tutorial

Easy Hulk Logo on Illustrator and Photoshop

marcos333 — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:10:57 +0000

Being a great fan of comic books, I always loved the visual identities used for some famous characters. Most super-heroes logos are like a incorporation of many aspects of the characters and their superpowers. I always liked Hulk logo as everytime I look at it I always remember his famous quote "Hulk Smash".

This is a intermediary tutorial, so it's not as long and it's not as hard as my usual tutorials. As always, a tablet will be pretty handy here, but in case of not having one, you still can do it with a mouse, you're just going to have a bit more of difficulty on some parts. Anyway, hope you guys have fun and understand the simple dinamics behind this logotype formation.

Step 1

First I did a really simple rough, making 2 lines and 4 columns to simbolyze the letter tracking. Then just draw the 4 letters on a really squared version, tryin to make then quite similar.

Put it on Illustrator and use the round rectangle tool with a 0,5 cm radius to create the letter shapes. I rather use some smoother shapes as this, than just simple and sharp rectangles, because it looks less flat.

After you done all the letters, you should select them all use the pathfinder option called Unite in order to make all pieces just one.

You can also adjust some corner by creating another round rectangles over it and using the pathfinder option called Minus Front, this will get the type a all round appearance.

I used a sans serf typeface for the lettering, this one it's called Gotham Black, but you can pretty much a use a similar sans serif heavy typeface.

Outline it (command + shift + O / ctrl +shift + O), adjust the tracking between the letters as we're going to apply a offset path and so they should not overlap each other. Ok,now go to Object > Path > Offset path and set the offset to 0,2 cm.

You should get something like these, now let's apply a soft gradient using the gradient tool (G).

Step 2

Let's make the cracks around the lettering, it's quite simple, but it will be easier If you use the pencil tool (N) an a a tablet, as the irregularity of it it's easier to get this way then using a more flat tool as the pen tool (P).

Now it's time to add the reflexes to it, the logic it's simple: Put the lights on the top of every crack, at first I mays not make any sense, but just take a look at the samples bellow and you understand it.

Let's repeat the same procedure on each one of the big letters, but this time let's make it more detailed. It should look like a brick based shape, so first you're going to draw horizontal lines, then the vertical lines. Later using the pencil tool (N) add some cracks and ajust the lines to look more irregular.

This is a bit boring on the beginning, but as you understand the dynamic behing it, you will start doing it faster.

Using the same lightning rule applied on the lettering, do it again on the big letters. Remember: the light comes from the top, so most lights should be directed to this side.

Step 3

Now that we have the vector type ready, let's open photoshop and add some textures and effects. First make a black background using the paint bucket tool (G).

Paste the type as a Smart Object and select it by command + click / ctrl + click on its layer.

Then make a new layer and using the paint bucket tool (G) fill it with a neon green. Duplicate this layer (command + J / ctrl + J).

On the first one (the one on the top) you're going to apply a motion blur (Filter > Blur > Motion Blur) with this settings. Then, set his blending mode to Soft Light.

On the second one you're going to apply a radial blur (Filter > Blur > Radial Blur) with this settings. Don't forget to put both behind the smart object layer.

You should get this:

You can also add a soft outer glow on the type smart object (Layer Style > Outer Glow).

I used this grunge texture to give a a more realistic appearance to the image, you can download it right here. So first I paste it and used the smart objetc selection to create two new layer with it (command + J / ctrl + J).

On the first one I used the blending mode called Multiply and set the opacity to 50%.

On the second one I used the blending mode called overlay, in order to lighten it. Don't forget to put the one with the Multiply on the top and the overlay one bellow to get his final effect.

Conclusion

Download the Adobe Illustrator File

Download the Adobe Illustrator file used for this tutorial

About the author

My name is Marcos Torres, I'm Graphic Artist from Porto Alegre, Brasil. You can get to know more about me by acessing my Personal Website or by following me on Twitter: @marcos333. You can also see some of my last projects at my Flickr.

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The Avengers Poster in Photoshop

abduzeedo — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:20:09 +0000

Super Bowl is always a great time to see some nice movie trailers and previews. One that caught my attention was for the new The Avengers movie. I am looking forward to watching this movie but I also was looking forward to trying to recreate that poster in Photoshop.

So in this tutorial we will show you how to create the shine effect of The Avengers poster using only Photoshop. We will pretty much play only with Layer Styles and the Brush Tool (B).

Step 1

First thing to do is to find the Avengers logo. Just search on Google and you will find a vector version. Then in Illustrator you will have to create 2 new versions using the Object>Path>Offset Path. Use negative value for the offset. I used 2mm for both inner and outer versions.

Step 2

Copy one by one from Illustrator to Photoshop so you will have 3 layers, inner, middle and outer. Hide the inner and middle and let's start creating the effect with the outer shape.

Step 3

Go to Layer>Layert Style>Bevel and Emboss. Use Inner Bevel for the Style, Chisel Hard for the Technique, 140% for the Depth, 50 pixels for the Size, 3 for the Soften. For the Shading use 175º, 32º Altitude and for the Gloss Contour use the same I am using in the image below. Also change the Highlight Mode to Color Dodge with white for the color at 70% Opacity. For the Shadow Mode use Color Burn with black for the color at 100% Opacity.

After that select Color Overlay. Use #32333a for the color.

Step 4

Make the middle symbol visible again and duplicate it. Hide the duplicated version for now.

Step 5

With the middle version selected go to Layer>Layer Styles>Bevel and Emboss. Use Inner Bevel for the Style, Chisel Hard for the Technique, 200% for the Depth, 20 pixels for the Size, 3 pixels for the Soften. Then for the Shading use 175º for the Angle, 32º for the Altitude. Then for the Gloss Contour use the same as the image below. For the Highlight Mode use Color Dodge with white for the color at 80% and for the Shadow Mode use Color Burn with black for the color at 70%.

For the Color Overlay use the same as the previous step.

Step 6

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Inner Shadow and then use Color Dodge for the Blend Mode with white for the color. For the Opacity use 80%, for the Angle use 175%, for the Distance use 20 pixels and for the Size use 30 pixels.

Step 7

Make the duplicated layer visible again and apply the same inner shadow as the previous step. Also for the color overlay use #21262f.

Step 8

Make the inner symbol layer visible. Then go to Layer>Layer Style>Gradient Overlay. Use #031532 for the darker color and #a4c2d6 for the lighter.

Step 9

Select Stroke and then use a gradient from light blue to white with 4 pixels for the size and inside for the position.

Step 10

Now it's time to add the shine effects. That is quite simple it's pretty much basic shapes masked. In this step just create 3 black ellipses and maske them so they will be visible only on top of the inner symbol

Step 11

Now add a new layer on top of the others and start painting some shadows using the Brush Tool (B) with black for the color. Note that this shadows only apply for the middle and outer symbols. Also note that some areas it the shadow gets blurry. You can do that by either using a soft brush or using the Blur Tool.

Step 12

Add a new layer and group it into a folder. Change the Blend Mode of the folder to Color Dodge. Select the layer and then with the Brush Tool and white for the color paint some highlights (1-5)

Step 13

Add some new hightlights if necessary, in this case I highlighted the bottom part of the arrow (1-2).

Step 14

Add the text you want using the Text Tool (T) and then using layer styles apply a linear gradient like the image below.

Conclusion

Select all layers and duplicated them, them merge all the layers into one. Go to Fitler>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 10 for the radius. Change the Blend Mode to Overlay at 50%. Duplicate this layer and change the Blend Mode to Screen. The last thing here is to duplicate all the layers again and merge them into one so you can add some noise to the image.

The design is quite simple as you can see and this was just an exercise. There's still quite a few fine tunes to be made, especially the contours. But now it's up to you.

Download the Photoshop file

Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. You can get in follow us via Twitter at @abduzeedo

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Sweet Cookies Typography in Pixelmator

abduzeedo — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:24:52 +0000

Playing with text is one of the coolest things to exercise your skills with any software, at least in my opinion. You can try to make fire with the word fire or water effects with the word water. In my case today I will show you how to create a sweet cookie effect using Pixelmator.

In this tutorial we will show you how to create a nice text effect using basic filters and some stock images. The result is really good for the amount of time required to achieve it.

Step 1

Open Pixelmator and create a new document. I am using 1920x1200 pixels for the size. The background is white. After that select the Type Tool (T) and type the word you want. I used "sweet" with Cooper Black for the font.

Step 2

Add a new layer and then with the Brush Tool (B) with black for the color select the clouds preset. Then start painting on the edges to make the word much less uniform. Once you finish the word ad a layer underneath and fill with it white using the Paint Bucket Tool (N). Duplicate these layers a few times and hide them for future use. Select the white layer, the text layer and layer with the brush effect and merge them. Layer>Merge Layers.

Step 3

Add a new layer and group it into a folder. After that holding Command, click on the thumb of the sweet word from the previous step to create a marquee selection. Select the folder and go to Layer>Add Layer Mask.

Step 4

Now let's use some cookies texture. The image I am using is from Bryan Solomon and it's called Three Peanut Butter Cookies Isolated on a White Background. The image is courtesy of Shutterstock.

Step 5

Add the images of the cookies inside the layer with the mask.

Step 6

Delete the areas where the cookies that overlap each other.

Step 7

Select the layer with the word "sweet" and the layer with the brush effects. Merge both and then go to Edit>Stroke. Use white for the color, 10 pixels for the width and Inside for the Position.

Step 8

Go to Image>Invert Color.

Step 9

Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 8 pixels for the Radius.

Step 10

Change the Blending to Soft Light. Duplicate the layer once again and hide it.

Step 11

Select the Eraser Tool (E) and start deleting the top and left sides of the visible layer from the previous step. The idea is create the shadows on the bottom and right only as if the lights are coming from the top left.

Step 12

Make the other layer visible and then go to Image>Invert Colors. Change the Blending to Overlay at 40%. Then with the Eraser Tool (E) delete the bottom right of the layer to create a highlight at the top left.

Step 12

Let's add a background to make the effect a bit more realistic. The image I am using is called Texture Series - Old aged antique parchment manuscript for background use. Reduce the opacity to 40%.

Conclusion

Using the same layer of the Step 2, make sure it's all in black and merged with a white background. Then move the layer so it will be underneath the cookies text. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use 4 pixels for the radius. Duplicate the layer and apply the blur again with 10 pixels for the radius. Change the Blending of both layers to Color Burn and move them down a little bit to create a really nice shadow effect.

Download the Pixelmator file

Click here to download the Pixelmator file used for this tutorial

About the author

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Create a Creamy Ice Cream Poster on Illustrator

marcos333 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:05:39 +0000

Hi everyone, before someone say it's winter on the north pole, I gotta say it's damn hot here in Brasil, so I though a tasty and frosty illustration would be a good exercise to do.

This is a step by step tutorial forwarding some of the previous tutorials. The idea is to incentive the idea of playing in Illustrator. It's a simple tutorial but it will deal with some pretty basic shapes, but a good knowledge of the softwares tool will make things quite easier for you, also if you are using a tablet for this tutorial. So, let's do it.

Step 1

First all did some warm ups and rough sketches to get the main idea of what I was going to do. The idea was to make a happy ice cream and a creamy type turning into a tongue at the end.

So, let's open Adobe Illustrator and make a new canvas with a A4 size.

Using the rectangle tool (M) make a light blue rectangle fitting all the canvas.

Using the pen tool (P) or the star tool you're going to create a triangle that will be the base of the ice cream. Use a beige as fill color and 5 pt. Oval dark brown stroke.

You should adjust the lower corners using the pencil tool (N).

I made some hard shadows one the bottom of the triangle using a hard gradient gradation of ellipses. Ok this was a bit hard to understand, what I mean was to use the ellipse tool (L) to create some ellipses over another with the darker on the center and the lighter on the border.

As every form can be decomposed on simple and basic shapes as triangles, squares and circles, the ice cream form is basically a couple of spheres.

Also added the little wave on the top using the pencil tool (N).

Well, you should make some adjustments using the direct selection tool (A) on the vector points so the circles look more organic.

Here's a trick: When trying to draw something melting, first draw the drop and fat part of it. Later just make the bridge using the pencil tool (N),but why would be better drawing this way? You know, most time I try to draw the drop at once it happens that it get's really flat without the sinuos curves that giver it a melting apperance.

Ok, now just select all the pink shapes of the ice cream and use the pathfinder option called Unite. Then just give it the same fat stroke (5 pt. Oval) that you used on the base.

Step 2

So, let's add some lighter pink inside, use the pen tool (P) for that task.

Draw a smple mouth silhouette using the previous tool.

Some wrinckles.

A red tongue (no strokes).

And some light pink inside this fill, let's also add some brightnesses.

Using the ellipse tool (L) I made this eye silhouettes, they're going to be useful later when we try to make some brightnesses on the eyes.

Let's not forget he's teeth, use the pen tool (P) to create this shape.

And add some grey shading on it.

Ok, so duplicate the white ellipse and turn it brown. Then make a triangle on the top using the pen tool (P), select both shapes and go to the pathfinder panel and choose the option called Minus Front.

Then just duplicate it.

Make some eyebrowns and a second filling inside of them.

Ok, now let's add some more brightnesses on the head, start with some on the eyes, then go to the drops and the rest of the head. Use pencil tool (N) for this task. Don't forget that the brightnesses shold be always inside the lighter pink area, as we're trying to make a hard gradation effect.

Step 3

Let's go back to the base (or should we call it body?). Anyway, don't forget to put the head on a separate layer and create a exclusive for the body. Let's first make some semi-circles bellow the head using brow and orange.

Use the pen tool (P) to make the orange shape inside the body, this will later give a feell of depth on it.

Use the previous tool to crete some hashing on the body, classic squares as we see on waffles and Vans shoes.

It's quite boring to do this, but yeah, you're going to make beige squares on each of these parts using the pen tool (P).

Later, using the Minus Front at the pathfinder panel, you're going to create some brow borders around the beige ones. This will take sometime, but as you finish you will get effect we're trying to reach.

Step 4

The arm it's pretty basic. first draw the silhouette using the pencil tool (N).

Let's draw part of the glove here.

Make a lighter brown fill inside the arm.

Using the pencil tool (N) I drawed the palm and the indicator finger.

The other two fingers closed.

And, of course, the toe.

Now let's add some details as wrinckles using the brush tool (B).

Then we need some shades on it, I decided to make pink shadows as it's more funky than just classic grey. Create them on the parts that would be darken using the pencil tool (N).

Now go to the transparency panel, select all shadows and choose the blending mode called Multiply.

Also give a little swing on it using some brushes.

Step 5

Let's skip to the type, I used the Val font, a really cool and fat typeface. You can grab it at Font Frabric.

So I wrote "Creamy!" and transformed the font in outlines, then used the same light pink fill of the ice crem on it.

Now go to Object > Offset Path and create a 0,4 path on the letters. After that select the letter and the offset path and group each of them (ctrl + G / command + G). This will avoid the letter to overlap each other.

Add that same stroke on it.

Now let's just add some glows around each letter using the pencil tol (N).

Ok, now let's do the tongue and unite it with the "!".

It's quite simple: draw the tongue shape then select the offset path from the "!" and use the pathfinder option called Unite.

Do the same thing with the light pink fill.

Add the main wrinckle of the tongue using the pen tool (P)

Now let's add some glows along the tongue.

Mkae a shadow suing the same light pink, go to the tranparency panel and use the blending mode called Multiply on it.

Step 6

Just added a coupe of triangles around the indicator finger.

I think that after doing all the previous steps, this part is going to be quite quick. First draw the dribble and the drops, use the pencil tool (N) for the dribble and the ellipse tool (L) for the drops.

Change it's opacity to 70% to give a more realistic definition.

Add some shades using a darker blue, use the Multiply blending mode on them later.

Then let's finally add some light blue as glows all over it.

Step 7

Final step guys, just a little type exercise. Using again the Val typeface I wrote "for sure".

Then as before I just outlined it, used a offset path with a darker color and added some glows along the type using the pencil tool (N).

The easiest way to create splashes like this is using the crystalizze tool, first make a ellipse then set the tool to work correctly and positionate it on the center of the sphere to create equally sharp borders.

Later I just duplicate the same shape to do a inner fill and a hard shadow.

Conclusion

I hope you guys got a better understood of aspects over vector illustration that a have not explored this way before. Even If you haven't followed the whole tutorial, I hope you learned some good tricks today.

Download the Adobe Illustrator File

Download the Adobe Illustrator file used for this tutorial

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Awesome Light Effect in Pixelmator

abduzeedo — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:28:23 +0000

Pixelmator is a really cool tool for image manipulations and editing. It is a really versatile tool for some photo manipulations and the new version of the tools, the 2.0 has a brand new text tool with more options. So I decided to create a light effect using Pixelmator.

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a really cool light effect playing with some photos and basic filters in Pixelmator. The effect is quite simple and it won't take you more than 30 minutes to achieve the same effect.

Step 1

Open Pixelmator and import an image of a light bulb. The one I am using is from Tischenko Irina and it's called Glowing lamp on black background. The image is courtesy of Shutterstock. Note: Make sure that the filament is in the first plane.

Step 2

With the Eraser Tool (E) delete the parts of the glass that are being reflected.

Step 3

With the Brush Tool (B) click ALT to select a color. Pick the ones closer to the filament but not the filament, we need the yellow behind it so we can hide the filament. Add a new layer and start painting to hide the filament. That are we will add our text.

Step 4

Add the text you want. I added the word Pixelmator using Edwardian Script with white for the color.

Step 5

Duplicate the text layer and then go to Layer>Convert into Pixels. After that go to Edit>Stroke. Use yellow for the color, 3 pixels for the width, Outside for the Position. Make sure that the Preserve Transparency is not selected.

Step 6

Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 4 for the Radius. After that add a new layer and fill it with black using the Paint Bucket Tool (N). Merge the blurry layer with the black layer, then change the Blending to Color Dodge.

Step 7

Duplicate the blurry layer from the previous step and go to Filter>Blur>Zoom Blur. Use the image below for reference. After the filter make sure that the Blending is Color Dodge and change the Opacity to 35%.

Step 8

Let's import some lens flare to make the effect more realistic and a bit cheesier :) The ones I am using can be found here and then desaturate the color and increase the contrast so you have something like the image below.

Step 9

Change the blending of the lens flares to screen. Note that I moved them to the connection of the word with the rest of the light bulb.

Step 10

Add a new layer on top of the others and go to Filter>Generator>Clouds. Make sure you have black and white for the color. Also go to Layer>Add Layer Mask. Apply the clouds filter in the layer mask too.

Step 11

Change the blending mode of the clouds layer to Soft Light at 60%.

Step 12

Select all layers and duplicate them. Merge all the duplicated icons into one and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 5 for the Radius. After that duplicate the layer. Select one layer and go to Image>Desaturate and change the Blending to Overlay at 50%. For the other layer, change the Blending to Screen at 50%.

Conclusion

After a few blending changes and some basic filters we have a nice light effect done. It works really well for wallpapers and you can apply the same technique for other ideas. Now it's up to you.

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Download the Pixelmator file used for this tutorial

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Easy Wax Seal in Illustrator and Photoshop

abduzeedo — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:41:12 +0000

A few weeks ago I was having my Maker's Mark and decided it was time to do the wax effect they have on their brand using Photoshop. After looking for some references I found some references and started creating a wax seal using Illustrator and Photoshop.

So in this tutorial we will create a Wax Seal effect using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The whole process is pretty much done using Layer Styles and won't take more than 45 minutes to be achieved.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and with the Ellipse Tool (L) create 3 circles.

Step 2

Using the Type on Path tool to use one of the circles to add a text following it. I added "Approved by Abduzeedo" and "Design-Inspiration-Tutorials". After that for the outer circle use the Warp Tool to distort the circle like the image below.

Step 3

Select the outer and the bigger inner circle and then using Pathfinder you subtract the center area to have just the melted wax area. Then copy that in Illustrator and paste in Photoshop in a new document.

Step 4

Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Ineer Shadow. Use Multiply for the Blend Mode, black for the color, 30% for the Opacity, 90º for the Angle, 20 pixels for the Distance, 0 for the Choke and 75 pixels for the size.

Step 5

Select Inner Glow. Use Overlay for the Blend Mode, 45% for the Opacity, White for the color, Center for the Edge, 1 for the Choke, 30 pixels for the Size and use the same contour as the image below.

Step 6

Select Bevel and Emboss. Use Inner Bevel for the Style, Smooth for the Technique, 150% for the Depth, Up for the Direction, 30 pixels for the Size, 10 pixels for the Soften, 90º for the Angle, 32º for the Altitutde. For the Highight Mode use Screen for the Blend Mode, white for the color at 65%. For the Shadow Mode use Color Burn for the Blend Mode with black for the color and 20% for the Opacity.

Step 7

For the color overlay use Burgundy for the color.

Step 5

This is the effect you will have after the first set of layer styles.

Step 6

Create a circle using the Ellipse Tool (U) add a circle underneath the wax effect we created in the previous step.

Step 7

Duplicate the circle and apply the same layer styles but let's edit a few styles.

Step 8

Here is a list of the layer styles for the circle that will be on top of the other layers. The idea is to make the circle less unifor as it was really made with wax.

Step 9

With the Eraser Tool (E) you can delete some parts of the circle as well. Again the idea is make it less uniform.

Step 10

Add another circle in the center of the wax effect.

Step 11

The layer styles will be pretty much the same but here is the screenshots of the new layer styles.

Step 12

This is the effect you will get after the layer styles.

Step 13

Copy the text from Illustrator and paste in Photoshop. Scale them to fit the design in Photoshop.

Step 14

Again the layer styles here are pretty much the same with a few adjustments in the Bevel and Emboss and Inner Shadow values.

Step 15

The text with the layer styles will look something like the image below.

Step 16

Time to add the Abduzeedo Symbol.

Step 17

Here the layer styles again will have pretty much the same as the wax in the first steps howver the Bevel and Emboss will be completely different especially technique. We will use Chisel Hard.

Step 18

Here is the symbol with the Layer Styles.

Step 19

Select all layers and duplicate them, after that merge all the new duplicate layers. After that go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 10 px for the Radius.

Step 20

Import a sand texture and place on top of the other layers. Mask the sand texture using the wax shape.

Step 21

Change the Blend Mode of the Sand texture to Overlay. Make sure your texture is in grey scale, otherwise go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate.

Step 22

Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue and Saturation. Reduce the Saturation to -20.

Step 23

Now just place a paper texture in the background. The one I am using is from Polina Katritch and it's called old paper background. The image is courtesy of Shutterstock.

Conclusion

This is another one of those effects that can always be tweaked and improved. I had an amazing time playing with this and I am sure you can improve upon it by adding your style. Now it's up to you.

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Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial

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Super Easy Vintage Look to Photos in Pixelmator

abduzeedo — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:49:47 +0000

Vintage looking photography is super trendy especially with so many apps for Android and iPhone, apps like Instagram, Hipstmatic and so on. The vintage look is cool and easy to create in Pixelmator especially light leaks. That's why I decided to give it a try.

In this tutorial I will show you how to add a super cool vintage look to your photos in Pixelmator 2.0. The tutorial is very simple, it has 10 steps only and I'm sure you will have a lot of fun playing around with your photos.

Step 1

Open the photo you want to apply the vintage look in Pixelmator. The one I'm using is from ssuaphotos called beauty young woman blowing soap bubbles in summer day and you can find it here: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-57812896/stock-photo-beauty-young-woman-...

Step 2

Duplicate the layer of the photo and go to Image>Colorize. Reduce the Saturation to 25 and keep the Lightness at 0.

Step 3

With the layer you just applied the Colorized adjustment selected go to Layer>Add Layer Mask. After that with the Brush Tool (B) and a very soft brush with grey for the color start painting on the mask over the soap bubble and her face in order to hide that part of the layer. The idea is to let her face and the soap bubble in color while the rest in that sort of sepia tone.

Step 4

Add a new layer and the with the Paint Bucket Tool (N) fill it with black. After that with the Brush Tool (B) and white for the color start painting on the center of the layer. Use the image below for reference, also if you want you can apply a Gaussian Blur to make it more subtle.

Step 5

Change the Blending of the layer to Multiply at 30% in order to create a vignette effect.

Step 6

Add a layer on top of the others and with the Paint Bucket Tool (N) fill it with black, after that with the Brush Tool (B) and red for the color paint some spots that you want to create a light leak effect. Once you have the red spots, still with the Brush Tool, select yellow for the color and then paint some smaller yellow spots over the red ones. Use the image below for reference.

Tip: Use the motion blur with 90º angle to make the effect more realistic.

Step 7

Change the Blending to Screen to create a really nice light leak effect.

Step 8

Repeat the same thing to create the flares effect over her shoulder.

Step 9

Select all layers and duplicate them, after that, with all the duplicated copies selected go to Layer>Merge Layers. You will have one layer with all the effects merged. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 10 for the Radius.

Step 10

Duplicate this layer once, you will have 2 blurry layers. With the one on top change the Blending to Screen at 50% and the one that is beneath, use Soft Light at 50%.

Layers Order

Conclusion

You can add an old paper texture like a did in the final result, I'm using an texture from Shutterstock which you can find it here. For the Blending I used Multiply at 20%. Notice in the previous step that the light leaks layers are on top of the others, even though we have the merged layers. That's because I wanted to increase the strength of the light effect. Now it's up to you trying it with your own images.

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Create a Skateboard Illustration with Mixed Medias

marcos333 — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:02:14 +0000

As most kids born in the 90s I was very influenced by skateboarding and was a "skater" myself. I always loved skateboard art and I remember going with my friends to skate shops to see the shapes from brands like Santa Cruz, Flip, Powell Peralta and others. I must admit that this art had a huge influence on my work and here's just a little tutorial in tribute to that.

If you're not really into skateboard art, I would suggest you to take a look at Jim Phillips artworks, he's like the father of skateboard art. Besides Jim, you should also check guy like Billy Argel, Gunsho, Pablo Etchepare and Diego Medina, whose work is intricately linked with the skateboard culture.

Ok, enough talking, so what are we going to do today? Quite simple: A "Cool" in melting green-ish letters, old school style.

Warm ups

Let's begin with some warm ups, as you may already know, pointilism can be really tiresome and messy, so let's make some simple exercises. Make a circle, a triangle and a square, start filling it with dots doing the following movements: circular for the ellipse, triangular for the triangle and side to side for square. That way you will be warming up your wrist and also testing your dot control, try it at least two to three times If you never tried this technique before. Do it slowly and don't put too much pressure or you may get your wrist injured because of the repetition. This technique will be used on the following in order to give some depth on the letters.

You probably already know hard gradients are, nowadays they are mostly used on vector art and t-shirt art, as some printing methods require few colors. If you've never used before, try this simple exercise: make a three color gradation, like the blue one I did, then try drawing some forms with the darker color, make a reflex with the medium color and a little reflex with the brighter. As you can see, from a certain distance your eye will assimilate a gradient. Try as many forms as you want, then make patterns to see the effect they have on the illustrations. This technique will help later on giving depth to the letters.

Line work

I wanted a traditional melting effect, with drops and everything on the type formation. I haven't done sketch with graphite, but I would suggest you to try it before using a technical drawing pen. A good way to make sure the type will be legible is to draw it first with graphite as a bubble form and then make the drops inside of it. Notice that you should vary the size of the drops or it will look flat and boring...just saying.

Stroke

Varying the size of the stroke is a very important technique in skateboard art. Perhaps this is a characteristic inherited from comic books and from the early works that were mostly done using brush not pencils so the variance was quite normal thing. Anyway, after I did the line work, I started tracing the paths inside each bubble to make a heavier stroke on the middle and thinner on the extremities.

Stroke Fill

Yep, here's the tiresome part: after tracing the stroke you should fill it with black ink.

Dot shading

Ok, I hope you remember the previous exercises because we're going to apply it here. In order to make the dot shading correctly, first make circles around the bubbles and fill them using a circular movement, just as we practiced before.

This will take some good amount of time, but the result is quite neat.

Final Result

Now I have all the three letters to write "Cool". When it comes to digitizing images, most people rather use scanners, but as in this case it was only a BW artwork, I though it would be quicker and easier to just photograph them using a professional camera. But, anyway please fell free to use the method you want to.

Cleaning

Having the images on the computer the first thing I've done was to open them on photoshop and adjust their levels in order to clean the white and get a heavier black. Then, just simply cut the letter using the lasso tool (L), the pen tool (P) or using masks, the method you feel more secure.

Make a new layer with only the type selection (ctrl + J / command + J), then make a white background on layer bellow.

Adding hard gradients

It's time to apply the hard gradients, first I filled the whole letter with dark green.

As a rule, the flat parts without and with less dots were filled with bright green, notice that it gave a border effect on the bubbles.

And also filled inside of them a bit, as you can see they start to pop and give depth.

Following my previous instructions on hard gradient, I added white inside of the bright green on each bubble.

I must say doing this is less tiresome than the dot filling and the final result with a black background got really slick.

Mockup

As it was about skateboard art we cannot forget to make a mockup of the final illustration, so I found this really cool mockup at Freebie Pixels. You can download the PSD and replace it with the final result. Hope you guys learned something from this and had fun, see ya.

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Captain America Shield in Pixelmator

abduzeedo — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:00:34 +0000

It is been a while since the last time we published a Pixelmator tutorial and now with Pixelmator 2.0 out there and App of the Year we decided to show more love to this really cool tool. We will be creating weekly Pixelmators tutorial here on Abduzeedo alongside with our Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks tutorials.

So in this tutorial we will show you how to create the Captain America Shield using Pixelmator only. The process is quite simple and won't take you more than 30 minutes.

Step 1

Open Pixelmator and create a new document. I am using 2560x1440 pixels for the size. After that with the Gradient Tool (G) fill the background with the default black/grey radial gradient.

Step 3

Pixelmator 2.0 has some amazing new features like vector shapes. So select the Ellipse Tool and create a circle. After that go to Shape Settings and change the fill color to red (#d51a37).

Step 4

In the shape Settings options you can now add shadow as well. So mark the Shadow option and use Black for the color, 90º Angle, 10px Offset and 30px Blur.

Step 5

Add 3 more circles. A light grey, another red and a blue. After that add a Star like te image below. Note that I added shadow to the internal circles as well, however I used 5px for the Offset and 2px for the blur. Another important thing you can do is duplicate the circles and change their colors to white and move them 2px up and make sure that they are underneath the original ones. The idea here is to create a highlight.

Another important thing is to make all the circles clipping masks of the bigger circle.

Step 6

Add a new layer and also go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask. Fill this new layer with white using the Paint Bucket Tool (N). After that make sure you have black and white for the background and foreground color. Then go to Filter>Style>Noise. Use 30% for the Amount and select Monochrome.

Step 7

Now go to Filter>Distort>Twirl. Use 500 px for the Radius and 720º Angle.

Step 8

Repeat that 6 times to make the effect stronger.

Step 9

Change the Blending to Multiply. After that duplicate the layer to make the effect stronger again.

Step 10

Select the Gradient Tool (G) and then create a new gradient preset. Use Angle for the type and then use white, black, white, black and white. Add a new layer and again make it a clipping mask. Fill the layer with the new gradient like the image below.

Step 11

Change the Blending to Multiply at 60%, after that duplicate it and change the blending of the new one to Hard Light at 60%.

Step 12

Now let's make the effect more real by applying some textures. The one I am using is from maxstockphoto and it's called Metal plate background texture. Courtesy of Shutterstock.

Step 13

Change the blending to Overlay at 30%. After that go again to Filter>Distort>Twirl. Use the same presets of the Step 7.

Step 14

Duplicate the layer again and change the blending to Color Burn at 33%.

Conclusion

Now just add some texture on the background as well. The one I used is from Kompaniets Taras and it's called seamless silver metal texture with empty place for your text or image.

As you can see the process was very straightforward and Pixelmator with its new tools make it easier to play with basic shapes like circles, rectangles, stars and so on. This effect can be used to create nice UI buttons as well. But now it's up to you.

Download Pixelmator File

Download the Pixelmator file used for this tutorial

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Realistic Letterpress Effect in Photoshop

abduzeedo — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:45:07 +0000

For the first tutorial of 2012 we wanted to have a really good one and the most important thing a very easy one because our goal for this new year is to provide good tutorials with simple techniques that achieve great outcomes. In this first case we will explore ways to create letterpress effect using Photoshop only.

So in this tutorial we will show you how to create a super easy and realistic letterpress effect using Layer Styles in Photoshop. The process is super simple and I am sure that you won't take more than 45 minutes to achieve the same result.

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document. I am using 2560x1600 pixels for my so I can use this design as wallpaper. After that make sure you have a black background.

The secret to create a cool letterpress effect is to use different typefaces, sizes and styles next to one another. As you can see on the image below I started with the number 2012 and then add rectangles underneath each number. Adjust the rectangles depending on the typefaces. Try to make them slightly irregular in terms of alignment.

Step 2

Select one of the rectangles and go to Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow. Use black for the color, multiply for the Blend Mode, 120 for the Angle, 5 pixels for the Distance and 18 pixels for the Size.

Step 3

Select Bevel and Emboss now and then use Inner Bevel for the Style. Chisel Hard for the Technique, 1000 for the Depth, 2 for the Size, 90º for the Angle, 5º for the Altitude, White at 58% Opacity for the Highlight Mode with Color Dodge and black at 75% Opacity for the Shadow Mode using Darker Color.

Step 4

Select Color Overlay and then use Soft Light for the Blend Mode with a dark grey for the color. Here is the trick. For each rectangle use a different shade of grey so they won't look the same.

Step 5

Select Pattern Overlay. Now it's a very important part. We need to have convincing texture to give a realistic look to our design. The texture I use is by Supertrooper called The surface of the old metal, visible rust. Courtesy of Shutterstock. So open this texture in Photoshop and go to Edit>Define Pattern. Then back to our design work, go back to the Pattern Overlay and click on the Pattern option. Select the one we just created from the photo. Change the Scale to 50%. This value will vary depending on the size of your pattern

Step 6

Here is the rectangle effect with the layer styles. Now let's work on the types.

Step 7

Select the number 2 and go to Layer>Layer Styles>Drop Shadow. Use black for the Color withe Color Burn for the Blend Mode at 25%. For the Angle use 90º with 5 pixes for the Distance, 0 for the Spread and 5 pixels for the Size.

Step 8

Select Bevel and Emboss. Use Emboss for the Style, Chisel Hard for the Technique, 625% for the Depth, Up for the Direction, 3 pixels for the Size, 0 for the Soften. Also use 90º for the Angle, 50º for Altitude. Then change the Gloss Contour using the one like I am using in the image below. For the Highlight Mode use Screen with white at 40% Opacity. For the Shadow Mode use Darker Color with black at 74% Opacity.

Step 9

For the pattern here let's use another texture. This one is by maxstockphoto and it's called Metal plate background texture. Courtesy by Shutterstock.

Step 10

Here is the final result of the text effect with layer styles.

Step 11

Repeat the same steps for the other numbers.

Step 12

To make it a bit more realistic and old let's use some dirty brushes to destroy a bit of the rectangles. Select the rectangle and then go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. Then with the Brush Tool (B) and a grunge brush start paiting on the edges with black for the color. Use the image below for reference

Step 13

Here is how the effect will look like after apply the mask on the other rectangles.

Step 14

Repeat the same thing to add more words to your design. In my case I added Happy New Year 2012 and the Abduzeedo Symbol.

Step 15

Change the background layer to a radial gradient with a dark grey in the center.

Step 16

Copy the metal texture we used for the text and then paste right on top of the background layer. After that change the Blend Mode of the metal texture to Multiply.

Conclusion

You can select all layers and then duplicate them. After that merge all the new layers into a new one and apply a Gaussian Blur with 5 pixels for the Radius. Then just change the Blend Mode to Overlay at 70% Opacity. Duplicate the layer and change the Blend Mode to Screen at 40% opacity.

That is it! As I mentioned in the beginning of the tutorial, it's a very easy and straightforward technique but the result is quite nice. Now it's up to you to try it with different textures and colors. I would love to see some versions with white background as well.

Download Photoshop File

Click here to Download the Photoshop File used for this tutorial

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Create Sonic The Hedgehog Opening on Illustrator

marcos333 — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 06:05:41 +0000

The other day while I was cleaning up some stuff in my bedroom I've found my Sega Genesis - Mega Drive in Brazil, one of the first 16 bit consoles released in the 90s. I remember most of my friends were more into Mario Bros because they had a SuperNES. I played Mario Bros years later, but at that time my eyes were focused only on playing frenetically Sonic The Hedgehog almost everyday.

So, continuing our "nostalgic tutorials" series this one will be about this classic game opening, sure this will probably give you some really good memories so let's do it. Just a warning before we can proceed: this is an more advanced and step forward tutorial, so a previous knowledge of the software and the character will be really helpful. Also, this can all be solved with a mouse, althought using a tablet will make it way more fast.

Tunnel

I kind of don't know If that's a tunnel or a giant ring on the opening titles, anyway the first thing you should do after creating a new document on illustrator is to create a perfect circle using the ellipse tool (L) + shift. You're actually going to create four of them, use a white fill to understand which is under and which is bellow.

So I added a blue metallic linear gradient on two of them, a more intricate golden gradient on one of the circles and a black fill on the circle on the front in order to symbolize the hole.

I also wanted a hard shading on the golden circle, so I just created a white circle, selected the soft light blending mode, pulled it a bit to the right downward diagonal and made a clipping mask (ctrl + 7 / command + 7) with a duplicated golden circle.

Let's add some stars, first click on the start tool to create specifi star with the parameters bellow.

Make another one inside of it. Then add some blue gradients, use a stronger on the one inside and a softer on the outside.

I also added a drop shadow on each of them to look more funky.

Then duplicated it and alligned like the picture bellow.

Here's the first we're going to use for the SEGA logo, you can get it here

So, after I wrote SEGA I turned the font into outlines (ctrl + shift + O / command + shift + O) and added the same blue gradient used on the circles.

Ok, now go to Object > Path > Offset Path and set the parameters like this. Use a white fill on the new path.

Wings

Never quite get why there's wing on theis opening, anyway I just draw then using the pen tool (P). Then add a grey radial gradient on it. I also used the same offset path here, so you can pretty much repeat the procedure.

Don't forget to duplicate and flip it to the other side (just right click and go to Transform > Reflect).

Ribbon

Using the pen tool (P) I made this shape with a little hook shape on the end, this will be like a folding of the ribbon. On the sequence I just made the extremity using the previous tool.

I added some red linear gradient, just watch for the gradient directions, they will help to enhance and give depth to the image.

To make a the white shapes, I basically duplicated the red ones and adjusted it using the selction tool (V) and the direct selection tool (A)

I also added a shadow by creating this shape right on the ribbon folding then selecting the blending mode called multiply.

Ok, then just duplicate it and flip it to the other side. I also added the stars used on the circle, but on a larger size.

For the main title first I wrote "The Hedgehog" using Hevletica (you can use Arial with you prefer), turned it to outlines and used offset path on it.

You can get the next font that we're going to use on the Sonic type here.

I outlined the type and added a mettalic intrincate gradient.

Ok, then access Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel, set the parameters like the ones bellow.

Now that we just finished this part, let's add a black background by creating a big black rectangle using the rectangle tool (M).

I decided to add some shiny stars so I clicked on the star tool and configurate it to make some thin 4 points stars. I also added some golden gradient on them.

Sonic

Ok, here's the most anticipated and also the toughiest part of the tutorial: drawing Sonic. Before trying to draw this character on the final pose, I made some several studies of it and it's body structure and movements, Sonic is one of these classic big-head cartoon characters, the hardest part to understand it's how you will place the eyes. So, I would suggest you guys to try some sketching looking to some original images, it's good to understand the logic behind some characters, that's enhance you graphic repertory.

So, after a lot tests adn studies, I tried to make the classic Sonic pose and laced it on the Ai file on the bottom to help you guys. As you can see I divided the character in a lot o ellipses, this is way of showing the body struture, where are the main parts and the joints.

After putting it on illustrator, I started tracing over the most simple shapes, mostly ellipses,like the ones in the eye, head and body.

With some help of the pen tool (P) I traced the rest of the body, I know this may not make much sense right now, but this is the best way to vectorize a character with less effort.

Ok guys so right now here's a great test for you, as I know our readers are really good this should be piece of cake: using the pathfinder tool called Unite, you should wisely unite some of the traced part in order to get this vector Sonic. Don't worry, this is just a test, If you don't feel confortable on trying, there's a ready vector version on the downloadable file.

After we got it all vectorized, let's add some flat colors, I like to do that before adding gradients and shadows as it's better to preview how we should add light and shadow on the image.

I started with the eye, adding some grey radial gradient, then added some grey gradient on the nose and on the eyes.

I decided to substiture the beige for a hotter color as a orange gradient, just watch for the gradient directions and formats (linear and radial).

The glove it's a bit intricate, so here's a tep by step on the gradient directions, watch it carefully.

Finally I added some blue radial gradient on the top of him and posicionate him on the scenario, right behing the ribbon.

Final Result

Although the tutorial was really step forward, I hope you guys got a better understanding on character design, as this will always be a really tough part when doing a illustration. Studying movements, faces, gestures it's wuite important for any illustrator. Hope you guys enjoyed this lesson.

Download the Illustrator File

Click here to download the Illustrator file used for this tutorial.

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Abduzeedo 5 Years - 5 Lessons Learned

abduzeedo — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:47:57 +0000

This month Abduzeedo celebrates our 5th anniversary. It’s been an incredible journey, starting after a terribly demotivating robbery that ended up being the best thing to happen to us. Nothing could be worse, but as the art of war says: when you cannot go back the only thing you can do is to move forward. And that is what we did.

During these five years we’ve posted tutorials, inspiration, wallpaper, and interviews. We learned a lot through sharing, and that in turn made us better in our professions and we hope in yours too.

“By changing nothing, nothing changes.” -Tony Robbins

So in this post, instead of a design tutorial we will share five things we learned during these five years.

1- Admire Designers

We believe that the best thing to evolve is to find, admire, and learn from designers. It’s really important to have idols because they help us to try hard in order to reach their level. They push us to overcome our own limits. So instead of envy or getting frustrated because you’re not at the same level, use that as a great motivator and a path to follow. We always admired designers and digital artists such as James White, Chuck Anderson, Scott Hansen, Eduardo Recife, and many others.

2 - Take risks, embrace change

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” -Karen Lamb

Most of the time we over-think things and end up doing nothing. With us it was the same, we were running Zee in Brazil and our business was doing fine and that sort of made us afraid of taking some risks and trying new things. After we lost everything we kept doing our job, but it made us less worried about risks and we tried more things like starting Abduzeedo and other web services. Some worked out, some didn’t, but we had an incredible time in terms of evolution in our careers.

Traveling and working away was also something we started doing. I started spending 3 months in the USA working on Abduzeedo and Zee miles away from Brazil. That also created new opportunities to meet new designers and learn a new culture.

3 - Don’t be afraid of criticism

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching” - William W. Purkey

With the Internet we all have our own voice, we can always express our opinions and thoughts. However it’s common and easier to criticize as well. People asked me why I didn't have a blog back in 2006 and my answer was always the same: Who wants to read what I say? What will I say? How will I deal with the critics? We were always afraid about what others would say about our work. When we started Abduzeedo our situation made us stop thinking about that. We also decided to write in English and not our native language.

Don’t let other people slow down your goals. Criticism is always good but learn how to take only what really matters. Don’t let bad words affect you, make them a motivator.

Our first tutorial, December 2006.

4 - Share what you learn

Sharing what we do and learn has been our mantra. It was the second most important thing we’ve learned and we have been doing that since. When you share your knowledge it’s like killing two birds with one stone because it helps you to promote yourself or your business through teaching and helping people. As Dan Ariely says in his book Predictably Irrational, when you give something to someone that is not money you enter in the social mode and that creates a much stronger bond with your audience.

5 - Do what you love

We know, it’s as cheesy as it sounds but you can always follow your dreams and do what you love. As Gary Vaynerchuk says we live in the Thank You Economy. We have free tools to do anything we want to promote our work and create our audience. It depends only on us and nobody else. Of course it requires a lot of hard work and persistence, but in the end there’s nothing like waking up on a Monday morning and knowing that you will have great things to do.

“As soon as anyone starts telling you to be “realistic,” cross that person off your invitation list.” –John Eliot

We also have great examples of people that changed their games by doing what they like and have been doing great. Guys like the Envato founders Collis and Cyan Ta'eed, James White and the amazing SignalNoise, Scott Hansen, Shelby White with Designspiration, and our editor Francois Hoang with Montreal Meets.

Abduzeedo 5th Anniversary Poster by Alex Beltechi

These are just five things we’ve learned, but they are without a doubt the most important ones. We share these ideas pretty much all the time, but we think it’s worth repeating.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and an amazing 2012.

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Reader Tutorial: Wrestlerish Album Artwork by Chris Valentine

abduzeedo — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:32:44 +0000

This is a short case study on the album artwork I did for the South African band, Wrestlerish. There were at least 8 different illustrations for this album, so I've decided to focus on the portraits which I combined for the poster design and booklet.Apologies for the low res process pics, but I only had access to my phone during the drawing process.

Step 1

My first step when drawing portraits is to make sure all of the elements of the face are accurately positioned. I first block in the rough shape of the head, and then go in and add in rough positional marks for the nose, eyes, ears etc. I always work very closely from my photograph at this point and use my pencil to measure spaces and convert to the page accordingly. I use a Faber Castelle 0.5mm mechanical pencil with corresponding 2B lead and a putty eraser.

Step 2

I now begin fleshing out some of the details. Once I am 100% sure that the landmarks of the face are accurate, I can start detailing without worrying too much about likeness. I carefully analyse each element of the photograph & try to reproduce exactly what I see onto my drawing. This takes a lot of practice, but with time you start relating value in the photograph to different pressure levels with the pencil and it becomes easier to get your drawing true to the photograph.

Step 3

In this step I started with the beard. This was the most painful part of the drawing as it involved hundreds of tiny little pencil marks with different areas of light and dark. Always remember, the devil is in the details. I try to pick out the dark and light areas of the beard and shade accordingly, using tightly packed strokes for the dark areas and more sparse pencil marks for the light bits.

Step 4

Step 4 is essentially the polishing phase where I add in final details and make sure I've got the likeness right. If it doesn't look like the guy by now it's a bit of a problem; so always try and leave your dark shading until you're sure you have the likeness correct! This step is all about adding the finishing details and highlighting the smaller features of a person's face that aren't immediately noticeable.

Step 5

As you can see in the image, I like to work on A4 (29.7cm x 21.0cm) paper, normally 200GSM as it's heavy enough to handle acrylic inks without warping. I always use masking tape to attach the page to a hard board working surface to press on. Once I have finished my drawing, I scan it in at 600DPI and bring it into Photoshop.

Step 6

This is how a drawing typically ends up looking once it's ready to be integrated into my digital piece. I will normally drag the scan into a new document (with a size relative to the job description), and I'll use the levels adjustment layer to bring the darks out and improve the general contrast. I'll also go around the piece with a soft eraser and remove any marks I may have left on the page. It's also important to note that I set the layer's blending mode to 'Multiply'. This removes the white from the layer and leaves your pencil marks so you can work underneath them. Blending modes can be found in the dropdown menu above your layers palette which will say 'Normal' if you haven't changed it yet.

Conclusion

Once I had done this for each of the band members, I brought them all together into one huge canvas and messed around with various paint splatters and watercolor scans, as well as the cover artwork of the Johannesburg skyline. I would love to answer any questions you may have, so feel free to get in contact.

For more information about Chris Valentine visit his site at http://valentinedesign.co.za and follow his Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/christhecook

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Create a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Parody on Illustrator

marcos333 — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:48:36 +0000

Hi guys, as often I do , today I am going to demonstrate another of my parodies around some famous cartoon character. As we were into a nostalgic vibe lately, I thought that the TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) would be something fun to do. And so I decided to make a baby version of it, with a baby Donatello and a grandpa Master Splinter, not on a high detailed type of illustration, but on a more cartoonish way.

I also tried a fun effect with the title type so it could look like kids blocks, besides that I must admit this is a more step forward tutorial, so If you got some better understanding not only on the software, but also on drawing techniques. It will be way easier to solve it. Anyway, hope you guys have fun and remember that this is all about sharing knowledge and tips, If you learn anything from this I will be really thankful to you because that's our goal.

Sketching

One of the best drawing exercises anyone can do it's to draw famous characters, why? Because learning types form other pencilers and illustrators will increase you visual repertory, that means not just your techniques will improve but also your creative insights will be improved also. Before getting to the final idea, I decided to explore a bit the turtles character, as their body structure is a bit unusual from a classic human form used on most comics.

Well, after some hours I got this insight of making some kind of joke around the change from "Teenage" to "Baby" on the title. So my idea was to make the classic lettering on the top, although I thought about not using the classic green "turtles" logo and replace it by a kids block type would be way more interesting. So, now we can open Adobe Illustrator, on the downloadable original file on the bottom of this post we inserted the sketch so you guys could use it as a guide.

Title

Let's first make the classic headline, draw a rectangle using the rectangle tool (M)

Use the direct selection tool (A) to pull one of the vector points.

Ok, now duplicate it and flip it horizontally to the other side.

Select both parts and use the pathfinder option called Unite.

Duplicate it again, this time use a red fill on it and place it in front of the black one so it will looks like a hard shadow.

I decided to write "Baby Mutant Ninja" using the font called Headline, you can grab it here. Ok, so let's proceed to the "Turtles" type, first I select a more childish type face, Cooper it's a really good option in this case, please don't you dare to use Comic Sans!

So we're going to writes "turtles" and than make some outlines on it (command + shift + O / ctrl + shift + O). Than let's create some rectangles with light colors using a internal stroke and set it as the image bellow, first go to the strokes panel and set it on the align stroke option. Some will say that it would be better to just do two rectangles, but I just think this is a lazy way to do the same thing.

Anyway, get the letters and put then inside the squares using the same fill, then drag and drop then on the symbols panel. Name them so they can turn into a symbol.

Now create another square using one of the light colors, go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel > Map Art.

On the Map Art panel you can set the position and size of the image that will be displayed on the cube. Use the preview to make things easier.

Repeat this with all the letters and try to display then randomly.

Let's add some shadows, first create a ellipse using the ellipse tool (L), then go to the gradients panel and generate a fading radial black gradient, make sure one of the extremities it's invisible (0% opacity). Also use the Multiply bleeding mode on the opacity panel.

Ok, now put them bellow the cubes.

Donatello

Let's start with head, first make a circle then adjust it (use the direct selection tool (A) for that) and create a extra vector point on it (use the pen tool (P) for that).

If you're following my tutorials form a long time you already know I'm addicted for this brush: 5 pt. Oval. Go to the brushes panel and select it.

Draw the mask using the pencil tool (N). Then use the ellipse tool (L) to make the node and then use the pen tool (P)
to make the ties.

I'm also addicted to wrinkles and so I decided to add some here and there, not too many of course.

Make a ellipse and adjust it using direct selection tool (A) and the pencil tool (N) to make the mouth.

Make the tongue using the pen tool (P) and use the mouth contrast to make the outline.

I love hard and plastic eyes, they look so bright and happy, hard to find a better way to make you character look happy without this childish element. it's quite simple: make a big black circle and tow white circles inside of it.

The rest o the body it's really simple, you're going to make a big ellipse, adjust it and make a muscle division using the pen tool (P). Okay, this was the belly, then just duplicate the same shape, drag it a bit to the right, use a green fill and thick stroke. Do the same thing on the shell.

As a baby, our turtle should use a diapers, so make another circle and adjust it using direct selection tool (A) or the pencil tool (N).

Make a sort of belt over it using the pen tool (P) and make a circle on the middle, write the letter "D" on it.

You can make his legs by simply using ellipses and blending them together using the Unite tool on the pathfinder panel. Then just duplicate it, flip it to the other side and adjust it to the correct perspective.

The process behind the arm it's actually the same, just a bunch of ellipses arranged and blend together.

Don't forget to make this clamp on his arm, make first a ellipse then use the pencil tool (N) to create the wrinkles on each side. Use the brush tool (B) to make a wrinkle on the middle of it.

Ok now just duplicate the arm, send it to back and adjust the perspective. Now let's place our little buddy exactly were he was supposed to be on the original sketch.

Master Splinter

Master Splinter is actually a bit more boring to draw on this case, so If you're note good with the pen tool (P), you may get a bit dizzy on this part. So first I traced the robe with previous tool, then added the detail on the chest, I also draw the the tail.

I traced the head using the pen tool (P), I really like those bitten mouse ears so to get this I just inserted two circles over the ear, selected everything an used the minus front option on the pathfinder panel.

Just made a ellipse and used the brush tool (B) in order to make the division on the teeh.

I also used the pencil tool (N) to draw a simple earring on it.

You can copy and paste the eyes, since they are exactly the same, just adjust the volumes.

I decided to add this big thick eyebrow using the pen tool (P) on Splinter to give him a old and condolence look, that type of look your grandpa probably use/used to look at you.

The nose it's a adjusted eclipse and little white circle on the the extremity.

Using pen tool (P) I create the shape of the mouth, a wrinkle on the end of it to look like he's happy. Another wrinkle between the eyes to give depth and, of course, to create the whiskers.

I wanted him to have those old grandma hairstyle, pulled to the back with some hairpins on it. So first I made a ellipse, another ellipse and adjusted it with the pencil tool (N) to get that cracked look on the bottom.

Using the pen tool (P) I made some hachure to give some depth on the hair. After that I create this hairpins unsigned the previous tool and the ellipse tool (L). Fist I made then on the back, duplicate then and brought then to the front. As I wanted to give the impression they're indie the hair I just pick the copy I did and cut it using the pencil tool (N).

This part may seem a bit messy, but it's simpler than you may think. First make the sleeves holes using the ellipse tool (L). Then make the robe wrinkles using the pen tool (P).

I hate to say that, but there's not a shortcut for drawing both hands, but you can try to use ellipses as we did on the previous character, If you don't fell comfortable to use such tools as the pen tool or the pencil tool.

Some may say this is a cheap trick, but as we should always thinking about layers on a drawing, I really don't need to draw the whole hand in this case If I'm going to place the pizza in front of it.

In order to create the pizza shape I first draw a triangle using pen tool (P), then adjust the borders to look more round using the smooth tool. In order to look more fatty, I duplicated this shape and placed it below with a darker color, also created a border using the pencil tool (N). And of course, this is mozzarella pizza, so I draw some circles using the ellipse tool (L) to represent the meat pieces.

At last but not least, I create a classic comic balloon on the side of our little Donatello, okay guys we just finished it, hope you like d the process and tips.

The Final Result

Download the Illustrator File

Click here to download the Illustrator file used for this tutorial.

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Beginner Tutorial: Easy Clock Icon on Illustrator

marcos333 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:16:51 +0000

Hi everyone, today we're going to do a really simple exercise on creating this slick clock icon on Adobe Illustrator. If you're beginning in using this software, well this tutorial will be very suitable for you, so let's begin!

Just a little reminder: this is a beginner tutorial, even though some of you are really skilled with Adobe Illustrator, I would recommend to take the time to read this as you can get some insights and ideas out from this tutorial. Please comment If you have any questions, problems or doubts, have fun!

Step 1

Let's open Illustrator and make a 15 x 21 cm canvas. Using the ellipse tool (L) and make a ellipse on the center of the canvas.

Let's fill it with a radial beige gradient.

Then duplicate it using the selection tool + alt or by just pressing command + c / command + v (ctrl + c / ctrl + v). Enlarge it proportionally by holding shift + selection tool. Now apply a metallic linear gradient over it.

Make another ellipse using the same gradient, but this time change the gradient direction to give the sensation of depth.

Make a circle inside the beige one, adjust the stroke to about 90 pt or more, it need to cover the whole circle. Then access the strokes panel and set a dashed line with 9,3 pt of dash, then go to the transparency panel and choose the blending mode to Soft light.

Make a semi circle by using a circle and a square in the middle of it, select both and use the pathfinder option called Minus front, that must give you a semi circle. After that go to the gradient panel and make a white gradient with 0% of opacity on one of the sides. Then duplicate your semi circle and flip it to the other side.

Let's make some golden dots to indicate the hours. Use some golden radial gradient on it, duplicate and adjust the position by using the align panel.

Duplicate the first four and then make a rotation. Do it twice till you got the twelve hours of the clock on the desired position.

I decided to simplify and use a common serif font (Capitals), let's make a classic hard shadow effect. First make the number using a grey color. Then duplicate it and put a white color copy over it.

Step 2

Let's make another fading gradient, this time using black on one of the extremities. We're going to make this ellipse and fill it with this radial gradient.

Let's create other ellipse on the top of this shadow using the ellipse tool (L) , let's add a red radial gradient on it

The second arrow can be achieved by using the pen tool (P), just remember to create ellipse on the bottom of it and blend both using the pathfinder option called Unite.

Using the ellipse tool (L) make the minutes pointer, adjust the vector points using the direct selection tool (A). Add a grey gradient, adjust the darker area to be next to the ellipse, so it will look like a shadow.

Duplicate the previous shape, re-size it so it can fit inside the pointer and then add some golden gradient on it.

Duplicate the big pointer and send it to back. Use a dark grey fill on it then go to Effects > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 7,4 pixels.

Repeat the same procedures on the other pointer.

Step 3

Let's make the legs, first make a rectangle and rotate it a bit on the bottom of the clock, don't forget to send it to back.

Make another rectangle and adjust the two vector points of the bottom using the direct selection tool (A).

Make a ellipse on the extremity.

Add some grey metallic gradient on both three, make sure they're all in the same direction.

You can also add some shadows over it by making a rectangle with a black fading gradient and then using the blending mode called Multiply, quite easy.

Let's make a shadow bellow the clock, use the ellipse tool (L) to make a grey to white gradient.

Step 4

Let's make the bells, first make ellipse and add a gradient with the darkest part on the top.

Create a rounded rectangle, click on the icon to adjust the corner radius, set it to 1 cm.

Now make a rectangle crossing on the middle of it, then go to the pathfinder panel and choose the option called Minus front.

Adjust the remain piece and choose a metallic gradient to put over it.

Make a little rectangle on the top of the rounded shape an then a bigger rectangle over it. You should be pretty cautious while trying to create the gradient for the clock pin, so it should look like it has some sort of slots to adjust, so make a complex gradient.

Okay now we just need the ring breaker, this should be piece of cake. Using the pen tool (P), make a shape then just duplicate it and reflect to the other side.