EDITOR ARTIST

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTOGRAPHER

REGINE M. BACUDAN

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WHAT’S INSIDE?

Create a drip-effect portrait in Illustrator...

How to make your own Vector Portrait...

Fashion Photography...

Introduction

Some people may think it’s so easy to trace a photo, and that this tutorial is useless. I think it is extremely important to know how to do even the simplest things well. I have seen too many people try to trace a pho-

to for an i l lustra-tion and the end product is less t h a n d e s i r -able to say the l e a s t .The ba-sic idea of this tutorial is to show-c a s e how us-ing the the pro-

cess of tracing the basic shapes and con-tours of a photograph, as opposed to using predominately vector lines with strokes, as many beginning illustrators do, will result in a desirable, realistic yet stylized image.

Step1AOpen the source photo. In this case I’m using an image of myself and it’s available to Plus members. You can of course substitute your own image.

Step 1BLock the photo and make a new layer on top.

Step 2AStart by tracing the outline of the glasses.

Step 2BIf you notice there are so many different shapes, shades, and highlights that make up the glasses, specifically within the interior shapes of the lens and frame, so you have to make a decision on how detailed/complex you want to make the image. Since this tutori-als purpose is not an extreme photo-realism look, I will keep it relatively simple.

VECTOR PORTRAIT

Step 2C

Be sure to stay consistent on which shapes/shades you are following. Trace both the inte-rior and exterior shape of the frames. Step 2D

Step 2DSelect both the interior and exterior shapes, choose the Subtract From Shape Area option in the Path-finder palette, while holding Option to expand to one shape. Now you have one shape that makes up the base glasses.

Tutorials

STEP 2ETrace the bright (white) highlights on the glasses. Change them from a red stroke to white fill.

Step 2FIn addition to the highlights also trace the secondary highlights on the glasses and change them to a lighter red (#F47471HHH-V

Step 2GEven though they are clear we’ll need to describe the lens and the nose pieces. You may have to finesse the shapes a bit, drawing them so they look right as op-posed to sticking straight to the photo because the shapes are not well defined. Change them to a light gray (#EFE6E8).

Step 2HThat’s it for the glasses, switch the stoke to a fill (#EF4136).

Step 3A

Now trace the white shape of the eye. In order to get the shapes to align perfect-ly, select the top point of the eye shape, copy and paste a duplicate point on top. Add new anchor points using the Add An-chor Points Tool (+) where the pupil comes down from under the eyelash. Delete the extra end points and continue to draw the pupil using the top duplicated points. This is a very simple, yet useful tip that will help keep the shapes aligned and organized.

Step 6The nose can be a huge pain in the butt to get it to look natural. Do the simple line-work, tracing just the edges of the nose and cheeks. Change it to the same dark brown as the other facial features.

Step 5Tracing the eyebrows will be tedious, but if you take the time to really get into the detail, they can look phenomenal. Change them to the dark brown of the other facial features. Here is a peak at how its coming along.

Step 4BDo the same to the other eye.

Step 4A The eye lashes and shades that describe the upper and lower eyelids are so thin and subtle, they need to be exaggerated a bit. Trace them, and change them to a dark brown (#603913).

Step 3BSimply use the process described above to get the black shape of the pupil as well as the white highlight shape. Color them as they are in the photo, black, white and light blue/gray (#72A8B2).

Step 7The key to drawing the mouth is to not outline the entire mouth with the dark line-work like a clown. Draw the shape of the pink-ish part of the lips, and change it to a light pink (#FDE4E3). Then do the thin linework around the mouth, using only small shade shapes where needed.

Step 8Once the mouth is established, finishing the smile with teeth is fairly easy. You don’t need to draw every tooth, you just put in a few shadows that hint at the teeth. Fill these teeth shadow shapes with a light cream (#E2D7D3) color. Draw a large white shape behind all of the shadows.

Step 9A

Vector hair could be a tutorial all on its own, it could have numerous layers of highlights and shadows, but I prefer to leave it simply flat with the contour of the shape describ-ing the form instead of highlights. Now go around the outside of the hair form, trac-ing some of the big hair spikes. You can get fairly free form and deviate from the photo, as long as the shapes you are drawing refer-ence hair. Be sure to include inside shapes which you will exclude using the pathfinder palette (step 2D).V

Step 12Add a few shapes and lines to describe the shoulders and shirts

Step 11BAdd a simple shade shape to the neck and choose a shade of brown that is close to the skin color (#C49A6B), so that it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb. Send this shape to the back (Shift + Command + Minus key).

Step 11AIf you want a floating head you can stop there, but if you want a place for the head to rest simply trace the neck shape and apply the same colors and stroke as the face.

Step 10BWe’re almost there, time to bring it all to-gether. Trace the basic shape of the face and fill it with a skin tone, which is a slightly orange (#F5DFD5) tinged color. Also apply a 1pt stroke with the same dark brown col-or used throughout, and place this shape under the hair shape layer.

Step 10APut in the dimple and chin shapes and some linework in the ear

Step 9B

Step 13After looking at the image, I notice that the coke bottle glasses effect is going on with the eyes. Select all the shapes that form the eyes, and enlarge them just a bit.

Step 14Just for composition, add a light blue (#C2E6EA) background to the illustration.

Final Image

Thats it! Very basic, but learn to do it well and it can be a very useful illustration style. The final image is below. You can view the larger version here.

The portrait idea is as old as the hills, and in this competitive digital age it’s vital to add your own unique styles and twists to grab attention.

In this tutorial I’ll walk you through how to create an unusual multi-layered, drip-effect portrait. We’ll cover the basics of the Pen tool, using a limited colour palette and effec-tive layering techniques to create an original portrait. Once you’ve got the basics nailed,

First, create an outline for your portrait. Use the Pen tool to mark out the individual points, and the Convert An-chor Point tool to get your curves as smooth as you can. I’m working on an A3 docu-ment with the Stroke Weight at 0.5. Don’t feel as though your outline has to be perfect straight away - each object can be tweaked or manipu-lated at any time.

Create a drip-effect portrait in Illustrator

you’re happy with the general position-ing of the outline, it’s important to make sure the strokes are expanded to avoid distortion if any size changes are made during the process. You can do this by selecting the stroke, then going to Object>Expand. When this is done, get rid of the unattractive flat ends by removing points with the Delete Anchor Point tool.

What the image needs now is some darker areas. Using the Pen tool, cre-ate solid fills of colour, adding details such as eyelashes. Try not to go too over the top with this by keeping an even balance of light and dark areas - you don’t want to swamp your im-age either way. Don’t forget that you can come back to these at any point to add, take away or manipulate as you please.

Now that the basic design is com-plete, it’s time to choose a colour pal-ette. I’d suggest keeping this minimal. I’ve gone for one dark colour and four lighter variations of it. I’ve also chosen one bright colour to complement the duller ones. Once these are selected, lock the layer you’ve been working on. Create a new layer and, using the Pen tool, create a colour fill un-derneath the image. It always helps to name your layers.

It’s now time to start adding more de-tailed shading, using the remaining tones of colour. Lock off the layer you’re on and create a new one in-between the two. From here you’re free to really build up your shading without interrupt-ing anything else on the canvas. Try to keep the shapes fluid with those that al-ready exist. You can position the blocks of colour above and below each other by Arrange>Send Backward/Bring For-ward (or Ctrl/Cmd+/).

The drips are very simple to create. With the Pen tool, make a three-point trian-gle, then pull the middle point out with the Convert Anchor Point tool and push the remaining two points inwards to cre-ate the curves. Be as experimental as you want with this, adding more points to manipulate the shape. Alternatively, use a tablet - this will give a more freehand feel. I’ve used a combination of the two here.

To keep a fluid feel, the drips must work with the shading perfectly, creating a smooth joining curve. Add more Bezier points to the base of each drip to achieve this, if you have to.

Now it’s time to go crazy with the drips. Create a new top layer and begin to overlay them onto the different shades. For the best results, each drip should be created individually. How-ever, you can duplicate each one if you wish, making sure you merge them correctly with the line they’ll be sitting on.

Once all the drips are in place, it’s a good idea to start connecting some of the shad-ing together in the same direction as the drips, making it look more like a flowing liquid. This also clears up some of the large areas of space. Start to think about final-ising the face, making sure the drips are evenly spread and there are no large areas of blank space to attract attention.H

Now start thinking about the hair. Make an outline using the same stroke weight you began with on the face. It’s a good idea to begin with a single outline and then work in some further areas of detail, creat-ing sections within that space. Try to stay consistent with your use of filled and blank areas.

Once the hair structure is in place, it’s time to fill it with lots of detail. Using the Pen tool - this should be set to No Fill and a light stroke - begin to add two-point lines, flowing in the direction you feel the hair going. Try to mix it up a bit by switching direction every so often or intertwining lines. This is a time-consuming process, but the result makes it worthwhile.

Now the hair needs to be coloured. With the same layering technique you used to colour the face, start to add blocks of the brighter hue into each large section of hair. Once this is complete, turn each block into a colour gradient using two variations of the shade. This isn’t vital, but the two tones coming through the mesh of hair add a nice feel to the overall image.

It’s a good idea to work your way around the outline of the hair, add-ing extra detail as you go. Create individual strands of hair using the Pen tool and curve them around the structure. Use a mixture of solid fills and fine strokes.

The portrait is almost complete, so sit back and have a criti-cal look. If there are any areas that don’t match the overall style, amend them. Try to look for areas with less detail or lots of blank space that might stick out, then begin to think about a solid fill backdrop that will complement your image.

Once you’re happy with your image, I would recommend unlocking all the layers and se-lecting the entire picture. From here, expand it as you did at the start and group it. When this is done you can take it into Photoshop as a smart object to finalise your composition.

PHOT Ography

Fashion Photography

Photographed by; Regine BacudanModel: Jenny Belbis

Create a drip-effect portrait in Illustrator

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