I have been playing about with textures recently using both the inbuilt features of Illustrator and hand-drawn textures made with inks and various different ways of applying them.

First up we have the splotchy polka dots, to make these I cut a small circle from a sponge and glued it to the end of a cotton bud, then I dipped it in my ink and covered a page in splotches.

I was surprised how well it worked actually and when scanned in they made an interesting pattern.

For the next two patterns, I did the straightish and wavy lines using paintbrushes and ink then the tip of a dip pen for the polka dots.

The vertical lines on the striped pattern I did with the tablet and then made them wonky using the roughen filter in illustrator.

Going back to the sponge method I used masking tape to create triangle shapes on a piece of paper then used the sponge to blot ink over the shapes.

Finally for the last pattern I used some of the in built pencil brushes to draw textured lines that I then turned into a rough check pattern, ovelayed with the same dots I had used on the wavy lines pattern above.

Couldn’t decide which colour combination I liked best for this so I decided to use all three.

123rf
Spots | Wavy | Stripes
Triangles | Check

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Post updated November 2022 to add direct links to available print-on-demand products.