Tutorials
I’ve been having some fun lately creating logo emblems in an abstract design style based on the house sigils from Game of Thrones. This particular style where a subject is simplified and replicated with just straight lines results in cool stylized graphics which make fantastic logo designs. In today’s Illustrator tutorial I’m going to share my process of creating this abstract illustration style to help you create geometric line art of your own.
I’m sure we’ve all drooled over those awesome low poly art images and wondered how on earth they are made. You know, the ones that are made up of hundreds of tiny geometric shapes which combine to form an abstract image. I recently discovered a fantastic tool that makes it super easy to create them, so today I’m going to share the secret and explain how you can create your own low-poly geometric artwork using this magical app with some help from Illustrator and Photoshop.
The classic illustration style used on money is something I’ve always wanted to figure out how to replicate in Photoshop. There’s plenty of Photoshop tutorials that show how to create a basic halftone line effect, but they never quite capture that authentic engraved look with plenty of shading and tone. After lots of trial and error I finally managed to figure it out, so here’s an in depth tutorial on how to create a realistic money illustration effect in Photoshop (with some help from Illustrator!).
All kinds of cool effects can be created in Illustrator by outlining text into a solid shape then making various permanent alterations, but what if you want to keep your text editable? In today’s Illustrator tutorial we’ll take a look at the Appearance Panel and see how it can be used to build up layers of non-destructive effects that can then be saved as Graphic Styles so the effect can be instantly applied to any elements with just one click.
Contour lines are used in Geography to create topographic maps that show the elevation of a landscape. The contour lines create a series of concentric shapes which—aside from their important role in mapping—look pretty cool! In today’s Illustrator tutorial I’ll show you how to make use of the Blend tool to create a series of contour line style shapes. This tutorial not only creates a great contour map effect, it might also open up ideas for all kinds of intricate background designs based on the same process.
One of the most satisfying uses of Adobe Illustrator is to transform your rough pencil sketches into colourful illustrations. It’s great to see your concepts come to life with crisp linework and bold colours, but sometimes the result can be a little disappointing when the vector art just doesn’t have the punch you had hoped for. Follow this step by step process to discover some of the simple techniques I’ve learnt that really help give your illustrations that pro look.
