Doing digital illustrations is a pretty creative way to add some spark to your art projects. Whether you are trying to create an image or a series of images, creating designs using digital tools can be very fun!
Illustrations have many purposes including helping tell a story, emphasizing key messages, being interactive, etc.
There are several ways to get into doing digital illustration. You do not need to know how to use Photoshop, InDesign, or any other software program first. Some people start with drawing, then move onto painting as their style, and so on.
This article will go over some basics of illustrator for beginners. If you already have some experience in designing, you may find these helpful to expand upon.
We will also take a look at some easy ways to incorporate digital illustrations into your design project repertoire.
Create a mood board
After creating your initial concept, it is time to create a mood board! Creating a mood board is an easy way to get some final inspiration for your piece.
A mood board is any collection of items that help you find new ideas. For example, if you are trying to determine what colors go well together, then looking through pictures in various color schemes can help you come up with your own unique palette.
By gathering pieces from different sources (for instance, by buying or finding them online), your overall look will have an element of variety. This helps make the design feel more cohesive.
There are many ways to organize your mood board, so choose one that works best for you. Some examples include:
* Use only photos as material.
* Group similar materials together under general categories such as clothes, house plants, or furniture.
* Include both stills and videos.
This article has talked about designing individual images, but now it is time to connect all those designs into one larger picture. By doing this, it becomes much harder to separate individual parts of the illustration.
Designing large illustrations like these takes longer than designing small ones, which is why professional artists use tools to aid them in their craft.
Practice drawing from the mood board
A lot of people start doing digital illustration by taking an existing image and editing it, which is totally fine! Doing this can help you get comfortable with making your own images, but it will not set you up for success as a creator.
It’s important to understand that creating your own illustrations comes down to two main things: how to draw and how to use Photoshop or another design software program properly.
Your style will come more naturally if you are able to draw freely, so practicing drawing should be at the top of your list. You do not have to know how to draw in a traditional way to begin experimenting with digital art, but it does help!
The second part of designing digitally is using all the tools available to you. Just because something is done a certain way does not mean it is the best way to achieve results! There are many ways to edit photos and graphics now, and some are better than others depending on the look you want to achieve.
Use a cartoon template
When creating illustrations, there are two main styles you can use. They are both considered digital or computer-generated art but one uses line drawings as its medium, while the other uses shapes and textures for their illustration.
The first style is using a cartoon template as your source of inspiration. A cartoon is characterized by very simple shapes and lines, bold colors, and emphasis on patterns. These designs usually focus on having fun, which makes them good sources of stress relief!
There are many ways to draw from this template. You can either start with a still life, then add people, or begin with people and add more settings. The possibilities are endless!
The second way to do digital artwork is through shape and texture design. This type of drawing focuses on finding new shapes and materials to illustrate different concepts. For example, if you wanted to create an image that focused on friendship, you could look at things such as hearts, squares, circles, and so on. What kind of textures these objects contain? Materials like wood, paper, leather, etc.
Both types of drawings are very similar in that they require you to pick up the pen or brush and experiment with it. There are no rules about what colors go together, nor does anyone have special techniques they use to achieve their final product.
Learn to use Photoshop
There are many ways to do digital illustrations, and most of them can be broken down into two main categories: vector graphics and bitmap (or pixel) graphics.
Vector graphics is when you take an element or shape that already exists in nature, and then you create your image using computer software as sources for this existing content. For example, if you wanted to make an illustration of a dog sitting next to a couch, you would look up pictures of dogs doing such a thing first!
Then, you would have to pick which features of the picture you want to include into your own design, like the nose, the eyes, the ears, etc. You could even edit these parts later on. This type of graphic technology is what makes it possible to resize your images so easily!
Bitmap (pixelated) graphics are just that — plain old photographs or drawings done on a computer. These are usually limited to size due to computer limitations.
There are several apps that will let you manipulate bitmaps into new designs. Some examples of this are photoshop, illustrator, and kepublish.
Learn to use Illustrator
There are many ways to do digital illustrations, but most start with creating an illustration in some other software like Photoshop or InDesign and then transferring that work into another graphics editor such as Adobe’s popular drawing app, Illustrator.
The best way to learn how to do digital illustrations is by doing! Start off making simple designs and then moving onto more complex ones. You can also watch YouTube tutorials or read beginner level books about using Illustrator.
There are several different types of digital illustrators, so what kind you want to be depends on your goals. If you would like to create logos or characters, for example, then learning type design is very important.
For people who love pictures and patterns, experimenting with collage styles is great practice for designing their own things. And if you enjoy depicting stories or scenes, looking at and studying already designed images is a good place to begin.
Learn to use a pencil
Pencils are one of the most fundamental tools in digital illustration. There is no way to draw anything without them! They’re also the hardest to forget about because you can easily pick up new tricks by experimenting with different styles, speed, pressure, etc.
The best way to learn how to do digital illustrations is by doing! Start drawing some shapes and then moving onto something more complex like a letter or picture. What kind of media does your favorite artist create? Looking at their work is a great way to get inspiration and start practicing your hand-drawing skills.
There are many ways to learn how to do digital illustrations, but my number one tip is to just keep trying! You will always have opportunities to hone your drawing techniques so don’t hesitate to look for them.
Learn to use a pen
A good way to begin doing digital illustrations is by learning how to use a pen. There are many ways to learn how to draw with a pen, but one of the most popular is using gel pens.
A gel pen uses a liquid ink that is solidified into a shape. The main difference between regular dry markers and gel pens is that gel pens have more fluid in them, which allows you to create slightly thicker lines. This gives your drawings a smoother look!
You can also add additional colors to the pen if you like. Some people even mix their gel pens to see what new shapes they can make. It’s really up to you!
And don’t worry about running out of ink during drawing sessions- these things never run out! You can just take off the top or push down the side to get extra color.
Learn to use a paint program
A good place to start is Inkscape. It is free to download and use, and has lots of features that can be difficult to find in other software. These include vector tools, layers, adjustable color levels, shapes, and text.
In addition to being able to save your work as either PNG or PDF files, you can also export directly into various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. This way you don’t have to go through additional steps to share your artwork!
There are many ways to learn how to do digital illustrations. Some people may already know how to use certain apps like Photoshop, but they may not know some of the more specific tricks for doing digital art. Looking at examples of artists’ work is another great way to learn.
