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
IllustrationClass.com would like to congratulate the winners of our first annual “U Post Poster Contest!” brought to you by uprinting.com.
U Post Poster Winners
Artist: Anthony Wartinger
Title: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
Artist: Rob McClurkan
Title: “ABC’s”
Artist: Kiril Tchangav
Title: “Gypsy”
Attention Winners
To receive your FREE poster print I’ll need each winner to email us the following information so I can get it to uprinting.com, who’ll ship out your print to you directly.
- Your Complete Name
- Shipping Address and Phone Number (Non-US residents pay their own shipping)
- Direct URL Link to Download Final Art (18×24 + bleed, 300dpi, CMYK tiff image)
- Print Coating Preference Semi-Gloss or High-Gloss?
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
This helpful PDF produced by “The Creative Group” contains “20″ cost-effective ways to keep you creatively focused and inspired in an uncertain economy.
Several of Illustrationclass.com creative exercises are included in the PDF under “Drawing People Together”, along with other fun practical content to help you push yourself creatively.
Keywords: Creative, Exercise, PDF, Group
File Size: 3.1 MB
Since I posted my last video tutorial, I’ve been asked to do another video that showcases the same methodology as the previous one on a more complex illustration. So with this new video I’ll once again use an Ai plugin called “Xtream Path” by CValley Software to build my artwork.
This video tutorial will take you through the creation of an illustrative design project I worked on involving a dairy farm logo. I suppose I should point out that my video tutorials aren’t so much geared towards using the software, but more focused on a systematic creative process and methodology mixed with commentary that explains what I’m doing along with sharing my own random thoughts and funny stories.
I feel obligated to say this because some might be looking for software driven tutorials to learn applications and a tool driven process and for that specific type of tutorial I’d recommend Lynda.com instead. But if you don’t mind a casual, not too serious approach to learning by observing, than I think you’ll find this video useful.
This download contains a notes file (English Only) with more information about CValley Softwares plugin for Ai. Both videos are the same project I just broke it into two parts to make downloading and watching of the videos easier.
Watch the video tutorial online here:
- Herding Vectors Part 1
- Herding Vectors Part 2
(Video Tutorial is produced in ‘English’ only.)
Keywords: Cow, Logo, Vectors, Build, Methods, CValley, Xtream Path, Video
File Size: 4 KB
Just like physical exercise, creative exercise will help you develop and strengthen your illustrative and design ability over time. If you make a habit of doing small simple daily exercises you’ll see a remarkable improvement in your work as you progress through your creative career.
Knowing your lighting sources when illustrating is a must. This simple exercise provides a blank canvas “the faces” and you have to draw in how the shading would look on each face based off the light source defined for each. The more you can train your mind and eye to think through lighting and the resulting shading the easier it gets to handle it on your own projects regardless of the theme or style.
Keywords: Shading, Exercise, Drawing, Creative
File Size: 320KB
New media has allowed marketing to take on many new shapes and forms over the years and one new method is to create interactive games that incorporate advertising content or training information. The game is the vehicle to drive the message home.
In this tutorial I’ll show you how I worked with an interactive firm to create the visual assets needed so they could produce a simple Flash driven golf game for their clients marketing needs.
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Flash, Game, Golf, Animation
File Size: 10 MB
This is the first video tutorial I have posted on IllustrationClass.com. So I decided to base it on the question I get asked most often.
“How do you get such precise vector shapes with the pen tool?”
Well in all honesty my build methods don’t solely depend on the pen tool. Most of my finessing of shapes and refinement is done using selection tools and via a great very intuitive and useful plugin for Ai called “Xtream Path” by CValley Software.
I’ve mentioned and shown this plugin before in my other tutorials but now you get to see it all in action. If you like these video tutorials please let me know by posting feedback in the comments for this post.
These simple build methods are foundational for creating illustrative design solutions on any type of project and will help you achieve precision graphics as you produce print collateral such as business cards, flyers, and brochures.
This download contains both videos and a notes file with more information about CValley Softwares plugin for Ai.
Watch the video tutorials online here:
- Vector Build Methods 1
- Vector Build Methods 2
(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)
Keywords: Build, Methods, CValley, Xtream Path, Video
File Size: 27.2 MB
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