Enrollment closed until 2026.

What is From Paint to Pattern?

From Paint to Pattern is a 10 week immersive course of professional training in Adobe Photoshop. With over 20 years of experience in Photoshop, Sarah walks you through her design process step-by-step.  You will learn everything you need to take your artwork, digitize it, and explore and unlock new possibilities. You are going to be amazed with all the projects you can do with your art.

"Sarah is versatile in a variety of traditional and digital techniques and has real world experience and understanding." - Joy Tangarone, FP2P Alumni

"This class is a game changer. I recommend this class to every pattern designer I know! Photoshop broadens the possibilities in ways that other programs can't match." Monica Gotz

"Taking From Paint to Pattern has opened doors for me that I didn't even know existed! Not only have I gained the skills I need to bring my art to life through the digital magic of PS but I have formed forever friendships, gained professional connections and paid creative opportunities, as well continued to learn countless new skills in three years since I first signed up for this course. Sarah and Jane provide a magical container for growth that keeps me coming back for more, year after year. I cannot recommend this course enough and feel it is one of the best financial and time investments of my creative lifetime!"

"Sarah is versatile in a variety of traditional and digital techniques and has real world experience and understanding." - Joy Tangarone, FP2P Alumni • "This class is a game changer. I recommend this class to every pattern designer I know! Photoshop broadens the possibilities in ways that other programs can't match." Monica Gotz "Taking From Paint to Pattern has opened doors for me that I didn't even know existed! Not only have I gained the skills I need to bring my art to life through the digital magic of PS but I have formed forever friendships, gained professional connections and paid creative opportunities, as well continued to learn countless new skills in three years since I first signed up for this course. Sarah and Jane provide a magical container for growth that keeps me coming back for more, year after year. I cannot recommend this course enough and feel it is one of the best financial and time investments of my creative lifetime!"

Enrollment closed intil 2026

From Paint to Pattern contains:

  • 7 Course Chapters Broken Down into Bite-Sized, Buildable Lessons

  • 7 Actionable Assignments

  • Weekly Live Q+A’s with me, Sarah Watts!

  • 3 Practice Weeks

  • Option to Upgrade to Guest Artists

  • My Photoshop Survival Guide

  • Bonus Content Galore

  • Private Community! Ours is Open Year Round :)

  • Alumni Mentors: Get Support from Those Who’ve Taken the Class!

  • Lifetime Access to the 2025 Course- Revisit Your Content Whenever!

I am so happy that you are here!

I want to share with you my step-by-step process in how to take your artwork into the computer using Photoshop. I want to guide you through this amazing program, to create beautiful, marketable pattern design collections that fully express your creative vision. Join me, and we can make your work expand into a whole new world of possibility.

Hi there, I’m Sarah Watts.

Special Guest Edition

GET ACCESS TO OUR BEST GUEST SESSIONS FROM 5 YEARS OF FP2P!

@yukoart

YUKO SHIMIZU

MEENAL PATEL

@meenalpatelstudio

KYLE T. WEBSTER

@kyle.t.webster

DYLAN MIERZWINSKI

@bydylanm

AMARILYS HENDERSON

@watercolordevo

MIKE LOWERY

@mikelowerystudio

HELEN DARDIK

@helen_dardik

MIRNA STUBBS

@mirnastubbs

Course Curriculum

  • Sarah’s 3 philosophies for being an artist 

    Getting Started: 3x3: Learn the approach

    Things That Will Slow You Down

    Set Up Your Inventory: the Art Database

    Creating Files & Saving Files: 

    Setting Up Your Art Space & Fighting Overwhelm

    Learning Layers

    Essential Shortcuts

    Making Edits, Selections & Masks 

    Color Essentials

    Choosing Initial Palettes

  • 3x3 Foundations

    Sarah’s Art Process

    Drawing Directly in Photoshop

    Brushes 

    Sketching Practices 

    Refining the Drawing 

    Using Scanned Art 

    Creating Finished Looks from Black and White Art

    Creating Finished Looks from Collage

    Creating Finished Looks from Paint

    Creating a Spot Illustration No Matter What Medium

  • This is a whole week set aside to play around with what we've learned. Let's practice, experiment, and really nail down those Photoshop skills! My team and I will be here to answer all your Photoshop questions.

  • Using Non Destructive Edits for Art

    Smart Objects

    Actions

    History Panel

    Libraries 

    More on Brushes with Kyle Webster

    Other Tools I Use

    Style Exploration: Getting Certain Looks

  • The World of Patterns 

    Start a Pattern

    Making Pattern Fills

    3x3 for Collections 

    Pattern Preview

  • This is a whole week set aside to play around with what we've learned. Let's practice, experiment, and really nail down those repeat skills! My team and I will be here to answer all your questions.

  • Master file 

    Master plan 

    Create pattern patch 

    Basic Repeats 

    Advanced Repeats

    Using Layered Textures in Repeat

  • How Many, Sarah?

    How Big, Sarah?

    But How, Sarah?

    Pulling Together a Collection of Art

    Demo: My favorite Workflow for Recoloring 

    Using Prints and Motifs Across Multiple Collections

    The Power of Illustrations in Your Collection

    Thoughts on Trends

    Working With Seasons 

    Ideal Pieces to Have in Your Portfolio

    Portfolio and Style: The Great Debate

  • This is a whole week set aside to play around with what we've learned. Let's wrap this collection up and see it shine.

  • 3x3 for Prints 

    3x3 for Collection 

    3x3 for Colorways 

    3x3 for Critique

    Licensing: A Mysterious Unicorn

    Selling: A Trusty Pegasus

    Portfolio Basics 

    My Favorite Portfolios
    Exploring Sample Mockups

    Using Mockup Files 

    Mockup Do’s and Don’ts 

    Creating and Filling Your Portfolio

    US Copyright Site

Frequently Asked Questions

  • • Sketchbook or drawing paper

    • Drawing utensils or you can draw directly into Photoshop.

    • Desktop or laptop computer (Mac or PC, I teach both!) with Adobe Photoshop CC. Older versions and the mobile version of Photoshop are not sufficient for this class.

    • I recommend using a drawing tablet to make it easier to draw/edit your art when you are working in Photoshop. I use a Wacom Intuos Pro Tablet. Some people use an iPad and Apple Pencil with the program Astropad installed.

    • Camera/Smartphone for inspiration photos and/or for taking your illustrations into the computer.

    • Scanner (optional) you can use a smartphone if you don't have a scanner.

  • Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are both made by the same company and their interfaces are similar in certain ways.

    The *biggest* difference between the two programs is how they handle image information. Illustrator is vector-based, with endless scalability. Photoshop is pixel-based, which makes scaling down easy, but I always recommend scaling in and working at a higher resolution than you think you might need because you cannot easily scale up.

    What Photoshop brings to the table instead is depth. And what I mean by depth is Photoshop can preserve art’s textures more readily and accurately than Illustrator can. If you’re working with watercolor, paint, charcoal, photography, stamping, ink, or really ANYTHING, Photoshop can preserve those paint strokes, and create projects with translucent color and texture.

  • Yes! In From Paint to Pattern we learn Photoshop from the ground up. We'll start the course going over everything from the very beginning, from navigating around Photoshop to setting up our workspaces for success.

    Even students that already know some Photoshop will learn a new thing or two. And after we have a solid foundation we'll go step by step through curating and creating a surface design portfolio, gift illustration and more!

  • Everyone is coming from a different place in their creative journey. With this in mind, I tackle creating art in Photoshop like it's a collage program. I have had students create beautiful works of art with just a few paint strokes or doodles, but also with stamp-prints, photography, cut paper, and more.

    Illustration, water color, inking, are all amazing skills to have, but they aren’t required to make beautiful work. With my 10-week program you might find yourself growing in not just your Photoshop knowledge, but in different art making mediums too as you practice.

  • Yes! We have a private online community that you will have access to and a course discussion feature within the classroom. My team and I, or one of my international course experts will be here answering questions that come in from both areas.

    You can submit questions in whichever format best suits your needs. Live Q+A's are recorded, so I can still answer your pre-submitted questions there as well.

  • This course is primarily focused on creating a really well-rounded surface pattern design collection in Adobe Photoshop. I will touch on several topics for licensing but it will not be one of the main focuses. my focus is to get you proficient in Photoshop and be able to create collections using my process over and over once the course is done.

  • From Paint to Pattern has a 14-Day 100% money back guarantee.

    This is how it works:

    I want you to be super excited about this journey in my course. If you are unhappy with the course during the first 2 weeks I will give you your money back. After September 16, 2025, the refund option is no longer available.

See what you can learn!

All the Tools You Need to Build Profession Artwork in Photoshop!

The possibilities of where your art can go are endless!

  • Stationery

  • Coffee Mugs

  • Tshirts

  • Dresses

  • Enamel Pins

  • Patches

  • Lampshades 

  • Furniture

  •  Tea Towels

  • Stickers

  • Travel Gear

  • Fabric

  • Children's Books

  • Gift Wrap

  • Gift Bags

  • NFTs

  • Cellphone Cases 

  • Laptop Cases

  • Tote Bags

  • Zip Pouches

  • Quilts

  • Baby Blankets

  • Apparel

  • Handbags

  • Kitchenware

  • Umbrellas

  • Plan Home Projects

  • Bedding

  • Shower Curtains

  • Greeting Cards

  • Tapestries

  • Toys

  • and so much more.

Enrollment closed until 2026