Design And Print a Vector Skate Graphic Today I will be going through the steps of designing and printing a skateboard deck graphic. We'll go from paper to Illustrator, and to coloring and printing, I'll show an easy and productive workflow to customize your own skateboard deck. Let's get to it. Step 1 We'll begin by drawing a skateboard template on paper to be our guide. Like most art, the skateboard's design can be drawn to a vertical or horizontal view. We'll start the digital illustration process by scanning the picture at 300 DPI. Step 2 Line art is probably the most important detail of illustrations besides the sketch itself. Step 3 To make those, take your Ellipse Tool and make a vertical oval, make sure its color is black. Step 4 Then take your Convert Anchor Point Tool and press one of the shape anchors on the end. Make sure the brush is selected, and then press the New Brush button in the Brush palette. Step 5 We are going to select Art Brush, then change the Method to Tints and Shades. Step 6 Step 7 Step 8 Step 9 Step 10
How to Create Colorful Abstract Artwork in Illustrator In this tutorial, I’ll teach you how to make a colorful and vivid abstract artwork completely from scratch with Illustrator. There will be no need of stock images. You can always make a small sketch how you’d like your composition to be. But that’s not completely necessary because we will be creating the composition while playing with shapes. Final Image Preview Below is the final design we will be working towards. Step 1 Start off by opening Adobe Illustrator, if you haven’t already. Let’s begin. Step 2 With the objects you’ve just made we will be creating our entire piece. Create a circle with the Ellipse Tool, holding shift while clicking.Draw a square with Rectangle Tool and place it above the circle. I also cut pieces away from the stroked circles. If you played enough with them you could get something like this. Step 3 I think it needs something extra, something fun. Step 4 All of the objects still have flat colors. Step 5 Create a circle.Duplicate the created circle. Step 6 Step 7 Step 8
How to Create a Gearbox Settings Icon Using Simple Shapes Much can be done in Illustrator without relying on the Pen tool, as demonstrated by the recent hourglass tutorial. Utilizing only simple, predefined shapes, as well as tools like the Pathfinder and transformations, entire illustrations can be created from scratch. In this tutorial, we'll create an icon suitable for portraying options, settings, preferences, etc., similar to OS X's system preferences icon. So let's get started! Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Step 1 Begin by creating a new document of any size you'd like, I've used 600px by 400px, as that's the size used for the tutorial images. We'll start with drawing the gear. Step 2 Next, select the largest and second largest circles, then open the Pathfinder palette and click the Minus Front button to subtract the smaller circle from the larger one. Now select the other two smaller circles, and do the same. Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Step 8 Step 9 Step 10 Step 11
How to Create a Line Art Vintage Vector Scooter in Illustrator In today's tutorial, I'm going to show you how to create a vintage vector scooter illustration. I'll show you how to create simplified line art without overcomplicating the image. You'll learn how to create a quick texture as a finishing touch from resources you have available to you within Adobe Illustrator. Learn how to give your work a vintage vector art feel. Step 1 I'll be using a stock image as a reference in this tutorial. I'm going to start the line art by drawing complete shapes that don't require additional lines from elsewhere to complete their form. When doing a simplified line art version from a stock image, you want to only focus on the key elements of the object's design. As long as when you look at the object on the entire illustration, you could name it, or have a good idea of its purpose, then you've simplified it well. Step 2 Now to draw the rest of the connecting lines. Step 3 Then duplicate the shape and resize it for the inside. Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Step 8 Step 9
Create a Sketchy Hand-Drawn Camera Illustration in Illustrator In this tutorial, we're going to use Illustrator (and a bit of Photoshop) to create an image that looks roughly hand-drawn on textured paper. We'll be creating a camera illustration in this rough sketchy style. Republished Tutorial Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in July of 2008. To begin with let's have a look at the image we'll be creating. Take a series of photos of your subject to decide which angle will work best. Import your chosen photo into Illustrator using File > Place. Choose a red 0.5 pt stroke, with no fill, and use the Pen tool to start tracing the outlines of your image. Use the Pencil tool to draw the finer details. Now that we're done tracing we're going to make the drawing feel more hand-rendered. You might have to experiment with the settings to get the desired effect; here's what I used. Lock your finer details by selecting them and hitting Command+2.
How to Create a Vector Stamp Set in Illustrator In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a vintage, vector stamp set in Adobe Illustrator. Learn how to build a stamp illustration, shape by shape. We'll construct the stamp border vector shape, highlight the edges, create the branding, and give the vector postage stamp a vintage texture, and final illustrator stamp effect. Let's get started with making this vector stamp in Illustrator and then transform this into a vector stamp set. Step 1 - Create a Vector Stamp, Get Started Now it's time to begin with making our post stamp in vector. You can also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes. Step 2 Start with the Rectangle Tool (M). Step 3 Reselect the shape created in the previous step and go to the Appearance panel. It's the little file icon placed next to the trash icon. Select it, go to Object > Expand Appearance, then go to Object > Expand. Step 4 Step 5 Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create four, 7.5px squares.
Create a Realistic Candy Bar in Illustrator Realistic renderings can be done easily in Adobe Illustrator. With vector shapes, the objects can be preserved and edited infinitely which is a great advantage over raster objects. A few simple tweaks from the Effects menu and an understanding of basic object rendering can create a bold and stunning finish. In this tutorial, created exclusively for WDD by Wendy Ding, she’ll be guiding you step by step through the stages required to create a realistic candy bar using Illustrator. 1. Start by sketching the overall shape complete with linear guides, which will be used to show how to define the vector shapes that we’ll be drawing on top. 2. Scan the sketch into Photoshop and adjust Image > Adjust > Brightness / Contrast until the lines are clearly visible. In the Layers panel, double click on the sketch layer to bring up the layer options pop-up window and check Template. 3. It is crucial in vector files to have a logical stacking order of the layers. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
Creating a Dramatic Portrait with Chunky Line Art In today's tutorial I'm getting back to my old vector line art roots and showing you how to achieve a chunky line art style. This can be created in any version of Illustrator CS and is a great comic look for your illustrations. Introduction There are many different ways to achieve line art in vector illustrations. Using a stroke path and no fill is the first which comes to mind with a variety of tools such as the Pen Tool, Paintbrush Tool and Pencil Tool. You can modify these lines using art brushes and more recently in CS5, using the Width Tool which helps you change the Stroke Weight on an otherwise uniform line. It's with gratitude, I'm going to be using another great stock image by Tasastock, who's stock inspires me greatly! For some elements of this tutorial, you'll need to create the "Width Profile 1" and "Width Profile 4" brushes from this tutorial. Step 1 The stock image is placed in its own layer folder and is locked and renamed "Reference." Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7
Tracing a Vector Face From a Reference Photo A few times a each month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of Vectortuts+. This tutorial by Jesse Hora was first published on October 20th 2009. There are numerous ways that you could approach using a reference photo in illustration, an obvious option being to 'trace' the photo. All of these decisions will result in the look and style of your final image, and your work as a whole. Introduction Some people may think it's so easy to trace a photo, and that this tutorial is useless. The basic idea of this tutorial is to showcase how using the the process of tracing the basic shapes and contours of a photograph, as opposed to using predominately vector lines with strokes, as many beginning illustrators do, will result in a desirable, realistic yet stylized image. Starting with a great photo is obviously a huge benefit to this style of illustration. Final Image Preview Below is the final image we will be working towards. Tutorial Details Step 1A Step 1B
Andre Meca’s MSCED 183: A Case Study Hello Go Media readers! André Meca is a Portuguese graphic designer and illustrator. He currently studies at the ESAD. Today, I’m demonstrating how to make a cool, vintage Argus camera come to life! So, lets get to it. STEP 1: Draw basic shapes First, grab an image of the Argus C3 here. Now to make the needed ‘Zig Zag’ effect, draw a circle, and go to Filters>Distort>Zig Zag and play around with value to develop the desired look. Now, draw a nice circle again, and with the Line Tool, draw a small line in the up center of the circle. When you have all the lines in place, it’s time to expand them, becoming shapes, not simply line strokes. Now that they’re all shapes, select all shapes(lines and cirlce) then on Pathfinder it the “Intersect shape areas” button to achieve that effect. At this point, continue to draw and arrange the various shapes over the image. For the numbers, repeat the same steps as above. STEP 2: Add some color STEP 3: Textures STEP 4: Finishing touches That’s it, folks!