8/7/2019 In a Few Minutes That I Had Spare

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In a few minutes that I had spare, I doodled a couple of birds to offer up for use, and sent across

the best of the two for consideration. It didn’t get taken up, so rather than let a sketch go to

waste, I decided I’d illustrate it for a tutorial of how I like to use Illustrator.

This is also the method that I used to create the cover images for the Adam Eason CDs.

Step 1:

Firstly, I took a photo of the sketch and loaded it into Photoshop (I’ve not installed my scanner yet

since I reformatted my PC, hence taking a photo and not a scan). This first image is the sketch

that I submitted.

Step 2:

I wasn’t quite happy with a few bits in the first draft the tail was too short, and the eyes made

the bird look stoned! So, adding a couple of new layers in Photoshop, I used white and black

brushes to paint over the parts I wanted to edit. At this stage, I also decided to group the

sketch layers and set that to Multiply, so that I could throw down some colour underneath, to

get a feel for the final look.

Step 3:

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Happy with the last stage, I loaded up Illustrator and placed the sketch into the bottom layer. I

locked it and set it to 50% opacity, so that I could work over the top of it.

I then began to use the Pen tool to loosely draw the bird. I say ‘loosely’ here it’s best to be

as accurate as possible from the start, but at this stage there’s still lots of time for refinement.

Just getting it drawn is the first priority.

As you can see, I made quite a few changes to the sketch here. I didn’t like the feet clutching onto

a branch I thought it would make a stronger and more versatile image to have the bird

standing on the ground, reaching out to pass the heart, so I reworked his feet. The eyes were an

accidental discovery I created the circles for the basis of the eyes, and then decided that I

preferred the look of them being wide open, so it stayed like that. The mouth got tweaked a little

as well, to look less awkward.

Step 4:

Here’s the lengthy part. This is where I take my basic lines, tidy up the curves, so that

everything flows nicely, and then where I make the nice, varied line-widths.

So, using the white arrow Direct Selection Tool (press A) and the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-

C), modify any lines that look like they’ve got any unintentional angles and points within

them, so that they curve smoothly.

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Next, to create the variable width line, lock all objects

and layers except the specific line you want to work on. Select it (Ctrl-A / Cmd-A), copy it

(Ctrl-C / Cmd-C), and paste behind (Ctrl-B / Cmd-B). You now have two copies of that line, one on

top of the other. Using the Direct Selection Tool, select one end of both lines (so you have two

anchors in your selection. Join them with Ctrl-J (or Cmd-J) and select ‘Corner’.

Now you’ve turned the two lines into an outlined shape. Invert the fill and stroke with Shift-X to

set black as the fill. Now if you move any other anchor points on the object, you’ll see the shape

of the line begin to emerge. This takes a fair bit of work, playing with the curves, to get the line to

look smooth throughout, but that’s the simplest and easiest technique that I’ve found for varied

widths. If you don’t want the line to come to a point, simply seperate the end anchors before

joining.

Step 5:

At this point, just before adding colour, I then take a look at all

of the lines and, using the Knife tool, slice off any segments that are overlapping i.e. if a

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line should be receding behind another, then that is the one that’ll get chopped up (TIP: Hold 

Alt/Option when you start to use the Knife tool, and you’ll get a straight line).

Then just delete (or hide, if you like) the sections of line that you won’t need to show in

the final image.

Step 6:

Not much work to go now! I now create a new ‘Colour’ layer beneath the ‘Lines’ layer and

roughly block out the main sections of colour as set out in my Photoshop sketch (it doesn’t

need to be neat, as the edges of these block are hidden behind the black lines).

Step 7:

Time to add the finishing touches… Create a new ‘Shadows’ layer above ‘Colours’, and select

shades of your main colour blocks. Draw out the shapes of the shadows as sketched in Step 2.

You can also add a ‘Highlights’ layer, as I did for the heart. Depending on the number of 

shadow/highlight depths you want, this can either be a very short step or an incredibly long one.

To add the final touches, I drew the stripes on the bird’s legs in a dark brown, and set the edge

of the tongue in a dark pink, to take some focus away from it.

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Final image: