Anchor Points: Chris Sandlin AKA SockMonkee Chris Sandlin creates wonderfully expressive textured character illustrations. He is a maestro at picking controlled color palettes that showcase his bold lines and shapes. Chris was kind enough to chat with Vectips so read on to find out what Illustrator tool Chris would like to be and his favorite techniques. The Chat Hey Chris, thanks for chatting with Vectips! To start, could you tell us a little about yourself? Not a problem and thanks for having me! If you could magically turn into a Illustrator tool, what tool would it be and why? Haha, I would like to magically transform into the pen tool. What’s your favorite Illustrator technique? It’s definitely a tie between the pattern brush option (which I use quite often), and the free transform tool. Do you use any non-digital tools in your work? I still use paper and pencil for all my sketches but I’ve thought of buying a Wacom or tablet for sketch work. What are your favorite sources of inspiration? Thanks again for the interview! Mr. Cuckoo
Distressing Techniques in Adobe Illustrator Simon from Studio Ace of Spade here. Jeff Finley asked me to compile a list of some common distressing techniques as a supplement for his eBook “The Designer’s Guide to the Apparel Industry.” Distressing graphics is a pretty integral part of designing t-shirts. This tutorial will demonstrate three easy to understand and easy to apply techniques for adding a distressed or grunge look to a design using Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator Technique #1: The Grunge Brush For the first technique, we’ll learn how to take advantage of Illustrator’s brush tool and of some of the brushes that come bundled with it. The Step 1 is easy: open your vector file. Step 2 is easy as well: make sure your vector object or group is expanded. Once this is done, we’ll move to step 3: select the brush tool and get the brush that interests us. Make your way through the menus to pick the “Artistic – Chalk / Charcoal / Pencil” brush set. Then pick the first brush and the brush tool. Now it’s your call. No.
Illustrator Tutorial: Create A Grunge Effect From Scratch — The Shutterstock Blog By Shutterstock Contributor Erica Truex The beat-up, weather-worn style of "grunge" never seems to go out of style. The most authentic grunge or distressed effects often come from source photos or scanned textures. This basic tutorial shares a step-by-step method on how to create your own grunge in Illustrator. Let’s get started! 1. How to Create a Grunge Paper Texture Graphic Style in Illustrator I love adding texture to my illustrations, but creating a texture from nothing is always hard, so learning how to manipulate the different tools and default resources in Adobe Illustrator you already have, can work in your favor. Today I'm going to show you how to create a grunge paper texture Graphic Style, starting with a humble default Art Brush, then using the Pattern Options of CS6 and then some fun with the Appearance panel. So let's jump in! Step 1 Let's start by taking advantage of one of the Art Brushes you get by default in Adobe Illustrator. Step 2 While the line is selected, go to Object > Pattern > Make. So select the group and Object > Ungroup until you're left with the below. Step 3 Let's give the pattern a name, here I'm using the inspiring name "Texture Pattern" and then set the Tile Type to Hex by Row. Then play with the Width and Height values to bunch up the shapes so there are minimal large gaps. Step 4 Keep going until you're happy with the look of the texture. Step 5
Vector Halftone Week: free Halftone tool settings Have you joined the thousands who already creatively use the Phantasm CS Halftone tool? Using this tool beyond standard halftone effects such as a CMYK rosette shown left allows for wonderful and sometime unexpected creative results as was originally demonstrated with the Halftone settings page found here: www.astutegraphics.com/products/phantasm/halftone-settings.html Now it’s time to introduce 10 new effects, all created using just the Halftone tool (Filter or live Effect variant) and offer these settings files to Phantasm CS Designer, Studio and Publisher customers. It is suggested that these settings files are seen as a basis to create new styles using the Halftone tool; the very nature of Halftones means that some settings are best suited to certain underlying artwork types. About these settings Each of the settings below were based on the same underlying photo, shown right. For information about how to use the Phantasm CS Halftone tool, please refer to one of the following: Notes:
How to Create a Pop Art Avatar with Adobe Illustrator - Vectips In this tutorial we are going to learn how to recreate the illustration style used for Pop Art. This type of illustration is taken from a printing process named “Ben-Day dots“. The difference between the Ben-Day effect vs halftone effect is that for the first, the dots are always of equal size and distribution. To create this effect, we’re going to be using custom patterns and experimenting with different color combinations to achieve a truly pop art effect for our avatar. Lastly we are going to learn how to keep a pop art style consistent in your avatar no matter the image size. Tutorial Details Program: Adobe Illustrator CS5Difficulty: IntermediateTopics Covered: Shape Tools, Custom Swatches, Pattern Fills, Pattern Coloration, Pathfinder Tools, Brushes.Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour. Final Image Step 1 We start from a line drawing of the face in close up. Next we’ll create the shadows with objects filled with solid black. Step 2 Step 3 Draw two circles with the Ellipse Tool (L). Step 4
Uberflip How to bind a book: a 10-step guide | InDesign In today's creative environment, where promotional material is routinely sent in the form of a digital file via email, a handmade self-promotional book can make a cost-effective, personal and unique alternative to help you stand out. In this tutorial, I'll explain how to bind a book in a few easy steps. We'll cover some important tips for setting up page spreads and cover templates in Adobe's InDesign, as well as the essential tools and techniques you need to bind your own books. If you need any bookbinding materials, a good source is Shepherds Falkiners. You'll also find an illustrated diagram of the sewing technique we used to make this project in the support files, to aid you as you go. Promotion Software: InDesign CS3 or later Skills: Create page templates in InDesign, perfect your binding and stitching techniques Download the support file here 01. First, set up your book's page template in InDesign by creating a new document. 02. Experiment with paper stocks to see which works best.
How to Create Dotted Surface Effects in Illustrator In this tutorial we will learn to create abstract an compositions of dots. This will help you to create interesting effects for backgrounds. Let's learn to simulate a surface of any complexity. Final Image Preview Below is one out of a handful of effects we will be working towards. Tutorial Details Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes Step 1 Open a new document (800 by 800 pixels). Step 2 Now go to Effect > Pixelate > Color Halftone ..., apply the settings you see below. Step 3 Transform the image to the vector. Step 4 Now we can operate this as a conventional vector object. Step 5 You must delete the Compound Path in the layers box. Step 6 We take the Gradient Tool (G) and adjust the gradient fill. Step 7 Now go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Warp..., apply the settings you see below. Step 8 We have an interesting effect! Step 9 The effect can be applied to a blend. Step 10 Step 11 Step 12 Step 13 Step 14 Step 15 Step 16 Step 17
The design process of my infographic for the ‘Tour of France’ for Grinta! The briefing As usual, the briefing is rather straightforward, and so compact I can formulate this in one single line: create something illustrative appealing with the given data. It means I've been given a lot of freedom, which is great of course. The concept It was completely up to me to decide how to present this list. A snapshot taken in the middle of my process of my initial idea of drawing a truck in 2D profile with see-through effect. Brainstorming While I was drawing this truck, I was also thinking of ways of how I could present the 8 different groups. Time & budget Right in the middle of trying to find a way of presenting everything, I decided to throw the whole idea in the bin. Starting all over A sketch of a French landscape with a division of 8 columns representing the groups While brainstorming I thought about the idea of being on the way to the tour, being on the the road, driving through France. The actual challenge for me was to get all the info on the page. The illustration