it interesting lesson for newbies. In addition to working with shapes, we will also use effects, and we will create our own brush for painting leaves and stems.
Cute autumn illustration in Adobe Illustrator
Step 1
Let's start by creating an oval with the Ellipse Tool (L). Create a 241 x 214 px shape Brown color. With the Direct Selection Tool (A), click on the bottom point and press Delete to delete this point.
Step 2
Draw another oval, this time 62 x 192 px and beige. Select both shapes and in the Align palette click on the Horizontal Align Center icon.
Step 3
Let's change the shape of the mushroom leg a little. Select it and choose Effect > Warp > Fish from the menu. Set the parameters as shown below and click OK.
Step 4
Select Object > Expand Appearance from the menu. Now right click on the shape and choose Arrange > Send to Back.
Step 5
Let's add some details to the hat of our mushroom. With the Ellipse Tool / Ellipse (L) draw circles of different sizes and shades - a little lighter than the color of the mushroom.
Step 6
Now let's create a brush in order to paint the leaves later. Let's start with a dark gray 5 x 25 px oval. Select the bottom point of the oval with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and choose Convert Selected anchor points to corner from the top bar. Do the same with the top point.
Step 7
Open the Brushes palette (from the Window menu) and drag our shape into the palette. In the window that appears, select Art Brush / Art Brush.
Step 8
The brush settings window will appear. Select the options below. You can change them at any time by simply double-clicking on the brush in the palette of the same name.
Step 9
Let's create the foliage on a new layer. To do this, create it in the palette Layers / Layers. Now take the Paintbrush Tool (B) and paint on the stem.
Step 10
Use the same brush to paint the leaves. To make the leaves thicker, increase the thickness of the Stroke / Stroke. Also select Orange color strokes to make the leaves colored.
Hello!
Today we continue to steal bread from illustrators and designers, and we will make illustrations for articles using emoji.
This article will be useful for those who already understand Photoshop on basic level. We will make illustrations that go inside the article. You can also use this technique to create covers for publications.
Illustration for the article "How I use Trelo" on a personal blog
Cover illustration for SMMplanner article
What you need
Emojipedia is a large collection of emoji from all systems, we will take enough pictures from it High Quality for illustrations.
Photoshop, Canvas, Gimp or any other editor that can open pictures and paste them into others. It doesn't matter which editor you use. It is important that you know how to write text, insert and align pictures.
Basic knowledge of layout.
Idea for illustration.
Ideally, if you have a familiar designer who can quickly give advice on how to improve the layout. I do not recommend going into the chat with designers and throwing your illustration for criticism to all designers, you can cause shit to boil.
Doing
Before we start, we must understand what we are going to do. I start drawing a picture when I have an idea in my head what to draw. I think if you sketch a version of the picture on a piece of paper, it will be even easier.
We create a picture. I create a picture with dimensions of 1800x945 pixels, because it looks good on a large screen, in all in social networks and enters the blog.
You can create any picture, vertical, square, even a circle!
I create illustrations in order to demonstrate some idea from the text, for this I first write the text on the picture. I distribute it throughout the canvas, after which I turn to Emojipedia.
I'm throwing a text
Looking for the right emoji
To illustrate the knowledge, I decided to use the book. Note that there are various emoji families on Emojipedia, and even different versions emoji. In some cases, you can use the 2008 emoji. Just know it.
Copy the image below
After copying the picture on Emojipedia, you can paste it into Photoshop.
In my case, the picture is too big, so I edit it and resize it to the right size. To do this, use the "Transform Shapes" mode by holding the keyboard shortcut ctrl + T (⌘ + T). In the tool settings panel, you can set the appropriate size in%. To keep the proportions of the picture, click the "Keep aspect ratio" button
So we repeat several times until all the emojis are in place. I recommend that you immediately group the text and the picture with emoji into one folder, so it will be easier to work with them.
It turned out like this
I don't like the overall result. Lots of holes, not aligned, chaotic. Even if you arrange the arrows, it will not become clear. So now let's get down to layout.
I'm not very good at layout, so I'm learning from designers, I advise you to study, as it seems to me, the basic layout rule: box everything you can.
The rectangle is the best shape. To make a large illustration look good, you need to break a large illustration into small rectangles (a square is also a rectangle) and place the content of the illustration in these rectangles. If it is possible to do so from small parts illustrations, small neat rectangles. Small rectangles are easy to place on big picture, and in general everything will look good.
In my case, I just need to hide the emoji and text in a rectangle, and align the entire sheet with the rectangles. First I decided to draw the sheet into rectangles. To do this, I will make guides, to make guides, you need to select the "move" tool, move the cursor to the ruler and pull the guide out of the ruler. More on this in the Photoshop tutorial.
The final result when I placed all the guides
Life hack. If you create one universal pattern for the blog and save it as a PSD, the guides will be preserved. Then it will be possible to constantly open this template and immediately draw along the guides.
Looks sloppy, so I decided to align the inside to the left
I had to slightly change the structure of the illustration because it looked illogical. I wanted to say through the illustration that you need to constantly practice, but instead, at first you could see closed books. After I got a pretty strong picture, and I had to draw guide arrows.
To draw the arrows, I use the Pen Tool (P) which is set to 2 px thick, with a red stroke and empty fill. To make the lines bent, you need to practice drawing a little. How to draw with a pen, well shown in wikiHow "How to draw with a pen"
After that, you can consult with the designer, perhaps he will see other options for the location of content, or arrows. I got it like this.
Life hack. Before saving an image, consider where it will be used. white picture looks bad on a site with a white background, you need to create a one-pixel frame to separate the image from the background. Or deliberately create a bold frame. Can instead white background, use grayish if the image is uploaded to a site with a white background, or if it is uploaded to a site with a grayish background, it can be left white.
In the same way, you can uniqueize your own images if you want to have fun, or don't know which image to insert.
just fooling around
To an article about healthy eating
I have for last days some unprecedented creative and working upsurge. Finally like own work made for both customers and stocks. Therefore, it is drawn and typeset easily, pleasantly, which pleases.
I want to slightly reveal the secret of the workflow. For a long time the idea has been lingering to record a video of how objects for stocks are drawn, but so far my hands have not reached something, so I will show it only in pictures and words.
Stage 1. Choose a topic
Where does work start? From the choice of topic. To be honest, I'm not particularly wise about trends, choosing niches (maybe that's why I have modest numbers in my wallet), I draw what I want. I chose a style for myself, calling it “multi-realism”, that is, realistic enough to convey volume, shadows, but at the same time leave cartoonish fury and gloss. Currently I'm working in the "objects" genre, but later I plan to include people and small plots here.
I never get the question “What to draw”, rather “What to draw first”. I am impressed by absolutely everything: food in cafes, shop windows, beautiful photos people, works of other authors. Fortunately, I do not have to sit at the monitor, drag different flowers back and forth in the hope that something worthy will come out. I completely abandoned the creation of backgrounds, textures, business cards and other things that are quite popular among other stockers. It just didn’t work, I didn’t enjoy the process when I made them, and accordingly they didn’t sell at all.
Sitting down at the computer, I always already have an idea of what I want to see as a result, but I'm getting ahead of myself a little.
So, the choice of topic. Always and everywhere I carry a diary with me, which, by the way, also not weakly sets in a creative way. And as soon as an idea comes to my mind, I add it to the Mind Map. I will not go into details of what it is, this information is easily googled, I will only clarify that the method is really cool. Allows you to structure ideas without squeezing them into frames, allowing the development of one thought indefinitely.
This is what my cards usually look like.
Ideas are written down in a cobweb, then they are thought over, analyzed. Something is postponed, and something gets life in the second stage.
Stage 2. Sketches
Everything here is extremely simple and clear, if I choose a topic, then I throw in exactly which objects can relate to it. And then I look for pictures of the necessary items and copy them into my moleskin. It is necessary to draw, stocks do not allow using other people's photos as direct references (redrawing other people's photos), but if you pick up a few pictures, take something from one, something from another, and eventually get your own drawing, then everything is fine, Copyright not hurt.
I draw, to be honest, so-so, the hand is not set to create straight lines, but, this is not particularly necessary, for which I love the vector.
Sketches here have the role of approximate schematic sketches, from them I will take general form. Curved lines will later be saved by Illustrator's tools, which allow you to draw even circles and rectangles.
Stage 3. How do others do it?
For myself, I approved the basic principle of working with stocks: my pictures should be no worse in quality than those presented on the first pages among the popular ones. If the work falls short, I will procrastinate it until I am satisfied with the result. Naturally here we are talking and works on the same topic and in the same technique as mine.
Yesterday I decided to draw on the theme of Fast Food. For this search query, I found cute sausages in dough, potatoes, cola. I chose what I would buy myself if I had such an order, and just what pleased the eye. I directly throw the found pictures on the sheet where I am going to work. I take nothing from them, neither color, nor form, nor style. I only need a general impression, everything else will come from my sketches and selected palettes.
Stage 4. Registration of the main forms.
Next comes the work on the computer. I have Graphics tablet, but I rarely use it, I like to brag that all my work was done with a mouse, which, by the way, pure truth. Main tool: pen. Those who understand the vector will understand what the point is. In short, the pen allows you to draw using points and vectors. curved lines any form.
With a pen (for objects that require evenness: mugs, plates, boxes - ellipses, rectangles), I trace the main details, paint over them in chaotic colors, just to determine the shape.
The result is such unattractive illustrations, but general idea already clear, further only complication. 
This 5. Color matching.
Color selection, one of highlights, which I categorically do not trust myself and do not select colors myself. There are many services that allow you to collect beautiful palettes, but this is not quite the same. The main assistant in the selection of colors was the service: shutterstock.labs. An interesting thing, I recommend digging, even just for the sake of general development. The site allows you to select photos on topics of interest, taking into account the preferred palette. For example, I know that for drawing Fast Food I will most likely need yellow, red, orange, brown and their shades. I form the corresponding search query and the program gives me ready-made photos with the same hot dogs, potatoes and other things, and even in bright, beautiful flowers, which I will later use in my work, thanks to the pipette tool.
Stage 6. Development of the subject.
The draft part of the process is over, let's start creating. For the rendered details, I select colors from the found photos, after which I add new details: shadows, highlights, light, texture. As a result, I get a set of individual items that can now be combined. 
Stage 7. Compilation of compositions.
The objects are drawn, it's time to think about how to present them. Even during my short work as a stoker, I managed to figure out that compositions are sold better than just objects on a white background (although I also upload it in this form, sometimes they buy it). So now I just combine our entire collection into different pictures, with backgrounds, without backgrounds, with inscriptions, without them. The more you can make from one collection of pictures, the better. I especially like it when some items can be taken from past works. For example, I added ice cream from the Summer collection to the Fast Food set. Therefore, I try to draw in the same style so that everything can be combined. 
This is what my work on pictures looks like. I found that such stages left their mark on my design activity, I began to make products of a different style and much better quality, which also pleases.
Over the past few weeks I've been trying to use grayscale filters, I was interested in the result and what they can do. Also, much to my surprise, I discovered the Width Tool in Illustrator CS5. With these two tools, I decided to put them to good use and create an illustration in the style of Roy Lichtenstein.
There are quite a few tutorials on how to create a similar image, but I decided to go through this one myself. I was not interested in other lessons, because. my occupation was only entertainment. Therefore, if I suddenly copied someone's technique, then I really did not know. In addition, it would be quite nice to place on this site a lesson on creating illustrations in a similar style.
Roy Lichtenstein (Roy Fox Lichtenstein; October 27, 1923 - September 29, 1997) - American artist, representative of pop art. The success of the artist brought his work on the themes of comics and magazine graphics. Wikipedia
Step 1
Let's start by working in Illustrator.Open the photo in illustrator you will be working with. I found this one on Shutterstock, but you can choose any other.
Step 2
Select the Pencil Tool (N) and start drawing over the photo, using it as a background. I started with the eyes. For pupils I used Ellipse (L).
Step 3
Continue drawing with the Pencil Tool (N) and the Pen Tool (P) to get more precise, but don't get carried away because perfection is not required here.
Step 4
Use the Pencil Tool (N) to outline the girl's hair:
Step 5
Then, with the same tools, add some details for the hair:
Step 6
As a result, we got vector elements for creating a girl. You can add more elements as you wish, depending on the photo you are using.
Step 7
Remove the background photo to only work with vector elements:
Step 8
One of my favorite tools in Illustrator is the Width Tool (Shift+W). It allows you to change the stroke width of part of our stroke. Look, it's just fantastic!
Step 9
Using the same tool, change the width of some strokes like this:
Step 10
It's time to add some color. I used beige for the skin, yellow for the hair, white for the eyes and black for the details. Let the blouse be green:
Step 11
Now let's go to Photoshop. Open the paper texture in Photoshop. I found the texture in the same place as the girl, on Shutterstock.
Step 12
On top of the paper texture, create a layer and overlay the photo of the girl with the Blending Options Multiply. In this case, it will be useful to us for importing a vector from Illustrator and for creating halftones.
Step 13
Trim off excess parts of the photo that protrude beyond the edges of the paper texture. The best way to do this, use a layer mask:
Step 14
Create a new layer below the girl photo layer, but inside the same folder with our mask. Change the new layer's blend mode to Multiply and fill it with blue:
Step 15
Copy vector image in illustrator and paste into Photoshop. When pasting, I used the "Smart Objects" option, because this allows you to edit the vector at any time right in Photoshop.As you may have noticed, I've set the new layer's opacity to 70%, which allows you to set the desired layer position:
Step 16
Once you find the desired location, make the layer opaque (100%):
Step 17
Change the order of the layers so that the photo of the girl is on top of the vector layer. After that, desaturate the photo (Image > Adjustments > Desaturate). You will end up with a black and white photo, just like mine.Then go to editing levels (Image > Adjustments > Levels).
Change the black channel to 60 and the white channel to 195.
Set our layer blending mode to Multiply:
Step 18
Choose Filter > Pixelate > Color Halftone. In the window that opens, specify a maximum radius of 15 and a value of 199 for all channels.Note: Depending on the size of the illustration, change the maximum radius proportionally.
Step 19
As a result, we get given image. The illustration is almost ready, it remains to give it an old, shabby look. We also need to clean our teeth and eyes from halftones:
Step 20
Place the paper texture on top of all layers of our illustration and set the blending mode to Linear Burn:
Conclusion
The illustration is ready. Teeth and eyes have already been cleaned from halftones here.In the same way, you can use halftones to create illustrations in the style of Roy Lichtenstein, as in our experiment.
Thank you for your attention.
This thread is a translation
The illustrations in the book are an important emotional factor influencing the reader. fiction, which has an aesthetic and semantic impact. Illustrations contribute to a better perception of texts of any level of complexity, helping to make a choice in favor of a particular publication!
In this article, we will introduce you to the main points of illustration and tell you how to do it. You will only have to choose suitable way illustrations for your book.
The size, format, and arrangement of each illustration in a book has a purpose. You need to get familiar with how illustrations are usually posted and drawing techniques in order to communicate with illustrators in "the same language".
There are the following types of illustrations:
- Frontispiece. Such an illustration for a book is printed on a separate thick sheet of paper and glued to the left side of the first book block, spread title page before the first page of the text material. Typically, this sheet displays main idea, storytelling action. In some cases, a portrait of the writer or the main character of the plot of the work is located here.
- Screensaver. It is used to decorate the beginning of a chapter or section, and reproduces the thematic transcript of the content of the entire rubric part of the publication, this is a kind of graphic introduction. The screensaver prepares the reader for the development of the plot, the emotional perception of the work. In addition to thematic pictures, an ornamental, symbolic, object-decorative thematic composition, called a ruler, is often used at the beginning of sections.
- Strip. A drawing that occupies the entire page of a book.
- Half-band. An image that is located anywhere on the page: top, bottom, right or left.
- On the turn. The image that occupies the spread of the publication.
- Defense. Thematic image framed by text.
- Drawings in the fields. Small images spread around the edge of the text strip.
- Background. Often used in color gift editions. The text is placed on top of the image.
- Ending or vignette. A drawing or graphic element is placed at the end of the text. It is performed in one plot-thematic performance with a screensaver.
The following are the main drawing techniques:
- pencil or charcoal;
- watercolor or oil;
- line drawing in the style of books from the glorious times of the USSR;
- computer graphics, including 3D;
- photo collage - an illustration made up of several photographs;
- photorealistic painting.
Check out the illustrations made in different techniques and choose the one that suits you best.
Coal 
Watercolor 
Pencil 
Photorealistic painting 
line drawing 
photo collage
The attractiveness of the cover of the publication, aesthetic and memorable appearance, thematically correctly selected illustrations are a guarantee of the future success of the book. And here it is important for the author to decide which method of illustration to choose.
Method 1: Order illustrations from an illustrator
Hiring a professional illustrator, graphic designer is one of the the best options ensure that your written work has high-quality images in full accordance with the presentation. All illustrations for the book are made in the same drawing technique, a single style is maintained, agreed with the author.
Involving an illustrator in the work is not the cheapest method, but the most advantageous in terms of quality and accurate transfer of the author's intent.
Method 2: Find ready-made illustrations for an existing story
This method is well suited for poems or stories, where all the illustrations are not connected by a common theme.
On the Internet you can find many ready-made images on the subject of the work. But you need to use them to design your book only with the permission of the artist or photographer, since in this case there is a copyright on the image. Failure to comply with this requirement may lead to unpredictable consequences: litigation, monetary penalties.
Therefore, it is better to turn to the services of photobank sites, where all photographs, reproductions, drawings are provided for a small fee, and sometimes for free. Wide selection, high-quality image performance allows you to design literary work without violating the copyrights of others. Our publishing house uses the services of the www.lori.ru photo bank, where you can quickly find suitable image by keywords.
Method 3: Find an artist among your relatives or friends
If you ask, you will be surprised how many people you know can draw. Let not very professional, but very nice and sincere. These people will welcome the opportunity to illustrate your book for free, for a small fee, or a favor in return. Let them draw on paper. And then the illustrations will be professionally scanned at the publishing house and inserted into the layout of the book.
Services of illustrators of TRIUMPH publishing house
Our specialists create illustrations in any technique. When ordering the publication of a work in our publishing house, the author gets the opportunity to work with the illustrator directly, which allows him not only to discuss the technique of work, the number of drawings, but also to agree on the cost. Payment is also made directly to the artist.
