Tutorials
I recently put together a little vintage style poster to let my friends know about a karting event I’m organising for my stag do. I know lots of my readers are also big fans of the retro style and I had loads of fun creating the design, so I thought I’d share the process as a tutorial to give an insight into the techniques used. We’ll use Photoshop to put together the poster layout with various textures and brushes, but also switch back and forth to Illustrator to create the typographic elements.
Follow this step by step Adobe Illustrator tutorial to create a vector illustration inspired by the classic tattoo art of Sailor Jerry. Our dagger and heart design will use clean black linework and perfectly formed shapes combined with vector textures to add an element of shading and appreciate the style of traditional tattoo art.
Some of the coolest designs can be created with the simplest of tools. In this tutorial we’ll create a cool abstract poster design using nothing more than a hexagon. With careful composition, an enticing colour scheme and a series of textures you can easily create a great looking design that would work perfectly as a poster, or even artwork for a book or album cover.
My special Christmas post might be a little late this year, but what better time to post a fun Christmas themed tutorial than on Christmas Eve? Follow this step by step Illustrator tutorial to create a repeating vector pattern. We’ll use Illustrator’s Blob brush to create simple vector doodles then place them together to create a repeating pattern, much like Christmas wrapping paper. If you’re seeing this after the holidays, don’t worry, the same technique can be applied to any kind of repeating pattern.
I love creating designs based on vintage Americana and being a bit of a hot rod and motorcycle fan the 50’s Greaser culture particularly captures my interest. I’ve been admiring logos, posters and t-shirt designs from the racer and custom scene and decided to have a go at designing my own t-shirt graphic based on an old school garage logo. Follow this step by step Illustrator tutorial to create a vintage logo and t-shirt design for Greaser Customs complete with distressed textures and aged effects.
In the past I always saved any texturing work for Photoshop, but recently I’ve been enjoying using vector textures to create cool distressed illustrations directly in Adobe Illustrator. Follow this step by step tutorial to build a textured vector revolver illustration. We’ll use some handy Pen curves to create the linework, fill in the shapes with LivePaint then use some vector textures to create a stylized final appearance.
