From the course: Drawing Vector Graphics Laboratory

Creating free-form art

but it really resonated with me. Mainly because creative thinking thrives in abstract and non-literal context. So this quote made me think about drawing, specifically. And without a distinct purpose or commercial intent. Now one thing I wanted to cover in this video is all about creating free form vector artwork. Meaning, you're not really dependent all the time on geometric form and shapes, even though we're going to use some of that in this illustration. But how do you go about creating free form shapes that are going to be vector artwork? So if I zoom in on the hand, here, the hand is a good example of a free form shape. And one thing I want to go over, is when I've had my daughter create some of the artwork that we do for our clients in our studio, I've noticed she's gotten in the habit of when she approaches an organic free form shape like this, she is kind of thinking in a geometric sense. So she'll build something like this and she'll either use the rounding tool inside Illustrator. Or in this case she'll use the rounding tool that is a plug-in we use called Dynamic Corners. Either way, you can do this in Illustrator out of the box, you don't need the plug-in. But this is how she'll approach it. She'll build a shape like this, initially, and then she'll just go in on the shape and she'll want to round some of these corners. Kind of like this or she might come here and pull this out like this. And what she's trying to do is she's trying to get that under line organic shape but she's doing it using geometric tactics, meaning using rounding corners. Instead of using Bezier Curves and just building with the pen tool. Now, this doesn't look bad. I just don't think it looks as great as if you just do it from scratch. So I'm going to show you exactly how to build this hand. And this is the same principle I'll use to build everything, in terms of this figure. So let's go ahead and turn this off. And this is what I would call an improper way to build. It's not that it's bad. It's not that it's even wrong. I just don't think it looks as good as what you're going to see here. So we're going to turn on this layer. And I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to just build this out. The way I'd do it, if I was just building from scratch. We'll start here and we'll go up here. I'd place an anchor point here. And, once again, I'd just barely pull out the handles. Then as I approach this rounding, think of it as an oval sitting on it's side. So this may be the 9:00. So that's how I would go about doing all the artwork. And I just think it looks better. It looks more organic. It looks more free form in terms of its' overall shape. So that's how I approach an organic shape, like the figure. I'll build the whole body that way. Now on this design I have a lot of this inner detail. And the way I went about creating this inner detail, it's just simply strokes. Because I'm going to expand these strokes. Let's go ahead and zoom in a little. I'm going to expand these strokes and kind of punch it through the body shape that's behind him. So that's all I'm doing now, is I'm just composing all the elements. I'm not going to do that at this point. But this is how I build everything. I organize everything on their own layer just to kind of keep track of things and make the process easier. And then on the top part here, I'll still use shape building techniques. So I might take this shape and then I'll select this kind of starburst shape I created. And then I'll go ahead and minus front with the Pathfinder to get the final shape needed, that's going to kind of halo around the top part of this figure's head. But you can see I'm using a combination of shapes and paths, such as these little stems. But these are just simple elliptical shapes along with the spots that are on the skin and these radiating kind of circular lines that are forming ornaments on this figure's torso. And I'll just go ahead and add different things. So I have a plant here on the left hand side. And ultimately I create all of these, using just simple strokes like this to create the stems of this leaf. And then, we're going to establish a thickness for all of these interior lines and all of this detail. So we start creating a continuity of aesthetic here. And that continuity is, right now it's .75 points. I want to make all of these interior lines, everywhere, a three point. It doesn't matter where they're appearing, everything will be based off of a three point aesthetic or graphic standard, if you will. And that's going to give the overall piece a continuity that works really well. So I'll just increase the stroke thickness. I'll go to object. And we'll go to path. And I'll go outline stroke. We'll convert these to shapes, as you see. We'll unite them. And then ultimately I'm going to take that shape and I'm going to minus front with the leaf. And that's how I'll build all of the content, whether it's on the plant, whether it's on the body. And we'll walk through that on the body itself, as well. But I organize everything on layers. So here's another example of one part of this, where I've created on it's own layer. And once again, I'm taking throwaway shapes like this, taking the base shapes that make up the form and then I'll just lop off the bottom just so it has a nice even, kind of, horizontal line going across it. But notice, once again, notice how this line isn't perfectly straight. You see the Bezier Curves? It's slightly curved. So I keep that in mind as I'm building, regardless of what the content is. And now I'll just trim off the bottom of all those. And then everything else, I'm going to use these strokes to build out at that three point. I'm not going to walk through that process but I have everything set up to do that. So as we keep moving forward I'll create all the elements for the top part until I have all the base vector art to create the final base shapes that I need, that I'll color and compose in detail, moving forward. So we're going to go ahead and jump to how I build the interior lines here. So if I select this shape of the body, let's go ahead and zoom in so you guys can see this better. If I select the shape of the body you can see that it's eye's separate, it's heart's floating on top and add these spots here like this. So I might take the body shape itself. And I'll clone it, Command + C, Command + F. I'll select these spots and I'm just going to go intersections. So that's how I would get the spots to align. I'll do the same thing down here. I'll Command + C, Command + F and I'll select these spots and I'll intersect those as well. So that's how I create detail like that. Now if I turn on this layer on strokes. The reason I have it on it's own layer is, once again, it's just easier to manage. This way I can Option + Click this layer and it'll select all these strokes. We know our standard, our graphic standard's three points so we'll punch in three here. I'll go ahead and go to path. I'll go to outline stroke. You'll create all the shapes. I'll fuse these shapes using Unite. Now if I go to appearance, notice we want to go, let's see, we're going to go object, compound, and we're going to go to make. So these are now a compound shape. If we go back to layers, it's on top of our body. So we're going to select the body now. And then we're just going to simply punch through it. And this is going to create all the detailing and separate all the shapes for the body element, like this. And that's what we're after. Now we're going to separate all those shapes and color them later. But this is how I get the base art to match the sketch I did. It looks difficult but it really isn't if you think in shapes and you kind of build the way you know you need to create the shapes you need in the final art. So let's continue building. So I'm going to go up here. We'll go ahead and turn off these two bottom layers here. And to build this guy, once again, this is nothing but strokes, so all I'm going to do is I'm going to go to my strokes palette and we'll kick this up to three. Once again, we'll go to object, path, we'll go to outline stroke. We're going to go to unite, in the Pathfinder. And then we can go object, compound. We're going to release that compound. And sometimes you might have to hit ungroup, sometimes it'll be group. In this case I don't think we need to worry about that. Then I'll select the outermost shape and delete it. And then this shape I can delete. I just had that to build everything down below. And you can see, that's how quickly it can go to build all your shapes, once again, to match that aesthetic we've established in the body. So it has that segmented gap in between everything. And then of course, I create all the artwork, the base artwork to create the head. And I'll use the same methods for that. But when it's all said and done you end up with all of your base art having this nice gap into it. And this is where the fun begins, in my opinion. We can just establish our tonal family. And this is where, we're just simply going to start colorizing some of our artwork. So we'll select the eyedropper. And this is where I'll select areas. And this is where I'll explore a lot. Because I'll start coloring and then later on I'll come back and decide I'm going to change this color. But these are the colors I kind of ended up with, so we'll start with that. And then we'll go down here and this will be purple. And we'll select his pants or legs and this will be aqua. Let's see, we'll select this. It'll be orange. And we'll select this. This will be yellow. These colors could change all the time. You could do these however you want, so this is just kind of what I settled on. And, we'll make that light. And then this one, we'll make dark. And you can see how that affects the plants. Now on the areas like this, we're just going to fill this with white we're just going to fill this with white and then we'll knock the value down to 30%. and then we'll knock the value down to 30%. And that creates a nice tint in there. And that creates a nice tint in there. And we'll just sample that to get the same effect And we'll just sample that to get the same effect inside his leg. inside his leg. And so that's how quickly it can go with coloring. And so that's how quickly it can go with coloring. But look how fun it is. But look how fun it is. I just love how this coloring looks. I just love how this coloring looks. Now this is the next part, Now this is the next part, that is kind of a cool way to detail it. that is kind of a cool way to detail it. Now I should point out that Scatter Brushes Now I should point out that Scatter Brushes will blow to file. will blow to file. But it's okay because I'd never deliver them But it's okay because I'd never deliver them with those in place. with those in place. So let's go ahead and open up our brushes palette. So let's go ahead and open up our brushes palette. And you can see we have this dark shading brush here. And you can see we have this dark shading brush here. And then if we go over here to our paint brush tool. And then if we go over here to our paint brush tool. And let's go ahead and select And let's go ahead and select a color so you can see it. a color so you can see it. We'll do black. We'll do black. So if I go down here like this So if I go down here like this you can see how that looks. you can see how that looks. Okay, and right now it's set for the 30% we had. Okay, and right now it's set for the 30% we had. So let's go ahead and punch that up to 100%. So let's go ahead and punch that up to 100%. So this is the brush we're going to use now. So this is the brush we're going to use now. I can go ahead and delete that. I can go ahead and delete that. We'll go ahead and pull the brushes palette out here We'll go ahead and pull the brushes palette out here and we'll put it here. and we'll put it here. And we're going to go ahead, And we're going to go ahead, and go ahead and draw on this layer here. and go ahead and draw on this layer here. I don't want black though. I don't want black though. I want white. I want white. And actually, you know, now that I think about it And actually, you know, now that I think about it we do want that at 30%. we do want that at 30%. So let's change that back. So let's change that back. And so now with white selected, And so now with white selected, with the brush selected, with the brush selected, with the proper layer selected with the proper layer selected and our opacity selected, and our opacity selected, everything's loaded where we can now everything's loaded where we can now take this brush and we can just start take this brush and we can just start brushing detail on here. brushing detail on here. So I'll go like this. So I'll go like this. Maybe we'll start here. Maybe we'll start here. I'll select this. I'll select this. Let's check the stroke. Let's check the stroke. It's a one. It's a one. I think I want it a little bigger. I think I want it a little bigger. We'll go 1.5 that looks cool. We'll go 1.5 that looks cool. And let's go ahead and go over to this area. And let's go ahead and go over to this area. That looks good. That looks good. We'll go around here like this. We'll go around here like this. And you can see this little speckling detailing it's adding. And you can see this little speckling detailing it's adding. It just kind of looks cool. It just kind of looks cool. And we'll go like this And we'll go like this and it'll go off the bottom here. and it'll go off the bottom here. I'm not overdoing it. I'm not overdoing it. I'm just adding some nice interest to everything. I'm just adding some nice interest to everything. And I think that looks really cool. And I think that looks really cool. We can close the brushes now. We can close the brushes now. Let's go ahead and zoom in on this Let's go ahead and zoom in on this so you can see what's going on. so you can see what's going on. So you can see how it's added this nice, So you can see how it's added this nice, kind, of speckling texture throughout. kind, of speckling texture throughout. So it's not just distinctly flat art, So it's not just distinctly flat art, it has some character to it. it has some character to it. And actually, I think we can add one more. And actually, I think we can add one more. Let's go ahead and add a little detail Let's go ahead and add a little detail just like that. just like that. And, that's a little big And, that's a little big so let's knock this one down to like 70, so let's knock this one down to like 70, yeah, maybe one point. yeah, maybe one point. Yeah, that looks good. Yeah, that looks good. So that's pretty cool how you can add So that's pretty cool how you can add that kind of detailing with the Scatter Brush. that kind of detailing with the Scatter Brush. Scatter Brushes are fun to work with. Scatter Brushes are fun to work with. Just keep in mind they're going to blow out your Just keep in mind they're going to blow out your file a little bit. file a little bit. And of course, I think we can add some texture to this. And of course, I think we can add some texture to this. So this is a texture that I created, So this is a texture that I created, simply, with old toothbrush. simply, with old toothbrush. Speckled it and then I created different versions Speckled it and then I created different versions from dense speckling. from dense speckling. And this is very light. And this is very light. So on this texture we're going to So on this texture we're going to color this orange, like this. color this orange, like this. And I think we'll go ahead and have it multiply. And I think we'll go ahead and have it multiply. Blend mode, multiply. Blend mode, multiply. And then the value. And then the value. We'll knock it down by 1/2, we'll go to 50. We'll knock it down by 1/2, we'll go to 50. And this is just so it'll cascade And this is just so it'll cascade over the other colors. over the other colors. I'll zoom in and show you more I'll zoom in and show you more of the detail we're doing. of the detail we're doing. Here's another version of the speckling. Here's another version of the speckling. Once again, this is a little more dense, Once again, this is a little more dense, a little more speckling going on. a little more speckling going on. We'll align it with this design. We'll align it with this design. This color is going to be the same dark blue This color is going to be the same dark blue we're using in the body. we're using in the body. So we'll color it dark blue. So we'll color it dark blue. And that's good for that. And that's good for that. And then the last bit of texturing is on top. And then the last bit of texturing is on top. And this is the one where I want it to And this is the one where I want it to kind of be a light tone of white. kind of be a light tone of white. So we'll select white. So we'll select white. And we'll knock the opacity down on this And we'll knock the opacity down on this to about 60%. to about 60%. And we'll go ahead and lock that layer. And we'll go ahead and lock that layer. Let's zoom in. Let's zoom in. I'll show you what's going on. I'll show you what's going on. So you can see how this little, subtle speckling So you can see how this little, subtle speckling is kind of cascading through the artwork. is kind of cascading through the artwork. And this adds a nice, organic element to everything. And this adds a nice, organic element to everything. So, I love the way this artwork turned out. So, I love the way this artwork turned out. When I create like this When I create like this I try not to think too literally regarding meaning. I try not to think too literally regarding meaning. I just kind of let it happen, I just kind of let it happen, in the drawing stage in the drawing stage and see where it goes. and see where it goes. And I think this would be a fun T-shirt design. And I think this would be a fun T-shirt design. So I just may try using it for that, at some point. So I just may try using it for that, at some point. But drawing isn't about realism. But drawing isn't about realism. It can be. It can be. If that's what you want to do, that's fine. If that's what you want to do, that's fine. But it's not the point of drawing. But it's not the point of drawing. So I encourage you to do some free form drawing. So I encourage you to do some free form drawing. Have fun with it. Have fun with it. Loosen up, get a little crazy. Loosen up, get a little crazy. Just kind of open the flood gates if you will. Just kind of open the flood gates if you will. Don't worry about proportion, or perspective, Don't worry about proportion, or perspective, or literal things. or literal things. And see what you can create. And see what you can create. Thank you for watching DVG Lab. Thank you for watching DVG Lab. And as always, remember, never stop drawing. And as always, remember, never stop drawing.

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