I clearly defined the outside edges of my artwork by adding a ring of dark gray dots all the way around. You don't have to do this step, but it makes for a more dramatic pattern as you start overlapping boxes. (You'll see below)

Next, I took final my artwork (which was merged into one layer in Photoshop) and copied it five times. Then I selected the copies, one at a time, and moved them around on the canvas until they overlapped in a way that I found pleasing to the eye.

Now I had an overlapping box design that I liked, but alas not a seamless repeat. So close, yet so far away...

At this point I cropped the artwork to fit my canvas size. Then I followed the steps outlined in this previous post on turning an abstract painting into a seamless repeat, but with ONE DIFFERENCE...

In the abstract painting blog post I say to subtly blend the edges using the stamp tool. For this technique I threw that idea out the window, made the cursor huge, and really went to town covering the seams with the stamp tool.

And this is what I arrived at...my final pattern.

Oh, and here's a few others I made using the same outside of the box technique.

I hope this has inspired you, keep experimenting!

Thinking 'Outside' the Box