Brushes can be a means to create complex designs more simply or speed up your design creation process. Often designers create their own brushes, but sometimes you just want to get an effect or style you need quickly and may download stock brushes from websites like GraphicRiver. Let's break down how to install and use brushes to make the most of this fantastic feature!

1. Downloading and Using the Brush File

Step 1

Let's start with a freshly downloaded Zip folder. For the purposes of this tutorial, I'll be using these Nautical Rope Brushes from GraphicRiver.

Locate your download on your machine and Extract its contents. Do so on a Mac by double-clicking. Do so on a Windows machine by right-clicking and hitting Extract All.

Your brush files may vary, but these have files for both Adobe Illustrator CS5 and higher, and Adobe Illustrator CC and higher. In the case of this file, the brushes are in an .AI file.

Step 2

Open the .AI file in Adobe Illustrator CC. Open the Brushes panel and you'll find your new brushes are already loaded and ready for use. 

Step 3

Draw a path with the Ellipse Tool (L) and apply one of the brushes from the Brushes panel in order to check out the brush pack. Take the Paintbrush Tool (B) for a spin too, and see how the brush handles a variety of angled and curved paths. 

If you want to use these brushes in other documents, you'll have to save the brushes file. Let's do that now!

2. Saving the Brush Library

Step 1

Under Options in the Brushes panel, select Save Brush Library... You'll be able to save your brush library anywhere on your machine. I like to keep things organized, and rather than saving it in the default hidden folder, let's navigate to our preset brushes folder.

If you're on a Mac, you'll want to head over to Applications/Adobe Illustrator CC 2015/Presets/Brushes/, and if you're on a Windows machine you'll want to head over to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CC 2015\Presets\en_US\Brushes\New Brushes. These are the default preset folder locations. If you've made changes to where and how Adobe files are stored on your computer, your locations may differ.

Step 2

Create a New Folder in your preset brushes folder. Mine is named New Brushes, and this is where I'll be saving my brush libraries for easy navigation and retrieval in the future.

Step 3

Now when you select Open Brush Library from the Brushes panel options, you'll see your new folder amongst the other preset folders and can load that brush library into any of your documents. You can also save brush libraries in any of the other preset folders. How you organize your program, files, and computer is entirely up to you.

3. Editing the Brushes

Step 1

Draw a shape or path with a drawing tool from the Toolbar and apply one of the brushes from your Brushes panel. 

Step 2

Select any of your paths and change the Stroke color in the Color panel. Much like changing the stroke color of any simple stroked path, you can also double-click on the Stroke in the Toolbar in order to open up the Color Picker and change the color from there.

Step 3

For more complex brushes, you can use the Recolor Artwork option. Select your path and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork. Depending on how complex your brush's artwork is, you'll have the option of changing the current colors to whatever you want.

Step 4

Another quick and easy change is Stroke Weight. You can do this in the Stroke panel. Note the difference in this brush in 1 pt, 2 pt, and 3 pt weights.

Step 5

Finally, for further editing, Expand the brush stroke under Object > Expand to easily apply gradients and other effects to the brush as an object. In order to more easily apply the Radial Gradient seen below, I also United the newly expanded objects in the Pathfinder panel in order to create a compound object.

Great Job, You're Done!

Well done! In this quick tutorial we downloaded and loaded up a brush library file. We also learned how to organize our brush library and how to edit brushes within Adobe Illustrator. With these simple instructions, you'll be able to use and modify most any brush library you may be using, whether it's something you made yourself or not.

In this tutorial I'll show you how to create an abstract artwork by combining several stock images with abstract elements in Adobe Photoshop. Besides standard blending techniques with adjustment layers, masking and brushes, you'll also learn how to make an abstract object using Adobe Illustrator, apply texture, enhance the depth of field and more.

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial:

• Landscape 
• Texture 
• Model 
• Mountains 
• Splatter brushes 
• Forest 
• Circular designs 
• Halftone images pack 
• Flower

1. Add the Landscape and Texture

Step 1

Create a new 1500 x 1000 px document in Photoshop with the following settings:

Step 2

Open the landscape image. Drag this image into our white canvas using the Move Tool (V).

Step 3

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 4 px:

Step 4

There is unwanted cloud detail in the sky. Since we've aimed to highlight all the main subjects in the center, this detail might mess up the effect.

Create a new layer and activate the Clone Tool (S). Use this tone to clean up the indicated area:

Step 5

Drag the grunge texture onto the landscape and rotate it 90 CW (Edit > Transform > Rotate 90 CW). Then flip it vertically by choosing Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Use the Free Transform Tool (Control-T) to resize it so that it fits the dimensions of the existing canvas:

Change this layer mode to Soft Light 100%:

Step 6

To reduce the yellow saturation of the scene, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation. Change the Yellows Saturation to -78:

Step 7

Make a Curves adjustment layer to darken the landscape background. The main light on the model comes from the front, so the background should be darker.

2. Add the Model

Step 1

Isolate the model from the original image and position her in the middle of the canvas:

Step 2

Click the second icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a mask to the model layer. Use the Lasso Tool (L) to make a jagged selection on the model's head:

Select the mask and switch the foreground from black to white, and then hit Delete.

Step 3

Create a new layer under the model one. Use the Lasso Tool to make a selection behind the model's head. Try to make it jagged, as in the previous step:

Fill this selection with a dark brown color (#281e1e):

Step 4

On the model layer, use the Lasso Tool again to grab two parts: one on the visible eye and one on the arms and back:

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves (remember to check Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask) and increase the lightness.

Now the selected parts appear brighter than the existing skin.

Step 5

Use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (set as Clipping Mask) to reduce the redness on the model:

Step 6

Make a Color Balance adjustment layer and change the Midtones settings. This step is to match the model's color with the background.

Step 7

Create a Curves adjustment layer to brighten the contour area, especially the back, cheek and the darker arm. Use a soft black brush to paint on the front part to give the original brightness back to these areas.

3. Add the Mountains

Step 1

Open the mountain image. Select the mountain only using the Magic Wand Tool (W). Place it onto the model's head and scale it down to be much smaller.

Step 2

Add a mask to this layer and use a hard black brush to erase the part overlapping the eye. Also delete the extra part outside the head to make the mountains part fit the size of the head. Leave some holes for depth and shadow.

Step 3

Use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to desaturate the mountain completely:

Step 4

Make a Color Balance adjustment layer and change the Midtones settings:

Step 5

Use a Curves adjustment layer to increase the contrast of the mountain—it looked hazy:

4. Create the Background Circles

Step 1

Return to the original landscape image. Grab a circle on the right using the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M):

Press Control-C to copy this selection. Make a new layer above the texture one (under the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer) and press Control-V to pasted the copied part into it. Place it behind the model.

Change this layer mode to Soft Light 100%:

Step 2

Load this selection by holding Control and clicking its thumbnail layer. Go to Select > Modify > Contract and set Contract By to 30 px:

Click the Add layer mask icon and then press Control-I to invert the mask.

Step 3

Duplicate this layer and use Control-T to rotate it to the right and resize it to be smaller:

On the mask of this layer, switch the foreground to white, and change the brush to the splatter ones. Use different splatter brushes to restore the circle and create some jagged, crumbly edges:

Step 4

Create a new layer above the Hue/Saturation and Curves adjustment layers (in section 1). Select the Pen Tool > Ellipse Tool with Shape Layers and the color #e3e3d0. Draw a circle behind the model and cover the existing circles.

Change this layer mode to Soft Light 100%:

Step 5

Add a mask to this layer and make the circle appear subtle, with some visible edges:

5. Create an Abstract Circle

Step 1

Open up Illustrator. Create a new document with the settings below:

Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw a circle with the color #716E72 (remember to set the Fill to None) and stroke set to 8 pt:

Step 2

Hold down the Alt key and drag this layer up to duplicate it. Use the Free Transform Tool (E) to scale it down a bit and place it in the middle of the existing one. Change the stroke color to a darker one (I chose #3E3D3F).

Step 3

Duplicate the first layer and place it inside the previous one, making it much smaller.

Step 4

Draw a circle filled with the color #231F20 inside all the existing circles.

Step 5

Select all the circle layers and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options:

Press Control-Alt-B to blend all the circles with the settings above. You should have a similar result to this:

Step 6

Press F5 to open the Brush menu. Click the Brush panel options, choose Open Brush Library > Artistic > Artistic Ink, and choose Dry Ink 2:

Save it as an EPS file for your future use.

6. Add the Abstract Circle

Step 1

Return to Photoshop. Browse the abstract circle file and rasterize it with the settings below (feel free to make the size smaller or bigger as needed).

Step 2

Place this circle behind the model in the existing document and rotate it a little. Change this layer mode to Soft Light 100% and use a layer mask with the splatter brushes to break the edges of the circle, creating a jagged, grunge look:

Step 3

Create a Color Balance adjustment layer (set as Clipping Mask) and change the Cyan of the Midtones settings:

Step 4

Duplicate this layer and change the mode to Multiply 100%. Place it onto the top of the head, behind the mountains, and use a splatter brush to mask off its edges. Break the edges in the way you want—you don't need to make it look 100% like mine.

Step 5

Duplicate this layer several times and change the layers' mode to Soft Light. Arrange them beside the model, on her face and shoulder, and make them crumbly by using the splatter brushes.

Drop down the opacity of the circle on the right to 50% (the selected one in the screenshot). You don't need to arrange them in the same way as mine—feel free to experiment and use your creativity!

Step 6

Create a new layer above the model one (set as Clipping Mask), change the mode to Overlay 100%, and fill with 50% gray:

Activate the Dodge and Burn Tool (O) with Midtones Range, Exposure about15-20%. Use it to paint along the edges of the brighter, broken skin areas created using Curves and the abstract circles to make them look real. Also darken the mouth a little. You can see how I did it with Normal mode and the result with Overlay mode:

7. Add the Forest

Step 1

Open the forest image. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the upper part of the image and place it onto the model's back. Rotate it as shown below:

Use a layer mask with a medium-hard black brush to make this part appear inside the back area only.

Step 2

Create a Curves adjustment layer to darken this forest part more.

Paint on its layer mask to refine the light and shade of this part to make it part of the back completely:

Step 3

Take another part from the original forest image and add it to the head:

Use some splatter brushes on its layer mask to get a subtle grunge effect as shown below:

Step 4

Use the same method to add more effects to the face, body, arm, clothes, and mountains. There are no rules for this—we're creating abstract things, so just experiment and don't limit your imagination until you feel good!

8. Make the Lines

Step 1

Set up a new layer on top of the layers. Activate the Line Tool (U) with Weight of 2 px and the color #1b1101. Paint several sloping lines from left to right over the model's head.

Step 2

Make a group for the line layers and add a mask to it. Use a soft black brush to blur the lines part on the head—we don't need to make it too obvious.

9. Add the Circular Designs

Step 1

Open the sets of circular designs and rasterize them as we did with the abstract circle. Select the ones you like to put on the model's body and between the lines:

Step 2

Add a mask to some of these circle layers and blend them with the model's body. I changed the mode of the circle on the shoulder to Soft Light 100%:

Step 3

Use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer where you need to change the color or reduce the saturation.

10. Add the Flowers

Step 1

Open the flower image. Drag it onto the upper part of the model's back:

Blend the flower with the back using a layer mask:

Step 2

Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and bring the Saturation value down to -66:

Step 3

Change the flower color with a Color Balance adjustment layer:

Step 4

Darken the flower using a Curves adjustment layer:

Step 5

Duplicate the flower twice and move them leftwards a bit. Put one on the arms:

Change their mode to Overlay 100%. Paint on their layer mask make the effect fade out into the skin.

Step 6

Make a group for these two flower layers with Overlay mode 100%. Use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and reduce the Saturation value to -79:

Step 7

Apply a Color Balance adjustment layer to match the effect with the rest:

Step 8

Make the effect on the back more visible with a Curves adjustment layer. Keep the brightness on the arms and fingers using a layer mask:

11. Add the Halftones and Dots

Step 1

Open the halftone images pack. Select the one you like and place it onto the model's body area:

Press Control-I to invert this halftone and change its mode to Soft Light 100%. Make the effect appear more subtle using a layer mask:

Step 2

Duplicate this layer and move it to the back area.

Step 3

Create a new layer and change the foreground to #e6fafa. Select a hard brush to paint some dots with various sizes around the model and the existing circles.

Alter this layer mode to Soft Light 100% and use a layer mask to make some dots fade out, giving the effect an abstract feel.

12. The Final Adjustment

Step 1

We've finished adding all the elements, so now it's time to color the whole scene. Create a Color Balance adjustment layer on top of the layers. Change the Midtones and Highlights settings:

Step 2

Add a Photo Filter adjustment layer and pick the color #03ec07:

Step 3

Use a Vibrance adjustment layer to enhance the final effect:

Congratulations, You're Done!

I hope that you've learned some new tricks and techniques for your future projects. Just don't try to make your images look exactly like mine—be creative on your own! Don't forget to enjoy Photoshopping!

In this tutorial I will introduce you to acrylic paints, setting you on the path to using a very exciting medium.

Why Acrylic Paints?

I have used acrylics since the early 1980s, and have found them easier to get to grips with than oils and watercolour. If you are starting to paint for the first time, I would recommend acrylics before any other painting materials.

Acrylics are extremely versatile, and with them, you can...

• paint on almost any surface
• use them with water, and they become water resistant when dry (they are fast drying too)
• use them as you would oil paints (without the smell) and create thick brush strokes and textures on your canvas
• apply thin washes like watercolour
• create unique finishes that can only be done with this kind of paint—let your imagination and ingenuity run free
  

A Tiny Bit of Chemistry and a Brief History

A Tiny Bit of Chemistry

Acrylic paint is a polymer-based emulsion that holds pure pigments in suspension, giving you vibrant colours.

A Brief History

Developed in 1934, acrylics did not become commercially available until the 1950s, when they were used as house paints. Artists (including Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock) spotted these versatile paints and started to use them due to the hugely reduced drying times and their permanence.

What Do You Need to Start With?

What should you have to hand before you start painting with acrylics for the first time?

1. A small selection of acrylic colours
   
2. Brushes
3. Mediums
4. Work surface
5. Support for your work
   
6. Palette
   
7. Water
8. A desire to experiment as far as your imagination will take you
   

1. Acrylic Paints

There are so many colours offered by makers, e.g. Winsor and Newton, Liquitex and Daler Rowney, that it can be quite confusing. The pronunciation of some of their names can be rather daunting too (just consider them tongue twisters). Stick to a limited palette, and add in one or two of your favourite colours. I would start with the following:

1. Lemon yellow
2. Cadmium yellow medium
3. Ultramarine blue
4. Naphthol red
5. Burnt sienna
6. Burnt umber
7. Titanium white

And then, because I love them, I would add dioxazine purple and cobalt turquoise. You should choose your favourites as an additional couple of tubes of paint.

You won't need black. I have to be honest, I don't like black tube paint; it seems so unnatural when you place it on a canvas. There is no black in nature (a black cat in sunlight is dark brown). However, to achieve very dark shadows, ultramarine blue and burnt umber mixed together make a wonderful dark shade.

Student Acrylic Paints

Most manufacturers produce a secondary set of tubes of paint aimed at beginners and students.

The paints are cheaper because they are thinner, the quality of the colour isn't as high as in the artist quality paints, and there are fewer colours to choose from. However, they will give you a feel for acrylics and will allow you to experiment and make mistakes without spending too much.

You can also buy the paints in a variety of sizes (below) ranging from 22ml up to 1000ml depending on the colour.

Something Different

Acrylics offer something that no other paint medium does: additional outlandish colours.

There are the usual metallics which are also available in watercolour and oil, but you can also get iridescent (far right, below) and fluorescent paints.

Iridescent colours can be mixed into the colours you already have or used directly from the tube or pot. The effect is metallic and the colours differ depending on the angle you are looking at them. I love them.

Fluorescents are available in all the usual colours—yellow, green, pink, green and blue—but there are a few more out there if you want to have a look online. Liquitex and Daler Rowney both have a selection. However, unlike other acrylic paints, fluorescents will fade over time.

Costs

There is an important point I would like to make about the cost of colours, and it carries across all paint media, watercolour and oil too.

When you buy individual tubes of paint, you need to know that they are priced by Series. These Series start at 1 or A which is the cheapest, and depending on the manufacturer can go up to 5 or D. I have circled this information below.

The difference between these Series is the cost of the original pigment. Some are costly to obtain (natural ones), while others are expensive to manufacture. Cerulean blue is infamously pricey, as are a number of pinks and yellows. This has always been the case; even Titian (also known as Tiziano Vecellio or Tiziano Vecelli), who famously used a lot of blue in his 16th century paintings, did so to show off the wealth of the patrons who were paying him. It was well known that blue was very expensive.

So be aware of the colours you choose. Some are a lot more expensive than others, but can be very much worth the extra outlay too. If you are tempted to go for an expensive series, buy the smallest tube you can get.

Drying Time

Advantages

• Acrylics dry quickly.
• Once they are dry, they are permanent.
• You can work quickly and have a painting finished in a day.
  
• If you don't like what you have done, you can easily paint over and adjust your work, with no risk of previous colours mixing with new ones.

Disadvantages

Generally, the disadvantages stem more from bad practice than anything else, except my first point.

• You won't get thick, textured paint once dried unless you mix acrylic with mediums—they tend to flatten out when dry.
  
• If you get acrylics on your clothes or anywhere you don't want them, the paint is there for good.
• Letting your brushes dry out with paint on them leaves you with only one option: the bin.
• If you don't put the cap back on your tubes properly, like me, they will dry out and you will end up with a solid tube of ruined paint...

You can slow down the drying time with the use of mediums. I'll go into them later, in section 3.

What Should You Buy?

I would suggest, to start with, going down the student quality paint route. Winsor and Newton call theirs Galeria, while Daler Rowney have a set called System 3. Both are a good place to start. 

However, if you are a purist or history buff, Liquitex were the first company to produce acrylics and produce a student brand called Basics. All are available either at your art store or online.

2. Brushes

Brushes for acrylics depend on your painting style. If you like to paint with bold strokes, and lots of paint, I would go for a stiff bristle. If you prefer to paint in layers with thin paint and glazes or in a watercolour style, I would use a soft bristle. I say this because acrylic is so versatile that you can use it like oils (stiff bristles), watercolour (soft bristles), in between (medium bristles) or all of the above at the same time.

However, as you can see above, in art stores, there is always a wonderful choice of brushes. Have a look through the display, pick up the brushes and feel the bristles, flicking them with your fingers. This will give you a feel for what you like. Some will be very stiff and others soft, while you will see a vast array of shapes.

What Should You Buy?

Synthetic brushes are best for acrylics, as the nature of the paint will damage natural brushes as time goes on. Synthetics feel natural, don't mind spending long periods of time in water, and are cheaper. However, you need to clean them well and reshape them when you have finished your painting session.

A starter pack is the way to go. You can buy ones that are specifically for acrylic beginners in your local art store or online. Daler Rowney offer a System 3 set of brushes that have a variety of shapes and range from 3 to 5 brushes. They are very reasonable and are available online. If you prefer to shop in person, ask at your local art store for a starter pack—they should have one.

3. Mediums

Mediums change the way you use acrylics. They can slow down drying time, thin your paints, make them glossy or matt, and add all sorts of textures. Mediums make acrylics something special and are genuinely really exciting additions to your paints, making them so much fun to use. New ones are also always being developed as technology improves and changes.

There are a lot to choose from, but I would suggest one or two (at the most) to start with: matt medium and retarder.

Matt Medium

I think this is the most important medium. If you don't want to spend too much money when you start on acrylics, only buy this one.

When you paint with acrylics, it is very tempting to use just water to thin them down. Not a good idea. The more water you add to acrylics, the more you break down the polymer-based emulsion suspending the pigments. This will lead to grainy colours and possible flaking or peeling of your work—the last thing you would want.

Use matt medium to thin your paints right down. You can lay glazed areas on your work (areas you can see through) and use it to create the initial primed base on your canvas.

The medium looks white when it comes out of the tub or tube, but mixes well with your paint, making little difference to your colours. A little goes a long way, but try and get into the habit of using matt medium instead of water—the water is for cleaning your brushes.

Retarder

Acrylic dries quickly and once it has, it is permanent. I mentioned this before, and there's really nothing you can do once it's dry.

If you mix a bit of retarder into your paint, though, it slows the drying time down. This is great if you are a slower painter or like to mix your paints on the canvas.

Other Mediums

If you go into an art store to where the acrylics are situated, you should find a panel or samples of which mediums are available (above). Have a feel of them and choose a favourite to experiment with.

I love crackle medium because of its unpredictability (below).

The packaging normally tells you how to use your selected medium, so have a go, experiment, and get excited.

What Should You Buy?

As I said before, start with matt and retarder mediums. Mediums are available anywhere you can obtain acrylics, online and in store. Go for Winsor and Newton, Daler Rowney or Liquitex.

4. Work Surfaces

Unlike other media, acrylics can be used on just about anything, with the exception of papers unless they are stretched.

But if you are starting off for the first time, I would recommend canvas or canvas boards.

1. Stretched Canvas and Canvas Board

There is a vast selection of sizes and shapes (below is only a tiny choice): square, rectangular, tiny and enormous to the point of immobility.

Stretched Canvases

A stretched canvas is a textured linen or cotton that is stretched around a wooden frame, and then primed ready for painting. When you lay a brush on it, it has a bit of give. The texture on these canvases can vary from rough to smooth. I prefer something that is in the middle.

You may have heard of box canvases. These are made in the same way, but the depth of the edge is far thicker, starting at around 2 cm. You can continue your painting around these edges, giving you the option of not having to frame your work.

Canvas Board

Canvas boards work in the same way as a stretch canvas, but the canvas is stuck down on a thick card. As a result, they are very portable and easily stored, and it's much easier to scrape into the paint than with canvas. However, you are limited by size—they tend not to be any bigger than 40 x 60cm—as any larger and they will warp.

2. Watercolour Paper

As you can see above, I have done a wash and then added thick paint on top. Acrylic is great for this, and you can do it on paper best (washes aren't great on any other surface). Here, I treated acrylic like watercolour.

Watercolour paper used to need to be stretched before use. You had to wet the paper, lay it on a flat surface, and then tape down all of the sides without letting any of the tape buckle or have air bubbles (which was always inevitable when I did it), causing the paper to wrinkle. Then you had to leave it to dry thoroughly, and only then would you know if it had worked.

You can still do that, but buying ready-stretched blocks of watercolour paper (above) is so much easier, and they come in a variety of sizes from A5 to A3. Make sure you buy the gummed pad (the gum is the black bit around the edge of the pad) as this will lessen the chance of wrinkling when your painting is finished.

Use the thickest paper you can find, as there will be less chance of wrinkling—300gsm is good. Acid-free will help prevent the deterioration of the colours. Texture is up to you, but I would recommend you start with a NOT (also known as cold pressed) paper. The surface is not too rough and not too smooth (that’s not why it’s called NOT; this refers to the way the paper has been made—not hot pressed).

Thin paper is a complete waste of time as it will buckle, and may even tear as you work.

3. Other Surfaces

There really is no limit when it comes to what you paint upon, as long as there is a slight tooth to the surface. If you want to paint on metal or plastic, just take some sandpaper to it first, or the acrylic will just peel off once dried because they are so shiny.

I have used acrylics to paint murals for years (mixed with matt emulsion to make them go further)...

... and have even painted the tops of rocks as markers in my herb garden. I sprayed the acrylic with exterior varnish after writing on it in permanent ink. The rocks have lasted through a Scottish winter and summer and look just as bright as the day I painted them.

What Should You Buy?

I would recommend starting off on a medium to small painting. You can work on either stretched canvas or canvas board. Get a feel for the different types of surface, and how you like to work: in detail, boldly, or both.

Look for primed canvases, as they are ready to work on without you having to prepare them. They are very readily available at all art stores and online.

5. Supporting Your Work

This very much depends on you. I prefer to stand when I work, using an easel. I like to step back when I am painting to give myself a different view and if there is good music on, some dancing may be involved too.

Wooden easels are the standard, but try to avoid both portable and metal ones as they tend not to feel as sturdy as a standard wooden one.

If you would rather work seated, there are table-top easels that you can set either upright or at an angle, depending on your preferences.

You could also prop your work up on a couple of books, and if you are working in a watercolour format, make sure you put a sheet of absorbent paper along the bottom to catch drips.

What Should You Buy?

Easels range greatly in price, but to start with, choose a smaller one and stay at the lower price range. Your local art store will have a selection that isn't too expensive, and you should be able to fiddle with them to get an idea of how they work and how to make yourself comfortable before you buy.

Once you find your feet, you will have a better idea of your needs and can then buy a larger easel if you prefer.

Daler Rowney do a very good selection if you would like to look online.

6. Palette

It really is very tempting to go off and buy a palette, but you don't need to. An old plate, a plastic box lid (above, with the green splodge on it) or a sheet of glass will all do very well. You have the added fun of peeling off the paint when the palette is completely dry—very satisfying—as the surface is shiny.

You can buy palettes like the one on the right, or smaller, which work really well.

There is the more traditional curved palette with the thumb hole in it, but I find them awkward. If you carry it, it becomes heavy, and if you lay it down, the thumb hole is just a place to lose paint.

However, having said all that, if you are wanting to work on large projects that will take a number of days or if you work at a sedate pace, you may want to consider a stay-wet palette. These have been designed especially for use with acrylic paints. They consist of a plastic tray, a wet layer of sponge, and a wet layer of stay-wet palette paper. You lay your paints out on top of these layers and when you have finished, there is a lid that when properly sealed keep your paints workable for days. These can be bought online and in art stores and are very reasonable.

But, at first, I would go for anything with a shiny surface.

Working With a Palette

Laying your paint out around the edge in a specific order is the only way to go. Start working from left to right from yellows to oranges, reds, pinks, brown, greens, blues, purples and (if you are using it), black. White is normally placed before the yellow. This is done to help you keep your tube colours clean, and when you run low, you know where to squeeze out more. You'll also find you can select the colour you want without thinking if you always put it in the same place.

The centre of the palette is used for mixing your shades and adding your mediums.

Only use small amounts of paint at a time, and if you haven't mixed them with a retarder, you can cheat by spraying them with a spray bottle of water to keep them damp.

7. Starting a New Piece Of Work

How you start depends on the surface you are using.

If you are working on a canvas or canvas board, I would recommend using either charcoal on your canvas to map out the layout of your painting or thinned (with medium) paint. On anything else, use pencil.

Don't use ball-point pen. I did on a mural once and it kept seeping through the paint (luckily the mural was in my own home). I couldn't get rid of it—the pen, not the mural.

Once you have your layout, you can keep using thinned paint to block in colour. This will dry fairly quickly and will be easily worked over.

Some artists use thin paint like this to build layers of colour up as their preferred method of painting, while others then use thick paint, mixed with mediums achieving texture, and all sorts of paint effects.

8. Cleaning Up

If you have a stay-wet palette, pop on the lid tightly, or if you have finished, throw out the paper. Other palettes can be scraped clean with a palette knife or wiped with a cloth. If your colours have come out of tubs, scrape excess paint back into them, but make sure you don't contaminate them with other colours.

Clean your brushes in cold water. When you think they are sparkling, place a cake of soap in the palm of your hand and rub the brush into it. Rinse this in warm water. You'll be amazed at how much paint is still left.

Conclusion

There is no limit to what you can do with acrylics. There is still a bit of snobbery about their use, but it is beginning to fade—just remember Andy Warhol.

Acrylics are vibrant and versatile and, when used with mediums, create effects that no other paint can achieve.

Experiment with acrylics and your fun will know no bounds.

School started a while back, so let's get inspired and create three pencil characters in Adobe Illustrator. 

At the beginning, you will create the body of the pencil using basic shapes and a few distortion techniques, and after that comes the fun part where you will create different face expressions. You can even mix and match all the elements as you desire to obtain a personalized pencil character. 

Next, you'll add the arms, the hands and some accessories to make them even cuter. Let's start the fun!

1. Start a New Project 

LaunchIllustrator and go to File > New to open a blank document. Type a name for your file, set up the dimensions and then select Pixels asUnits and RGB as Color Mode. Make sure that Align New Objects to Pixel Grid is not checked. 

Next, go to Edit > Preferences > General and set the Keyboard Increment to 1 px and while there, go toUnits to make sure they are set as in the following image. I usually work with these settings and they will help you throughout the drawing process. 

2. Create the Body of the Pencil

Step 1

Grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool and use the settings shown to draw the first shape. With the shape still selected, go to Object > Path > Add Anchor Points in order to add an extra point in the middle of each side. Grab the Add Anchor Point Tool (+) and add two extra points at the bottom. 

Step 2

Use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select only point 1, and then go to Object > Transform > Move. Type 25 px in the Vertical field and hit OK. Next, select points 2 and 3 and apply the Move effect again, but this time type -6 px in the Vertical field.

Step 3

Still using the Direct Selection Tool (A), drag a selection over the three points at the bottom and then press the Convert selected anchor points to smooth option in the Control panel. This will generate handles and make them rounded.

Step 4 

Use the Line Segment Tool (\) or the Pen Tool (P) to draw a straight path over the rectangle, not through the middle but slightly to the right. Now, select the rectangle along with the path and press Divide in the Pathfinder panel. You will get two separate shapes.

Step 5

Fill the shape on the right with the lighter gradient and the shape on the left with the darker one.

Step 6

Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a triangle at the bottom (1) and then a path like in the next image (2). Select the triangle and the path and press Divide in the Pathfinder panel. 

As a result you will get two separate shapes, the “wood” and the “lead” (3). Add two extra points with the Add Anchor Point Tool (+) on the sides of the “wood” and move them 1-2 px outwards to create a slightly rounded look (4).

Step 7

Fill the “wood” with the linear gradient shown and select dark gray as the fill color for the “lead”.

Step 8

Let's add some highlights. Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a similar shape on top of the “wood” and fill it with a gray to white linear gradient (1). Set this shape to Blending Mode Screen and 20% Opacity (2). Next, zoom on the “lead” and draw two shapes like below using the Pen Tool (P). Fill them with a black to white linear gradient (3).

Step 9

At this point the body of the yellow pencil is ready. Group (Control-G) all the shapes and name the group “Body”. To create other pencils, just multiply the “Body” group and replace the two yellow gradients. Remember to use the lighter gradient on the right side and the darker one on the left.

3. Create the Rubber

Step 1

Grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool and draw a new rectangle with the dimensions shown. Go to Object > Path > Add Anchor Points in order to add an extra point in the middle of each side. 

Move these points in the direction of the arrows about 2-3 px using the arrow keys on your keyboard. If your points don't have handles, just press the Convert selected anchor points to smooth option in the Controlpanel. Fill this shape with the gradient from below (the colors are grayscale because they are shades of gray and it's easier).

Step 2

Draw a similar shape and send it behind the one from the previous step. Use the first gradient shown below to fill it. Copy and Paste in Back (Control-B) this shape and then move it upwards a little. Use the second gradient to fill it.

Step 3

Now, grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw two ellipses like in the next image. For the bigger one, select white as the fill color and set it to 75% Opacity. For the smaller one, use the linear gradient shown.

Step 4

Next, take the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a thin rectangle a few pixels wider than the metal shape.  

Step 5

With the thin rectangle still selected, go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow and apply this effect three times using the settings shown in the following image.

Step 6

Create two copies of the thin rectangle and arrange them under the first.Group (Control-G) the three rectangles and then go to Effect > Warp > Arch and apply a 3% Horizontal Bend.

Step 7

Let's add some highlights on the rubber. First, draw two ellipses like in the next image. For the one in front, select white as the fill color and set it to Blending Mode Overlay and 50% Opacity. For the ellipse on the right side, just select dark pink as the fill color. Go to Effect > Stylize > Feather and apply a Radius of 15 px for both shapes. 

Step 8

Grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw a path following the top side of the metal shape. Give it a 4 pt black Stroke and then go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a Radius of 9 px.

Next, draw a path at the bottom of the metal-shape, give it a 5 pt blackStroke and apply a 5.8 px Gaussian Blur. Send both paths behind the metal shape. 

Step 9

At this point the rubber is ready. Group (Control-G) all the shape that compose it and name the group “Rubber”. Arrange it at the top of the yellow “Body”. Make two copies for the other pencils.  

4. Create the Eyes

Step 1

Take the Pen Tool (P) and draw the eye shape, and then go to Object > Transform > Reflect, check Vertical and hit Copy. As a result you will get the right eye shape. Next, go to Object > Path > Offset Path and apply an Offset of 10 px to both shapes. 

Step 2

Fill the bigger shape on the left with the linear gradient shown. For the bigger shape on the right, use the same gradient but choose theReverse Gradient option in the Gradient panel.

Select the two eye shapes and fill them with white, and then go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow and apply the settings shown below.

Step 3

To create the iris, use the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw a 40 x 40 px circle over the left eye. Select blue as the fill color and a 3 pt Stroke, and then make a copy of this circle and arrange it over the right eye. Draw two smaller circles filled with black as the pupils.

Step 4

Let's add some sparkles in the eyes. Draw a small circle, fill it with a white to black radial gradient, and then set it to Blending Mode Screen (black becomes transparent). Make a copy of this circle and arrange it over the right eye. Next, draw two more circles at the top and fill them with white. 

Step 5

The first pair of eyes is ready. Create two groups called “Left eye” and “Right Eye”. The red and blue eyes are created using the exact same settings and colors, except that the eye shape is a 83 x 83 px circle, which is easier. All you have to do is to replace the gradient for the bigger shape according to the pencils, and in this case we have a red pencil and a blue pencil. Don't forget to pressReverse Gradient for the right eye.

At this point you can also make the iris and the pupils bigger or smaller and move them around as you like.

5. Create the Mouth

Step 1

Grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw the mouth shape like in the next image. Select dark brown as the fill color and a 5 pt Outside Stroke.

Step 2

Next, draw the tongue shape and fill it with red; then go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow and apply the settings from the following image.

Step 3

Still using the Pen Tool (P) draw a black shape in the middle of the tongue, go to Effect > Stylize > Feather and apply a Radius of15 px. 

Step 4

To create the teeth, first draw a shape like below. Select the mouth shape, and then Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) and remove all existing appearances. Select this copy along with the green shape and press Intersect in the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with white.

Step 5

Select all the shapes and create a group called “Mouth”. The other two mouths are created using the exact same settings and colors—just the mouth shape is different. To match the mouth to the red and blue pencils, just change the Stroke color of the mouth shape to red and blue as indicated.

6. Create the Eyebrows

Step 1

Draw the right eyebrow-shape with the Pen Tool (P) and select brown as the fill color. Go to Object > Transform > Reflect, check Vertical and hit Copy in order to get the left eyebrow.

Having the right eyebrow selected, go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow and apply the settings shown. Apply the effect again for the left eyebrow but increase the Blur to 25 px.

Step 2

Having the left eyebrow selected, go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow and apply the settings shown in the next image. Repeat the same thing for the right eyebrow.

Step 3

Use the Pencil Tool (N) to draw two paths on the front part of the eyebrows. For the path on the right, select a 2 pt Stroke and apply a1.6 px Gaussian Blur. For the path on the left, select a 3 pt Stroke and apply a 1.6 px Gaussian Blur again.

Create a group called “Right eyebrow” and a group called “Left eyebrow”.

7. Compose the Face Expressions

Step 1

All the face elements are ready and each element should be grouped now. You can be creative and you can mix and match to create different expressions for the pencils.

Step 2

These are the faces that I've come up with:

Step 3

Move the correct face over the yellow “Body” and at the next step we will add some highlights.

Step 4

For the right eye, select only the bigger shape from the group and take a look at the Appearance panel. Add a New Fill below the existing one and select white; then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform and apply the settings shown. Set the Blending Mode for this Fill to Overlay. Repeat the same thing for the left eye.

Next, select the mouth-shape and in the Appearance panel add a New Fill below the existing appearances. Use white, apply the Transform effect, and set the Blending Mode to Overlay again.

Step 5

Move the correct face over the red “Body” and add highlights to the eyes and the mouth as explained earlier. The same thing goes for the blue pencil. 

8. Create the Arms

Step 1

Grab the Pen Tool (P) or the Pencil Tool (N) and draw the arms for the yellow pencil. You can choose any shape. 

In the Appearance panel, add the four strokes using the Stroke Weight and the colors indicated and in the same order. Now, select only the brown Stroke at the bottom, go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform and apply the settings from the next image.

Step 2

The process remains the same if you create the arms for the red and blue pencils—just change the stroke colors and the shape of the arms as you want.

9. Create the Hands

Step 1

Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape like in the next image and then go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Apply the settings shown and hit OK.

Step 2

Switch to the Pencil Tool (N) and draw four paths following the edge of the hand shape (1). For the green, purple and blue paths select a 2 pt Stroke, and then go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply aRadius of 5 px. After that, for the red path select a 3 pt Stroke and apply a 7 px Gaussian Blur (2). 

Next, select the hand shape, Copy and Paste in place (Shift-Control-V), and remove all existing appearances (3). Now, select the four paths along with the copy of the hand and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Control-7) (4).

Step 3

Group (Control-G) all the shapes that compose the hand and make more copies for the other pencils. You can rotate them depending on the position of the arms. 

Step 4

Let's add some shadows. Take the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw two small rectangles as wide as the arms. Fill them with a white to black linear gradient and use the Gradient Tool (G) to adjust the direction (black should be next to the body). 

Set the rectangle from the right to Blending Mode Multiply and 30-40% Opacity and the rectangle from the left to Blending Mode Multiply and 50% Opacity because we have a darker and a brighter side.

10. Create the Accessories

Step 1

Now, we will create some accessories, although this part is optional. Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a lens shape, and reflect it to obtain the other one. Use the linear gradient shown to fill them both, and reduce the Opacity to 45%. Next, draw the frames, the bridge and then the temples. All these shapes are filled with dark gray. 

Step 2

Select the lenses, the frames and the bridge and then Copy and Paste in Back (Control-B). Still having the copies selected, press Unite in thePathfinder panel to get a single shape. Use the Selection Tool (V) to distort the new shape by dragging the bounding box downwards. Fill this shape with dark gray, apply a 4 px Gaussian Blur and reduce theOpacity to 25%. 

Step 3

To create the headphones, start with two shapes like in the next image as the cushions. Continue with the caps, and then draw the headband.

Next draw some basic music notes and then multiply, rotate and arrange them as you desire.

Step 4

Group (Control-G) all the shapes that compose the glasses and arrange them over the eyes. Make extra adjustments if the temples do not match perfectly.

Move the headphones over the blue pencil but send the headband in back. Next, arrange the music notes as you like.

Step 5

If you want to bend the blue pencil (or any other), first hide the rubber, the headphones, the face and the music notes in theAppearance panel to get them out of the way. 

Take the Direct Selection Tool (A) and drag a selection over the points at the top of the “Body” and move them towards the left as much as you want (1). Adjust the handles of these points and along the body if necessary (2). Now, make the “Rubber” visible and rotate it to match the new direction of the pencil (3). Make the rest of the elements visible and make additional adjustments for everything to look good (4).

11. Add a Shadow Under the Pencil 

Step 1

Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw an ellipse at the bottom of the pencil. Use the radial gradient shown to fill it (the white stop has 0% Opacity) and set it to Blending Mode Multiply. Send this ellipse behind everything by going to Object > Arrange > Send to Back (Shift-Control-[).

Step 2

Add a shadow under the other two pencils, and at this point they are ready.

Congratulations! You're Done

Here they are! The three cute pencil characters. I hope this was a fun tutorial, and if so, you can suggest a new character in the comments.

Whether you’re designing a book, a poster, a flyer or a magazine, you’ll no doubt come up against this common typographic problem. ‘Ragged’ paragraphs can make your type designs look uneven and messy and distract from the overall loveliness of your layout!

Take a look at this Quick Tip to discover some simple and quick methods of banishing those dreaded ragged lines for good.

First Up... What Exactly Is a Ragged Paragraph?

Pick up any respectable publication—be it the latest issue of Vogue or the latest literary novel from Penguin—and you’ll notice (or rather won’t notice) something about the paragraphs of text. They will be just that—unnoticeable. 

Professional typesetters and layout designers are expert at making paragraphs appear imperceptibly good. The paragraphs interact seamlessly with the rest of the layout, making the margins and graphics look fantastic, and helping the chosen typeface to shine.

One reason that these typeset paragraphs look so good is that they don’t have exaggerated ragged edges. A ragged paragraph has lines of text that finish haphazardly at different vertical points, creating an uneven block of text that looks a bit messy, like in the sample page of typesetting below.

Solution #1: Tone Down the Ragged Text

One thing to note is that ragged paragraphs can look OK, if they’re on the subtler side.

Look at the revised typesetting below for the same page. 

The text is still flushed left (choose Align Left from the Character Formatting Controls panel in InDesign), with a ragged alignment, but the text looks generally more pared back, and is much more easy on the eye.

To make text appear less ‘ragged’ without having to justify text (see Solution #2, below), you need to play around with the size of your type and adjust hyphenation settings.

To achieve the look here, I reduced the Font Size of the body text to 11 pt, and increased the Leading* to 14 pt, to give the text some vertical breathing space.

*Tip: increasing your leading a little makes most paragraphs look about 100% better!

I also ensured that hyphenation was switched on, by checking the Hyphenation box in the Paragraph Formatting Controls panel. This allows longer words to split across lines, helping the lines to stretch further and appear more uniform.

Another tip for controlled ragging is to ensure non-letter characters, such as hyphens and commas, don’t appear too often at the end of each line of text. Try to identify stray characters like these and minimise them—they have a tendency to make paragraphs look more ragged than they actually are.

So ragged text, when done well, can look very elegant and neat. It’s become increasingly popular with typesetters and layout designers, who like the literary, intellectual look it brings to books and magazines.

Solution #2: Justify Your Text and Apply an Optical Margin Alignment

The sure-fire way of getting rid of messy paragraph lines is to justify your text. Fully justifying text flushes text to both the left and right sides of the text frame, creating a uniform block of text that visually fills the frame completely.

To justify your text in InDesign, choose Justify with Last Line Aligned Left (a good choice for books and magazines) or Justify All Lines (a high-impact, decorative choice for posters and flyers) from the alignment options in the Character Formatting Controls panel.

There are some tips for justifying your text that will help you get the best result possible. Here, I’ve chosen to Justify with Last Line Aligned Left, and kept Hyphenation on. This creates a visually uniform block of text, but you can see that a couple of words have been split at awkward points (e.g. 'be-comes', 'dig-nified').

To help the reader, you might be better off switching Hyphenation off. As the text is set to Justify, the words are pulled across to fill the space, creating larger spaces between each word on some lines. In this example it’s not too noticeable, and makes the text easy to read. 

However, you may find you need to play it by ear, and judge whether some spaces are looking too large and clumsy. After all, you don’t want a block of text that looks sparse and patchy. Adjusting the Font Size of whole blocks of text and/or subtle Tracking of individual words/lines can help make your text look more compressed.

To complete your justified typesetting, and help your layout look even more tidy and lovely, you can also optically align the paragraph to the edges of the text frame.

To do this, open up the Story panel in InDesign (Window > Type & Tables > Story) and, with either the text frame selected or the text selected, check the Optical Margin Alignment box. 

Any small characters, such as apostrophes, or even character features, like prominent serifs, will be pulled just outside of the boundaries of the text frame, ‘optically aligning’ your block of text and making it look more visually uniform and boxy.

Conclusion

Getting rid of ragged paragraphs may be a subtle tool in any typesetter’s arsenal of skills, but it can make a huge impact on the presentation of your layouts.

To sum up, you’ve got two (arguably, equally sound) options for tidying up your type:

• Option 1: Keep your text flushed left and ragged, but minimise ragging with Hyphenation and by adjusting Font Size, Leading and Tracking.
• Option 2: Justify your text, pulling all text across to meet at both the left and right sides of the text frame. Experiment with Hyphenation and Optical Margin Alignment to get the best result.

Got a Minute?

In this entry for our Photoshop in 60 Seconds series, we take a look at how to create a seamlessly repeating pattern in Photoshop.

A Bit More Detail

Learn more about Adobe Photoshop on Envato Tuts+:

• Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners
• Mastering Light & Shadow in Adobe Photoshop free course
• Photoshop Essentials course
• Advanced Photoshop Techniques course
  

60 Seconds?!

This is part of a new series of quick video tutorials on Tuts+. We're aiming to introduce a range of subjects, all in 60 seconds, just enough to whet your appetite. Let us know in the comments what you thought of this video and what else you'd like to see explained in 60 seconds!

In our latest free course at Envato Tuts+, you'll learn how to make digital images look as if they were produced using old-school colour film.

The course, Give Your Digital Images a Colour Film Look, consists of just 11 videos with less than an hour of total viewing time, so you can easily find time to watch it, no matter how busy you are. And unlike our full-length courses, this one is completely free.

What You’ll Learn

Envato Tuts+ instructor Harry Guinness will show you what makes colour film visually unique and how to emulate the film look with your digital images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Using a sample image, you'll learn how to approach building your own creative look with consistency and personality.

Take the Course

To take this free course, simply go to the course page and follow the steps to create a free account. If you already have an account, just log in and you’ll be able to get started right away.

Or if you'd rather not manipulate your own images to create a colour film look, why not apply a colour film effect using Photoshop actions. It's a fun way to experiment with the effect, before taking the time to delve deeper and learn how to create it yourself from scratch.

For the first article in this series we turn to India, featuring a handful of illustrators and designers who create fantastic work from minimalist logo designs and branding to surreal and storybook style illustrations. I asked each artist how their country and culture inspired their work, and they delivered fantastic answers. Enjoy!

Anagha Mirgal

Anagha is a graphic designer from Kalwa, India, who specializes in minimalist logo design, illustration, and more. You can check out her portfolio.

Funky Chameleon Logo

"My country, India, inspires my work to be very colorful, vibrant, and lively, yet be simplicity personified! It makes me play and have fun with the basic shapes. Like we have 'Rangolis' in India, where an artwork is created by joining dots and creating beautiful patterns!"

Wedding Card Design

"Indian culture is what makes me add those little details on a simple minimalist form. Like I would decorate a simple deer back with intricate dots! Its just like designing an Indian bride's gown. We just love decoration and always try to add it on anything we create!"

Bird Graphics, Volume 3

Celebrate Togetherness With Coca Cola

Animal Graphics Volume 2: Full Bodies

Unni, aka Seerow

Unni is an illustrator originally from Kerala, India, who currently lives in Cochin. His digital paintings are fantastic, designed for product, animation, and more. You can check out more of his work in his portfolio.

UAE Exchange Global Calendar 2015

"Growing up in a culturally vibrant place like Kerala I could have been influenced by local culture. But there was no deliberate move from my side to assimilate any of that in my art."

Animation Backgrounds

"Many of my countrymen have influenced me in my professional career as teacher, fellow artists and well meaning coworkers. The cultural diversity of the country has often provided original ideas to build upon."

Radio Mango Naatile Tharam

"There are pioneers in every field who do path breaking work and create niches for themselves. They are masters of the art. Watch them and learn from them. I have benefited greatly from doing just that."

Orchid Queen

Snow White and the Huntsman Study

Prashanth Murali

Prashanth is a freelance graphic designer from Chennai, India. He specializes in branding and design, creating logos and assorted design work. You can check out his portfolio.

National Bank Branding

"Most of my designs / branding are country related. In any which way you can see a touch of our country's symbolic features like Lotus, Tigers, divinity and monuments and more. Colours are especially the most impacting in my designs. The credit goes to the vivid nature of our country in every place."

Evadirse Branding Project

"You can never see the same type of emotions and people in each state in our country. Colours, ethnics, people, practices, beliefs are all different in each and every state. Definitely my country has influenced me a lot in designing and given me vast ideas on what kind of designs I make."

Allure Digital Branding

"Of course my culture has become my greatest influence in designing. India is a teaming cauldron of diverse culture. When it comes to branding and designing, culture always comes in your way! You can't stop it. Embrace it!"

Syndeste Branding

FlyLotus Branding

Lavanya Naidu

Lavanya is an animator and illustrator from Kolkata, India. Her vibrant work comes to life not only through literal movement, but with vibrant, brilliant colors and fantastic characters. You can check out more of her work in her portfolio.

"Every corner I've looked while growing up in India, I have seen vibrant colours. Whether it's on vegetable market visits as a child, or the spices, salts and multi-coloured lentils at the grocers, the inside of auto-rickshaws, people's clothes, and even our homes."

TEDx Bangalore

"I imagine, this lends to my natural draw towards vibrancy. I try to apply that in my work-space, my animations, illustrations, often in what my characters are wearing and even in their personalities."

A Long Walk for Bina—Ruskin Bond

"A lot of the influence in my work comes from my country and our culture, a lot of it comes from personal experiences and anecdotes as well. However, at the end of the day, I truly strive to create something that most anyone can enjoy and relate to, from any part of the world. A tiny space on the very vast internet, which can hopefully make you feel at ease and that can bring us together!"

Malgudi Schooldays

Illustration Set 4

Asian Paints Lookbook

Many thanks to the wonderful artists featured above. You can follow them further around the web at the social and blog links below:

• Anagha Mirgal
• Seerow
• Prashanth Murali
• Lavanya Naidu

In this tutorial you will create a swallow in three different positions. We will be using ink liners to create bold lines, typical of American traditional tattooing, and watercolour inks to achieve a classic finish.

Swallows were traditionally used by sailors to indicate the great distances they had travelled. They symbolise 'return' as the bird will always return to nest at land, so sailors believed it guaranteed their safe return home and, should they die at sea, the bird would carry their soul to heaven. Now the swallow is a common and popular image in tattooing used by everyone.

If you're looking for some tattoo inspiration, you can check out the many tattoo vector designs over on GraphicRiver. 

What You'll Need

You will need the following equipment to complete this tutorial:

• Tracing paper
• Watercolour paper—I used fine grain, cold pressed paper, 300g/m
• Tracedown graphite paper
• B lead pencil—I use a mechanical pencil, lead size 0.7
• Red coloured lead for mechanical pencil
• Fine ink liner pen
• Medium ink liner pen
• Watercolour brush—I used a ProArte, Proleneplus, size 007
• Dr PH Martin's radiant concentrated watercolour ink in black, antelope green, grass green, true blue, scarlet and sunset orange
• Watercolour paint tray
• Masking tape

1. Start With Some Sketches

Step 1

Interlock two ovals, one slightly smaller than the other and at the angle shown. This can be drawn roughly as it is only a starting point. I would use a lighter coloured pencil, in this case red, as we will be drawing over our initial sketches.

Step 2

Now you need to add basic guide lines that will show where the eye, beak, wing position and tail will sit. The following pictures will give you three ideas, focusing on the wing position as this is the main area that changes the look of the swallow. I have flipped the basic image for two of the swallows as this will give flow of flight in the finished painting.

Step 3

Now we can start to give the swallow it's distinct, quirky shape. 

Using a graphite pencil, add the wing feathers, working from the tip of the guideline shape and reducing the size of the feathers until they join the body. Add a line that separates the wing edge and the feathers—I have chosen a simple shape that mirrors the shape of the top wing edge. Split the upper body from the lower by continuing the lower tail line throughout the body until it joins the lower wing. 

Swallow tails are typically wide and angular, so join the two tips with a continuous, swooping line. Finally, redefine the body shape, removing the obviously different oval shapes and making it one solid shape. These instructions apply to all three swallow designs.

2. Transform Your Sketches Into a Complete Composition

Step 1

Using a new piece of tracing paper, transfer your swallow sketches to make a finished composition, omitting all the red pencil guidelines. At this stage you can be creative with your design and play around with the composition until you have the perfect flight formation for your design. 

Step 2

Cut the tracedown paper to a size that is slightly smaller than your watercolour paper. 

Place the tracedown paper, graphite side down, onto the watercolour paper. Put the tracing paper with your design on top and secure all three layers together using masking tape. This will stop your work moving while you transfer the design, helping you achieve a clean finish.

Remember to place your design sketch layer centrally on the top, so that it is transferred successfully to the watercolour paper.

The tracedown produces a soft image, so you can work on top without any risk of the graphite line showing through on your finished design.

Step 3

Take the medium ink liner and draw over the graphite lines.

3. Add Colour to Your Design

Step 1

Now we will add colour to the swallows and bring them to life. Put your watercolour inks into the separate compartments of the painting tray. I would recommend adding plain water to the compartment next to the black ink, as you will use this to dilute the black ink to achieve a smooth gradient where necessary in the design.

Add a solid line using undiluted black ink to the top of the feathered section of the wing. Now, using water to dilute the shade, apply smooth strokes. Start by slightly overlapping the original black and working your way down towards the edge of the feathers. Add more water as necessary to reach a smooth gradient from darker to lighter tones. 

Repeat this technique on the head and the body.

Step 2

Complete all the black shading.

Step 3

Using the blue watercolour ink overlay, colour onto the black section. Again use the same painting method as in step 1, working first with the concentrated shade and diluting it with water as you move your brush towards the lighter edges. This gives the swallow a lovely, glossy look to its body.

Step 4

Now add the red for the bright, vibrant underbelly of the swallow. I like to leave an unpainted circular section around the eye as I feel it gives an extra design feature.

Step 5

Finally add the yellow to the top edge of the wing and the beak to achieve your finished swallows that pay homage to the tattoo classics drawn by American Traditional artists such as Sailor Jerry.

Additions to Your Finished Swallows

You can leave the swallow as a singular illustration, but I think it can be fun to add elements to the design to give them an extra tattoo-style feel.

To one bird I have added a banner or scroll, in which you can add a name or wording of your choice, and to the other I have added a little flower and leaves. Within the flower I have used the fine ink liner as it makes it more interesting to apply different line widths within the details of the design. Here you can really expand your creativity and play around with different ideas, or use the reference I have shown.

Drawing and painting using the methods I have explained results in strong, bold colour images and, as you can see with the swallows, you can produce very differing images by making just slight alterations. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and have fun creating your own swallow designs.

Today we're giving you a chance to look behind the scenes here at Envato Tuts+ and meet the editors who bring you all these tutorials and courses. 

We're a very 21st-century workforce: spread across the world, working from home, doing completely different hours, and communicating via web apps like Trello, Basecamp and Slack.

In this article, you'll get to see photos of our workspaces—from attics in Canada to basements in Spain, and from a cafe in the Montenegrin mountains to a soft play area in Leamington Spa. You'll hear how we work, how we balance work and family life, and how we stay productive and organised.

Ian Yates

Web Design Editor—Mallorca, Spain

My office space is a room at the bottom of the house (it’s tall and skinny) which looks out onto the garden. I wouldn’t say I’m a minimalist, but I definitely like things to be tidy—my head’s enough of a mess without my workspace adding to the confusion! 

The working hours I keep are fairly regimented too, possibly due to having two daughters. At 8:00 my wife, on her way to work, takes them to school, so I usually start at that point. They’re back by 17:00, so I like to be done and dusted by then. That said, working for Envato is a round the clock thing, and hugely flexible, so it’s not unusual for me to disappear on my bike for a couple of hours during the day—staring at a screen for eight or nine hours in a row isn’t great for productivity or creativity.

In terms of equipment, my setup is pretty standard. I used to be a Mac Pro fan, but have since realised that a 13” MBP can be just as powerful, and infinitely more portable (though you’ll never find me working in a coffee shop, or on the steps of a museum). Hooked up to a 24” Dell monitor, it’s a great working setup and really all I need. You’ll notice a pile of Ikea bits and pieces, and earlier this year I bought a refurbished Aeron chair; well worth the bucks because I’m pretty tall and can quickly get back problems by sitting down all day.  

Tiffany Brown Olsen

Course Producer—Vancouver, Canada

I love working from home and I also love routines. Living in Vancouver, Canada puts me in the latest timezone so I try to start work at 7am to give me the most overlap with my coworkers. My work schedule is broken up into 2 hour blocks, with a short break in between. These shorter concentrated slots help me stay focused and productive while not feeling tied to my computer. 

I have a few different possible places to work. I can work at my desk in the front room, in the office, or in the summer I'll occasionally work on the back deck. I love sunshine so I'll often move to whichever space is the sunniest!

Joel Bankhead

Courses & Content Manager—Manchester, UK

I work remotely from my home office in Manchester, UK. On days without early meetings (darn those Australians…) I tend to start my working day around 9am, take a healthy lunch break away from my computer, and finish up at 6pm. My wife also works from home, so we’ve put a lot of thought into the office environment to make sure that it’s peaceful and conducive to work. 

Staying healthy and maintaining a good level of energy and focus is vital for successful and satisfying remote work. To that end I tend to go for a run a few times a week, drink only water during the day, and try to work somewhere other than my office one day a week.

I enjoy experimenting with improving my productivity and rely heavily on Omnifocus to keep me on track. Recently I’ve been trying out the “Pomodoro Technique”, where you break down work into 25 minute intervals, separated by short breaks, and I’ve found it useful for maintaining better focus throughout the day. 

I’m also extremely aggressive with my email, hovering around “Inbox Zero” by the time I clock off. I try to prioritise well and split my focus effectively between important and urgent tasks, but I almost always overestimate how much I can get done in a given day.

Michael Williams

Game Development Editor—Leamington Spa, UK

I used to work very unusual hours, as my then-editor Ian will attest—he was often puzzled by the 2am emails he'd receive. But these days I've settled on 10 to 6, Monday to Friday, give or take an hour (and the odd late-night meeting). I do value being able to pop to the shops or meet a friend or see a movie on a weekday afternoon, and then make up the time in the evening or on the weekend.

I generally work from home on my desktop computer, but when I'm not doing data analysis and don't need the extra power, it's a nice change of scenery to take my laptop to a coffee shop, a park, or a friend's house and work through my inbox. In this picture, I'm working from a local soft play area, with Leon (3) "assisting" me.

We use Trello at Envato Tuts+ to keep track of what needs to be done and who needs to do it by when, and I'm a big fan of this approach, but when it comes to managing my personal workday, I find the best tool is a simple notebook: tasks I need to do today go in the top half, tasks I need to do soon go in the bottom half, and I rewrite it every morning. I've tried many different apps and techniques, and this is what sticks.

For actually getting things done, I find the Pomodoro technique works best. Since I work from home (mostly!), I'm surrounded by distractions (including, of course, the entire Internet), and there's no-one to stop me slacking off except myself. I've been doing this long enough to know that I can't fool myself into believing that I can resist all these distractions all day long, but I do at least have enough willpower to resist for 25 minutes at a time!

Tom McFarlin

CMS & Web Development Editor—Atlanta, USA

My family and I just moved and so my workspace is more or a less a makeshift office at the moment. The final setup is something I'm still planning, but right now I have everything I need in order to get my work done.

In this photo, you see my desk, a large jar of water, my Jambox for listening to tunes during the day, and my dogs that usually spend the day asleep right under my desk.

This next photo shows my setup a bit more. It includes all of the things that I need to sort through off on the left hand side of the desk. I hate clutter on the desk, but I usually leave it in a stack on my desk as a reminder that I need to take some sort of action on it.

The rest is my keyboard, trackpad, and monitor. In the background, you see my wife's computer.

David Appleyard

Envato Tuts+ Manager—Shrewsbury, UK

I’ve worked from home for years, and love having my own commute-free space to work. I tend to wake up around 5am, make a cup of tea, then catch up on emails and admin for the day. I’ll have breakfast with my wife before she goes to work, then work on bigger and more in-depth projects for the rest of the day. I’ll usually stop work around 2-3pm, and read, cook dinner, go for a run, work on something creative, or do jobs around the house.

We have a baby on the way around the end of the year, so I’ll get some first-hand experience of the challenges of home-working with kids (something many of the rest of our team already know all too well!).

Sean Hodge

Business Editor—Florida, USA

My day is broken up into work sessions—each a half hour to two hours. Length of work sessions are based on the task at hand. I take breaks as needed.

My mornings are really important. I try to shut out all distractions and get my most important projects done before lunch. My main focus in the first two hours is to do any work that requires a lot of creative thought, so I do my heavy lifting first. This could be planning business content, doing research, or writing. Then I take a break, head over to Starbucks, grab an Americano, then continue to work on similar material. 

After lunch, my energy dips a bit, so I work on more repetitive tasks, or work that needs to get done but isn’t as complicated. Here’s a helpful tutorial on managing your creative energy levels. After an hour or so of banging out simple tasks, I get back to working on more complicated projects. I then wrap the day with the last half hour pushing out any last minute emails, summarizing ideas, and planning for tomorrow.

Bart Jacobs

Mobile Development Editor—Antwerp, Belgium

The morning is when I get most of my work done so I usually get up pretty early. I love it when the world is still asleep and I can focus on writing or editing. To avoid that my inbox messes with my planning, I tend to read email only after I’ve put in a few hours of work. 

For Envato, I usually work from my home office, but it happens that I pull out my computer on the train. The train is actually a great place to get work done if it isn’t too crowded. I avoid working late at night to make sure my brain can get some time off. At the end of the day, I plan the next morning, take a look at the publication schedule for the next day, and end with a quick peek in my inbox to avoid surprises the next morning.

Adam Brown

Code Course Editor—Ottawa, Canada

Immediately before starting work at Envato Tuts+, I had a brief stint as a handyman and woodworker. To ease the transition to office life, I spent the weekend before starting my new role at the woodshop, building myself a new desk and filing cabinet. I use the desk every day and it's the nicest I've ever had—just the right size!

The best part of my job is working with my talented colleagues in the Envato Tuts+ editorial team and the fantastic instructors. As of today, I'm working with 18 instructors across 35 active course projects. The information flow is intense! To manage it all, I have a Rube Goldbergian spreadsheet I call "mission control", with lots of colours and lots of pivot. Some day I'll have to write an app.

Every day is different. I Skype, Tweet, post, edit, comment and send many many emails. Also, naturally, I watch a lot of video courses about coding. In the last eight months I've learned an almost dizzying amount about cutting-edge web and mobile development. It's a real treat to be able to learn from and grow this amazing resource.

Johnny Winter

Computer Skills, 3D & Audio Editor—Brighton, UK

Essentially, my workspace is in my loft room on the second floor of the house. This is a quieter working environment than the rest of the house. I work quite flexible hours, due to childcare commitments, and I tend to be more of a night-owl, preferring to work in the evenings. 

The Mac is a 27" Core 2 Duo, late-2009 model that has given exemplary service. It's due to be replaced, this month, with a brand new 27" Core i7 model. The speakers are from AudioEngine USA and are connected to an Apple Airport Express. 

To get the infinite loop effect of Mac within a Mac within a Mac, I took a photos with a Canon EOS 650D and out the SD card in the Mac, repeated a number of times, to get the effect. 

Jackson Couse

Photo & Video Editor—Ottawa, Canada

I drink many, many tiny cups of tea every day, made with a gaiwan and sipped from teacup of unknown origin and rather so-so design. I used to have another one, but I have no idea where it's gone. This one has a crack. I have the habit of getting wrapped up in things and forgetting to stop working, but my little one-at-a-time tea ritual pulls me away from the desk long enough to stop and think and catch my breath every once in a while. Always drink good tea!

Andrew Blackman

Copy Editor, Travelling Around Europe

I'm from London originally, but when I started working for Envato Tuts+ last year I was living in Crete, and now my wife and I are doing some long-term travelling around Europe for a couple of years.

One of the great things about working for Envato Tuts+ is the flexibility. There's no office to commute to, and no regular hours to keep. As long as I have good WiFi, I can work from anywhere. And as long as I get all my work done, I can work the craziest hours I want.

This photo was taken in a small cafe in the mountains of Montenegro. We had left the coastal town of Kotor that morning and were driving to the capital, Podgorica. On the way, we stopped off and I caught up with work for a couple of hours. Then we drove on, and that evening I stayed up late into the night doing more work.

When I'm in one place for a while, I generally settle into a pattern of working roughly 12pm to 8pm, five days a week. But while I'm travelling, those same 40 hours a week can get scattered around all over the place.

Whether you've downloaded stock actions from a site like GraphicRiver or have created your own in order to speed up your vector creation process, you may want to know or want to explain to others how to install and use Actions in Adobe Illustrator CC. Let's do this together!

1. Download and Retrieve the Action File

Step 1

For the purposes of this quick tip tutorial, I'll be using both this Long Shadow Actions file and the 3D Extruder - Vector Actions Pack from GraphicRiver. Once action files are purchased, you can download the ZIP file.

Retrieve your ZIP file from wherever your downloaded file was saved to (I set my browser to download files to a folder on my second hard drive; your default folder may be different than what you see below). I'll be using Windows 10 for the screenshots in this tutorial, but giving instructions for both Mac and Windows machines.

Step 2

Decompress your ZIP folder. If you are on Windows, right-click your zipped folder and hit Extract All... You'll then be prompted to specify where you're extracting the folders contents to, which is entirely up to you.

If you're on a Mac, simply double-click the folder. You can, of course, move your newly decompressed folder wherever you may need it on your machine.

Let's take a look at what is in our folder below:

• Two AI files
• One Action Script
• One Help File

The files contained in your download may vary, including not having a help file or only containing an action script, so let's press on to using it together.

Step 3

This step is optional, but may help you keep your actions organized. We're going to move the actions file into the preset Actions folder. On a Mac, you'll likely find it in Applications/Adobe Illustrator CC 2015/Presets/en_US/Actions. This will vary according to your version. For Windows users, you'll likely find it in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CC 2015\Presets\en_US\Actions unless you've specified a different location for your program and related files to be saved.

Move your file into the Actions folder, and let's get to loading it into our Actions panel.

2. Install the Action Script

Step 1

In Adobe Illustrator CC, create a New Document (or open a working document). Open the Actions panel (Windows > Actions). Under Options in the panel, hit Load Actions...

Step 2

You'll be prompted to navigate to your file, which we placed in the Actions folder previously. Once you locate your file, hit Open.

Step 3

Wait a moment for the actions to load in your Actions panel. This particular file has a lot of actions that can be applied to whatever vector content we have. This wouldn't be a tutorial if we didn't apply some of these actions to some simple shapes, so let's do that together.

3. Use the Long Shadow Action Script

Step 1

The file that I'm working with is a bit particular in that it specifies using an enclosed AI file to complete the effect. If you're joining me in using the Long Shadow Actions file, open the file named LS_Object_Placement.AI and place your shape within the file where it says "Place Object Here".

Step 2

Select the object and the long shadow action from the Actions panel of your choice. Hit "play current selection" and wait for your action to complete. I chose the action labeled Medium Down Right.

Step 3

In the Layers panel, unlock your object and Group (Control-G) both the object and newly created long shadow together. You can Copy (Control-C) and Paste (Control-V) the group into your working document.

4. Use the 3D Extruder Action Pack

Step 1

Let's take the 3D Extruder Action Pack for a quick spin. Repeat the previous steps of purchasing, downloading, unzipping, and locating your action files. Load the new actions into your Actions panel. I'll be using the 3D Silicone Rubber action as seen below.

Step 2

Like the file before this one, you need to apply any actions or graphic styles included in the purchased pack in a specific .AI file. 

In this case, it's the file labeled Empty_Template_(Start_Here).AI. Paste your content into the file. Select it and Play the selected action from the Actions panel as we did with the long shadow action. Your newly extruded design will be on a new layer above the original layer within the Layers panel, ready for your use in other documents.

Great Job, You're Done!

While stock packs and files may vary, those you find in GraphicRiver have to meet certain standards, including having everything needed within the zipped folder to recreate the expected result. 

In this case, it's the actions as advertised. Simply download, unzip, and load your action in order to begin speeding up your design process and playing with trendy design styles, without having to spend time figuring out how to create them from scratch.

Realism is tricky, but if you can master it you'll bring your art to a whole new level.

In this tutorial, I'll be showing you how to paint four different hairstyles varying in texture and curl patterns. Learn the step-by-step process to achieving realism by being strategic with Layer Blend Modes.

1. Know Your Brushes

We can't start these paintings without first arming ourselves with the proper tools. And in order to paint digitally, I'll be using a Wacom Intuos 3graphics tablet. There are so many brush options available online that it can be difficult to know which ones to choose. Let me make this process simple by telling you that you already have incredible brushes waiting for you in Adobe Photoshop CC.

Just hit F5 on your keyboard to bring up the Brush panel. Click over to Brush Presets and choose from the list of brushes already provided for you.

Hard Round Pressure Opacity Brush

The main brush I'll use is my all-time favorite, the Hard Round Pressure Opacity brush. Because of its faded edges and its reliance on pen sensitivity, this brush is versatile enough to draw our sketches and paint flowy hair texture.

Dry Brush

The second brush I'll need is a textural Dry Brush. To achieve that hyper-realistic effect, it's always good to add a little grit and texture to your work.Later on I'll use this brush to help recreate the texture of coarse, curly hair.

2. Use Photo References

Many beginners make the mistake of starting a painting without collecting references first. They see their favorite artists jumping right in, so they assume they should just follow their lead.

Realism takes time, so don't get ahead of yourself. There's no better way to understand how things look in real life than to study photography. Professional artists spend thousands of hours painting, re-creating, and studying certain lighting conditions so they're more familiar with common scenarios than the average person.

I'll be using these four pictures to help guide me along the way:

1. Straight, Short Hair (Pixabay)
2. Straight, Long Hair (PhotoDune)
3. Wavy, Long Hair (PhotoDune)
4. Curly, Coarse Hair (PhotoDune)

To Sketch or Trace?

There's always a debate war over the topic of tracing. I know it seems like cheating, but this is just practice and I don't want your feelings about your drawing ability to get in the way of picking up some other great tips. So even if you're not confident and feel as if you "can't draw", I promise you can still follow along. Simply trace over the image to get the sketch you need.

3. Understand Layer Blend Modes

Painting on layers set to different blend modes can save you loads of time when working in Photoshop. Here is the process I'll be using to paint each hairstyle. I don't necessarily follow this order every time, but I definitely start with layers set to Normal.

Normal

Set the document for your canvas at 300 dpi to make sure you're painting at a high resolution. You should always use the Normal blend mode for the initial sketch, to fill in the base colors, and for general painting.

Soft Light

Is your sketch annoying you? Dark black lines don't always look the greatest, especially if your sketch is a little messy. To make your sketch blend well into the colors of your painting, set the blend mode toSoft Light. Adjust the Opacity to your liking and you'll see a huge difference in the realistic effect you get.

Multiply

Every time you need to work with a different blend mode, add a new layer.

Layers set to Multiply should always be used for shadow so you don't have to go digging through the color picker. Simply hover your brush over the area you want to be in shadow, and hold the Alt key. This will pick up the color from that area and it will automatically be multiplied to get a darker result.

Overlay

Whenever I think of Overlay, I think of light. On a layer set to Overlay, you can paint both warm and cool light to brighten up the hair in a way that simulates natural lighting. However, be careful with this blend mode because you can overdo it.

Linear Dodge (Add)

Create a new layer for Linear Dodge to instantly add bright highlights to your hairstyles. And all you have to use is nearby colors that you select with the Eyedropper Tool (E).

Now that you know the process that I typically use for painting hair, let's try out some different hairstyles.

4. How to Paint Short, Straight Hair

Step 1

Let's begin with an easy "bob". Sketch the short hair, making sure it has body and movement. Paint some flat colors for the hair and skin on a new layer and set your sketch to Soft Light.

Step 2

Add a new layer and set it to Overlay. Use a bright yellow color to paint radiant light where the sun may be hitting the hair. This will cause the dark brown hair color to turn into a warmer shade.

Step 3

Set a new layer to Multiply and use the same brown color from your base to paint shadows for the hair. If you're painting starts to look a little patchy, clean it up and make sure that the Hardness of your brush is at 100%.

Step 4

Continue painting more strokes of hair using a smaller brush size. Let your reference guide you until you're confident enough to experiment on your own.

Step 5

Work on the shape of the hair. Add wispy hair strands to show more movement, and then soften the edges with white or by slightly erasing them. Include a quick blue collar for character.

Step 6

Fill a layer underneath all the others with a baby blue linear gradient.

Step 7

Finish off by setting a new layer to Linear Dodge (Add). Paint the remaining highlights on this layer using a brush size of 1-5 pixels. When you're finished, this is how the short, straight hairstyle looks.

5. How to Paint Straight Hair With Bangs

Step 1

The next style we'll tackle is still straight hair, but this time with bangs. Draw your sketch and pay special attention to how the bangs fall across the forehead. 

Even if you're going for a darker hair color, select base colors that are lighter than you would expect. Paint them on a new layer and change the blend mode of the sketch to Soft Light.

Step 2

Let's add some shadows. Set a new layer to Multiply and paint the darkest shadows first. Try to keep the shadows soft and let the base layers peek through.

Step 3

Paint warm light on the outer edges of the hair using a layer set to Overlay.

Step 4

Fill in the background with a beautiful peach gradient. Paint more details for the hair by experimenting with color and using a tiny brush to mimic the hair strands. Even though it's a straight hairstyle, it should still have some movement.

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Step 5

Continue working on the hair. When you're ready for highlights, add a new layer and set it to Linear Dodge (Add). Paint the final highlights and add shine across the bangs. Here is the final result.

6. How to Paint Wavy Hair

Step 1

Now that we're painting wavy hair, we can break down the structure of curls. Study how curls twist together and draw the hair in blocks to understand how the curl wraps around. For the most part, this simple "S" shape will be the basic curve for the hair.

Step 2

Paint the base colors for your wavy sketch. Set the sketch to Soft Light, and then start painting shadows on a new Multiply layer.

Step 3

Generally speaking, the process is still the same from the straight hairstyles. Keep painting more shadows before painting highlights on the new layer for Linear Dodge (Add).

Step 4

To finish this look, add a tan Linear Gradient for the background. Use a small brush again to paint bright highlights. In order to get the texture down, allow yourself to be kind of messy with this step, since curled hair is a lot less tame.

7. How to Paint Coarse, Curly Hair

Step 1

The last hairstyle we'll cover is coarse, curly hair. This is typically ethnic hair that is rich with texture but requires more steps than the previous hairstyles.

Start a sketch like the others using a Hard Round Brush.

Step 2

Paint the base colors, but this time use a blonde Linear Gradient for the hair. This will gradient will help us understand more about how the hair should be layered. Then set the sketch layer to Soft Light.

Step 3

Try to visualize how the different layers of hair sit on the head as you concentrate on the shadows. The colors will vary depending on the dye job. In this case, the original reference has an "ombre" hairstyle, so you'll need to experiment with different colors on new layers set to Overlay and Multiply.

Step 4

As a woman with wild, curly hair, I'm very familiar with its texture. But in order to paint it, you have to incorporate other brushes.

Paint texture using the dry brush from earlier. The dry brush will simulate the frizzy nature of afros, so make sure to sprinkle texture throughout the hair.

Step 5

Continue expanding the curly texture of the hair. These curls are very different than the wavy ones, so use squiggly lines all throughout the hair to simulate tight curls.

Step 6

Finish up by setting the hair against a pink background and adding warm light to make the hair pop. Set a layer to Linear Dodge (Add) to add bright spiral curls that should look as if they're popping forward.

Conclusion

And that's it! Learning how to paint realistically can be a rewarding experience. You learn so much about different lighting, textures, and colors, as well as what you're capable of creating with Photoshop.

I hope you've enjoyed learning how to paint these four different hairstyles. Do you have a favorite? Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!

Do you feel the crisp winter air? Yes—winter is approaching! During this time of the year, many birds migrate in search of warmer temperatures—except the sparrows, our little friends which are always around us. 

Let’s draw one of these cute creatures! We will use basic shapes, move a few anchor points, and use the warp effect. You will find many similar elements from my previous tutorials, which will make this tutorial easy and still fun to create!

Alternatively, you can always look on GraphicRiver at the many animal vectors available.

1. Draw the Body Shape

Step 1

Create a new document (Control-N) and hit the Ellipse Tool (L). We will first create the body of the sparrow. Set the stroke color to any color, with no fill. Create an ellipse. Then add a smaller ellipse on the top. 

Take the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a rectangle; this will form the neck of the bird. To finish off the body shape, take the Direct Selection Tool (A) and make the lower part of the rectangle wider.

Your resulting shape should look like the following image.

Step 2

Select the shapes we just created for the body of the bird. Go to the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder) and click on the Unite button. Take the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C) and convert sharp corners into smooth. Notice that you are not clicking with the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C), but stretching the handles of the anchor points.

Step 3

Delete all the strokes and fill the resulting shape with the color shown in the image below.

2. Create the Beak

Step 1

Let’s move on to the beak. Draw a yellow ellipse. Now, we want to get a sharp corner with the help of the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C). Click on the right anchor point. Then take the Direct Selection Tool (A) and select the top and bottom anchor points. Shift them to the left. We now have the beak shape done!

Step 2

Let’s draw a narrow ellipse. Make the right anchor point sharp and go to Effect > Warp > Arc. Enter the following settings.

Step 3

Don't forget to expand the resulting shape (Object > Expand Appearance). Place this shape on the beak that we created in the previous steps. This adds the shadow to show the upper and lower parts of the beak.

Let’s put the beak on the sparrow.

3. Create the Eye

We will need to create just one eye because we can only see one side of the bird. Let’s create two ellipses for the eye.

He can see now!

4. Create the Pattern of the Sparrow

Step 1

As you can see, our bird is not a real sparrow just yet. We will add a special pattern that will distinguish this little bird as a sparrow.

After creating a new gray ellipse, place it as shown in the image below. Select the body shape of the bird and make another copy in front (Control-C, Control-F). Keep it selected and, while holding down the Shift key, select the new overlapping gray oval. In Pathfinder, press the Intersect button.

Step 2

Draw two more ellipses and place them as shown below. The smaller ellipse is not overlapping the body—don't do anything with it. Select the body shape again and make another copy in front (Control-C, Control-F). Keep it selected and, while holding down the Shift key, select the new overlapping oval. In Pathfinder, press the Intersect button.

5. Create the Wing

Step 1

Make the left anchor point of the newly created ellipse sharp by using the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C). Then move the top and bottom anchor points to the right. We just created the shape of the wing.

Step 2

Create three more ovals. These will represent the feather.

Step 3

Group those three ellipses you just made—it will help you to maneuver easily. Holding down the Shift and Alt keys together, slightly move up the grouped shape. So you've just created a copy of the ellipses. 

Press Control-D few more times to repeat your last movement, until you have five sets. Then select the whole column of ellipses, hold down the Shift and Alt keys, and move it to the right. Keep pressing Control-D until you have six columns overlapping each other.

Step 4

Go to Effect > Warp > Bulge and in the new window, adjust the options you can see below. Don't forget to expand it: Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 5

Place the warped ovals for the feathery effect on our wing shape.

Rotate it a bit and place it on the sparrow.

6. Create the Tail of the Sparrow

Step 1

Using the Ellipse Tool (L), draw two long, narrow ellipses to create the tail. Place them as shown in the image below.

Step 2

Add two more ellipses.

7. Create an Acorn

Step 1

To create an acorn, start with three ellipses.

Step 2

Draw a brown oval behind everything you just made in the previous step. Keeping the brown ellipse selected, make a copy in the front (Control-C, Control-F). Make this copy smaller and darker.

Step 3

Using the Pencil Tool (N), draw a stem on the acorn. Before drawing the stem, delete the fill color and set the stroke color (the same as the fill color of the first brown ellipse from the previous step). 

After you’ve drawn the stem, on the Stroke panel, make the stroke very thick and check Round Cap. Expand this (Object > Expand, OK). Place the stem on the top of the acorn.

Step 4

Create two more acorns by copy-pasting and arrange them nicely together.

8. Create the Oak Leaf

Step 1

First, we are going to create the stalk, the main vein on our oak leaf. Take the Polygon Tool and click on your art board. Make it 3 Sides with any Radius. You will get a triangle—make this very narrow and long.

Step 2

Using the copy of the stalk, create more veins of the oak leaf. Draw an oval on the top of the leaf and add three more on the left side of the leaf.

Select the three leaves from the left side (not from the top), right-click the mouse and select Transform > Reflect. This will bring up the Reflect dialogue window, where you should enter Axis Vertical, Angle 90 degrees, and press Copy. Move the three new leaves to the right. Draw one more oval on the bottom.

Step 3

Let’s align the leaf. For this, select three ovals from the left side of the leaf and three ovals from the right side; group them together (right-click > Group). Select three veins from the left and the right side; group them together. Select the whole leaf and on the Align panel (Window > Align) press the Horizontal Align Center button. Look how perfect our leaf looks now!

Select the blade (all the ovals without veins and stalk) of the oak leaf, and on the Pathfinder panel press the Unite button. Make the bottom of the leaf sharp using the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C). Group the leaf.

Step 4

Create two more copies of the oak leaf with different fill colors.

Step 5

Create a nice composition from the acorns and leaves.

9. Combine All the Elements Together and Create the Background

Step 1

Combine everything together.

Step 2

Let’s create the background to hold our elements together. Place a light cream circle behind.

Step 3

In this step, you can nicely arrange the acorns and leaves behind the background circle.

Step 4

To finish the background, draw a square with width and height of 600 px. Apply a radial gradient from very light yellow to light yellow colors.

Step 5

Place this square background behind (Control-X, Control-B) everything you made before. That's it!

Conclusion

Our sparrow is ready! Isn't it adorable? Many thanks for your patience as you went through the whole process and achieved the great result. Our sparrow will enjoy the autumn as much as you do.

In this tutorial we will observe different objects falling and then take note of what we saw. Then we will animate what we observed! Different objects fall at different speeds and paths depending on their shape and weight! Let's go!

1. See for Yourself!

Let's gather the actual objects and drop em! Find a rock! Find a feather! Find a pencil! You're an animator! You have pencils all over the place! That should be an easy one to find. 

Then go to your front yard, stoop, backyard, living room—some place where you have enough room to drop your objects and observe them! Drop the objects from a comfortable standing height. I dropped my objects holding them up four feet, but it is not etched in stone—every person is a different height, so just make sure you're comfortable. Careful! Don't drop that rock on your toe. Go!

Step 1

Drop your feather!

Step 2

Drop your pencil!

Step 3

Drop your rock! Careful! 

Step 4

Take note of how each object fell. 

When I dropped my objects, I noticed the feather took longer to fall than the pencil and the rock. The feather did not fall straight down but rather from side to side as it got pushed around by tiny changes in the air. 

The pencil fell straight down and then bounced a little. Since the pencil is a brittle object, the pencil's shape did not change at all when it bounced. The rock fell straight down super fast and bounced very slightly. Take a moment to thumbnail out how your objects fell.

2. Animate Your Objects!

Step 1

Let's get to work on our animating our feather.

We'll start off by drawing in our floor line roughly an inch or less from the bottom of the page, so our animation is grounded.

Step 2

Start animating your feather! For this tutorial, instead of creating "key poses" first and then animating in-betweens, I animated straight-ahead. This is a more organic way to animate, because you are animating the movement as you go along. 

Traditional animation is usually 24 frames per second. I usually do 12 drawings per second of animation and I expose each drawing twice. This is what's known as animating on 2's. The slower our object falls, the more drawings we will create and the closer together our animation drawings will be. The faster our object falls, the fewer drawings we'll need to do and the farther the drawings will be from one another. 

Let's block in the animation and get the movement down first by just animating a simple pencil or pen stroke that is roughly the length of our feather. We'll worry about putting details in later. Let's just have fun animating, without getting bogged down worrying about getting the feather's details right. But we will try to keep the size of our pencil stroke consistent. 

As you animate, keep in mind the path of your feather and the little changes in the air that affect the feather's descent. Since the feather is falling slower than an object such as a ball, the animation drawings are closer together and there are more of them. 

Notice how our feather is falling more slowly and from side to side. The light grey stroke at the top of the page is our first frame, and the dark grey stroke is where we are now. Notice how close together the drawings are—since the feather is falling slowly, the drawings even overlap in some cases. Keep going! Looks great!

It's ok to check on your progress as you go along. Good going!

The feather doesn't have to fall at the same "speed" the entire way down. I made some of the drawings further apart from one another to speed up the falling, giving the illusion that the feather is being affected by small changes in the air. Air is organic and small changes can be caused by a door opening, a person walking by, wind or any number of changes. Also, I decided to have fun and have the feather turn as it falls.

Nice! That's a good looking feather animation. But it still needs something!

Step 3

Let's add a little bit of a settle to our feather, so that the feather doesn't just fall and stop on the ground. Usually, once an object falls to the ground, gravity is not done with it yet! The object will usually bounce or squash. Even a subtle action like this will make your action so believable! 

After the drawing, where the feather makes contact with the ground, let's add a few frames where the feather changes shape to gently "squash" down before returning to its original shape. It's subtle but effective. Give it a try!

I want to show you the feather's settle, so let's zoom in to get a closer look. This is our feather's first contact with the ground.

This is our "settle". The feather lands on the ground and then gently "squashes" down. The other squashed pose is in dark grey. The feather's original position is in light grey.

Now the feather returns to its original position. See the space between the original position and the settle position. Its very subtle, but effective.

If we want to really smooth out our action, let's add an in-between between our settle and our original contact position. Notice the in-between in dark grey.

That looks great! Adding the settle really gives the feather weight and depth. That's a great-looking feather animation! We'll add details later—let's move on to our pencil!

Step 4

Animate our pencil! Again, we'll worry about details later—let's block in our movement first, using a rough brush stroke.

As you animate, keep in mind that the pencil will fall much quicker than the feather. The pencil is heavier and more streamlined, so it has less resistance than the feather and will fall straight down.

Notice that the drawings are further apart and there are fewer drawings. The pencil is falling much faster than the feather. 

When I dropped my pencil, it landed on its end. This image is the pencil's first contact with the ground. But it might fall differently for you. You can tweak what you learn here depending on the conditions around you when you dropped your object. This is your special animation. Everyone's animation will differ a little, and that's fine!

My pencil made contact with the ground and then tipped over onto its side. I reflected this in my animation!

Step 5

Add a slight bounce! The pencil is a rigid object, but most of the time it will still bounce a little when dropped to the ground. The pencil's contact with the ground position is in light grey, and the pencil bouncing up position is in dark grey.

Let's check it out. Looks great! I think it can use one more thing...

When I observed my pencil falling, it bounced a couple of times. Again, everybody's pencil might fall slightly differently. In my animation I added one more tiny bounce. It's a very subtle motion, yet effective!

Good job animating your falling pencil! We're almost done! Let's get to our rock!

Step 6

Lets ROCK! This is our first drawing. I just blocked it in in solid grey.

When I observed my rock falling, I noticed that my rock fell in a straight path down. Take a look at my progress. The rock in light grey all the way at the top is the first frame. The rock in dark grey all the way at the bottom is our second to last frame. I noticed that the rock fell quickly, so I made my drawings further apart to reflect this—the action will happen very quickly. 

Contact pose! Our rock has hit the ground. Good job!

Looking good! For some reason I feel that it's missing something, however. The rock is lacking the feel and weight that a real rock would have, so it just looks as if it comes to a stop.

Step 7

Add a very slight bounce to our rock. When I dropped my rock, I noticed that it bounced very slightly when it hit the ground. Give it a try!

That's better! Adding a one-frame extra bounce gives the rock so much more believability! The rock is heavy, so the rock barely leaves the ground when it bounces. Good job! You animated all of your objects!

3. Add Detail to Our Objects

Clean up! Now that we've animated all of our objects, let's give our rough animation drawings detail—or clean up the drawing as we say in the animation biz. I'll just go over my rough animation with a fine black pen stroke. 

Step 1

Let's add detail to our feather.

Working on top of your rough stroke, add your details but have the feather keep the same position and tilt as our stroke.

Let's add detail to our second drawing and continue cleaning up the rest of our frames.

That looks great!

Step 2

Now we'll add detail to our pencil.

Here is the first frame of our pencil. Let's do the same thing with our rough pencil animation that we did with our feather.

Let's add detail—keep going until you've cleaned up all of your pencil frames.

Perfect! That looks great!

Step 3

Now let's move on to finishing up our rock. I added a clean black line and I also added a few hatch lines, to give the rock some dimension and texture. Not essential, but it's a nice effect.

Lets go ahead and clean up the rest of our rock drawings.

Looking good! Perfect!!

Congrats! You Did a Great Job!

In a short time you animated three objects falling a short distance to the ground. You learned about how different objects behave differently when they fall due to their size or shape or weight. Not every object falls or moves in the same way. This is knowledge that will benefit you in your animation endeavors! Keep animating!

Autumn is such a beautiful season, with its crisp weather and bright colors. This tutorial will show you how to use a couple of leaf images, textures, adjustment layers, and a lighting effect to create a bright autumn leaves text effect. Let's get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial:

• Archivo Narrow font.
• Asphalt 02 by Limited-Vision-Stock.
• SoilMud0041 Image 1 - Medium.
• Grunge texture 4 by darkrose42-stock.
• You can choose any of the Leaf Images available. The ones used here are from the Leaves0060, Leaves0132 , and Leaves0233 sets.
• Water 02 by DH-Textures.
• Free Pack 6000 photoshop gradients by Supertuts007 (load the CSP True Sky Gradients.grd file).

1. Create the Background

Step 1

Create a new 1600 x 1031 px document, place the Asphalt 02 image on top of the Background layer, rename its layer to Background Texture, and resize it as needed.

Step 2

Double-click the Background Texture layer to apply a Color Overlay effect using these settings:

• Color: #5f4f31
• Blend Mode: Multiply
• Opacity: 50%

This will darken up the texture and enhance its coloring.

Step 3

Place the SoilMud0041 image on top of the Background Texture layer, resize it as needed, and rename its layer to Background Texture Overlay. Change its Blend Mode to Multiply and its Opacity to 30%.

2. Create the Text

Create the text in All Caps using the font Archivo Narrow Bold. This will be used just for reference, so change the rest of the settings depending on the text you have.

Here, the Size is 550 pt and the Tracking is 50.

3. Add the Leaves

Step 1

After you pick the leaves you'll be using to create the effect, you'll need to add them to the document.

Make sure to place the leaves (File > Place) instead of duplicating them, and then resize each leaf you place as you like.

Step 2

Double-click the leaf layer to apply a Drop Shadow effect using these settings:

• Color: #3d2d0b
• Opacity: 35%
• Distance: 6
• Size: 3

Step 3

This will apply a simple shadow to the leaf. Right-click the leaf layer and choose Copy Layer Style.

Step 4

Place the other leaves, and then right-click their layers and choose Paste Layer Style in order to apply the Drop Shadow effect to all the leaf layers.

4. Duplicate the Leaves

Step 1

Select the Move Tool, and check the Auto Select box in the Options bar.

What you'll need to do next is press and hold the Option key, click and drag the leaf you want to duplicate, and release all.

After you duplicate each leaf, press Command-T to enter the Free Transform Mode, and then resize, rotate, and position the duplicated leaf. 

You can also use the Edit > Transform > Flip options to create more variations.

Repeat that until you cover the whole text with different leaves, and you can scatter a couple around it as well.

Step 2

This process is a bit time-consuming, but as you create more leaves it gets faster.

When you're satisfied with the result you get, group all the leaf layers in a Leaves group, and make the text layer invisible by clicking the eye icon next to it.

Step 3

You can also change the order of the leaf layers to get a more dynamic outcome.

5. Add the Leaves Texture

Step 1

Duplicate the Background Texture Overlay layer, place the copy on top of the Leaves group, and change its layer's Blend Mode to Linear Burn and its Opacity to 5%. This will add subtle texturing to the leaves.

Step 2

Click the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Hue/Saturation.

Step 3

Change the Saturation value to -10.

6. Add the Vignette Texture and the Gradient Map

Step 1

Place the Grunge texture 4 on top of all layers, rename its layer to Vignette Texture, resize it as needed, and change its Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 2

Add another Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, click the Clip to layer icon, and change the Hue value to -37.

Step 3

Add a Gradient Map adjustment layer, use the gradient shown below, click the Dither box, and change the layer's Blend Mode to Soft Light and its Opacity to 50%.

7. Create the Smart Object

Step 1

Go to Select > All, then Edit > Copy Merged, and Edit > Paste.

Step 2

Place the pasted image on top of all layers, rename its layer to Lighting Effects, and go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters.

8. Apply the Lighting Effects Filter

Step 1

Go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects, and add a Spot Light.

Adjust the ellipses you have to match the ones below. You need to make the light come from the top left corner to the bottom right one.

Step 2

Use these settings in the Properties panel to the right:

• Color: RGB (255, 251, 235)
• Intensity: 23
• Hotspot: 60
• Colorize: RGB (255, 249, 231)
• Exposure: 0
• Gloss: -17
• Metallic: -50
• Ambience: 19
• Texture Height (for each channel): 1

This will add some nice lighting and a bit of detailing to the effect.

9. Add the Water Overlay Texture

Step 1

Place the Water 02 image on top of all layers, rename its layer to Water Texture, and then change its Blend Mode to Soft Light and its Opacity to 50%.

Step 2

Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on top of all layers, click the Clip to layer icon, and change the Saturation value to -31.

This will add a nice rainy/wet feel to the final outcome. You can play around with the different textures and settings to get different results.

Congratulations! You're Done

In this tutorial, we used a couple of textures and effects to create an asphalt background.

Then we created the reference text, and started adding, duplicating, resizing, rotating, and spreading styled leaves all over it.

After that, we added a couple more texture and adjustment layers, and applied a lighting effects filter to enhance the outcome.

Finally, we added a water texture to make the result look more realistic and autumnal.

Please feel free to leave your comments, suggestions, and outcomes below.

When you get a graphics tablet for the first time, it's hard to stop yourself from painting all these ideas out of your head. You try, they turn out worse than expected, but you keep trying. Sometimes you get this feeling that maybe you should practice before getting into real painting, but these exercises are so boring! You want to paint a dragon, not a couple of shaded blocks.

I feel you! That's why I've prepared a set of exercises that will make you learn without having to paint boring things. Paint whatever you like using any of these techniques, and you'll see progress in no time!

1. Paint With Light Only

We usually start with a white canvas, but that's simply a remnant of a traditional medium. This "default" position forces us to paint both light and shadow, even though shadow isn't really a thing—it's just lack of light (see my article about light and shadow to learn more).

By starting with a black canvas, you're forcing yourself to paint with light only, making shadow what it should be—an area without light.

Step 1

Prepare a sketch of your object.

Step 2

Invert its colors (in Photoshop you can use the shortcut Control-I) and fill the background with black.

Step 3

Lower the Opacity of the sketch (make it almost transparent).

Step 4

This is where the fun begins. Define your light source, guess which areas it reaches, and paint them with white.

Step 5

That main light bounces off the ground, so it creates an ambient light under the object. Use it to shade the object some more, this time with a darker shade.

Step 6

That's it! You can finish your exercise here, or go further and refine the picture. You can leave it as it is, or use this as a shadow layer (in Multiply mode) for a color layer to create a "normal" picture.

2. Limit Your Colors

There are so many colors in Photoshop's color picker that it can make you dizzy! There's no guide to using them, either—they all look equal, so which color should you choose for the start? Green? Yellow? Yellowish green?

The truth is most objects have a limited color palette. Usually it's two or three main colors, and one or two colors for details. If you use more, it may start to look fake.

To practice working with colors without spending too much time on choosing them, prepare a limited color scheme before you start:

1. main color 1
   
2. main color 2
3. detail color 1
4. detail color 2

To make it even easier, create shades for every color:

1. half-light (darker, more bluish)
   
2. shadow (even darker and more bluish)
   
3. reflected light (a bit brighter than half-light, more bluish and less saturated)
   

You use Photoshop's Hue/Saturation adjustment (Control-U) to create these shades out of the main scheme.

Now, forget about the color picker and start painting!

Step 1

Paint your object with the shadow colors.

Step 2

Use the half-light colors to paint all the areas that aren't crevices.

Step 3

Use the main color to paint the directly illuminated areas.

Step 4

Use the reflected light color to paint on the opposite side of the light source.

Step 5

Finish the painting. Now you're allowed to add other color accents here and there, but these shouldn't be dramatic changes.

As you can see, planning your color palette at the beginning makes the whole process faster and more convenient. You can also easily test any color combination before you investing time and effort in a detailed object.

.

3. Copy Colors From Reality

You can hear professionals saying: "Photos aren't good references, use reality instead—you'll learn more". This is true, but they rarely mention how hard it is!

Let's say you want to paint a particular object. For the purpose of painting, we see it as a set of colors of various areas. Where do you start? Which color do you pick first? And how to choose it, when it looks different depending on its neighbors?

If you used a photo instead, you could use the Eyedropper Tool and see what shades there are in the picture. You'd probably be surprised—you'd find shades that you'd never expect to see there! A black object can contain shades of blue and yellow, white human skin can be shaded with greens and violets... Your eyes lie to you!

Let's put the Eyedropper Tool aside, and use something more educational instead.

Step 1

You're going to need a card, possibly stiff and with neutral color. If you don't have one, you can print it using 50%K.

Use scissors or a cutter to cut two square holes in it. One of them should be about 10mm high, and the other about 5mm high.

Step 2

Find a scene you want to paint. If you treat it solely as an exercise, feel free to take a photo and prepare line art out of it. However, if you plan to post the result as anything more than a study, your fans may feel cheated!

Step 3

Use your card to separate a color from the others. Then try to pick the same color in your program. Try to look at the card as if the colors were printed on it (closing one eye may help).

Use the bigger hole for big areas, and the small one for smaller. You can also use them both for a comparison, when two shades look identical at first glance. If a shade is too small to be separated even by the smaller hole, it means you should paint it later, when all the bigger shades are defined.

Start with the colors that are the most abundant in the scene. Once you have them established, you may not need the card anymore—your eyes will have enough support in your painting to help you pick the colors optically.

That's it! It may be terribly hard at first, but with time you'll get so efficient at seeing the colors you won't need the card anymore. This exercise is the best there is to learn colors and the relations between them. In contrast to using the Eyedropper Tool, here you consciously decide which color to use and where, and that decision is remembered.

What you may notice is that after finishing this exercise your mind will start analyzing the colors around you. This is a funny experience, but if it annoys you, don't worry—it goes away with time!

4. Paint Using a Big Brush

We paint to embody some vision in our heads. While that vision seems to be complete from the start, painting is a process, and you must do it step by step—there's no way to have it all done just like that.

This creates another problem. If I want to paint a dragon, where do I start? Should I paint the wings first, or maybe the eyes? And what about the scales? And when do I shade the whole thing?

The solution to these problems are levels of detail. You start big and loose, then you go smaller and more detailed. This lets you keep the uniformity of your picture—you never have a detailed head on one side and a sketched paw on the other. You also don't waste time searching for "that perfect brush". Just take a big one and start painting!

This exercise is a very short one. Just from now on, start all your paintings with a big, irregular brush. Then use it to block the light, and if you see something nice is being born, continue as usually. If not, you can start again—it doesn't take much time. This method doesn't guarantee every work will be a success, but it gives you a chance to learn about a failed one before you invest time in it.

To clarify, when I say "big brush" I don't mean huge strokes—they just should be big in proportion to the object. So, if you want to prepare for painting with a series of "thumbnail sketches", your brush can actually be quite small!

5. Shade Without a Directional Light Source

When you learn about shading and lighting, you usually start by picking a light source. Once you know where it is, you know which parts of the object should be illuminated, and which darkened by shadow.

However, if you look around, you'll see that objects are rarely so neatly illuminated by a single light source with a clear direction. They're usually flooded with ambient light—a kind of light that may come from one direction, but later bounces off everything, which makes it look as if it was simply "around".

If you want to shade your objects naturally instated of dramatically, you need to master this way of lighting. It's really simple, once you know it!

To use this exercise you need to simply understand one rule. Usually we shade an object with two lights: main light and reflected light. Everything in between is shadow.

A better idea for more realistic scenarios is to shade the object even before the lights are introduced. To do it, use a slightly brighter shade of the shadow color and paint everything that isn't a crevice or anything similar.

If you do this correctly, your object during the first lighting phase should look more like 2 than 1.

That's the whole exercise! If you missed the rule, here it is once again: before you start shading in a classic way, imagine a subtle light all around and illuminate the object according to it. Only then you can start shading. You may discover that your picture doesn't even need as strong light as you expected!

6. Study Before Painting

"Wow, this is such an amazing bird, I'm going to paint a griffin with these colors! It's going to be awesome!" You open Photoshop and... stop! Don't start painting yet. Ask yourself: have I ever drawn a bird before? Or a big cat? A griffin may be an imagined creature, but its parts are made of real ones. You can't paint something and tell someone it's a griffin's beak when it doesn't look like any beak, only because "griffins don't exist, so how do you know..."

If you've never drawn something, don't expect you'll get it right the first time. You may be able to recognize an eagle when you see one, but it doesn't mean you know how to draw something recognizable as an eagle. If you've never paid attention to it, you just can't know it! You can learn more about this phenomenon in my article Why Is It So Hard to Draw From Imagination?

If you think you can draw it, test it before you start. Sketch an eagle wing or lion legs. Was it easy? Great, you can start your amazing new piece. Was it hard/impossible to do? Great! You've just saved yourself hours of working on a painting you are not able to paint correctly (yet).

Do this exercise every time you want to paint some new great idea. Find out what elements it'll be built of, then sketch them separately. If they look correct, you're free to start. If not, gather a lot of references and just draw, a lot. You can find specific exercises made for this purpose in my article about building the visual database.

The topic isn't the only thing you should study before painting. Practice lighting, colors, composition... Don't let your future masterpiece be a mere testing ground for your skills!

7. Learn the Values of Colors

By starting a painting in grayscale and adding the colors later, you may make the process easier and less confusing. However, it may make you miss the important part of composition—the value.

Colors have a certain brightness, but they also have a value—the brightest blue will be always darker than the brightest yellow. I've explained it in detail in my article How to Master Value, so check it if you want to know more. Here I'll show you an exercise that you can just incorporate into your "normal" paintings.

If you turn a classic color wheel to grayscale, you'll see this:

It may seem confusing, but you just need to understand that green is bright gray, red is medium gray, and blue is dark gray. The other colors that are mixtures of those are also mixtures of their values, so it's easy to calculate theirs.

Why is it so important? Let's say you've painted this bird in grayscale:

Now you want to add these colors to it:

You proceed to paint these colors on a separate layer, then you change its Blend Mode to Color. And... this happens:

Why? The colors have been adjusted to the shading layer, which doesn't contain any information about value. For example, blue on top of a bright shade is brightened by lowering its Saturation. And it works—blue gets brighter, just not the way you wanted. But Photoshop can't read your mind!

To fix this, before adding the colors use Multiply Layer to "color" the object with grays. Use dark gray instead of blue, light gray instead of green, and so on.

If you add your colors now, they'll work like a charm!

The best thing about understanding values is that it lets you plan the final impact of colors. Our eyes search for contrast first, and colors are less important. No matter how colorful your picture, if you get the values wrong it will not "work" properly for viewers.

Values are not only important for painting in grayscale—even if you paint with colors at once, you must understand that fourth attribute hidden behind Hue, Saturation, and Brightness. Remember: for your eyes it's not only "blue" or "yellow"—it's "dark" and "bright"!

That's All!

I hope these exercise will let you see some quick progress! If you liked this tutorial and you have an appetite for more, you can also check 10 Basic Mistakes in Digital Painting and How to Fix Them. Or, if you want a more practical approach, try one of my digital painting tutorials like How to Remove Lines From a Drawing or Create a Furry Mascot.

Perhaps a client has given you an unusual brief, or your boss wants a project completed ASAP, or you just want to dip a toe into designing something a bit different—and you’ve got no idea where to start! 

In this series of Quick Tips I’ll share a couple of common design scenarios and how you can find the best-suited software program to tackle your project.

Got a book to design? Read on to find out the best way to make your ideas a reality...

Which Software Should I Use for Book Design?

If you’re not a seasoned book cover designer or typesetter, and are taking your first tentative steps into the publishing design world, it can be difficult to know which software you should choose. 

Many book designers have their own personal preference for the software they use to create book layouts, and there are a couple of different options which would be up to the task. Here are two of the most popular programs:

Option 1: QuarkXPress

You’ll find that some book designers are still fiercely loyal to Quark (QuarkXPress), which is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) layout program. 

While Quark now takes up a smaller slice of the publishing software market (Adobe InDesign has overtaken it in the past decade), it’s still a solid software choice for designing both interior layouts and covers, and has been updated for 2015, providing more support for designing interactive eBooks (ePub). 

So it’s a great choice for designing both print- and digital-format books.

The main advantage? You can pay for a one-off QuarkXPress licence, without having to subscribe to a service, as you do with Adobe CC. So it’s an economical choice.

The disadvantage? Quark has an arguably outdated interface, and can feel a little boring and clunky to use.

Option 2: Adobe InDesign

The other book design titan is Adobe InDesign. Similar in many ways to Quark, InDesign is also a page layout program. 

It has the flexibility to create both covers and interior page layouts, while giving you advanced control over page-sizing, typography and preparing documents for print and ePub. Adobe also provides fantastic design support, with Typekit, Adobe Color CC and Creative Cloud Libraries helping you aim for the lofty heights of ultimate design quality and polish.

The main advantage? Adobe InDesign is like a well-oiled book design machine; and you won’t be short on superior design quality if you go with this software. It also interacts seamlessly with other Adobe supporting programs, like Photoshop, Illustrator and Bridge.

The disadvantage? Adobe CC’s subscription service can be an expensive burden on freelancers and small businesses. 

The Verdict?

Both QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign are perfectly suited to designing covers and interior layouts for books. 

While Quark might be better suited if you're on a tight budget and has a very intuitive interface, InDesign arguably offers a bit more sophistication, giving you the confidence to create more unusual designs, especially when you treat InDesign as part of a larger supportive Adobe package, which includes Photoshop and Illustrator.

While the programs mentioned above are popular options, there may well be other alternatives that better suit your workflow, skills and/or budget, so make sure you shop around and take advantage of software trials before you commit.

The most important thing to remember? The right software can help you achieve your creative goals, but it’s the end result that really matters! Finding software that you feel comfortable with using and that's going to help you realise the ideas in your head is the first big step you can take towards making your end result the best it can be. 

Ready to get started with creating some designs? Polish up your book cover design skills with our Creative Book Covers Learning Guide.

Good luck with finding the perfect software for your book project! I’d love to know what you think—feel free to share your recommendations for tackling book design projects in the comments below. 

Are you a loyal user of Quark? Or do you prefer InDesign's interface? Do you use something entirely different for your book design efforts?

Welcome to our monthly feature of fantastic tutorial results created by you, the Envato Tuts+ community! Every day visitors like you take the time not only to read our tutorials but also to try them out. This is an assortment of those comment submissions found throughout the Design & Illustration section. Check out this set of results and join in for the next roundup, published next month!

Vector Tutorial Results

The first set of pieces were taken from the comment sections of vector tutorials in an assortment of vector drawing programs. Check out the results below!

Create Dimension With Gradients in This Abstract Poster Design

Narcisa Didoaca shared her result from a brightly colored vector illustration tutorial by Mary Winkler. She added:

" I learned some great techniques and I'm baffled about how simple it is to create great looking work."

How to Create an Alarm Clock Icon

Teodora is no stranger to our results round-up. She's shared her version of an alarm clock icon thanks to a tutorial by Ryan Putnam. She added:

"Wow, I love the final effect, also the steps were easy to follow. Thank you!"

Create a Casino Slot Machine in Illustrator

Peter commented with his version of a casino slot machine, from a tutorial by Ron Gilad, and turned it into a poster mock-up. He added:

"Superb tut! I had some difficulties with Step 20 but I think it's not bad..."

How to Create a Gearbox Settings Icon Using Simple Shapes

User Caro shared their result from a gearbox icon design tutorial by Bill Labus.

Quick Tip: How to Create an All Purpose Water Drop using Adobe Illustrator

User Ears Burning shared their fantastically created result from a vector water droplet tutorial by Iaroslav Lazunov. They added:

"I love this one! Started struggling with it in 2013 and couldn't get it. Just finished it today and am uploading it. I can't believe this one is out there among the tutorials! Thanks!"

How to Create a Self-Portrait in a Geometric Style

Joshua Kipper shared his self portrait from a geometric illustration tutorial by Beto Garza. He added:

"This is mine. Well, it's not the best but I've tried it and I'm satisfied with the result."

Create a Vinyl Record Player Icon in Adobe Illustrator

User Aa shared their pitch-perfect result from a record icon tutorial by Andrei Marius.

How to Create an Easy Living Room Scene in Illustrator

User lukovka shared their own version of a retro room vector illustration from a tutorial by Nataliya Dolotko.

Use Stroke Textures to Enhance a Halloween Illustration in Illustrator

Agata Filipiuk commented with their own take on a fun Halloween-inspired illustration tutorial by Ivan Petrusevski. They excitedly added:

"HERE IS MINE!"

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial Results

This next set of tutorial results was taken from the comment sections of various Adobe Photoshop tutorials published here on Envato Tuts+, and the contributions range from text effects to patterns and more! Check out the results below.

Creating A Fantastic Fantasy Night Sky In Photoshop

User Samantha put her own spin on this fantastical night sky design from a tutorial by Fabio Sasso.

Create a High-Gloss, Bubble Gum Text Effect in Photoshop

Galina Cuznetova payed homage to two superb superheroes on a glossy text effect tutorial by Samuel Mensah.

Create an Illuminated Text Effect in Photoshop

User Jovi commented with a lovely take on an illuminated text effect from a tutorial by Rose.

"Hi Rose...thank you very much.....its a beautiful tut, its very much appreciated...xoxox

Quick Tip: Combine a Crocodile and a Frog in Photoshop

Emir Can took a fun photo blend tutorial for a spin and shared his result in the lively comment section from a tutorial by Jason Stanley.

How to Create a Delicious Green Apple Illustration

User anshul shared their delicious take on a realistic apple illustration from a tutorial by Eren Goksel.

4 Ways to Create Long Shadow Effects in Photoshop

User SP8FX shared their result from a fantastic long shadow tutorial by Rose.

Create an Isometric Pixel Art Character in Adobe Photoshop

Sophie Huang shared her absolutely wonderful version of an isometric character created from a tutorial by René Alejandro Hernández.

Design Results

The final set of results are taken from assorted design tutorials that don't fit in the two previous categories, such as print design, drawing, and more. Check out the pieces users created below!

Create a French Movie Poster in Adobe InDesign

Husain Regal commented with his version of a fantastic French movie poster design from a tutorial by Grace Fussell. He added:

"Thanks for this great tut..... :-)"

Cartoon Fundamentals: How to Draw a Cartoon Face Correctly

Zulhilmi Mohd Nor shared his results from a cartoon face tutorial by Carlos Gomes Cabral. He added:

"Did a few heads using your guide. It helps a lot in understanding how to draw the proper head. Thank you so much for sharing the techniques."

Cartoon Fundamentals: The Secrets in Drawing Animals

Ariel Foster shared their result from a cartoon animal drawing tutorial by Carlos Gomes Cabral. They added:

"Thanks for this tutorial. At only 13, I think I did pretty good."

Design a Vintage ‘Wizard of Oz’ Movie Poster in Adobe InDesign

Vera Raziote commented with her result from a wonderful Wizard of Oz poster tutorial by Grace Fussell. She added:

"Fantastic tut! Helped me to start with InDesign. Thank you."

How to Be Involved in the Next Showcase

Have you created a piece based on one of our tutorials here in the Design & Illustration section of Envato Tuts+? We're keen for you to share your results with us! Check out the general guidelines below to join in with our community:

• Your artwork should be similar in some way to the tutorial that you followed or that inspired it. The aim of these showcases is to share what readers have created after following the tutorial.
• Comment on the tutorial you used, attaching an image of your result. We're keen on all levels of ability: from beginner to advanced!
• Include a comment about your result, yourself, or your process. We like knowing about you and what you're sharing.
• Share the tutorial when you share that artwork elsewhere on the web. If you've posted your piece on sites like Facebook, Tumblr or Behance, link back to the tutorial so that other users know your source and can join in on the fun.

Many thanks to the users highlighted above who shared their results with the Envato Tuts+ community. I look forward to checking out your brilliant versions of our tutorials in the near future, and welcome users new and old to participate in upcoming showcases.

In this tutorial we’ll go time travelling into the future and create a friendly, futuristic robot in Affinity Designer. We’ll be using simple shapes to create the base of our robot and applying gradients and transparencies to make the elements more realistic and three-dimensional. Finally, we’ll finish up by making some parts of our robot glow. If you're looking to skip the process, you can purchase character vectors over on Envato Market. Let’s get started!

1. Render the Head of the Robot

Step 1

First of all, let’s create a simple background to make the light parts of our future robot look more contrasting. Create a New Document of 600 x 600 px size. Use the Rectangle Tool (M) and hold down Shift to make an even square. 

Switch to the Fill Tool (G) and head to the upper context toolbar. From here, select the Radial Type of gradient. Then click the color square icon on the right to open the Color drop-down menu. Make the left side of the gradient bar light-blue and the right part darker blue. Place the gradient slider vertically, as shown in the screenshot, using the Fill Tool (G).

Step 2

Now let’s start forming the head of our robot. Take the Ellipse Tool (M) and hold down Shift to make an even circle of about 200 x 200 px size. Use the Fill Tool (G) to make a radial gradient from white to light-grey, creating a spherical shape.

Then Convert the circle to Curves from the toolbar above. Now we can deform the shape with the help of the Node Tool (A). Select the upper node and move it down a bit, squashing the top part of the head.

Step 3

Copy the base of the head and Paste it (Command-C > Command-V). Make the created shape a bit smaller by holding Command-Shift and dragging it to the center with the Move Tool (V). 

Change the color of the shape to a very dark-grey radial gradient, creating a dark screen.

Step 4

Create another copy of the head shape and make it a bit darker. Resize it, making the copy smaller. Place it around the dark screen, forming a grey rim around it.

Now let’s make a subtle highlight to make our screen glossy. Place a squashed ellipse in the top part of the screen, using the Ellipse Tool (M). Apply a linear gradient, using the Fill Tool (G)to place the gradient slider vertically. 

Fill both sides of the gradient bar with blue color, and make the right side transparent by lowering the Opacity to 0% in the Gradient options menu in the upper toolbar. Keeping the ellipse selected, set the Blend Mode to Colour Dodge and the Opacity to 75% in the top part of the Layers panel.

Step 5

Let’s add another glossy highlight on the screen. Copy the screen twice (Command-C> Command-V > Command-V) and move it down and to the right a bit, using the arrow keys of your keyboard. Select two copies and use the Subtract Operation from the upper toolbar to cut off the unneeded part, leaving only a thin, crescent-shaped piece. Fill the shape with any color just to make it visible.

Step 6

Move the created shape a few pixels to the right, detaching it from the edge of the screen.

We already have one highlight on the screen, so let’s see how can we use its appearance to make our workflow faster. Copy (Command-C) the squashed elliptical highlight. Then select the crescent-shaped piece and go to Edit > Paste Style. 

Voila! We’ve applied the appearance of the shape that we’ve copied. Now we can use the Fill Tool (G) to change the direction of the gradient, making the highlight more realistic.

Step 7

Let’s add the ears or the headphones to our robot. Make a narrow rectangle using the Rectangle Tool (M) and fill it with the same light-grey radial gradient as the head base. Place the rectangle at the left side of the head, right click and Arrange > Move to Back (or press Shift-Command-[).

Make the Corners of the rectangle Rounded to 50% in the upper context toolbar.

Step 8

Copy the created rounded rectangle and Move the copy to Back(Shift-Command-[).Make the copy a bit smaller and move it to the left, using the left arrow key. Change the color to a bright-blue linear gradient, making a bright decorative element of the headphone. 

Group (Command-G) the pieces of the headphone, copy the group and Flip it Horizontal, using the Align feature in the upper toolbar. Place the mirrored copy on the right side of the robot’s head.

Step 9

Let’s make the plastic parts of the head glossy as well. Draw a squashed ellipse at the top of the head and fill it with white color. Use the Transparency Tool (Y) to make the highlight semi-transparent, placing the transparency slider vertically. In fact, the Transparency Tool (Y) creates a linear gradient (the Opacity of one of its sides is set to 0%) from a solid color, so it is very convenient and fast to work with.

Step 10

Let’s make another highlight on the left side of the head, using the same technique as we did for the screen. Copy the head base twice (Command-C > Command-V > Command-V) and move the upper copy down and to the right a bit. Select the two copies and use the Subtract Operation, cutting off the unneeded part. Fill the remaining piece with white color and use the Transparency Tool (Y) to make a gentle highlight.

Step 11

Use the same method with Subtract Operation and Transparency Tool (Y) to add semi-transparent light-blue overtones on the right side of the head and at the edge of the right ear.

Step 12

The top part of the head looks a bit empty at this step. Let’s fix this, because our robot definitely needs an antenna. Create a rounded rectangle (or just copy one from the headphone) and place it horizontally beneath the head (Shift-Command-[).

Now let’s form an antenna on top. Make a small, narrow rectangle and fill it with horizontal linear gradient from dark grey to a very dark grey, making the shape look three-dimensional.

Step 13

Move the antenna to Back (Shift-Command-[), beneath the head. Below you can see a close-up with the dark-grey linear gradient that we’ve applied. 

Let’s add some notches to make the antenna more detailed. Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to make a narrow, dark stripe the same width as the antenna and place it on top. Select the created stripe, hold Option-Shift and drag it down with the Move Tool (V), making a copy. 

Make some more copies, and let’s distribute them in the right way. Select the stripes and open the Arrange window from the upper toolbar. Select Space Vertically to align the stripes, making the gaps between them even.

Step 14

Finish up by placing a spherical blue element on top of the antenna. Add glossiness by putting a bright-blue highlight on top. Switch the Blend Mode to Colour Dodge in the Layers panel and lower the Opacity to 75%. Use the Transparency Tool (Y) to make the highlight semi-transparent.

2. Form the Body of the Robot

Step 1

Now that we’ve finished with the head, let’s move on to the body of our robot.

Start by placing a squashed ellipse beneath the head and fill it with bright-blue vertical linear gradient. Duplicate the shape and Convert the upper copy to Curves in the context toolbar. 

Take the Node Tool (A), select the bottom anchor point of the converted copy and move it down, making a long arched shape.

Move the shape to Back (Shift-Command-[).

Step 2

Let’s fill the body with the same plastic-grey gradient as we have on the head. As previously, we can do this by copying the head (Command-C) and then selecting the body and Edit > Paste Style.

Now we can edit the bottom part of the body, making it more rounded and smooth. Use the Node Tool (A) to pull the node handles, making them longer and thus making the bottom part of the shape wider.

Finally, use the Fill Tool (G) to edit the position of the radial gradient, placing its lighter center in the bottom left part of the body, thus making the body more three-dimensional.

Step 3

Now let’s make the body more slick and glossy. Make a narrow shape for the highlight, using the same technique as we had for the side highlights on the head and on the face-screen. Add a smaller overtone on the right side of the body, filling it with a semi-transparent blue color.

Move the bigger highlight to the right a bit, detaching it from the edge of the body shape. Fill it with white color and use the Transparency Tool (Y) to make it semi-transparent.

Step 4

Let’s make the highlight a bit more realistic by dividing it into three parts. We can do this easily with the help of Operations. 

Arm yourself with the Pencil Tool (N) and draw a curve looking like a horseshoe, both ends of which are overlapping the highlight. It doesn’t matter if the shape looks rough and wobbly. Select both the curve and the highlight and apply the Subtract Operation to break the highlight into segments.

Step 5

Make two copies of the body base, move the upper one down and to the left, and use Subtract again to cut the shapes. Fill the remaining piece with grey color and switch it to Multiply mode with 21% Opacity in the Layers panel, darkening the right edge of the body.

Step 6

Let’s make our robot look more fancy and detailed. Duplicate the body base and make the copy smaller, moving it to the center. Switch the colors of the radial gradient to bright orange. 

Copy the orange shape and make it a bit smaller. Fill the back shape with dark-grey radial gradient in Multiply Blend Mode, forming a subtle shadow beneath the orange element.

Step 7

Add more highlights to the orange part, making it glossy and detailed.

And, finally, let’s move to the arms. Copy the headphones that we’ve created for the robot’s ears and place the copies on the top part of the body, rotating them a bit and thus creating the shoulders.

Step 8

Go on and duplicate the antenna from the robot’s head (without the top sphere), making the copy much larger. We’ll be using it to create an arm. Select the base of the arm and make the Corners of the rectangle 50% Rounded in the context toolbar above.

Convert the shape to Curves, take the Node Tool (A) and make the bottom part of the arm much wider by moving the bottom side nodes in the opposite directions with the help of the arrow keys of your keyboard.

Finally, make the stripes above the arm wider as well (let them cross the edges of the arm). Add more stripes, if needed, to cover the entire arm.

Step 9

Select all the stripes and Space them Vertically in the Arrange menu in order to align the shapes, making the gaps between them equal.

Group (Command-G) the stripes and Cut (Command-X) them. Then select the arm and Edit > Paste Inside. Great! Now all the stripes are hidden inside the arm shape.

Step 10

Let’s finish up with the arm by forming a simple robotic hand. Make two overlapping squares, one a bit larger than the other, placing the smaller square on top. Select both squares and use the Subtract Operation to cut out a square hole in the larger shape.

Moveit to Back (Shift-Command-[) and fill with a bright-blue linear gradient.

Let’s add a gentle shadow from the arm. Copy the arm base and move the bottom copy down a bit. Fill it with a semi-transparent blue color and switch to Multiply mode. Finally, Cut (Command-X) the shadow, select the blue hand and Edit> Paste Inside to hide the unneeded pieces inside the hand.

3. Form the Face and Add Glowing Effects

Step 1

Attach the created arms to the robot’s body and let’s drop a gentle shadow beneath our character to make it float above the ground. Make a squashed dark-blue ellipse, select it and right click to open a drop-down menu. Click Layer Effects and check the very first box: Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to about 9 px, making the shadow soft and blurry.

Step 2

Now let’s add a friendly face to our robot. Use the Ellipse Tool (M) to make a pair of circled bright-blue eyes. Then take the Rectangle Tool (M) and form a group of narrow stripes, depicting a squared, smiling mouth. Use the Add Operation to unite all the stripes together into a single shape.

Step 3

Now copy the eyes and the mouth and apply Gaussian Blur with 5 px Radius to the copies, thus adding a subtle glow.

Step 4

Put a thin squashed ellipse across the eyes and apply Gaussian Blur to it as well, setting the Radius to 5 px. If you feel that the glowing effect is too distracting, you can lower its Fill Opacity in the bottom of the Layer Effects option window.

Step 5

Add more glowing highlights, using the same method with Gaussian Blur effect. Play with Blend Modes of the created shapes, setting them to Screen and Add in the top of the Layers panel.

Great Job! Our Futuristic Robot Is Finished!

Congratulations, folks! We’ve successfully completed designing this friendly little guy in Affinity Designer, using basic shapes, gradients and Blend Modes to make it look glossy, three-dimensional and realistic. I hope you’ve enjoyed following this tutorial and learned some new tips and tricks that can be useful for your future illustrations. Have fun and stay tuned for more!

For this edition of our international artist feature, we turn to Brazil and feature a handful of illustrators and designers who create fantastic work from various graphic design work and illustrative media. I asked each artist how their country and culture inspired their work and they delivered fantastic answers. Enjoy!

Danilo Gusmão Silveira

Danilo is an art director and designer from São Paulo, Brazil, whose work with various companies throughout Brazil is inspiring and masterful. You can check out his portfolio and explore a select few of his projects below.

GEOM Display Typeface

"My work has influences of many cultures around the world. The Brazilian culture influences directly in my work because the culture has a lot influences in my personal life.

Coca Cola Eureka: Feed Your Ideas

"My contact with the Brazilian culture has been very strong since I was a child. One of these cultures was Capoeira. This sport makes me more focused and disciplined to learn something that I didn’t know and in the design field this is very important.

"Maybe, in the final result of my projects, we can’t see how the culture influenced my work, but as I said before the culture of my country makes me the man I am today and the designer I am today."

FORD: Final Feliz

Samir Taiar

Samir is a designer from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, who often works his graphic design magic in apps, icon design, poster design, and more. You can check out his portfolio and see some samples of his work below.

Flat Animals Study

"Brazil is a huge country that has been influenced by people from all the world. Starting by Portugal that colonized Brazil, the African people that had been enslaved for many years, and then we had received Italians, German, Japanese and many other people that came to Brazil trying to run away from war. All those people together started to create such a rich culture.

Beatles Poster

"I think that it brings to the Brazilian artist a huge diversity in references and techniques, and that helps us to create our own style and made us a very creative people.

Card Game Icon

"Another point is that we are a poor people. There are a few people that are rich and then a huge amount of poor people that have to be very creative to find ways to raise money to live well. So, Brazil is all about diversity and creativity.

Estúdio Alice

Estúdio Alice is an advertising and graphic design agency in Chapecó, Brazil. They specialize in logo design, branding, and more. You can check out their full portfolio and see some highlights below.

"We are located in the south of Brazil and unlike the center of the country, that have more tropical references, we're more influenced by the European settlement (Italian and German), but also from neighboring countries such as Uruguay and Argentina.

Georgia Gamborgi—Arquitetura

"The branding for 'Georgia Gamborgi – Arquitetura' has an explosive characteristic with some touches of “Brazilian-ness”. In the creative process we took a plunge into the universe of the architect, resulting in a graphic essence with striking features in personality and work.

Bangalô Boutique de Flores

"Boutique de Flores’ brand presents a more classic look with a European flair, reminding viewers of those small establishments with charming features. Brazilian influences happen in a very subtle way because everything is exquisite and a counterpoint to the hot and tropical side of the country.

Rotesma—Indústria de Pré-Fabricados

"The case of 'Rotesma – Industria de Pré-fabricados' presents more straight and sober features. The design is accurate, precise and cold. It represents the opposite of “Brazilian-ness”, but it communicates with the client’s origins, not only visually, but also in the understanding of cultural behavior.

"These last two examples reflect more of the studio’s footprint. As quoted above, we are further south and the cultural references are different, but in essence this translates the possibility of a country that breathes plurality."

Tom Bernardes

Tom is a painter and illustrator from Eldorado do Sul, Brazil. He's a freelancer who primarily works in a digital medium, painting characters, portraits, and more. You can check out his portfolio and see a selection of his work below.

Character Design Laslo & Lia

"My country has had a hard time lately; maybe due to its history. There is a lot of corruption and not many opportunities, so the Brazilian people tend to stay in the same place not going anywhere. As I like to say, it's like we're all standing on a mat.

Pink Girl

"All of this gave me fuel to keep the idea that I have to improve my art each moment I can for the rest of my life. I also have the objective to work for other countries which give me more opportunities to grow and create a great career.

Tough Girl

"The Brazilian culture makes me more sarcastic and humorous; a lot of people here are funny and laid-back. We also have a good sense of criticism. When we see something wrong, we will talk about it, or we'll start a discussion. I see a lot of those characteristics in my work. I don't want to blame someone; I don't want to point my finger and make a bad judgement; I just want to open a discussion and make people think about facts that often pass us by without anyone noticing."

Brain&Bros DZ.

Marco Dantas Petit owns and runs Brain&Bros DZ. in São Paulo, Brazil, and specializes in branding, graphic design, and packaging design. You can check out more of his fantastic work in his portfolio and see a few examples below.

Berry Good Açaí

"I think design is a universal language which has different audiences, and we need to find the different languages for all kind of people. As Brazil is a multicultural country, we have a huge mix of tastes and styles and that brought to my work an amazing challenge. That made me travel in multiple terrains and work with all types of interfaces. I would say that being a Brazilian brought to me a stronger and more cohesive work result.

Whey Ever Protein Ice Cream

"The colors here are very important, as we are a naturally colorful tropical country that helped to build a specific clinical eye and a passion for colors. Most of the people that have contact with my work love how colorful it is. Over my 17 years of work I've changed a lot of my taste and style; I became a multicultural designer and have the ability to reach new and trending design styles.

Me Gusta Madre Paletas Mexicanas—Ice Cream

"We Brazilians are a very warm and enthusiastic people, who are open to all the other countries and cultures. We are always learning with the world and look for design references abroad. I'm very proud of being a Brazilian, but I have to say that the American and European style inspire me daily."

Estúdio Quadrilátero

Estúdio Quadrilátero is a design studio in Campinas, Brazil, managed by Marjorye Cavazotto. They specialize in branding, packaging design, and editorial design. You can check out more of their fantastic portfolio and see a few samples of their work below.

1st Birthday!

"Brazil is undoubtedly a multicultural, eclectic country, full of good energy. These are some of the features that directly influence my projects in the studio."

Armazém Pet & Rural

"The fact that the country is multicultural and eclectic gives me more flexibility for solving problems. Each brand has its own design needs, and these needs are determined according to the company’s DNA and brand positioning.

"According to this definition, I feel like I need to adjust myself to each of these different needs to accomplish the project with perfection and to ensure it will convey its message effectively. I always joke that I am never allowed to do something based on my taste or on the customer’s taste: I must think of a solution that meets the customer’s needs in the most efficient way."

Mesa da Duquesa

"Something that directly influences my projects is the good energy that this country has. This energy can be expressed through the colors! Oh, the colors! Maybe this is the step of the creative process which I am most passionate about. I enjoy playing with the tones instead of just using pure colors.

"Why not think about a slightly warmer tone of pink with a touch of purple? I love to mix colors that, at first sight, don’t seem to match, but that, when put together, create an unusual combination full of personality!"

Many thanks to the wonderful artists featured above. You can follow them further around the web at the links below:

• Danilo Gusmão Silveira
• Samir Taiar
• Estúdio Alice
• Tom Bernardes
• Brain&Bros DZ.
• Estúdio Quadrilátero