Final Image

Below is the final illustration we will be working towards.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator
• Version: CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 2 hours

Step 1

To start, create a sketch of your character. I like to use my Wacom pen tablet and Photoshop to create the sketch, but you can use whatever medium you choose. After creating the sketch, scan it (if you are using traditional media) and save it on you computer in an easily accessible spot.

Step 2

Now to Illustrator. Create a new document and place you sketch in your new document by going File > Edit > Place. Find you sketch on your computer and center the image on your document.

Step 3

Once placed, choose Template from the pop-up menu of the Layers panel, making it a little easier to trace the image in the following Steps.

Step 4

Now that we have the sketch on a template layer we can create new layer to trace the sketch. To create a new layer, press the new layer button in the bottom right of the Layers panel. Creating multiple layers helps with organization and workflow. It is also a good idea to name the layer by double-clicking on the new layer and renaming it in the Layers Options dialog. Name the first layer Face.

Step 5

With the Pen tool (P), start tracing the dominate shapes of the face, making sure you close the paths for easy filling, like the skin of the face and the hair. For some of the other face elements like the nose and mouth outlines, you can keep them as open paths. In the next Steps we are going to create a brush that make it easy to give the paths a tapped stroke look.

Step 6

Now that we traced the shapes and lines of the face we can create the irises of the eyes with the Ellipse tool (L). Create three ellipses, one big, the second smaller and centered within the bigger one, and the third off to side of the centered ellipse.

Step 7

Use the Ellipse tool (L) a create an oblong ellipse, considerably wider than it is tall. Drag the ellipse in the Brush panel and chose New Art Brush from the New Brush dialog. Once in the Art Brush Options dialog, change the Colorization to Tints, making it easy to change the color of the brush.

Step 8

Select the open paths from your trace, and select the new brush form the Brush panel. You might have to change the Stroke Weight on some of the paths from the Stroke panel depending on if the stroke needs to be thicker or narrower.

Step 9

Fill in the closed shapes with appropriate color and change the stroke color for the brushed paths.

Step 10

Using gradients creates a sense of a light source. For this tutorial we are going to imagine the light source coming from the left side of the character. Start with the face shape, and create a linear gradient from the Gradient panel. Use your skin color for the left Color Stop and a darker skin color for the right Color Stop in the gradient. By default you gradient is probably already looking correct, but if not, use the Gradient tool (G) and adjust the gradient from left to right, making the lighter part of the gradient on the left of the face.

Step 11

Go through the rest of you closed shapes and create linear gradient keeping in mind your light source. Also keep in mind you want smooth transition from shape to shape. A good example is the right ear shape. If you adjust the gradient so the lighter part of the gradient is on the left side, the ear will look funny. A simple fix is to reverse you gradient so the colors next to each other match. For the eye make the gradient vertical so the darker part of the gradient is at the top of the iris shape.

Step 12

The face is starting to look pretty good, but let’s add some more shapes and gradients to give a little more depth and character. Start by creating an ellipse with the Ellipse tool (L). Make the ellipse about the size of an eye and place right below the right eye. Fill the ellipse with a radial gradient from the gradient panel. Change both of the Color Stops to a pink skin color. Then, change the Opacity in the Gradient panel of the second Color Stop to 0. Copy (Command + C) and Paste (Command + V) the ellipse and place under the opposite eye.

Step 13

For the next shape, use the Pen tool (P) and create a shape that distinguishes the contour of the nose mouth and eyes. Next, select the main face shape, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Front (Command + F ). Select the copy and the new face shape and press the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel. FIll the intersected shape with the same gradient as the previous Step’s ellipses except make the gradient linear. Adjust the gradient with the Gradient Tool (G) and go Object > Arrange > Send Backward (Command + [) until the shape is arranged right after the face shape.

Step 14

Create a new layer from the Layers panel and name it Body. In the Layers panel drag the Body layer below the Face layer.

Step 15

In the new Body layer, trace the body of you character, like you did the head. Also trace the keyboard of the laptop, but not the screen.

Step 16

Fill the shapes in with some basic color like with the face.

Step 17

Also just like the face, fill the shapes in with gradients and draw extra shapes to create more depth. Great places to do this are in the clothing and skin.

Step 18

Create a new Layer and name it Computer.

Step 19

Trace the laptop screen with the Pen tool (P) like you have previously done.

Step 20

Again, fill it in with some basic color, add some gradients to create some depth, and finish it up with some extra Pen tool (P) drawn shapes. Use the technique in Step 13 to Intersect the new shapes so they align with the object below.

Step 21

Create a new Layer and call it Background. Arrange the Background layer in the Layers panel so it is behind all layers except the Template layer.

Step 22

To create the background shapes, first create an oblong ellipse with the Ellipse tool (L). With the Selection tool (V) rotate the ellipse slightly to the right. Copy (Command + C) the ellipse and Paste in Back (Command + B). With the copy selected, scale it slightly with the Selection tool (V). To scale it proportionally from the center, hold down Command + Option/ Alt + Shift. while scaling.

Step 23

Hold down the Option/Alt key and drag out a copy of the original ellipse to the bottom right side of the other two ellipses. Copy (Command + C) the original ellipse and Paste in Front (Command + F). Select the copy and offset copy and press the Intersect button in the Pathfinder panel.

Step 24

Fill the first two ellipse with a light blue-green and a dark blue-green. For the offset ellipse, fill it with a radial gradient with the first Color Stop a light green-blue and the second a darker blue-green color.

Step 25

We are pretty much done, but we can customize it more by adding a logo to the t-shirt and computer screen. For this tutorial, Grant was kind enough to let me use the Colorburned logo. No matter what logo you are using, place a copy on the Body and Computer Layer.

Step 26

After placing the logos, we want to make sure that the look like they have the correct perspective. For both logos we can get away with just rotating them slightly to the left. For some logos you might have to alter them considerable more. I suggest using the Transform tool. With the Transform tool (E), click and hold an anchor point, then press the Command Key (Ctrl for Windows), and adjust accordingly. Make sure you click and hold on the anchor before you press the Command Key, or else it will not work.

Step 27

For the logo on the t-shirt, we are going to keep the Colorburned branding color, but for the logo on the computer, we are going to make it look like it is stamped into the laptop. To start fill the computer logo with a gradient similar to the lightest gradient in your computer, but with both Color Stops lighter. Adjust the Gradient so the darker color is at the bottom of the logo. With the logo still selected, go Object > Path > Offset. In the Offset dialog, change the Offset to 3 px (this can change depending on the dimensions of your illustration) and choose Round from the Joins drop-down menu. Fill the offset shape with a linear gradient with the first Color Stop white and the second Color Stop a dark computer color. Adjust the gradient so the darker part of the gradient is at the top of the offset.

Step 28

Now all that is left to do, is press the visibility icon in the layers panel for the Template layer and you are done!

Final Image

Again is the final character illustration.

You may download the source file for this tutorial below.  The contents of the download however are for educational purposes only and cannot be used for personal or commercial use, sold, or redistributed without the expressed consent of Colorburned Creative.

File type: .ai
Compatibility: Adobe Illustrator
Size: 170 KB

Introducing Brush Pilot for Mac

If you follow a lot of the design websites out there you probably already know about Bittbox. Bittbox is a great design site run by Jay Hilgert. Last week Jay had a big announcement, the release of a new Photoshop brush browser for Mac. Brush Pilot is a lightweight, fast Photoshop brush previewer for OSX. It instantly finds all your brushes, fast; it separates uninstalled brushes from installed brushes, it enables single click installation into all Photoshop versions on your machine, it reveals file locations in the Finder, and allows you to view names and pixel dimensions of each brush. Brush pilot can be yours for just $15 USD. For more information visit http://www.brushpilotapp.com.

Don’t Have a Mac? Try Preset Viewer

If you’re not on a Mac but would like to be able to browse the Photoshop brushes on your PC. Check out Preset Viewer, one of the sponsors of my website.

Jim, thank you so much for participating in this interview. I have really enjoyed working with your products and I know my readers have enjoyed them as well. Can you begin by telling us a little about your background? Where are you from? How did you get your start in design and software development?

I started off doing print graphic design, after mistakenly getting a degree in Economics (don’t let your children get Economics degrees). At the time Photoshop was at 2.0 and was just starting to be used seriously. In fact, the head of the graphic design department at Cal State Northridge told me I couldn’t use computers because that’s not what was being used in the real world. Except for the fact my day job was in a corporate design department where we did nothing BUT use Photoshop and Illustrator all day (and PowerPoint… but you know… I was young and needed the money).

Anyways, so I became enamored of Kai’s Power Tools, which was more or less the first set of plug-ins for Photoshop, and started going to conferences where he was speaking. Eventually meeting him and bunch of other folks from HSC Software (which became MetaTools which became MetaCreations, etc.). This lead to getting a job as a QA Engineer for KPT, Bryce, KPT Goo, Final Effects (first After Effects plugin set) and a number of other very cool products, especially for the mid-90s. It was an amazingly cool company with a lot of very smart people that was utterly dysfunctional. So I left after two years to become the 5th employee of Total Training. At the time they were developing a plug-in set for After Effects and that’s what I was working on. They eventually sold that to Adobe and I went to Cycore, another AE plug-in developer. I’ve worked on a LOT of After Effects plug-ins.

Tell us a little about your company Digital Anarchy. How did Digital Anarchy get its start? Where are you based and how long have you been in business?

Digital Anarchy was a description of the internet that appeared in Wired. I forget who the article was about that said it. Seemed like a good name, and, importantly, I got the domain.

After leaving Cycore I did the dot com thing for a short period, working for some absurd company that was paying me too much. After it became clear they were headed for fuckedcompany.com, I hired a friend to write a set of After Effects plug-ins. I got laid off two weeks before we were supposed to ship, which worked out perfectly. We released Text Anarchy at NAB 2001 and we were off and running.

We started off in San Francisco and 8 years later are still here. It’s a good place for Anarchists.

I have often mentioned your products on this website. Can you tell us a little about your line of products? What are they? What are their capabilities? And how can a designer use them to improve their workflow?

3D Invigorator allows you to create 3D Logos and Text. These are the most common things that 2D designers want to in 3D. Invigorator makes it exceptionally easy to create great looking 3D designs. It’s mostly stuff that’s impossible to do in CS4 and the best part is it works in any version of Photoshop. You don’t need CS4 Extended.

ToonIt creates cartoon, illustration, and painterly effects. You have a wide variety of presets to choose from and dozens of parameters allow you to customize it to your liking. You can set up the effect easily and quickly make adjustments and modifications… whether you’re going for a cartoon, an etched drawing, or stained glass. This just recently got 5 stars from Photoshop User, so we’re excited about that.

Primatte Chromakey allows photographers to use one of the leading film/video technologies for doing chromakey (blue/greenscreen work). It’s very powerful and easy to use. The next version which is coming soon is aimed at photographers that are doing high volume where they need automated keying. Look for more info about this in the near future.

Backdrop Designer is designed to work alongside Primatte, but can be used by itself to create cool backgrounds. It simulates the look of muslin drapes, which are traditionally used as photography backgrounds. It’s resolution independent so the textures and backgrounds can be rendered to any size.

You can get more info, trial downloads, and tutorials at our web site: www.digitalanarchy.com.

Photoshop plug-ins and filters can be very useful but sometimes it seems that they have developed a bum rap among the design elite for making things “too easy.” How do you go about convincing people that filters and plug-ins are not a crutch and are ok to use?

It really depends on how you use them. Usually you can go much deeper into them to create things that would be difficult or very time consuming to do by hand. How much is your time worth? If you spend 30 minutes messing around with layers, blend modes, built-in Photoshop filters, etc. vs. 5 minutes applying a filter, I wouldn’t say that’s smart design. Especially if your client comes in and wants changes. But, yeah, some people are a little too reliant on the presets that ship with most plug-ins. There’s a certain level of user that really wants presets, so we always have them… but we always try to give users enough control that they can get in there and create some unique effects fairly easily.

Some filters allow you to do things that are simply impossible with Photoshop. 3D Invigorator is a good example of this. If you want 3D text or logos, your only real options are to get 3D Invigorator or go into a 3D program.

You also have to consider how much time you want to devote to any particular element. If you’re on a deadline or a given element is just a small part of the design, sometimes you can just apply a filter, select a preset and be done with it. Again, it really just comes down to how you use plug-ins. Like almost everything, including Photoshop itself, they can be used for good or evil. (ok, so maybe bad design isn’t exactly evil… but people on the street might look at you askew and say ‘oh, he’s one of _those_ designers’ and shun you. You don’t want to be shunned.)

I discovered Digital Anarchy while searching for alternatives to Photoshop’s Lens Flare tool. I found a YouTube video demonstrating the capabilities of Knoll Light Factory and have loved using it ever since. Can you tell us why Knoll Light Factory is so much better than the default Photoshop Lens Flare tool?

Uh, perhaps because the PS Lens Flare hasn’t been updated since version 0.9? John wrote the original one for Photoshop. After selling Photoshop to Adobe, he didn’t revisit it until he was at ILM and needed a photon torpedo for one of the Star Trek movies. So he wrote what is now Knoll Light Factory.

Aside from Star Trek I’ve noticed Knoll Light Factory used in several television series and featured films. How does it make you feel when you see your product used in so many awesome ways?

It’s always great to see our products being used successfully. Whether it’s a feature film or a photographer telling us how he couldn’t live without Primatte or something. We make the tools so people will use them, so it’s definitely a high when we see great work being created. Of course, the flip side is that we REALLY want feedback. If people aren’t happy with the product, let us know. That’s the only way we can improve them.

Digital Anarchy formed from the ashes of the Dot Com Bubble of the late 1990’s. In your experience, is a recession a good time to start a business? How have you applied what you learned from the Dot Com Bust to the current economic situation? Do you have any advice for young designers/programmers who might be concerned about the future?

It can be. Good resources and talent tend to be cheaper during a recession. There’s no way we could’ve started up in 1999 with dot.coms paying people crazy sums of money to tech support, much less programming.

But each recession is different. The dot com recession mostly just affected the tech centers…. SF, Boston, etc. The rest of the country was doing ok, taking out home equity loans to buy SUVs, software, and whatever.

This recession is different. It’s much broader, in that everyone is being affected. So it may take longer to come out of it. If you do start a company, you may need to have a bit more capital because of potential length of the bottom. That said, things seem to be improving. So we’ll see… folks are taking longer to buy and they’re a little more likely to wait for a sale.

As for the future… things will recover. Persistence and staying on top of your skills is key. If you’re having trouble finding a job use the time to work on your skill set. It’s no harder now than it’s ever been to start a web based business. Find something interesting, design/program a web site around it, and if nothing else you can use it for your portfolio. If you’re going to start a business you need to stay positive and have faith it’ll eventually comes together.

The other key bit of advice is get out there and network. Go to parties where people in your industry hang out, go to tradeshows, hang out in forums and try to set up beer nights for anyone local. Just get out there. The more people you know the more likely you’ll run into someone who’s company is hiring.

What sort of things can we expect to see from Digital Anarchy in the future? Are there any new and exciting plug-ins being developed that we should keep a look out for?

Cool Stuff! We have a new version of Primatte coming out, some new materials and textures for 3D Invigorator and we have a couple cool things in development that aren’t quite far enough along to talk about yet. But we’ll give you guys a heads up. We’ll be looking for beta testers at some point… perhaps some of your readers might want to help us out.

Finally, can you name 3 other people that you would like to see interviewed on this website?

Lol… uh… let’s see… Corey Barker from NAPP is an interesting guy. As is Colin Smith of Photoshop Café. Rebecca Gurian from Canon, she’s the product manager for Canon’s Studio Solution which is their new application/workflow for pro photographers. Looks cool, be interested to hear more about it. And if you can track down Kai Krause…

Visit The Digital Anarchy Blog.

File type: .abr
Compatibility: Photoshop
Size: 10.2 MB

SymmetryWorks is a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator that allows you to quickly create complicated seamless patterns in Illustrator from just about any type of vector object. It won’t take you long to figure out how amazing this plug-in is. Just draw an object, open the SymmetryWorks palette and click “make”. Your pattern will be created instantly and you can then begin playing with different settings to achieve different results.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you have probably heard me mention SymmetryWorks before. In fact, in May I gave a copy away as a prize during this website’s 1st Birthday Celebration. I am clearly a fan of SymmetryWorks; that is why I was excited to hear that Artlandia just released SymmetryWorks v.5 and included some fantastic upgrades.

INTRODUCING INSERTION MODE

The new insertion mode allows you to draw new objects into your pattern on the fly. This makes it easy to see how your new pattern will look when it is repeated.

WATCH THE VIDEO

CREATE SWATCHES WITH JUST ONE CLICK

This is possibly the most anticipated new feature for SymmetryWorks v.5. One of the most frustrating aspects of SymmetryWorks v.4 was that you had to create patterns manually. In version 5 just select your SymmetryWorks object and click the pattern swatch button. The new pattern will automatically appear in your swatches palette.

WATCH THE VIDEO

ADDED SUPPORT FOR ILLUSTRATOR OBJECTS

SymmetryWorks now supports blends and compound shapes. Blends and compound shapes are indispensable for tessellations and other designs. In addition, support has been enhanced several types of patterns. You can now easily create scarves, kerchiefs, bandannas, carpets, rugs, and much, much more.

WATCH THE VIDEO

INTRODUCING SYMMETRYWORKS LP

SymmetryWorks LP is a tight integration of SymmetryWorks with LivePresets, Artlandia’s newest Illustrator plug-in. By combining SymmetryWorks and Artlandia LivePresets you can use your SymmetryWorks patterns as normal Illustrator swatches and edit them on the fly.

WATCH THE VIDEO

VIDEO DEMONSTRATIONS

To see the new features of SymmetryWorks in action visit the new SymmetryWorks video section.

PURCHASE SYMMETRYWORKS

You can purchase your own version of SymmetryWorks here.

Why is this? What is it about an image that so enthralls us, so captivates us, and so unites us? Images have always been used as uniting factors, from the brave marches of armies across the ancient world to the TV shows we watch every week and talk about over the water cooler breaks.

Today, graphic designers are faced with understanding the subconscious attitudes of our customers, and are so many times asked to read minds and predict the future with startling frequency. We have to understand what is it about a logo that so captivates people that they will buy no other brand, and in some ways identify themselves with the company they purchase from, whatever company that may be.

If we’re to get some bearings about where we are in the evolution of the image and it’s current term ‘logo’, we need a little history. The earliest forms of writing were of course cuneiform scripts written on clay tablets, being used for everything from receipts of cattle to royal decrees.

The interesting thing about this though, is that the language began to be shortened to one symbol for many things, and a combination of two letters could mean a business, grocer, or even an event in a city. This was the beginning of what we could consider to be a typographic and logo evolution into our present logos such as GE, Nike and NBC. The ’shortening’ patterns continued through history to the illuminated manuscripts in Medieval Europe which would illustrate individual letters for a chapter, or even just a few with a picture on a book cover. Illustrated entirely by hand, the books would be a prototype mass communication before the Gutenberg press. The manuscripts are a prime example of the first use of letters and images to create a lasting impression on the reader.

What does this mean for us? Does this mean that cuneiform could have been the beginning of a language shift and shortening that has continued across the ages, only to find itself in our most recent and highly debated language shift into what many people are calling “LOLspeak?”

This brings us to today, as you sit in front of your computer, your client’s desires scribbled on a napkin. The client wants the logo to explode, bring world peace, solve all of their problems, be 3-D and use a ton of bright colors (each pair that bickers with each other on the color wheel and should never, ever be used together).

The client says that their cousin who has a degree in beer can smashing did a great job on Microsoft paint, but they wanted something a little ‘fancier’ and ‘more elegant’. But they still want the giant bunny eating a carrot swinging from a rooftop attached to a dump truck hauling a ton of cement. And they want it by tomorrow.

In these crises, how can we hope to attain the perfect logo when given these insane parameters?

So how does history come into this? Well, armed with the knowledge of how things have been designed over the ages, you actually find yourself in a place that thousands, maybe millions have been before since ancient times! You’re not alone! So how did all of these people over thousands of years successfully combine art and letters into something memorable?

Pragmatically, it’s not possible to have an ultimately ‘perfect’ logo, as individual tastes vary, but it is possible to have a logo of excellence. Here’s the difference be between perfection and excellence:

Perfection is not satisfied with anything, and tries to get it ‘perfect’ no matter what. This will lead you into worlds of anger, frustration and discouragement. So many designers want their logos to be perfect, but the reality is that we rarely have the time and budget to spend months and months on a logo tweaking it. However, excellence is doing the best you can with what you have. This includes time, money and abilities. Professions frequently talk about the work ethic and drive of a potential employee or freelance designer in terms of excellence. This means with X budget and Y time, you push yourself as hard as you can to get the logo to work within the parameters of the Elements and Principles of Design. Even if your logo doesn’t bring them to tears of joy, it will show them that you are capable of so much more and are worth investing in over the long haul. The absolute worst thing a designer can do to the design community is to be flaky and lazy. (This is not to say that life events don’t happen, but consistently missing deadlines will kill your business faster than anything else).

The answer is the Elements and Principles of design. As you sit in front of the computer, with your client’s inane scribbles asking for the moon, you have the choice on how to go about designing this ‘perfect’ logo. You can haphazardly put together what they want, or attempt to apply the Elements and Principles to this insane logo. The Elements and Principles were the main ingredient to any and all successful architecture, sculpture, and even typography in history. You can never go wrong if you successfully apply them to anything. Color theory can destroy horrible color combinations and bring the most horrible logos into the realm of toleration. The elements and principles can be a course to navigate the treacherous waters of dealing with the many types of clients you will encounter.

The most successful graphic designers in print (Paul Rand, Margo Chase, Marty Neumeier, etc.) have consistently used them, and continue the ancient great tradition that all true designers follow. Studying those who are successful will help in any endeavor or situation you find yourself in, because they have been there too.

So, you the industrious designer, not so alone in history or the world, begin that design process armed with the weapons of design to conquer the problem and give the client the best logo you can muster. You may not be able to read minds, but every human is the same, and we all respond to design. They very well may think you can! And who knows? You may end up as the next Margo Chase or Paul Rand if you keep on doing the best you can with what you have.

File type: .abr
Compatibility: Photoshop
Size: 443 KB

Boss Cart Premium was developed for web developers, Internet marketing experts, web designers, and SEO consultants to make it easy to create ecommerce solutions for their clients. The code and design components were developed independently, making it possible for web designers to quickly create a unique appearance for each of their online stores.

For a limited time the readers of this website can receive a 50% discount just by entering the discount code colorburned during checkout. That means Colorburned readers can now purchase Boss Cart Premium for just $144!

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We are open to your ideas but we would prefer Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, InDesign, or Flash tutorials, best of the web roundups, inspirational articles, articles about freelancing or social media, design resources such as Photoshop brushes, Illustrator brushes, vectors, or textures, or whatever else you can think up. This is a fairly laid back website so we’re open to just about any idea as long as it is related to graphic design, art, inspiration, or social media.

How Can You Learn More?

For more information on how you can Join the Colorburned Team please visit our Write for Us page. Thank you and I look forward to working with you.

File type: .abr
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