{"id":1945,"date":"2018-09-05T20:01:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T20:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/?p=1945"},"modified":"2018-10-11T14:57:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T14:57:58","slug":"subtle-textures-in-illustrator-diamonds-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/?p=1945","title":{"rendered":"Subtle Textures in Illustrator \u2013 Diamonds 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nFor this diamond texture, you can use any diamond size you prefer, just use the grid and snap to grid to keep it well organized and predictable.
\n1. In a new document or the same one as your last pattern, turn on the Grid<\/strong> and turn on Snap to Grid.\u00a0<\/strong>Go to the FILE menu > DOCUMENT COLOR MODE > RGB (this will ensure all of our blendings works correctly.)
\n2. Change your fill color to black<\/strong> and your stroke to white<\/strong>. Make sure the stroke is aligned to the center of the path.
\n3. Draw a diamond<\/strong> – in my example, my diamond is 2 small grid squares wide by 6 small grid squares high but you can use any symmetrical diamond.
\n\"\"
\n4. Copy the diamond three times<\/strong> and arrange them as illustrated below. With Snap to Grid turned on you can ensure that the corners will touch each other.
\n\"\"
\n5. Draw a rectangle<\/strong> that snaps to the upper and bottom points of the left and right diamonds. Change the fill and stroke of the rectangle to none and then go to the OBJECT menu > ARRANGE > SEND TO BACK. This step is crucial as the invisible box\u00a0 – the Clipping Mask – defines the overall size of the repeated tile. The Clipping Mask must be unpainted (no fill or stroke) and MUST be the bottom-most object.
\n\"\"<\/strong>
\n6. Drag all 5 elements (the 4 diamonds and one rectangle) into the Swatches Panel.
\n\"\"<\/strong>
\n7. Make a large shape and select the diamond pattern as the fill.
\n\"\"
\nSome Variations:
\nInstead of solid lines change them to dotted lines. Select the 4 shapes and change the stroke to 1pt<\/strong> and the end caps to Round Cap<\/strong>. Click on Dashed Line<\/strong> and make the Dash 0 pts<\/strong> and the Gap 4pts<\/strong>. Make sure the option to “Aligns dashes to corners and path ends, adjusting lengths to fit<\/em><\/strong>” is selected – this will ensure a dot is on each corner and the dots will line up from shape to shape.
\n\"\"
\nDrag the 5 elements into the Swatch Panel.
\n\"\"
\n– Try reversing the colors<\/strong>, a white fill with black dots.
\n\"\"
\n– Or change the stroke to none<\/strong> and the fill to a black to white gradient<\/strong> with the white at the top and the black at the bottom (you will need to change one and then copy it)
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For this diamond texture, you can use any diamond size you prefer, just use the grid and snap to grid to keep it well organized and predictable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-1945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-illustrator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1945"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2123,"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions\/2123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nickcassway.com\/designblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}