I keep seeing chevron patterns cropping up all over the place, especially on Pinterest. So I thought I'd see if I could write up a tutorial to create it to use it for pattern fills or to create scrapbook papers. The result of this tut is shown in the preview image at the top. I hope it will be of interest to some!
This tut was written 7 April 2012 using PSP 9, but I believe it should work in other versions of the program as well.
1. To begin, open a new transparent canvas 100 x 100 pixels. (Your canvas here can actually be any size you'd like, just be sure to create one which has both dimensions of the same size. I tend to start with a small size when I'm going to be using the end result as a repeating pattern - just my personal preference.)
2. Activate your Selection tool, and then click on Custom Selection.
3. Enter the following values in the window which opens: Top 0, Left 0, Right 50, Bottom 100. Then hit the OK button to apply the choices.
(I'm choosing 50 for my right side value in order to make two stripes that are of equal width. Again, this is something you can change to create a different result. If you entered 25 in that box, the first stripe would be 25 pixels wide and the second would be 75 so you'd have one skinny stripe & one wider one. Just personal preference here.)
5. Invert your selection (Selections > Invert). That will select the empty half of your canvas. Again, activate your Paint Bucket tool and fill the selection with a second color, whatever you'd like. If you're using the colors in my example, I'm using color #FFBD88. Now, deselect (Selections > Select None). Your canvas should look like mine below.
6. Now, to create the diagonal stripes. Go to Effects > Plugins > Simple > Diamonds. There are no settings to alter in the plugin. When you pick it from your menu list, it will just apply it. Your canvas will now look like mine below.
7. Copy this canvas. You can right click on the header bar where it says 'Image 1' to open the menu. Choose to copy it.
8. Open a new canvas which is 200 x 100 pixels. (If you chose to create the first canvas at a different size than mine, just double the width and keep the height the same as what size you used for the smaller canvas.)
9. With this new larger canvas active, pick your Custom Selection tool once more and enter the following numbers. Top 0, Left 0, Right 100, Bottom 100 (Those numbers are based on the size of the first canvas we made. If the size of yours was different, just enter the size you used for the right and bottom values.)
10. Since we had already copied our first canvas before minimizing it, we can now paste that into this new canvas selection. Go to Edit > Paste into selection. Once pasted, you can deselect.
11. Duplicate this layer - Layers > Duplicate. Then mirror it - Image > Mirror. Merge your layers so that you have a single layer. Your canvas will look like mine below.
And you're finished. You can save your new pattern to use however you'd like. This is seamless when it's done too, so you can use it for any sort of scale size you'd like or to fill any kind of shape of canvas. For example, I used my end result to fill a 400 x 400 pixel canvas using it as a pattern fill at scale 45% and then applied a canvas texture.
As always, any results you create using this tutorial are yours to do with as you please. I hope it was written well enough to follow it easily. Feedback is always appreciated! :)
I've always wondered how to do this, thank you very much for the tutorial.
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