Location based software and peripherals are very popular these days. So, In this beginner/intermediate Illustrator tutorial, I will show you how to create a stylized GPS icon using simple shapes and gradients. Using these basic techniques, you can easily create other icons, logos, and illustrations.
Grant Friedman of Colorburned contacted me last week to create a Tweet This icon for the wonderful site redesign of Colorburned. In turn, Grant created an exclusive set of Illustrator multi-colored paint brushes for Vectips! Download the set and have some fun playing aroung with them. I also suggest checking all of Grant’s awesome brushes at Colorburned.
Lately, I have been working on some children illustrations, creating some über cute creatures. In the following easy tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a cute panda bear face icon all from ellipses (well, actually there is one rectangle for the background). The great part about this tutorial, is that you can easily apply the techniques to other icons, illustrations, logos, or other projects.
After reading Lensco’s comment “Cool tip, all we need now are gradients on strokes. Pretty please, Adobe?” on the previous tutorial Quick Tutorial: Adding Gradients to Text, I decided to write a quick tutorial about how I create gradient strokes. This super simple technique use the Appearance panel and effects to create editable gradient strokes in Illustrator.
I have been using a 6×8 Wacom Intuos3 for the past 4 months, and can’t live without it. It has become a important tool in my Illustrator work. Not only is it more natural using the Wacom compared to a mouse, Illustrator has some tool features you can only use with a pen tablet. With some tools you can set how the tool responds to the Pressure, Stylus Wheel, Tilt, Bearing, and Rotation of the pen. Continue reading
When creating the previous Create Sketchy-Style Vectors tutorial, I created a number of brushes. I started playing around with the brushes and was happy with the results. I ended up create more of the brushes so I can distribute them. These brushes are great for creating sketchy or grungy vectors. Just apply the brushes to any path or object!
Illustrator is great for creating clean and precise illustrations, but some of the time you don’t want clean and precise. There are many illustrations that call for a sketchy or hand-drawn feel. Creating these effects are relatively easy with Illustrator’s Live Trace, Live Paint, Brushes and the ability to create you own brushes. Check out some of my sketchy illustrations on iStock for more inspiration.
