by Sharon Milne
Created
December 31, 2011
Bristle Brush (1)
Draw Inside (2)
Illustrator (26)
Portrait (2)
Tutorials (22)
How to Create a Zodiac-Themed Portrait in Adobe Illustrator CS5
Introduction
Hello fellow vector fanatics, my name is Sharon Milne and I sometimes go under the moniker ChewedKandi. I’ve been interested in digital art for over a decade now but it wasn’t until five years ago that I got into vector art. Since then it’s been an addictive and scalable journey with Adobe® Illustrator®.
It’s an absolute pleasure to be able to share with you my process of putting together this Zodiac/Leo the Lion themed vector portrait which I created using Adobe Illustrator CS5.
Leo the Lion
This tutorial is full of helpful hints on using a variety of tools in Illustrator CS5 as well as some of the thought processes behind elements of the portrait. If you’ve any questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll be sure to help any way I can. So let’s get on with it, shall we?
Step 1
For this tutorial, I’ve used a stock image as a reference. This great image comes from Photodune by AndresrPhotos.
First, I like to visualise the concept I have in mind for my vectors, so I tend to either sketch in Adobe® Photoshop® CS5 or Illustrator CS5, depending on how much manipulation I need to do. As I intend to manipulate the stock image, Photoshop is my weapon of choice to start with. I begin by increasing the size of the canvas by choosing Image > Canvas Size (Ctrl + Alt + C) from the main menu, selecting the bottom middle anchor and increasing both the width and height.
Now I create a new layer to put my sketch on. To do this, select Create a New Layer at the bottom of the Layers panel. For the sketch work, select the Brush Tool (B) and a color which stands out against the colors of the stock image, blue in this case.
Step 1
Step 2
Now that I have the basic concept in mind, I’m going to manipulate the stock image. I like to make the eyes and lips bigger, while reducing the nose to make the portrait look more cartoon-like.
First begin enlarging the eyes by using the Lasso tool (L) with a 15px feather. Select an area around the eye, including the eyebrow. Use the Move tool (V) with “Show Transform Controls” enabled, increase the size of the eye, rotating it slightly to keep the dimensions in scale with the face.
Step 2a
Select and resize each eye individually rather than together so they remain in the same location they were originally.
Step 2b
Step 3
Now we need to select the lips to enlarge them, but we want to make them larger in height than width. However, if we use the Move tool (V) for enlarging the lips, which are at an angle here, it won’t enlarge them evenly, which is what we want.
Select the lips and use the Move tool (V) to rotate them so the parting of the lips is horizontally parallel. To commit to the change, press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS), click the Commit button ✔ in the options bar, or double-click inside the transformation marquee. Now when you go back to using the Move tool (V), you can enlarge the lips knowing they will be scaled up in the manner you desire.
Step 3a
When rotating the lips back into the correct place, you can use the Rotate View tool (R) to rotate the canvas and then use the Move tool (V) to rotate the lips back into position. By having the face at the correct angle to you, you can better judge if you’ve put the lips back in the correct angle. To restore the canvas to the original angle, click Reset View in the Control panel.
Step 3b
Step 4
Repeat the same process as Step 3 for the nose and reduce its size.
Step 4
Step 5
At this stage, I now want to add more to my sketch and modify what I already have. The animal lovers reading this would have been the first to point out that one, female lions don’t have big manes of hair/fur and second, they don’t have pointed cat-like ears. While I can try and hide under “creative licence” for the mane since I want to maintain the look of a lion, I can’t with the ears!
Draw a new ear, duplicate it and then use my favorite tool, the Move tool (V) to rotate and flip the ear so we have a pair.
Step 5
Step 6
I’m going to Create a New Layer below the sketch and use the Brush Tool (B) to hide the hair. I don’t like erasing parts of a stock image in case I may need to refer back to it. I’m also going to add in where the parting will be in the hair. This will be my guide, if needed, when I start rendering the hair in vector paths.
Step 6a
Draw in the front of the mane, which covers the bottom of the ears, and then draw the outline of the entire mane. Again this is just as a guide. we may not have the exact outline, but it helps serve as a reference later.
Step 6b
Step 7
After hiding the blue sketch layer, select File > Save for Web & Devices, and save out the image, ready to bring it over into Illustrator.
Now in Illustrator, create a new document.
From the main menu, select File > New, and in the New Document dialog, select New Document Profile = Print, Number of Artboards = 1, Size = A4. Using this New Document profile will set the document color mode as CMYK and the Raster Effects resolution to 300 dpi.
Next, select File > Place and place your reference image into the center of the canvas. Select the Free Transform tool (V), and holding down the Shift key to maintain the aspect ratio, scale the image to the canvas.
Although there are many ways to prep a file to work from a reference image, I’m a little stuck in my ways and always set up my files like this:
First I place my reference image in its own layer named “Reference.” Then I select the Create New Layer at the bottom of the Layers panel and name the new layer “BG” for “background.” Within this layer I create a rectangle using the Rectangle tool (M), give it a white fill, and, from the Control Panel, set the Opacity to 40%. Next I create a new layer for my first base shapes…in this case it’s named “Skin.”
Using the Toggle Visibility option in the Layers Palette (the “eyeball”), the “BG” layer dims the stock image when required, and can be recolored should I need a more contrasting color to compare my strokes to the original image.
Step 7
Step 8
Using the Pen tool (P), draw the first shape, which is going to be the skin base layer. We will use this to layer on many shapes of lesser opacity. Use the shades from the “Skintones” swatch library, which you can find by selecting the Swatches Libraries menu from the bottom of the Swatches panel and selecting Skintones.
These swatches are great, as you have a variety of ethnicities represented by them, and you can mix and match the colors to get different tones in the skin. As much as we want to have flawlessly clear skin, it’s not a reality! I’m using the Color Group “Skintone 1″ and the swatch C=0, M=21, Y=35, K=7. I’m using a mid-toned color as I’ll use the colors either side of this swatch for highlights and shadows.