Scribesmeister v4 (In Zero Gravity)

Whoever says that Im intolerant to hardships doesn’t know me at all. I’ve always been very patient. Just don’t let me wait without telling me you’re going to be late. My intrinsic irritability is a different story.

Vector Art. Vector Mask. For first timers, this one is definitely going to test your patience. It was never easy. Even tutorials give you hints that if you are not born with an artistic inclination, you’re going to have a real hard time figuring it out.

“Unless you’re an insanely talented artist, you may need some help getting started.”

Where’s the spirit in that? But hey, it’s just to tell you right off the bat that it’s not going to be easy and you know what to expect. But when I know I can do it, I never stop until it’s done.  First rule: choose a photo that you extremely like to give you enough motivation and avoid slacking off while working on it. Guess what I picked? A portrait of myself. What else would be better than self-love?

You can find tutorials using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop or combined. If you’re not familiar with Illustrator like me, try your luck next time when you have an uncomplicated subject - maybe like a beach ball. The first 2 hours was like groping in total darkness. All the basic principles of Photoshop is there, but I think that I would be more efficient using Photoshop because that’s where I am good at. Uhuh.

I have read somewhere that it would probably take 10 hours to finish your first vector art masterpiece and I would like to beat that record by getting over it sooner.

1st step:

I outlined everything using the Pen tool without vector masking (because I want the shape to be perfect). The face, neck, shirt, hair and as soon as I’m done, that’s the time when I filled it in with apt colors. Vector mask oftentimes obscures what I’m doing so I set it to none.

2nd step:

You have to breakdown the colors on the original photo into basic levels by using adjustment>posterize. The purpose is to guide you to all its shaded parts. Oops, don’t get the wrong idea that shading would be easy. It’s the hardest. Now, you have to trace the eyebrows, eyes and all its inner layers, lips (you have to sweat this out!) and the nose? Nah, it’s all about the right shading. Goodluck! This ate a lot of my time. And yeah? How will you be able to trace it with the face filled in with color? Open the original photo and posterize it again.

Using the Pen tool; Trace. Copy in new worksheet. Save it but don’t close it yet. But if you’re a master of estimation, you can just draw it on the face. I’ve tried it but you know, it’s just to complicate things like I always do. Haha. So I drew the chin and lips then put it together.

3rd step:

Move all the copied images to the current (main) worksheet. And flick on your estimation switch. Just know where the eyebrows, eyes and the rest should belong or it would all look hideous! And since I know my face well, I got all the right distributions. Always refer to the original photo. Set them in the same size so you’ll always see the difference.

4th step:

Shading. Tinting. Toning. This is tricky. Now I think my photo requires at least 5-8 shades (or maybe more) for the skin part ONLY. I only made use of 5 shades. Your base color is the skin tone and all the shades should either be lighter or darker. You can always use the color picker, it’s up to you to decide which to color to pick though.=P If you know where the light strikes on the subject - it would be easier.

5th step:

Finishing touches. Make it more realistic by tracing eye creases, eye bags and other lines on your face that you want to appear. Again, Pen tool is the key. If you hate your wrinkles and love a botox-ed look - that’s fine. Ditch it. Just don’t frown at yourself when it ends up looking like somebody else. Haha.

6th step:

If you think it’s cute, add an element into your background. Anything. Well,so that people won’t say that I have slacken off… I made one for myself too, yet it may seem like an overkill. Look:

Anyway, this is one fulfilling deed. And I am really proud of how my artwork turned out. GRIN. I know it’s not the hardcore type, not even close to perfect, but I love it! I love it because it pushed me to the limits. Haha.

Now, it’s time for you to figure it out! Want to be “in”? It was said to be one of the hottest trends today in the illustration industry, so why don’t we all give it a try? Oh, by the way, it took me 6 hours to piece it together inclusive of the time I spent tinkering with Illustrator.

I’m tagging Bheng, Joni, Rhiz, Karen and Seish! Let all your creative juices surge! Just post the final output and tell the story behind it.