Tutorials: Vector Portraits

It's been a long while since I made my last vector portrait. These are some recent tutorials I'd love to work on soon. All these artists just come up with awesome stuff, and they help out others by making these really cool tutorials. Here are some of them:

1.  Photoshop Tutorial: New Tricks for Vector Portraits

Artist Daniel Caballero shares the process in making this awesome vector portrait. 

He also talks about how to use the Pen tool, and also explains how to add and change details and elements to give the piece a hand drawn look.

2. Illustrator Tutorial: How To Create A Self-Portrait in Geometric Style

Here's a tutorial on making a vector portrait with just geometric shapes in Illustrator.

3. Photoshop: Texture Effects with Vector Graphics

Pure awesomeness. Definitely check this out. An artistic depiction a Twitter user made by Charles Williams. Will learn a lot from this when I try it out.

So...that's it. These are stuff you should definitely try out. 

Thanks for reading!

Using Burn/Dodge Tool to make Digital Portraits

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates here at the blog. Hopefully here's something that would inspire you to keep making art that matters to you. :)

While vexel portraits are mainly used with the pen tool, it would be interesting to do experiments and try making portraits with different tools and methods. The burn and dodge tool, as well as the gaussian blur filter, was something I proved had its uses in making cool digital portraits, although they won't be called vector/vexel anymore. :)

One of my earlier works last year was "January", a portrait I made for a friend.

I didn't record what I exactly did, but first I start of with the pen tool to create the shapes for the hair, face and shirt. The hair strands, using the pen tool, and then I experimented with the burn and dodge tool to make the shadows. Check out the basic tutorial for using these tools here. 

Here's another example, this time using mixtures of the pen tool, gaussian blur, and the burn/dodge tool.

The burn/dodge tool is often used in making photo enhancements but works well with adding shadows to portraits like these too.

I'd like to improve and venture on with making art, so hopefully in the next days, I'd be sharing more stuff with you guys.

Thanks for reading!

-Tactician Jenro

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

Wallnuts Need Some Love - Plants Vs. Zombies

A few months ago, my Plants Vs. Zombies fanart was featured in the PvZ facebook page. Hooray! :)

You can check out the feature here.

The wallnut is, hands down, my favorite plant. I mean - look at it! He sacrifices himself to defend you from all those zombies. Poor thing. That's why I thought it really needs some love. 

Process: Vector Portrait (Time Lapse Video)

Check out this time lapse video on making a vector portrait with that elegant and rosy effect.

Feel free to also subscribe to my youtube channel and follow this blog for updates, resources and tutorials.

Thanks!

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!