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!