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
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"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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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The World of Patterns
Start a Pattern
Making Pattern Fills
3x3 for Collections
Pattern Preview
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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.
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Master file
Master plan
Create pattern patch
Basic Repeats
Advanced Repeats
Using Layered Textures in Repeat
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How Many, Sarah?
How Big, Sarah?
But How, Sarah?
Pulling Together a Collection of ArtDemo: 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
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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.
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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 MockupsUsing Mockup Files
Mockup Do’s and Don’ts
Creating and Filling Your Portfolio
US Copyright Site
Frequently Asked Questions
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• 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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.








