Illustrator Tutorial - Watercolor and Marker Style Portrait

This tutorial from DesignInstruct.com shows us how to make a watercolor and marker style portrait in Illustrator. Try it out for yourself and create your own portraits! Following through this tutorial is so much fun.

Here are the portraits I created from following this tutorial:

8 of the Cutest Character Design Tutorials for Illustrator

Here are 10 awesome cute and simple vector character design tutorials for Photoshop and Illustrator.

1. Create a Cute Panda Bear Face Icon

2. How to Create a Cute Bunny Vector Character

Process: An Apple To An Artwork

What can you do with an apple?

And nope, I'm not talking about the guys behind the iPad and Mac.

A few months ago, I joined a vexel art contest on deviantART where the mechanics were to make a vexel artwork out of this apple right here. But before we proceed, try asking the question:

"If you were to create something from an apple what would you make?"

Well, let's see what I've come up with! Not that I'm proud of it.

The Gory Insides

 

Hmm... apple. May not be an accurate way to tell what's inside but this was the concept I thought of.

Using the pen tool set to 'Path', I used those paths to make the lines, fill in the red part of the apple, the leaf and that little stem thing.

More details revealing what I have planned for our apple. You can see the core of the apple right there, looks kind of like a cave... and then at the surface, you see something like land and water. Using the same tool for this step.

And Then Suddenly...A Wild Rainbow Appears

 

Looks kind of weird right now. What's that rainbow have to do with the apple and that sun? or is that a moon Also using the same tool for this step.

On The Inside

I've added a man, and a few frames hanging around inside the apple.

 Finished Artwork

And here is the finished artwork for the contest. It shows the young man inside a fresh red apple.

I'll leave you guys to interpret what it means.

I won 2nd place for this contest so..it's a really great achievement.

Vector Portraits: Making Hair Strands (Basic)

I've made a video tutorial on making hair strands for vector portraits. I remember finding it so much fun to do and very interesting. Often, when I am making these portraits, I really have no idea how it's gonna turn out but then I surprise myself when it comes out really beautiful.

So here's the video. It's not actually a tutorial though - I just captured how I make the process for the base hair, and haven't put it into much detail. (Sorry about that.)

With the pen tool set to make paths, not to make shapes, I create single curved strokes and then while holding Ctrl + Alt, I drag each stroke to duplicate it and to make multiple copies of paths. With the brush set to Opacity 100% and the second default Hard Round brush, I stroke the path and...voila!

The video shows me how I copy all these to make the hair of the subject. Well, I didn't really capture how I made the rest of the hair, and wishing I did, but for the rest of the hair, I've done the same process except with varying colors and brush sizes. 

And here is how it turned out when I finished making it.

Just Kerryn by tacticianjenro

Sorry about not explaining how I made the rest of the portrait but hopefully I could make more tutorials in the near future. I made this last September of 2012. And also, let me just add that Kerryn makes very good food. :)

Thanks for reading!

Vector Portraits: An Introduction

Vector Portraits

Digital and vector portraits are popular nowadays. It makes a great gift for friends and loved ones, and in my experience, it's also a great way to train on keeping us focused. Vector portraits are not too hard to make, but of course you need a little bit of learning. But learning is a great thing, right?

"Geraldene" by Tactician Jenro

I first found my interest in vector portraits when my friend introduced me to a Filipino group of vector artists called Vector X Vexel PH. Prior to that, I wasn't as interested in making art as I am now and it helped me to take a leaf and try to learn. Since then, I made more and tried my best to improve. Here on the left is the first vector portrait I made from a year ago. I think it looks okay for a first. :)

A self portrait I made.

The Process

Vector portraits are not created from scratch. You take a reference photo of the subject you'd like to create into a portrait, and basically try to "remake" the picture and make it into a digital one.  

This is all made possible with the pen tool.  It's a very versatile tool found in software like Photoshop and Illustrator and you can learn the basics to using it in this tutorial. This is the most important tool!

I won't be going to the entire process in detail, but I'll try to write some "how-to" posts on how I make some of the portraits next time. :)

But, if you'd like to learn more, there are a lot of tutorials around YouTube. I also recommend going to this site and it has everything you need to know about vector portraits.

I hope that encourages you to try it out. Thanks for reading!