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PROJECT 4: When Vector
Meets Photo
Using Adobe
Illustrator CS2 you will create a vector image of yourself. This technique
is all the rage in graphic design circles recently and the following tutorial is
from Adobe's website itself. To gain a better understanding of this
graphic art style please check out the following websites.
http://www.illustratortechniques.com/vector-art-goes-hollywood.html
http://www.illustratortechniques.com/category/tutorials/
http://www.layersmagazine.com/when-vector-meets-photo.html
(shown below)
http://www.illustratortechniques.com/imitating-a-scanner-darkly.html
You will need a good
high quality shot of your upper torso area to begin this project. Make
sure you bring one with you.
When finished save your work as vector.ai
in your Illustrator > Project 4 Folder
Here is a great example:
Example 1
When Vector Meets
Photo
Mixing vector and photo is one of the hottest trends in the illustration
industry today.
We've seen this effect used in national ad campaigns from Anheuser-Busch to
Hawaiian Tropic. In this tutorial, we'll take a look at how to create this
effect in Illustrator. Before you begin, keep in mind that you can download the
Illustrator source file used in this column. It comes complete with the original
photograph (kindly provided by
www.istockphoto.com). Have fun!
(Here
is the download of the file)
STEP 1:
Prepare Your Image
Unless you're an
insanely talented artist, you may need some help getting started. Using a
reference photograph is perfectly acceptable. To do this, open your photo in
Photoshop and apply a Posterize adjustment to break the illustration down to
basic colors. This helps get your reference photograph to a point that makes it
easier to trace. For a more detailed look on how to get your photo ready in
Photoshop, visit
www.layersmagazine.com/design/ps-index.php
for a tutorial. For now, let's assume your image is ready at this point and
you're good to go.
STEP 2: Trace
the Subject's Face
First, you'll create
the overall outlines of the woman. Break this down to major areas or body parts
within the photograph. Here, we've started with the neck and the face. Alt-click the Create New Layer icon in the Layers palette and
name this layer "FACE" in the Layer Options dialog to help keep things tidy.
Choose the Pen tool and create a path that encompasses the neck and face area.
Set the Fill to a skin tone in the Color palette (we used R: 242, G: 216, B: 186
here) and the Stroke to none.
STEP 3: Trace
Subject's Shirt
Next, create a new
layer named "SHIRT" below the FACE layer. Use the Pen tool to trace the shirt.
Notice that the hair covers the shirt in certain places. Don't worry about
tracing too perfectly along these areas. Just guess at where the shirt belongs
behind the hair. Later, we'll add a hair layer that will cover this up so
there's no need to get too detailed at this point.
STEP 4: Trace
Subject's Arms
Now move on to the
arms and create a new layer named "ARMS" above the SHIRT layer. Because the
subject's arms are folded, we've created a separate path for each segment of the
arms for a total of four paths. Each path that you draw will be on its own
sublayer within the ARMS layer. You'll have to use your best judgment here,
depending on your photograph. The goal is to leave your illustration as flexible
as possible, and having each area of the arm on its own sublayer helps for this
image.
STEP 5: Trace Subject's Hair
Create a new layer
named "HAIR" above the FACE layer. The more time you spend tracing the hair, the
better your illustration will look. (To give you a reference, we spent about 15
minutes using the Pen tool to create the hair the way you see it here.) Also,
you don't need to get it all in one path. You can always go back and add paths
for some of the wispy areas of the hair that make tracing more difficult in one
pass. Before you move on, be sure to set the Fill color for the hair to R: 108,
G: 78, B: 46.
STEP 6: Add
Eye Layers
Now let's give our
illustration a face. Create a new layer above the HAIR layer and name it "EYES."
With the EYES layer active, Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the Create New Sublayer
icon in the Layers palette to create a "RIGHT EYE" sublayer and a "LEFT EYE"
sublayer. Begin by tracing the eyebrows and place them in their respective
sublayers to keep things organized. Set the Fill color to R: 63, G: 44, B: 25,
and the Stroke to none. Remember, you'll have to continually hide and show
layers in order to see the reference photo in the background.
STEP 7: Trace
and Fill Eyes
Zoom in and start
tracing the eyeball area. Take a layered approach here. First, trace the general
outline of the eye and fill it with a darker tone (we used black). Then trace
the white area inside and fill it with-you guessed it-white. Add small details
with the Pen tool for lines around the eye that make it look realistic. Repeat
this process for the other eye. (Note: If you picked a straight-on photograph,
you can just duplicate the first eye sublayer that you create and flip it by
choosing Object>Transform> Reflect. If not, alas...you'll have to create another
eye.)
STEP 8: Add
Nose Layer
Next, create a new
layer named "NOSE." This part is surprisingly easy since our reference
photograph shows that we can get away with adding the nostrils and a slight
shadow or two on the inside of the nose to bring out the necessary details.
STEP 9: Add
Lips Layer
Now we're ready for
the lips. Use the same approach here that we've been using so far. Trace the
overall outline of the lips and then add details on top. Here, we traced the
lips with the Pen tool and fi lled the path with R: 192, G: 82, B: 82. Then, we
created another path to separate the top and bottom lip. Set the Fill color of
that path to R: 99, G: 10, B: 15. Be sure to set the Stroke to none for both
paths.
STEP 10:
Enhance Hair with Highlights and Shadows
Everything looks good
so far but it's rather flat. That means it's time for some highlights and
shadows. Our main areas of concern will be the hair, face, arms, and shirt.
Let's start with the hair. Create a new layer above the HAIR layer named "HAIR
DETAILS." Using the Pen tool, draw highlights throughout the hair. It may be
useful to hide the HAIR layer so you can see the reference photo underneath.
Fill these highlights with R: 246, G: 214, B: 163. Do the same for some of the
shadow areas (we used R: 66, G: 46, B: 28) as well. We've created two sublayers
here to hold the details.
STEP 11: Add
More Shadows
We're almost done! Use
the same technique we used on the hair to add shadows to the face, arms, and
hands. You'll want to keep the Pathfinder palette handy for this task as well.
For example, duplicate the FACE sublayer by dragging it to the Create New Layer
icon and name it "DUPLCATE." Then, use the Pen tool to create a loose shadow
around the neck and/or face and name this path sublayer "SHADOW." Set the Fill
color to R: 207, G: 178, B: 156. Don't worry about the areas that extend beyond
the original neck shape. We'll fix that in the next step.
STEP 12:
Remove Excess Shadow
Shift-click the
circles to the right of the DUPLICATE and SHADOW sublayers in the Layers palette
to target both sublayers. Then, open the Pathfinder palette and Alt-click (PC:
Option-click) on the Intersect Shape Areas button. This will remove any area of
the shadow that extended beyond the original neck shape. However, since we made
a duplicate of the neck shape, the original path is still intact and we now have
a shadow on top of it. Repeat this process throughout the face, neck, and arms
to add more depth to the illustration.
STEP 13: Trace
Subject's Hair
Finally, add some
shadows and highlights to the shirt. This process is very similar to the one
used on the hair. Here, we've used R: 97, G: 136, B: 149 for the shadows and
white for the highlights. Feel free to adjust the opacity in the Transparency
palette to lessen the shadow or highlight effect.
STEP 14:
Create New Background
That's it! One last
step would be to hide the reference photo layer and create a new background.
Here, we've added a light blue gradient in place of the original background.
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