IllustrationClass.com

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.

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

1. jlutgendorf wrote: June 22, 2009 at 1:52 pm

   Hi Von,

   I can’t get the pdf to open for this tutorial. On my home and work computers, I get an “There was an error opening this document. Bad encrypt dictionary” message.

   Not sure if this is user error or not, but I thought I would let you know. Thanks for putting these together!

   ~Julia

2. admin wrote: June 22, 2009 at 1:55 pm

   Julia,

   Not sure what to say? It’s works both via browser and my desktop? Maybe you have an older version of Acrobat perhaps?

   I’ll check again but as far as I can tell it’s working OK.

   Von

3. puckdrawn wrote: June 23, 2009 at 6:03 am

   Easy to follow pdf AND source files? Outstanding! Thanks Von. Another great tutorial.

4. Vectips Monthly Roundup: June 2009 | Colorrage Web Design Blog wrote: July 5, 2009 at 12:49 pm

   [...] Stylized Portrait Illustration [...]

5. PEDRO GOICO. New Media Developer´s Blog. » Archive » Estilice su retrato ilustrado. wrote: July 9, 2009 at 8:59 am

   [...] Cree un retrato en vectores basado en una fotografía original. utilizará Photoshop, Illustrator, u… [...]

6. Vectips Monthly Roundup: June 2009 | Individual and Cost Effective Web Designs wrote: July 18, 2009 at 4:23 pm

   [...] Stylized Portrait Illustration [...]

7. admin wrote: August 1, 2009 at 3:46 pm

   I wrote an extensive blog post called “Don’t be a Tooler” which tells an interesting back story to this tutorial.

   Or download the article directly here.

   If you want to share your opinions regarding this article please do so via my Artbackwash.com site and not in this thread.

   Thanks.

   Von

8. tegokal wrote: September 18, 2009 at 12:39 pm

   excelente maestro seria de buena utilidad que pongas mas en español las notas gracias de peru

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