Looking to learn the basics of Adobe Illustrator? In this tutorial we’ll use various tools and techniques to create a simple vector robot character. With this robot being made of lots of basic shapes it makes for a great tutorial for beginners to get to grips with the Illustrator application.
Mar 1
There’s an interesting post on Quora called Life Without Photoshop
Follow this step by step to create a vibrant and colourful logo style icon graphic. This style of abstract three dimensional shape has become a popular trend in the world of logo design. Today we’ll look at how to build the graphic in Illustrator using a range of tools and techniques.
Usually I’d always recommend for a logo to be developed in relation to the company or brand it is representing, but today we’re just going to look at the technical part of building this generic icon. This graphic features many of the trends in logo design seen today – The three dimensional appearance, gradients and variances in tone.
Open up Illustrator and create a new document. Grab the circle tool and begin laying out the basic shapes of the icon. Place a small circle inside a large circle, then add smaller circles between the outlines of the two.
Zoom in and press CMD+Y to switch to outline view. This will help you accurately align the shapes so the paths match exactly without any overlap.
Use the Scissors tool to clip each path where the two lines meet, then select the unwanted portions of the shapes and delete them.
Zoom in and select the two open points from each paths, right click and select Join. Repeat this for each of the clipped lines to form one continuous path outline. Make a copy of this shape as we’ll need it later.
Draw another circle over the shape so the outline cuts across and neatly flows back into its outline.
Use the Scissors tool to cut points where the two lines intersect and delete out the excess, leaving just a line flowing along the inside of the graphic.
Continue adding lines inside the graphic using circles of various sizes, then cut and delete out the excess with the Scissors tool.
Select the Pen tool and click on the open point of the line to continue the path. Roughly draw a route around the graphic until you reach the other end and click on the remaining open point to close the path. Select this shape along with the overall graphic shape and click the Divide option from the Pathfinder window.
Right click and select Ungroup, then delete out the shape with the rough outline. Give the newly created segment a colour fill to identify it.
Continue this process with the remaining segments, creating smooth shapes from the intersecting lines. Add random colour fills to each piece.
Use the Gradient tool to switch the ugly tones for vibrant colours. Select colours in their colour wheel order (or rainbow order!), so the first piece flows from red to orange, the second from yellow to green and so on.
Switch the gradient style to Radial and adjust the flow so the colours run nicely along the direction of the shape.
The graphic is looking pretty cool so far, but we can enhance it with some clever shading. Draw a circle to intersect the first shape.
Select this circle along with the first segment and press the Intersect option from the Pathfinder palette.
Repeat this process for the other segments, then give these shapes a black fill with the settings of Multiply at 10% opacity.
Hopefully you saved that original outline we created as we’ll now need it to overlap our logo graphic. Carefully position the shape so it fits perfectly over our colour version.
Give the shape a white fill and set it to Multiply, then go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Alter the settings to Multiply, Black, 20% opacity and 5mm blur.
The addition of various gradients, shading elements and the inner glow effect really enhances the graphic, giving it depth and a three dimensional appearance.
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I’ve always love browsing the amazing style of art known as Vexel illustration and recently I decided to finally give it a go myself. Follow this step by step tutorial for the making of my first vector art portrait of Tron Legacy’s Quorra. Learn how the portrait is carefully traced and vectorized in Adobe Illustrator to create an interesting vexel style design.
Follow this step by step Illustrator tutorial to create a Mexican Lucha Libre inspired badge design. We’ll be creating a vector mask design out of various shapes and elements before pulling the whole design together onto a template to form a print ready 25mm button pin badge.
The design we’ll be creating takes inspiration from the awesome masks used in Mexican Lucha Libre wrestling. By merging together various shapes and adding bold colours we can create a cool stylized illustration that will work well at small sizes as a button badge.
Open up Adobe Illustrator and draw an oval onto the artboard. Rotate the oval slightly, then grab and move the left point further outwards with the Direct Selection Tool.
Use the Convert Anchor Point tool to remove the bezier curves to form a sharp point, then use the Add Anchor Point tool to insert an extra point in the lower left portion of the path. Move this new point inwards and rotate the curves slightly.
With the teardrop shape selected go to Object > Transform > Reflect and choose the Vertical option.
Position the duplicate at an appropriate distance to represent the outline of the eye section of the mask. Draw a small circle and position it accurately between the two elements so the paths overlap exactly.
Toggle outline mode (CMD+Y) and zoom right in to the design in order to accurately clip the paths with the Scissors tool. Use the Direct Selection tool to delete the unwanted paths, then join each end point to form one smooth outline.
Draw and position two more oval shapes overlapping the eye piece to finish off the remainder of the mask outline.
Select all three shapes and blend them together using the Merge option from the Pathfinder tool.
Draw a smaller oval and drag the top most point downwards to squash the shape. Rotate and position this object as an eye hole, then reflect a duplicate and position it on the opposite side.
Use the Polygon tool to draw a triangle by pressing the downward cursor key to reduce the number of points.
Go to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners and enter 1mm in the Radius field.
Head to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Warp and adjust the Bend slider to around 22% to manipulate the shape of the triangle. Go to Object > Expand and select just the Object checkbox to make the effect permanent.
Draw an Rounded Rectangle as a mouth piece and give it a slight bend using the Envelope Distort tool. Remember to expand the effect to convert it into an editable shape.
The basic linework is complete, so let’s add some colour. Give the main mask shape a bold red fill, then add a 0.5pt stroke with a slightly darker red tone.
Give the facial feature elements a deep blue fill and add the same dark red stroke as the mask outline.
Select the main outline and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter -0.4mm in the options window.
Clear the fill from this new offset path and alter the Stroke to 0.25pt with the Dashed setting activated with figures of 1.5pt dash and 1pt gap.
Select the facial elements and choose the Offset Path setting again, this time enter 0.4mm in the options window. Give these new paths the same dashed stroke styling.
Add a circle with a cyan fill to preview how the finished badge design will look. Use the shortcut CMD+Shift+[ to send the circle behind the mask elements.
Create a new document for the badge artwork template at 35x35mm. Within this document select the Circle tool and click on the artboard. Enter the figures of 35x35mm and center this circle with the Align Palette. Draw and center two more circles at 25x25mm and 23x23mm then right click these smaller shapes and select Make Guides.
The larger 35x35mm circle takes into consideration the bleed of the design that wraps around the back of the pin badge. Fill this circle with the blue background. The smaller two circles represent the final 25mm pin badge size and a safety margin to avoid having the design lost on the edges. Scale and position the mask design inside this safety margin.
Your vector Lucha Libre badge design file is all ready for print. Take a copy of the design into Photoshop to quickly crop the artwork and add a Bevel effect to preview how the final badge will look.
Follow this step by step Adobe Illustrator tutorial to create a stylized vector owl illustration with simple shapes and patterns. We’ll start by building the basic owl character with various vector shapes, then begin bringing it to life with colour, shading and pattern fills.
If you want to be a design master, you must first master the Pen tool. The Pen tool is one of the most important items in your Photoshop and Illustrator toolboxes and learning how to comfortably use it will open up new opportunities and speed up your every day workflow. Here’s a couple of techniques I use when working with the pen tool that I hope will help you get to grips with your bezier curves.
The Pen tool comes with all kinds of options for creating, removing and tweaking bezier points and curves. All these options can be quickly selected using certain shortcut keys, or you can choose that specific tool individually from within the Pen tool stack.
Let’s look at the different variations and what they do:
Pen Tool
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The great thing about seamless repeating patterns is that once created, they can be used as a base for all kinds of awesome designs. Skateboard decks, custom apparel, package designs and website backgrounds are just some of the uses for the good old pattern swatch. Follow this tutorial to build a vector based repeating pattern of your own, featuring trendy graphics of skulls, stars, lightning bolts and other cool pop imagery.
In this web design tutorial, we will be creating a minimalist, dark-themed web layout that’s perfect for a portfolio site. We’ll only cover the creation of the basic parts of the layout and leave it up to you to apply your own finishing touches.
In this web design tutorial, we’ll show you how to make an impressive dark-themed layout that you can use for blog designs. The design will feature "racecar enthusiast" elements such as carbon fiber and checkered flag textures and odometers.
