Designing a character can apply to both personal and professional projects and the character can be a mascot that works in context of a multi-national brand or it can simply be inspired by a well-known character within pop culture. The later is usually referred to as “Fan Art.”
This tutorial takes you through the entire creative process from thumbnail sketch to final art.
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Character, Mickey, Fan
File Size: 18.2 MB
Many times an agency will mock up a design direction in order to get a client to sign off on it. Once they have it approved they’ll approach me with their rough idea and want me to flesh it out into it’s final form. This type of project usually means I’ll be leveraging both my design and illustration skills to pull it off.
This project will take you through the entire creative process I used to pull off this illustrative logo design, from shooting my own photo reference material to refining my vector artwork with precision.
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Logo, Wood, Stylized
File Size: 9.3 MB
I enjoy creating patterns. When I started developing the patterns for my book “Drip.Dot.Swirl” I became immersed in this art form for over two years solid. Every where I looked I would see inspiration for a new pattern.
When I was approached by the publishers of the “Adobe CS4 WOW!” book and asked to contribute to it I decided to create a new pattern to use as the background for my final artwork.
This tutorial documents this patterns creation and will show the fundamentals when it comes to creating a tiled pattern that you can seamlessly repeat. It’s fun, easy, and creatively addictive.
For more information regarding patterns, be sure to download our other tutorial on pattern illustration here.
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Pattern, Repeat, Tiles, Book, Japan
File Size: 16.6 MB
This tutorial isn’t your traditional step by step process. There is no systematic path to achieve the effects since the creative process is exploratory in nature you’ll have to deconstruct the included files so you can see how I achieved the visual effects in the final art.
I’ll go over some key points within this tutorial, but most of the valuable content and information that will help you do it yourself will be gleaned from turning on/off layers and clicking through the settings of the PSD resource file provided in the download. I’ve also provided the source texture images so you can use them on your own projects as well.
Be sure to also download the helpful PDF and “10″ FREE sample textures you can find in our “PDF Handouts” section under “Collecting and Using Textures in Your Artwork.”
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Textures, Photoshop, Brush, Organic
File Size: 37.6 MB
This creative exercise isn’t anything new, it’s actually a test often done in creativity courses. It forces you to look at the mundane “Two Circles” and see what you can visually make from them. There is no right or wrong approach to this, cut loose and push yourself.
Keywords: Circles, Exercise, Doodle
File Size: 244 KB
Illustration for the sake of communication and explanation isn’t the most glamorous form of creative work, but it’s one of the most needed forms of illustration within any industry today. When done well it’s rarely noticed, pedestrian if you will.
But how many times have you tried to follow poorly executed diagram illustrations only to become frustrated because you couldn’t figure out what it was showing you. This is usually the only time you notice diagram illustration, when it fails to diagram a process well.
This tutorial will help you create well crafted diagram illustrations that communicate with clarity and serve their designated purpose well.
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Diagram, Instructions, Pedestrian
File Size: 4.8 MB
I’ve always enjoyed hand lettering. Creating unique custom letter-forms is actually very relaxing for me. I can’t say that about a lot of my illustration work which can often be some what stressful but when it comes to sketching out and creating custom typography it’s fun.
Original and unique custom hand lettering stands out in a world driven by stale fonts. Whether you’re creating a club flyer, or a new logotype take a healthy creative risk and draw out your own letter forms.
This tutorial documents the creation of the “Fa La La La Lifetime” Christmas promotional graphic I created for the Lifetime Channel.
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Lettering, Branding, Lifetime
File Size: 9.4 MB
One of the oldest forms of artwork is pattern design. You’ll find it within every culture globally from Middle Eastern rugs, lattice work in Asia, to border treatments on ancient manuscripts dating back thousands of years. One could say man has always had a penchant for ornament.
Last year I launched my own creative excursion into this art form when my new book “Drip.Dot.Swirl” hit the shelves. In all I’ve designed about 200 patterns since then and I’m still fascinated and intrigued by the whole creative process behind them. They are artistically addictive to say the least.
This tutorial goes into how one can go about creating their own pattern artwork from scratch sans any plugins, or software to pull off the repeating tile pattern. Eventually software will make this process easier but if you learn how to do it manually you’ll have far more control when it gets automated later.
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Pattern, Repeat, Tiles, Book
File Size: 16.8 MB
In a digital age analog methods are still valid and one could easily argue essential to a well defined creative process. I say that because this tutorial is more than a mere “click here and pull down this menu” type of process. It requires a level of drawing skills, there really is no way around that. But don’t let that intimidate you, anyone can improve their drawing skills and in return it’ll improve your design regardless if you ever want to become a full-blown illustrator or not.
I’ll show you how to derive a vector based portrait from a source photograph using simple common sense methods and helpful plugins that make building your art a whole lot easier. All you’ll need is Photoshop, Illustrator, Scanner, Pencil and Paper. So sharpen your pencil and your mind and lets dive in.
Remember, improved drawing skills will help you with all your design projects be it illustration, print brochures, or logo development.
This tutorial was originally created for MacUser Magazine UK. It includes a self-contained PDF of the tutorial for easy offline access. If you enjoy this tutorial be sure to check out the Billy Mays tutorial that goes more in depth on this same type of project.
Read my blog post associated with this tutorial.
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Stylized, Portrait, Macuser
File Size: 23 MB
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Fan Art Illustration
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