This is a really easy tutorial on how to use the Illustrator pattern brush tool to create really authentic looking victorian borders. Firstly it’s a good idea to get some inspiration to get the ball rolling and you’ll find plenty of that HERE in the ‘Gaslight Style’ reference page of the site.

There is a TUTORIAL FILE HERE that has the steps below pre-made along with some other shapes for you to experiment with once you are familiar with the pattern brush method.

Step 1

Open a new document, the size doesn’t really matter…A4 is fine. If your swatch palette isn’t yet open you’ll find it up in the top menu under Window. At the bottom of the swatch palette you find a drop down menu. Use this to select pattern brushes.

Hold down shift and select all the swatches if there are any in the palette already. Then click the delete button which is the trash can along the bottom row of icons in the window. You can also drag swatches into the same trash icon to delete them.

Step 2

You need to create some shapes to make up the pattern for the border. For the purpose of this tutorial I’m going to use this original design to get some ideas of shapes to create. It has a pretty simple border which will be easy to replicate. Once you have the basics then it’s easy to expand on them and create your own ideas and go crazy.

So firstly, grab the pen tool from the tool box and while holding down shift use it to make a line between two points. The length/size doesn’t matter at this stage…aim for something that looks like the image below. Keep shift held down and on making the second point drag the cursor and extend a bezier arm. By holding down shift you give this arm three options on extending it – Vertical (0°), 45° or 90°. You want to pull it round to 45° and position the end of the arm midway between the two points like in the image below.

Then click the second point with the pen tool again to remove the lower of the two bezier arms. Then click the first point again and repeat the same process of extending the bezier arm 45° the other way so you have something that looks like the image below…

Once this shape is made grab the selection tool, select the shape, fill it with black and using the shape bounding box reduce the width about half until it looks like the image below.

Then use the selection tool to click the shape and then hold down shift and alt together and drag the shape across to duplicate it.

Then with the second shape still selected, open the Transform window (top menu > window > transform) and enter 70° into the rotation field.

Then using the selection tool, move the newly rotated shape to the left of the original vertical shape and position it like you see below.

Then with the selection tool, click inside the shape and hold down shift and alt and drag/duplicate the shape over to the other side of the original vertical shape.

With the 3rd shape still selected go to the top menu > trasform > reflect.

In the reflect window use the settings below to flip the shape.

Then while holding shift to keep the shape in the same horizontal position move it across so it looks like the image below.

The above arrangement is actually a bit tight so increase the width by selecting and nudging with the left and right arrow keys each of the two rotated elements and then nudge the original vertical shape up a bit with the up arrow key until it looks like the arrangement below.

Select the elipse tool from the tool box. Click on the page and while holding down shift to keep the width and height of the circle the same, drag a circle about the same size as the one below and position it in the centre of the bottom points of the three shapes.

Now you have the first of the elements that make up the patterned border…

Use the rectangle tool in the toolbox to draw a rectangle around the shape, arrange it to the back and then colour to mirror the original design.

Then grab the elipse tool and place the curser on the edge of the rectangle and click and hold down shift and alt (this centres the origin point of the new shape and contrains the proportions) until you have a circle that matches the proportions of the ones in the original design. The apply black to the stroke and adjust the weight of the stroke to match the original design.

TIP: If you turn on smart guides (TOP MENU view > smartguides) (cmd/ctrl U) they will let you know when the curser is exactly over the edge of the rectangle or any other intersect point.

Then with the circle still selected tap cmd/ctrl V and cmd/ctrl F to copy and paste another circle on top of the original one. Then drag this across to the other edge of the rectangle. Using the Direct Selection Tool then selct the outside edge of one of the circles and click delete and do the same with the otherside.

Use the Direct Selection Tool and select the bottom path of the rectangle shape and tap cmd/ctrl V and cmd/ctrl F to create a single line on top of the rectangle. Use ‘UP’ on the keyboard arrow keys and nudge the line up into the rectangle and give it a stroke to mirror the original design and colour it yellow. Repeat the process with the top path of the rectangle but with a heavier stroke so you have something that looks like the image below.

Then repeat the same process again making two lines at the bottom and one more at the top. Stroke and colour them to look like the image below. Finally just nudge the two half circles up a bit so they are in the middle of the two yellow lines and you have the side section of the pattern border ready to go. Save the file!

TIP: Although one of Adobe’s flagship programs, Illustrator is notoriously unstable. Save on a very regular basis! This will save you from crying into your coffee at 3am after losing 4 hours work.

Step 3

Now you are going to create the corner section. As you can see below this is a pretty straightforward shape. A circle with four points and another two circles, all within a square…simples.

Select the vertical shape from the first three shapes you created and copy and paste it on to another part of the artboard. Then in the transform window enter 45° in the rotation field. Then with the shape still selected copy and paste in front (cmd/ctrl V and cmd/ctrl F). With this second shape still selected go to the top menu > transform > reflect.

Select the elipse tool and from the centre of the new star shape draw a circle so it looks something like the one below (click and hold down shift and alt to draw from the centre and constrain proportion). Smartguides will help you find the centre of the shape.

Now select all three shapes and with the Pathfinder window open click Unite to combine the seperate items into one shape.

Next up, fill the new shape with blue and give it a black stroke. The pull two circles from the centre of the shape (elipse tool/shift+alt/smart guides) and fill them black and white like the ones below.

Then using the rectangle tool pull a square from the centre of the shape (shif+alt/smart guides) and fill with a red and stoke it with black and a suitabe weight. This gives you the corner section.

Step 4

Now you need to match the sizes of the two sections you’ve made. Play around with the size of the corner section until the square is the same height as the side section. Make sure the stoke weight of the corner sections black outline matches the two black outside lines of the side section.

Then select both sections and with the selection tool click a corner, hold down shift to constrain the proportions and reduce the size down to around 8mm in height.

Get hold of the swatch window you emptied earlier, select all of the side section and drag it into the swatch window. Then double click the new swatch and name it ‘green side section’ and click OK. The do the same with the corner section and name it ‘Red Corner’ and click OK.

Then open the Brushes Window (top menu > window > brushes) and click the new brush icon in the bottom right of the window next to the trashcan. In the selection box that pops up select New Pattern Brush and click OK.

A new window will open and here you’ll put together the elements of the border. There are five boxes with red diagonal lines. These make up the… Side Section, Corner Section, Inverted Corner Section, Start and End Piece. I’ve never had much call for the last three. Once you understand how the first two work you can experiment with the other three. For now you are just going to use the side and corner sections. You should be able to see the two swatches you just made in the menu below the section boxes. Click inside the side section box and then click ‘green side section’ in the menu below. The do the same for the corner section and click ok.

Then use the rectangle tool and draw a square or rectangle. You’ll see your new pattern brush in the brushes window. Click it and you have a simple victorian style border. I’ve given this one a 0.75 stroke weight. I’ve found that smaller stroke weights work better with pattern borders.  If you apply the brush to a circle you’ll see the corner section isn’t used. Much depends on the brush you make but like with squares and rectangles the stroke weight looks better small. The more you increase the stroke weight the more distortion you get.

Don’t stop with this border. You can continue to add to the frame with other elements both inside and outside the border you’ve just created. Also in the TUTORIAL FILE you’ll find some other shapes to experiment with.