Method and apparatus for synthesizing element arrangements from an example. Embodiments may synthesize element arrangement patterns from an example arrangement. Embodiments may combine a texture synthesis technique based on local neighborhood comparison of an example and a target with procedural modeling based on local growth. Given an example, connectivity of elements may be constructed to get neighborhoods information of each element. A synthesis process may start with a single seed and expand the synthesized pattern by placing new elements at seed locations one by one. A reference element may be selected from the example that has neighborhood features that are most similar to neighborhood features of the target seed in the synthesized pattern. A non-rotation mode, a rotation mode, and a flow field mode may be provided. A painting tool, a flow field tool, and a boundary tool may be provided.