How to Create a William Morris Pattern in Illustrator

Who Was William Morris?

Imagine yourself in a rich tapestry of nature, birds, blossoming vines, and dancing leafy tendrils. This is the world of Willaim Morris, the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement in the 19th century. William Morris (1834–1896) was a titan of his time, revolutionizing decorative art with his creation of vibrant and nature-inspired patterns.

Morris excelled in many fields. He was a poet and a passionate social activist, but he was recognized the most for his beautiful handcrafted tapestries that reacted against industrialism and the stiff, mass-produced pattern style of the Victorian age. His influences redefined art and even society, helping to shape Victorian Britain. William Morris's works were used on textiles, wallpaper, and furniture, and they continue to inspire designers and artists today.

What Is a William Morris Pattern Style?

What is the secret to William Morris's timeless pattern designs that made them stand the test of time? Morris's patterns pulsed with life. He transformed the image of the Arts and Crafts movement patterns. Each design was a meticulously crafted story woven from nature, featuring sunflowers, wildflowers, birds, and plants. They embraced asymmetry, rich colors, and organic flow, creating intricate, repeating designs that felt alive. Each design had a unique visual language that was beautiful and meaningful, breathing the very essence of his beloved English countryside. William took ordinary subjects and added intricate elements to turn them into romantic, nature-inspired textile designs.

Some patterns by William Morris include the Acanthus (1879-1881), Wey (1882-83), and the Snakeshead (1876-77) wallpaper designs.

1. How to Sketch a William Morris Sunflower Pattern Tile

Step 1

I'm going to show you how to make a repeating, seamless motif inspired by William Morris's pattern style. To create a Morris-style pattern, you need to understand how he constructed his patterns. William Morris's designs were based on mirrored tiles and harmonious grids. If you study his famous 'snakeshead' print below, you will notice that he constructed this pattern using an elongated vertical tile.

To interpret his intricate pattern method, you need to look at the deconstruction below. The main tile is first mirrored across (1). Next, both tiles are reflected across (2), and then those tiles are repeatedly tiled along a grid to create a pattern (3).

Step 2

Since Morris's designs were based on mirrored grids, the best way to start is to work on a simple William Morris pattern, like a 2 x 2 design.

So start by launching Adobe Illustrator and creating a 960 x 480 px artboard. Activate the Smart Guides (Command-U) to help place the line work accurately. 

Draw a 480 x 480 px square, from the edge of the artboard, using the Rectangle Tool (M). Hold down the Shift key to constrain proportions, and apply a red color Stroke. You can make it a dashed or a straight line for visual guidance.

Then take the Line Segment Tool (\) and draw two lines to divide the square tile horizontally and vertically along the centerline, as shown below.

Step 3

File > Export As... and send the grid file to Procreate, so we can sketch our design symmetrically.

In Procreate, click on the Actions tool (wrench button), and then from the drop-down menu, click the Canvas button. Go down to Drawing Guide and switch it on. 

Next, select Edit Drawing Guide. It will show you four Drawing Guide options: 2D grid, Isometric, Perspective, and Symmetry. Press the Symmetry button, select Vertical from the Guide Options, and align the slider to the right edge of the grid.

Step 4

For this pattern design, I decided to draw a sunflower theme. If you need some inspiration on how to draw a sunflower or want to look at sunflower leaf drawings, take some time to research reference images. You can also borrow some inspiration from William Morris's sunflower prints to help you sketch out your concept.

Procreate's symmetry option will help you sketch out a pattern properly because it will automatically mirror your illustration. When sketching your sunflower pattern design, make sure all the illustrated parts intertwine between the grid divisions, and leave two sides of the grid to be mirrored. In this design, I left the left and right-hand sides to be symmetrical.

Step 5

The top and bottom parts of the design will need to be linked to create a seamless repeat pattern. Tap Actions > Canvas > Crop and Resize. Adjust the canvas to make equal space on the top and bottom of the grid.

Step 6

Open the Layers panel and swipe left on the sketch layer to Duplicate. Drag down the duplicated layer under the grid. Duplicate once again to create another copy at the top of the grid.

Then tap Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness, and decrease the Brightness percentage of the duplicated layers.

Step 7

Now you can get a better view of the simple William Morris pattern layout. On the original 'Sketch' layer, sketch out the empty zones on the top and bottom parts of your sketch, to link them together.

Step 8

Once you've finished your sketch, tap Actions > Canvas > Crop and Resize, and crop around the grid area. Then tap the Share button, and select the JPEG file format to export your drawing grid.

2. How to Prepare to Design File for the Sunflower Pattern

Step 1

Move back to the 'Grid' file in Adobe Illustrator. Open the Layers panel.

Create a New Layer, then File > Place, and place the exported sunflower pattern sketch on the left of the canvas.

Open Window > Transparency, and set the Transparency of the sketch to 10%. This will help us trace our William Morris sunflower pattern.

Step 2

Name the sketch layer 'Sketch'. Drag the 'Sketch' layer below Layer 1, which had our original grid. Name Layer 1 'Grid'. Then Create a New Layer, on top of the 'Grid' layer, and give it the title 'Outline'.

Make sure to Lock the 'Grid' and 'Sketch' layers.

3. How to Trace the Sunflower Pattern

Step 1

Let's start tracing our sunflower tile design. Turn off the Smart Guides (Command-U).

Make sure you are on the 'Outline' layer. Open the Brushes panel (Window > Brushes) as well as the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke).

Select the Paintbrush Tool (B), and set a black Stroke, with null Fill. Select a 5 pt Round Brush from the Brushes panel, and set a 0.4 pt Stroke Weight. Start by tracing the main outlines. 

Step 2

Now let's add the inner etched linework to the sunflower leaf drawing.

First, let's lock the main linework: Select All (Command-A) and Lock Selection (Command-2).

Then take the Pencil Tool (N), and add the strokes within the petals and sunflower leaf designs using a black, 2 pt Stroke Weight.

Step 3

Now let's add some interest to the sunflower pattern line art, and place some expressive strokes, using Illustrator's Variable Width Profiles.

Select one of the 2 pt strokes, then Select > Same > Same Stroke Weight to help you select all the same linework.

Illustrator has a variety of default width profiles found on the right of the Stroke Weight drop-down menu. Try the Width Profile 1, and see how the lines taper at the start and end.

Step 4

Move on to create the ovals for the sunflower stamen. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L). Using a black Stroke with a 1 pt Stroke Weight, draw an oval, and then Rotate (R) to rotate the oval to fit the sketch.

Step 5

Take the Selection Tool (V), select the circle shape, hold down the Alt key, drag to duplicate the shape, and place it next to the other. Repeat and scale where needed. Then use the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw the rest of the ovals within the sunflower pattern.

4. How to Add Color to the Morris Tile Pattern

Step 1

Before we move on to coloring the sunflower tile pattern, let's select our color palette. One of the easiest ways to choose color palettes is through Adobe Color. You can either generate your own colors, upload a sunflower image, or choose a William Morris art piece, and use that to extract colors through the Extract Theme option. Or you can use any existing color palettes on the platform and upload them to your Swatches panel (Window > Swatches).

Step 2

For the sunflower pattern, I generated and uploaded this color palette selection to the Swatches panel.

• 
  #B5613C 


• 
  #75391C 


• #9A5431


• 
  #AF7524 


• #C98422


• #E19E26


• #E9B434


• 
  #F1CB51 


• 
  #9CA03E 


• 
  #696E2E 


• 
  #7D8533 


• #163525

Step 3

Let's color!

Select All (Command-A), and Object > Expand Appearance to turn our linework into shapes. The expanded shapes will still be selected, so let's apply color to our linework and gaps.

Select the Live Paint Bucket Tool (K) to turn the selected objects into a Live Paint Group. Hover over the different red highlighted areas, and paint them the color of your choice, using the color selection from the Swatches panel.

Step 4

You will notice some gaps are open, and the Live Paint Bucket Tool (K) will not work in those areas. So to close those gaps, select the Pen Tool (P) and tap the Draw Behind mode from the bottom of the toolbar. Then start drawing those color areas in.

Step 5

Now, let's mirror our design to the other side.

First, Delete the 'Sketch Layer. Then, Select All (Command-A) and Group using the Command-G shortcut.

Grab the Reflect Tool (O) and set the center reference point at the edge of our tile. Option-Shift-Drag, and release when the group selection is properly mirrored into position.

Step 6

We need to add a background color, so make sure the Draw Behind mode is selected from the bottom of the toolbar. Grab the Rectangle Tool (M), set the Fill to a dark green #163525, and draw a 960 x 480px rectangle, which is the size of our artboard.

5. How to Transform the Sunflower Design Into a Seamless Morris-Style Pattern

Step 1

Now it's time to create a seamless, Morris-style sunflower pattern. Select All (Command-A) and Object > Pattern > Make.

Illustrator will let you preview the repeating pattern tile to help you align your elements.

By default, the Tile Type is set to Grid. You can set the Width to 960 px and Height to 280 px.

Step 2

You will notice that part of the pattern design is cut from the top. To solve this, grab the Selection Tool (V) and hold down the Shift key to move the background rectangle vertically in a precise alignment. You will notice that now the pattern seems to blend all together from afar.

Step 3

Now you will need to put in a little extra effort to zoom into all the parts in the pattern that connect on the illustration and grid. Start tweaking their connecting points using the Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C), or any tool that might help you tweak the design properly

Once you are done, click the Done button below the control panel to apply the changes.

Step 4

The seamless William Morris-inspired pattern will automatically be added to the Swatches panel. After that, you can apply your design to whatever you want.

Congratulations! You're Done!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial showing you how to make a William Morris pattern.

Now you're free to create your own sunflower pattern and apply the techniques we learned to future Arts and Crafts pattern designs. Feel free to stylize your design and give it a touch of your own.

To help find some great sources of inspiration for Arts and Crafts patterns, head over to Envato Elements.

Beautiful Pattern Designs From Envato Elements

Don't have time to design a pattern and looking for a quick pattern to use? Then check out this selection of botanical patterns available on Envato Elements.

Morris Garden Collection Vector (EPS, AI, JPG, PNG)

This beautiful collection of ready-to-use patterns is inspired by William Morris's floral designs. It's a fantastic way to create ornamental business branding. The collection includes everything from decorative elements and patterns to frames.

Seamless Pattern With Hand Drawn Birds and Flowers (EPS, SVG, JPG)

This pattern is inspired by William Morris's famous piece called 'Strawberry Thief'. The black-and-white outline approach is suitable for coloring books, wrapping paper, or greeting cards.

Morris Garden Vintage Flowers Seamless Patterns (JPG)

If you're looking for handpainted seamless patterns, check out this set of 12 high-quality botanical designs. The files in the Morris Garden collection are all 3600 x 3600 px and 300 DPI. This is a wonderful asset if you need to quickly whip up some vintage-style designs.

Flowers Seamless Pattern for Fabric Textile (EPS, JPG)

Here we have an abstract and more modern, Morris-inspired pattern design. This seamless pattern is quite suitable for backgrounds, wallpaper, gift wrapping, and textiles, and what's more, it's suitable for programs like Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer.

Strawberries and Flowers Pattern  (JPG, PNG)

If you don't have the time to make a pattern in Illustrator, you can always save time by downloading an available pattern on Envato Elements. Give this beautiful vintage strawberry and floral pattern a try. You'll be able to use this high-quality seamless design to decorate wallpapers, invitations, textiles, gift wrapping, and more in just a few clicks!

Want to Learn More Pattern-Making on Illustrator?

Check out the following Illustrator pattern tutorials:

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