Tiling My Art for a Wrapping Paper Roll

I had the idea for a Puerto-Vallarta-themed wrapping paper roll, and so I jumped into Procreate and Photoshop to make it a reality.

tiled pattern showing a green seahorse statue, ocean waves, the sun, and similar beach elements.
Final pattern, which I had printed onto a 6-foot roll.

Central to the pattern is the iconic seahorse sculpture by Rafael Zamarripa, which is a symbol of the city.

I started with sketches and a few planning mockups, with the key sculpture front and center.

Early sketch of the seahorse sculpture
Early sketch of the seahorse sculpture.
Combnining a few sketches to plan out the pattern.
Combining a few sketches to plan out the pattern. (Blue rectangle indicates bounds of the tile.)
scallop shell and water
A couple more elements for the pattern. I ended up recoloring the scallop shell later on to be more pink for the final pattern.

Bringing the sketches into Photoshop and planning it out was very helpful. Some elements were quite low-fidelity at first, but it was all part of the process.

Next, I worked on more elements, such as the shells, sun, and the water.

full, tiled pattern
All the elements came together into the finished pattern. (Blue rectangle denotes bounds of tile.)
Zazzle's mockup, showing what the final printed wrapping paper looks like
Zazzle printed the final product; it's always pretty amazing to see the actual roll.
mockup of a different pattern, showing a present wrapped in paper with bobsledding snowmen on it
Bobsledding Snowmen. Full roll on Zazzle.

This project was my third roll of wrapping paper so far, and I'm very happy with how it turned out. Take a look at the roll on Zazzle.

I also designed and drew a "Bobsledding Snowmen" roll, which was fun and different.

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