Sculpting Signatures in Illustrator. How to use textures in your art better. Horizontal & Vertical Bezier Handles. 17 Apr Have you ever seen Illustrator progress shots from your favourite designers and wondered how and why their bezier handles are so obsessively arranged? We’re hoping to shed a little light on this seemingly unnecessary process. Note: this tutorial assumes a solid grasp of Illustrator & the pen tool.
Until recently, I definitely belonged to the What’s the point of that? Club —and perhaps secretly the How did they do that? Here’s a piece of lettering we created to play around with for this tutorial: Here’s an outline preview ( ⌘Y) in Illustrator: Note: To preview your own beziers like this you may need to turn on the “Show handles…” option highlighted below in Illustrators’ Preferences ( ⌘K).
Notice all the bezier handles (save for a few strays; we’ll get to those later) are neatly locked to the horizontal or vertical plane. It reduces your node placement options That may kinda sound like a bad thing, but it’s really handy. Node placement That’s the secret sauce right there. …and others. Imaginism Studios Blog: FREE 1 Hour Tutorial on Painting in Sketchbook Pro with Bobby Chiu on Schoolism.com.
Smoothing Out Your Path Automatically > Vector Drawing with Illustrator: Easier Than You Think. Until you get used to adjusting control points to manage curves, you’ll appreciate a feature that Illustrator provides to smooth out a jagged path. Choose Object > Path > Simplify to open the Simplify dialog box and clean up selected curves. The Simplify dialog box has a number of useful options: Curve Precision. A higher Curve Precision value increases the number of anchors that will be left after simplifying.Angle Threshold. This slider can be used to prevent some angle anchors from being smoothed into curves.Straight Lines. This check box changes paths to straight lines.Show Original and Preview.
Don’t be too concerned about the meanings of all the settings in the dialog box. You can also add anchor points automatically between all anchor point in a selected path. As I explained earlier, the Convert Anchor Point tool can be used to convert sharp-angled anchors to smooth anchors. How to make Smooth Lines in Illustrator. How to make Smooth Lines in Illustrator If our freebies have benefited you personally or have helped you earn a profit please consider donating via paypal. Donate Now This may seem trivial to a good many of you, but when I first started using Illustrator, it seemed to present itself as a serious challenge. I want to show you a couple different ways to make your linework a little smoother in Illustrator. Illustrator can be a very intimidating program to learn because of the complexity and wide variety of tools. 1.
Double Click on the Pencil tool in the tools palette, and you will get the Pencil tool preferences pane. Now click ok and see how smooth you can go. 2. The second way I’m going to show you is the Smooth Tool. You can play around with these settings to get the right amount of smoothing for your liking, but the thing to remember is that the Smooth tool is a great way to smooth out paths that you’ve already created. Draw or scribble a rough path with the pencil (or Paintbrush). Illustrator * Editing paths. Select paths, segments, and anchor points Before you can reshape or edit a path, you need to select the path’s anchor points, segments, or a combination of both.
Select anchor points If you can see the points, you can click them with the Direct Selection tool to select them. Shift-click to select multiple points.Select the Direct Selection tool and drag a boundary around the anchor points. Shift-drag around additional anchor points to select them.You can select anchor points from selected or unselected paths. Select path segments Select the Direct Selection tool , and click within 2 pixels of the segment, or drag a marquee over part of the segment.
Select all anchor points and segments in a path Select the Direct Selection tool or, in Illustrator, the Lasso tool.Drag around the entire path. Copy a path Select a path or segment with the Selection tool or Direct Selection tool and do one of the following:Use the standard menu functions to copy and paste paths within or between applications. Photoshop: Prep & Color Scanned Drawings | The Chopping Block. For years now, we have been using and teaching a slightly more powerful approach to digitally coloring scanned sketches/drawings/artwork (art) in Adobe Photoshop.
The de-facto technique for coloring scanned art in Photoshop is to switch the document color mode to ‘RGB Color,’ set the blending mode of the layer containing your artwork to ‘Multiply’, and create multiple layers containing color underneath your artwork. What if I told you that a few extra (simple) steps before you picked that first color could make you better, faster & stronger? And what if I gave you an Action to do it?
While there is essentially nothing wrong with the Multiply approach, it falls short with regards to flexibility, speed and creative potential. The larger pain points being: Your artwork layer still has white data in it, and you are not using it. Before you start: scan your artwork, and open it up in Adobe Photoshop. 1. 2. 3. So command click (right click on Windows) that channel preview icon. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Illustrator: Abstract Vector Art. This Adobe Illustrator tutorial will show you how to create an abstract art that can be used for wallpaper, website header or background images. It is fun and easy. You will learn how to use the Warp and Twirl tool to create abstract vector art in minutes. Users with basic skills should be able to handle this tutorial.
To continue on this tutorial, you need Adobe Illustrator CS or above. View Final Artwork Understanding The Tools (Warp and Twirl) Run Illustrator and create a new document, 8 x 10 inches, CMYK color mode. We will be using the Warp tool a lot, so tear off the tool set for quick access. Warp Tool Draw a box with the Rectangle tool. Create another box. Remember: your result will look different than mine due to your settings and mouse movement. Twirl Tool Draw a rectangle box. Create another box. Let's Begin Delete all the test objects. Create a new layer. Rotate the object in 45 degree and place it in the upper right corner. Draw a red circle. Glowing Effect Smoke-Like Shape Touch-Up. How to use Blending Tool in Adobe Illustrator to create psychedelic designs.
Hey guys! Some time ago I was asked a question how am I doing the lined artwork. Today I’d like to share with you some basic tips on Adobe Illustrator’s Blending Tool. I’m sure some know how to use it. Still I hope others will find this short 12-steps tutorial useful. Step 1 Make new document (Cmd+N) 1000px wide and 1000px tall. Step 2 Draw 3 lines with Pen Tool (P). Step 3 Select Blend Tool (W) and click the first line, then click the second and then click the third. Step 4 There is a line connecting the blended group. Step 5 The other thing you can do with blended shapes is changing their Transparency. Step 6 Now I’ll be adding more shapes to form a body of a creature.
Step 7 Use the Pen Tool (P) with black fill to make an eyehole. Step 8 Here is the tongue. Step 9 Sometimes the blending turns out to be in wrong direction. Step 10 Now I’m adding an arm. Step 11 If you want to have nice wavy look of your blends try crossing the curves. Step 12 If you have any questions. #30 Pressure-Sensitive Drawing with a Tablet > Tips for Drawing with Brushes in Illustrator CS2. If you are drawing with a tablet, such as a Wacom tablet, you can select drawing tools like the Pencil, Pen, brushes, or shapes tools, and draw freehand using your tablet. By tweaking Pencil tool smoothness settings, you'll probably find the Pencil tool and a tablet the closet thing in Illustrator to simply sketching on a drawing pad.
Calligraphic brushes take on special attributes when you hook up a drawing tablet. When your operating system detects your drawing tablet, Illustrator provides additional pressure and pen stroke options for using your tablet's pen. The most widely supported feature is pressure—the harder you press, the thicker the calligraphic brush stroke.
You'll find a special palette of brushes that match the Wacom Intuos3 tablet on the second disk of the Illustrator CS2 install set of disks. Two Thousand Man » Illustrator’s Blob Brush Tool: WTF? Pressure-sensitive freehand drawing of vector paths that are editable with the Illustrator Width tool. Reiterating a bit of what you've posted in your question..... By far the best tool I know of for Illustrator where natural drawing is concerned is DrawScribe from www.astutegraphics.com. Edit as of Jan 2014 DrawScribe has been folded into Astute's DynamicSketch plug in, same functionality shown here (plus more) but with a new name. This does everything you've outlined, as well as remaining standard AI art.
It merely provides a different method for creating that AI art. (Of course it's easier if you zoom in to select those finicky width points. ;) ) I realize this is a third-party, $$$, solution. The WidthScribe Tools from Astute Graphics are indeed an easy way to apply width profiles to paths. One additional note on the plug ins above. If you must stick with the standard install of AI, there really isn't a great tool for what you are after. Illustrator CS5 Variable Width Stroke Tool: Perfect for Making Tribal Designs! Adobe Illustrator CS5 features a slew of fantastic new tools and functionality, but the one that jumped out at me and really grabbed my attention was the Variable Width Stroke Tool. The concept was great. And when I actually put it to use – the experience was even greater than my expectations. In part one of this two part series we'll be creating a tribal design and improving our Illustrator work flow along the way.
Width Point You know a tool is a winner when you find yourself immediately putting it to use in your daily work flow. This tutorial will start by reviewing the basic functionality. Okay, let's start with the basics. Next, let's select our Variable Width Stroke Tool. Let's dive right in; click-drag your mouse. Now hover your tool over a different part of the line; click-drag again. You'll notice that some nodes will also act as Width Points on your line. The nodes that are acting as Width Points will all start with their width set to that of the line (typically, 1pt). Illustrator CS5 Variable Width Stroke Tool: Gestural Sketches and Digital Inking! Hey Vectortuts+ faithful!
Welcome back for part two of my tutorial series on the advantages of using the Variable Width Stroke Tool. If you haven't read the first tutorial, I suggest you go back and read: Illustrator CS5 Variable Width Stroke Tool: Perfect for Making Tribal Designs! , which covers how to use the tool, and then shows how to create tribal designs with it. You'll need to know those basics before proceeding with this part two of the series, where we use it to create gestural sketches and digital inking. Gestural Sketches One incredibly useful function of the Variable Width Stroke Tool is giving character to your lines. Step 1 OK, now that I've convinced you how great the tool is, let's look at a real-world example of how I put this tool to use. I knew immediately that I could draw a woman's head with stuff exploding out of it – that's no problem, but I also knew that the style of the drawing was critical.
The whole thing starts with my pencil sketch. Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5.
Itchy animation - quirky illustration and characters by Richard Yot. Digital Inking Creating pleasing looking line work on the computer can be quite a frustrating experience for artists who have come from drawing with pen and ink on paper. It’s taken me a few years of trial and error to get to the stage where I am happy with the line work I can now create in software. Since I’m sure many artists have had similar experiences to mine, I have written this article to share my experiences and hopefully help others who may be frustrated with this particular aspect of digital artwork.
It goes without saying that you need a Wacom tablet to follow this article. I am talking about hand-drawing lines over sketches, just like “inking” a comic book panel with a brush or a pen. To keep things simple and get to the point quickly I am initially going to just discuss how various packages handle lines, and then I will discuss the more general aspects of each program later.
The first, and by far the easiest package for creating good lines is Illustrator. The Size and Min. Manga Studio For Dummies Cheat Sheet. Cheat Sheet Manga Studio provides everything you need to create captivating Manga cartoons — or any type of cartoon you want to create. The numerous palettes you use can show appear or hide at the touch of a key.
Of these, the tools palette may be the one you show most often. And, of course, Manga Studio offers a full range of keyboard shortcuts to make creating and changing your creation quick and easy. The Manga Studio Tools Palette Manga Studio includes a wide range of tools you use to create your Manga cartoons — or even Western-style cartoons. The following illustration shows the Manga Studio tools palette toolbar, and the Tools Palette table beside it tells you the name of each tool and its shortcut key: Manga Studio Keyboard Shortcuts Manga Studio, like any worthwhile program, offers a number of keyboard shortcuts for drawing, editing, and generally creating your Manga stories or Western cartoons. The tool shortcuts let you draw, undraw (or undo) as needed, and switch colors: