Service Interruption

Hello All -

If anyone is following this blog - I just wanted to let you know that due to personal home circumstances that it will be some time before I'm able to post anything new. I no longer have an editing/graphics computer and haven't had one since November, so until I purchase a new system I'm afraid this blog will be very sleepy. I look forward to coming back online with new tutorials.

Thanks,
NK

My latest Illustrator drawings

Hello -

Just because I haven't posted anything on here, as of late, doesn't mean that I haven't been busy drawing. I've recently entered a competition for an online game that I play - the theme was to create Halloween items. Here are the items that I drew and submitted. I've generally used a reference photo to get the perspective and shading correct but all drawings are my original creations all drawn in Illustrator.

Heart in a Jar



- I tried to animate this one in Flash, but it didn't look to great - will need to start getting into Flash, too.

Brain in a Jar



Iron Frame Gothic Bed



Strand of Garlic



Coffin Bookcase



Gothic Picture Frame

Easy Vase with Illustrator

I've been disappointed with myself for not making time for this blog and posting more tutorials - real life gets in the way too often.

I sat down in front of the computer searching for an easy Illustrator tutorial (video tutorials and way more time consuming) just to create a new post and I found this very easy one. I learned a new tool (by new I mean I it's new to me, not to the program) called the 3D Revolve. This tutorial took less than five minutes which means I have enough time for some house chores before I go to work.

This 3D Vase Tutorial takes less than five minutes and is presumably aimed at beginners.

Tied up...

In between working full time and installing a heap of new software on my computer - the PC has been a bit tied up as well as myself.
After my last software installation and a free day, I plan on coming back with new tutorials. This is embarrassing and I can't believe three weeks have already passed since my last tutorial.
Be back soon...ish.

My first avatar!

I've always wanted to make my own avatar. I started on it two days ago for a bit and then literally 12 hours on and off yesterday. You can go mad trying to perfect every detail and it also depends on how simplified or complicated and realistic looking you would like to make it. I decided to settle for somewhere in the middle.

I'm also proud to say that I used absolutely no tutorial to guide me on this one. I simply used all of the new tools and tips I have learned from previous tutorials and combined them all together. I also got to experiment with the gradient mesh tool, which I hadn't used prior to my avatar creation.

Here is a picture of the work in progress (the final is at the end).



I began with the picture (shown above) and made it the bottom most layer and knocked down the opacity to about 30%. Every other layer I broke up into different parts of the face. The Illustrator layers aren't as "in your face" as Photoshop layers, so I have overlooked these in previous projects. This time I was diligent and organized.

Secondly, I started with all of the basic shapes and predominant lines (wrinkles) of the face. I initially started using black stroke and a generic skin tone and as the piece started coming together I began playing with the colors.

The eyes were the trickiest bit for me especially the lashes! I have redone my eyes since the "in progress" to the "final picture" see if you can spot the differences. The first set of lashes looked nice, but when I put them on my avatar I looked like a drag queen. My lashes are naturally short and thin, so I used the pencil tool to draw a straight line and used the handles to curve them a bit. I copied and pasted and changed the angle over and over - and rescaled and then finally made them all into one group.

The hair was the easiest part. I started by making some isosceles triangles with the polygon tool. The largest one was the main color of my hair and the smaller one is for highlights and the stroke of the largest triangle is for some natural red tones in my hair.



Next I used the warp tool to create my naturally wavy hair. Definitely play around the with the warp tool settings.



You can either copy the triangle of hair and resize different ones and place them then use the warp tool or just use the warp tool on one and then copy and place those. It's a more natural look to do them individually but you also have less control.



....and voila! My first avatar!

Day of the Dead Skull Adobe Illustrator Tutorial

So, I was looking for some more Illustrator tutorials (I know, I should be posting video tutorials) and I came across this El Dia de los Muertos inspired looking skull from the blog Spoon Graphics and thought it was really cool.



Everything was going pretty well until I get to the "create clipping mask step." I won't tell you how many hours I spent trying to work it out, re-reading and re-re-reading the step to see if I've missed something. I tried using the pathfinder to attempt the same step using another method and I just couldn't get it. It's easy in Photoshop, so I really don't know why I struggled with it so much. So, I've aborted this tutorial until someone can explain to me what I am missing. Here is the step:



Here is my unhappy looking unfinished sugar skull. :o(



Maybe this is a lesson that I should stick to what I know and that's video.

If you do want to try this yourself the tutorial link is here.

Paint an Apple with Adobe Illustrator CS5

As I've mentioned previously, I'm still new to Illustrator which is probably why the majority of tutorials are for Illustrator. I am a video editor by trade, so I should probably be focusing more on video, motion graphics and animation but I'm just having too much fun with Illustrator right now.

I've dabbled a bit with Illustrator CS4 so I can't make comparisons but apparently the bristle brush used in this tutorial is new to CS5. (I'm so glad I've upgraded from my single Adobe product to the Production Premium Suite).

This tutorial Create a Painterly Apple with Illustrator CS5’s new Bristle Brush comes from Vector tuts +. I was reading a bit about this website and they will pay you for your tutorial submissions. You can find tutorial submission information here.

I really enjoyed this tutorial, too, and I'm very pleased with the way my apple turned out. I probably should have added some shading to the bottom of the apple but it's time for bed so I'll do that later.

Tutorial Picture:



My design:



I pasted the photograph of the apple that I used as my model as well as my color swatches.