Creating digital illustrations is a craft that takes practice, but can be fun once you get the hang of it. There are many ways to create an illustration, so do not feel limited by this guide!
Illustrations have become very popular in our society, which is why others have created their own. Some use them for business purposes or as decorations, while some make them as art.
Businesses now hire professionals who design beautiful illustrations, so there is a market for them. Artists earn good money doing it, especially if they are creative. This article will go into more detail about how to begin creating your own illustrative designs.
There are several different styles of designing illustrations, so no matter what style you want to learn, start with something simpler first. For example, learning basic drawing shapes can lead to better cartoon designs.
This article will also talk about some types of drawings and how to apply artistic concepts to making illustrations. More advanced artists usually teach themselves through research and experimentation.
Find inspiration
A digital illustration is any picture or graphic design made using computer software. The term “illustration” comes from the Italian word for beautiful, illustrazione, which makes sense because that is what they are! Creating your own illustrations is a lot of fun and you do not need much equipment to get started.
There are many ways to get creative with digital imagery. You can take existing pictures and re-do them, create your own backgrounds or environments, use pre-made graphics such as typography or still images, or make your own designs. It does not matter how professional the art looks as long as it fits the medium being used!
Finding new places to share your creations is an easy way to start. There are lots of free social media sites where artists hang out and give away their work, so why not join in? Websites like Pinterest and Instagram have large audiences who would enjoy your artwork, too. By sharing your work, more people will notice it and connect with you on other platforms.
Another way to gain exposure is by creating your own blogs and adding artistic features to them. If you are very skilled at drawing or painting, you could add sketch notes and/or decorations to something you read or written material you studied. If you are good at designing things, you could redesign someone else’s site or even create your own!
Your personal style is important when choosing what to illustrate.
Practice drawing shapes
A strong basis in drawing is being able to recognize, identify and draw basic geometric figures. These are things like circles, squares, triangles, and so on. By having this base as a foundation, you can start mixing and matching styles and features of other drawings to make your own.
Practice making lines with a pen or pencil, then trace those lines onto paper or another surface using a brush or whatever tool you choose to match the line quality you want to achieve. The same goes for shaded areas, which contain no defined edges.
There are many ways to learn how to draw by practicing, experimenting and studying different methods. You do not have to be trained in art to begin! Many artists started out doing simple figure studies and moving up from there.
Geometric forms come in all shapes and sizes, so use what you know to apply it to something new. There are several websites and apps that feature free drawing lessons, which are great opportunities to practice your hand-eye coordination.
Practice drawing lines
Line is one of the most fundamental shapes in art. Artists use line for creating silhouettes, figure-ground composition, shaping space, and to describe shape or form.
When painting, using thick lines to create a frame or cover up an area is common. Thin lines are used to show depth or as a way to emphasize something (like your eye moving down a face).
Thicker lines can be painted with a brush or made into a texture by rolling it across the surface of the canvas or paper. A thin line can be created by holding the tool like a pen or pencil and dragging it across the surface.
Practice doing both! There are many ways to learn how to draw lines, but no matter what style you choose, just keep practicing. You will find that once you get the hang of it, you will be able to add them to your drawings and paintings quickly.
Use the pencil tool to create your illustration
The first way to create an illustrative piece is to use the Pencil Tool. This tool can be used in many ways. You can either draw directly onto another element, or you can choose the brush option that allows you to add texture or pattern to your image.
The second way to begin creating your illustrations is by choosing an interesting shape or object. Then, using the pen tool, start drawing lines and shapes around this starting point. Your sketch will eventually become a digital painting!
Your artwork does not need to look like a real painting. In fact, some of the most beautiful illustrations are very abstract and surreal.
Use the paintbrush to add colors
Color is one of the most important tools in creating digital illustrations. There are many ways to use color in illustration, but one of my favorites is using the paintbrush tool. By choosing an appropriate hue, intensity, shape, and texture of color, you can create some incredible designs!
The best way to learn how to use the paintbrush tool effectively is by experimenting with it. You do not need special software to use this tool- any graphics program or app will work just as well.
There are two main reasons why using the paintbrush for illustrating is so effective. First, the ability to mix and match different shades of color gives you more freedom than only having bright or neutral tones. Second, being able to apply textures such as brushes, leaves, and dots adds depth to your design.
Here we will go over some basics of the paintbrush tool and then I will give you some tips and tricks to be creative with it.
Use textures
There are many ways to use texture in digital art. You can create your own textures by incorporating patterns, shades of colors, and/or materials into your artwork.
Patterns are one of the most common types of texture used in creating digital illustrations. They can be geometric, such as circles or squares with different shade transitions, or they can be natural looking, like leaves or flowers.
Another way to add texture is using shades of color either as solid shapes or gradients. For example, you could draw an eye shape or other facial features that have several layers of white or cream colored skin with darker brown tones underneath. Or, you could go the opposite direction and design something with very dark skin tone all over!
Last, you can mix up material types for your illustration. Use patterned paper, painted textures, cut out pictures, and so forth.
Create your own effects
A few simple tools and techniques can make creating digital illustrations easy. Tools that create beautiful, refined images are Photoshop and other graphic design software. These powerful applications have features such as layers, colors, fonts, and textures which you can mix and match to build your image.
By learning the basics of Photoshop, you’ll be able to take what you learned here and apply it to another program. There are many free resources available via YouTube or by looking at them online. You may also find more advanced tutorials on these sites or through Google search.
There is no wrong way to use Photoshop, except when there is clearly something broken about an individual tool.
Finish it off
Once your image is all finished, you can now save it! Save as many files as possible so that you do not have to re-do anything later. You can also make your file public or private depending on what purposes you want to use it for.
Public images are great because anyone can edit them and contribute to the image. This allows other people to add into the picture and create their own illustrations based on yours!
You can find free online tools that allow you to quickly upload and edit pictures. Many of these have features such as the ability to scale down the size of the image or crop and rotate it.
This article will go more in depth about using Photoshop to create digital illustrations.
