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Quick tip: Make a Worm on Illustrator
Hi everyone, today I'm going to show you some quick tips on how to make a simple but effective vector illustration inspired on the classic video game, Worms. If you are from the 80's or 90's you probably heard of it or had the chance to play it, it is "the predecessor of Angry Birds" in the words of my mate Mike Austin. On this quick tip I will have a more tradicional illustration approach, focusing less on tools and more on drawing and logic, hope you guys appreciate it and show your version on the comments, have a good time. Sketch Sometime ago I thought that movement lines, geometric shapes and croquis were totally bullshit, but the thing is you can't make a proportional and equilibrated illustration without a appropriate sketch of it. So first I made a rough line of the movemment/pose I wanted. I opened Photoshop to draw the sketch, I divided the body in a circle that would be the head, neck, breast, belly and limbs (or sort of). This allows me to make a more proportional and equilibrated character. On the following I made a outline to have a better Idea of the silhoutte. Now I tried to place the main characteristics and expression of it. Erased the circles, now it's ready to "ink" using vectors. The Worm After placeing it on illustrator. the first thing I did was create its shadows by using the ellipse tool (L). Using the pen tool (P), I made a rough trace of the silhouette in beige. I added a loose stroke over it and as always I decided to expand it's appearance to make things easier when resizing and adjusting it to look more hand drawn. You can do this by accessing Object > Expand Appearance. Make a trace on the helmet using again the pen tool (P). Use the brush tool (B) to make the stroke on it. Draw the eyes using the pencil tool (N) or if you prefer do it using the pen tool (P). Same thing for the mouth hole. And the same fo the strip. Using the pencil tool (N) let's draw the two lines of teeth, leave a space on the borders of each one, as it was gnashing then in panic. Add a stroke on the strip fill then expand it's apperance as already showed above. Add some circles using the ellipse tool (L) to indicate the holes used to adjust the helmet. Add a stroke around each eye and expand their appearance too. In order to make the eyes, first make a circle using the ellipse tool, make another one and place on the corner of the previous one. Select both and now go to the pathfinder panel and choose the option called Minus Front. Place them inside the eyeballs. Using the pencil tool (N) create these random shapes over the helmet, use different green shades to look like camouflage. Select all them, make a trace around the helmet shape and then make a clipping mask (command + 7 / ctrl +7). Also draw some gray shapes on the border of the helmet, select them and choose the blending mode called Multiply, pretty simple. Uinsg the brush tool (B) I drawed the wrinckle on the cheek and the chin of the Worm. Using the pencil tool (N) I drew some shadows on the teeth, then made a clipping mask over it to fit in. Make the eyebrown by using the pen tool (P), add a white fill on it. I repeated the same technique of shading used on the teeth on teach eye, it's pretty simple, should no take much time of you. Let's add some shades on the body, I used a darker beige color for this. As you can see, I was very specific about the lightning, as it should make sense. So the eyes, chin and helmet generate shadow on it's body. Ok, the worm is done. The Dynamite Using the pen tool (P) draw this dynamite body. Using the ellipse tool (L) make the shadow of it. I traced the top of it to make a top, then added a darker red. Using the brush tool (B) you can draw the fuse. The sparkle can be drawn using the pen tool (P), then just copy it, rotate it, resize it and add a orange fill. Also added some lights on the right side using the pencil too; (N). Made the same on the left side to make the shadow, that's it, it's finished. Conclusion I hope you guys digged this tutorial and learned some quick tips on making simple illustration, but at the same time effective. Don't forget to share you results and doubts with us, see you next time. Download the Illustrator File Click here to download the Illustrator file used for this tutorial.
Hand-lettering typography by Jon Contino
In a era where most of the typography is digital made, hand-lettering can give a hell of a charming to a design. So it is the work of Jon Contino, some may call it retro, I just think it's quite stylish and remarkable. If you want to know more about Jon and his artworks, please access his Personal Website. As a New York native, Jon Contino has been under the influence of corporate mass marketing and inspirational street art since his first breath. Not surprisingly, he has garnered considerable attention for his unique approach to design utilizing hand-drawn lettering and typographic illustration in conjunction with a modern, yet minimalistic sensibility (Jon's Website).
Tips on taking your project from the paper to the wall
Sometime ago, before I got interested in street art and other tradicional medias, I was walking thru a street and stumbled with a graffiti artist painting a huge mural. I asked him how he could scale from such small drawing to a big wall like that, he said that this was due his experience and nothing more. Not satisfied with this simple answer, I found that after doing a few works on bigger scales I should share with you some tips on how transfer your artworks on bigger scales. So, basically what I'm going to teach today is couple of tips I learned from my own experience, I'm going to use a recent project so I can exemplify and justify all that I'm going to say. Also I would like to thanks Juliano Araujo for the awesome photo shoot he did of this project. The project I will present was done for a Night Club in Porto Alegre, Brasil. Always make a pre-project Some may wonder "Hey, I already did that drawing that I will scale, so what's more to do?" , well first of all you should think that there's a lot of factor that involve painting a wall. Before you start the drawing you should ALWAYS visit the place and take the measures of the wall and take a lot of photos. Why? Because you can make your drawing on the actual size or scale it on Illustrator or Photoshop, trust me this one of the best things If you want it to get as you imagined. Second thing: Having the illustration done, remember the photos you took when you visited the place? Well, take then to your computer, because it's time to make some simulations. However, feel free not to just make normal 2D simulations on Photoshop, you got to understand how the public will interact with that. So a good tip it's to make at least a simple 3D simulation, you can make some simple but yet effective simulations with applications like Google Sketch Up. This will give you a deeper understanding of the space and the visibility of the artwork, what is quite important If you're working indoor, like was my case. Make a good budget Everyone who worked with tradicional medias knows that is always necessary to make at least two budgets for a project: a materials budget and your invoice. I know nobody wants to work for free, but you can't work without your tools, so before anything you should think about how much ink you're going to use, brushes you will need and other stuff. One of the worst things that can happen to you is working hard on a project and suddenly you have to stop because theres not enough ink or other resource you may need. So always think on the materials first and calculate your invoice later. Photo by Juliano Araujo Measure everything Remeber when I said that you should measure the wall/place your going to paint and use the same measures in the project on Photoshop/illustrator? So, this will help you a lot when you're going to tranfer it, in my case I had to transfer the measures from centimeters to meters, the wall had 2,6 x 3,7 meters so on Illustrator I did the illustration with 26 x 37 centimeters. It may sound obvious, but you must get the measures of every element you can, having the measures and making a GRID, will make almost impossible to make big mistakes. Photo by Juliano Araujo Use a GRID I'm truly addict to GRID's , why? Because they make graphic arts more logic and organized. Even while I'm doing a illustration, I always make a simple GRID to at least divide it on a X and Y axis. So, my tip is to do it on the digital project, dividing the illustration in sectors, almost like puzzle pieces. And using masking tape, divide the wall trying to make the same sector division you created. Trust me, this will make it almost piece of cake to execute, regardless the detailment of the piece. Photo by Juliano Araujo Choose the right tools When dealing with offline medias you gotta understand what tools are better for each surface. Some walls are more flat and other are more texturized, you got to have it in mind when planning how to execute your illustration. Let me give you a example: I though I would do the outline of this piece with a 8k pen Uniball Posca, unfortunately what happened was that the pen didn't stick well over other paints and so I had to do it oldschool: using a brush and the ink from the spray cans to do the outline. So, whatever the tools you might plan to use, always have a plan B If things don't work out as they should. Photo by Juliano Araujo Trust on simple techniques Once during a workshop, a graffiti artist called Graphis taught us a really simple way to create perfect circles on a wall: Using a shoelace and a spray can on the other hand he made a "hand compass" by simply rotating his hand grabbing the shoelace. The truth is there a lot of ways to make circles, you can use stencils, do it freehand and other ways. However you should always try to simplify the execution, not because of a matter of time necessarily, but because of the materials and the final result. Sometimes, a drip or scratch here and there is what make it look real and handmade, so do it the way you want, just remember that it's a artwork, not a billboard. Photo by Juliano Araujo The Final Result So, I hope you learned a bit from my experience and if you want to see the whole process of this artwork, please watch the video bellow, he quite explains everything I told here. Lord of his own Kingdom from Marcos Torres on Vimeo. Photo by Juliano Araujo Photo by Juliano Araujo