I’m happy to announce a new plugin for Adobe Illustrator called VectorScribe. Developed by Astute Graphics out of the UK I was happy to be part of the beta testing and was tasked with creating the branding for the new plugin.
In my book Vector Basic Training I talk about the BetterHandles plugin, Astute Graphics bought the IP for BetterHandles, renamed it, and created a new more powerful set of tools that make vector creation more flexible, easier, faster, and with more precision. It’s a game changer and I highly recommend it.
Get a FREE 7 day trial and view video examples of use at AstuteGraphics.com.
Keywords: VBT, VectorScribe, Vector, Plugin, Tools
A good design friend of mine by the name of Stefan Mumaw was authoring a new book called “Chasing the Monster Idea” and asked me to illustrate a monster character he could use on the cover of his book.
This tutorial takes you through the entire creative process from thumbnail sketch to final art in the process to create the character that would be used on the cover of a book. Methods and terminology from Vector Basic Training (VBT) are covered in this tutorial.
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Character, Monster, Book, VBT
File Size: 13.4 MB
I’ve been brainstorming this book for well over a year and have been in production mode writing, editing, re-writing, editing more, creating content, and recording screencasts for the past six months. Needless to say a lot of time and energy has been invested in this exhaustive tome that thoroughly takes you through a systematic creative process for building precise vector graphics.
If you like IllustrationClass.com (Over three million of you do) you’ll love this book. I document creative methods that anyone can learn in order to bolster their own creative potential and improve their skills. The book is filled with hundreds of full color images and a wealth of information that will inspire, and equip you for creative success.
The book also comes with a DVD filled with over four hours of screencasts covering the methods documented in the book.
So if you’ve ever struggled creating precise vector graphics in Illustrator, or wanted to improve your process for taking your design from drawing to final vector form than this book is for you. It doesn’t cover ever feature bloat tool Adobe has stuffed into Ai, rather it focuses only on the tools you need to build excellent vector shapes.
For more information about Vector Basic Training and to order visit Amazon.com.
Keywords: VBT, Book, Peachpit, Vector, DVD, Screencast
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
PDF TUTORIALS
VOLUME 1
We’ve taken the top “25” tutorials and created our first set of mult-page PDF tutorials for easy printing and referencing of each projects creative process.
For more information click here.
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
RSS 2.0
VectorScribe
- PDF Tutorials Volume 1: All “25″ PDF tutorials for a flat rate of $21
