Creating a watercolour repeat - by hand!

This is such a fun way to create a repeating pattern with minimal photoshopping.
I started off painting my design in the centre of my paper. This square will be the size of the repeating section.

I carefully measure and cut my page into four quarters... the centre points go to the outside, then I proceed to fill in the blank areas with pattern, painting across the cuts.

I match the sides as I continue to fill in across other cut lines until I'm happy with the design.

The pieces look like this once I'm finished ^ then I scan them into my computer to join them back together as a seamless tile that can be repeated again and again! Check out the final patterns below:

If you're new to repeat patterns, check out this really simple explanation here. It's for designing a stamp, but the same technique applies to watercolour.