Simple³ Adobe Illustrator tutorial for noobs
I recently started playing around with Adobe Illustrator and since I rarely find tutorials, that are made for people like me (noobs who just want to draw simple, cute stuff) I decided to share my own experiences with you (plus a friend kinda requested this lol).
First, I do recommend this one on deviantART. It shows you the basics for kawaii things based on simple shapes. So if you're going to do Hello Kitty styled stuff, this is the tutorial for you.
What I show you here is doodling with the brush tool and color the result in different ways. It's a quick and simple way to make things if you don't want to just build shapes together. But please note, that I work with a newer version (CS 5) so if you use an older version you may do not have all the tools I use.
Well, here we go:
Step 1: Draw something.
Yep this step is pretty simple and you don't have to be perfect here. The lines you make will be smoothed automatically and you can also change everything you want.
I made a cat. Of course. Cats are cool. I prefer to use the brush tool but I think you could use the pencil tool as well. I have to admit, that I didn't figure out the differences between them yet.
brush tool
pencil tool
Step 2: Adjust your lines.
When you select your lines with the selection tool, you can see, that they contain several white spots. These are anchor points. By pulling and rotating them, you can modify your lines until you're satisfied. When you need additional anchor points, you can add them by holding down your left mouse button on the pen tool and choose the "add anchor point" tool. There's also an option to delete anchor points if you need to.
selection tool
direct selection tool 
Step 3: Change the brush style (optional)
Go to window > brushes to open the brushes window. Now you can add a nice (and maybe more natural) touch to your selected lines. I doesn't look always good, but you should still give it a try.
I recommend the artistic brushes. Open them by clicking on the symbol on the bottom left of the brushes window (the one that looks like two folders) or browse all brushes with the two arrows next to it.
For this one I go with the standard brushes. I just made them thicker. You can change the thickness on the stroke panel (window > stroke) under weight. Also you can make the caps and corners of your lines round, what gives a cuter appearance.
Step 4: Coloring
There's more than one way to color your stuff. I wouldn't call any of them perfect. What works for you, depents on your lines, your version of the program and your method of working, I guess.
Second and also easy way is to use the live paint bucket. You find it by holding down your left mouse key on the shape builder tool. You may have to choose what you want to color first, by using the live paint selection tool (you'll get a message about it). Keep clicking until everything you want to color looks screened and then you can easily fill all your stuff with the bucket afterwards.
Another cool thing is the blob brush. I didn't use it here but still want to mention it. It works as easy as the brush tool, but instead of creating a line, it creates a shape of what you draw. so you can adjust your coloring like your lines. I think it's a great way to add shadows to your images. But older versions unfortunately don't have it (I think its CS4 and higher)
blob brush tool
Step 5: Finish
Basically were done here. What I like to add a more loosey-goosey look, is that I seperate the lines from the coloring (like copy everything, delete the color from one and the strokes from the other one and bring the colors to back) and then move the colors a little bit away from the lines like it's sloppy colored.
Sooo I hope I could help you a little bit to take your first step into the awesome world of Illustrator. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Maybe I can even answer them. Or maybe not.
And there's more: you can also find me on Pinterest now. Yep I jumped on another social bandwagon. Hahaaah~
First, I do recommend this one on deviantART. It shows you the basics for kawaii things based on simple shapes. So if you're going to do Hello Kitty styled stuff, this is the tutorial for you.
What I show you here is doodling with the brush tool and color the result in different ways. It's a quick and simple way to make things if you don't want to just build shapes together. But please note, that I work with a newer version (CS 5) so if you use an older version you may do not have all the tools I use.
Well, here we go:
Step 1: Draw something.
Yep this step is pretty simple and you don't have to be perfect here. The lines you make will be smoothed automatically and you can also change everything you want.
I made a cat. Of course. Cats are cool. I prefer to use the brush tool but I think you could use the pencil tool as well. I have to admit, that I didn't figure out the differences between them yet.
brush tool pencil toolWhen you select your lines with the selection tool, you can see, that they contain several white spots. These are anchor points. By pulling and rotating them, you can modify your lines until you're satisfied. When you need additional anchor points, you can add them by holding down your left mouse button on the pen tool and choose the "add anchor point" tool. There's also an option to delete anchor points if you need to.
selection tool direct selection tool Step 3: Change the brush style (optional)
Go to window > brushes to open the brushes window. Now you can add a nice (and maybe more natural) touch to your selected lines. I doesn't look always good, but you should still give it a try.
I recommend the artistic brushes. Open them by clicking on the symbol on the bottom left of the brushes window (the one that looks like two folders) or browse all brushes with the two arrows next to it.
For this one I go with the standard brushes. I just made them thicker. You can change the thickness on the stroke panel (window > stroke) under weight. Also you can make the caps and corners of your lines round, what gives a cuter appearance.
Step 4: Coloring
There's more than one way to color your stuff. I wouldn't call any of them perfect. What works for you, depents on your lines, your version of the program and your method of working, I guess.
The first and maybe the easiest is just to use a fill color. But your lines have to be simple and not splitted up to get a good result. Here it worked fine for the cat but not for the banner.
Second and also easy way is to use the live paint bucket. You find it by holding down your left mouse key on the shape builder tool. You may have to choose what you want to color first, by using the live paint selection tool (you'll get a message about it). Keep clicking until everything you want to color looks screened and then you can easily fill all your stuff with the bucket afterwards.
Another cool thing is the blob brush. I didn't use it here but still want to mention it. It works as easy as the brush tool, but instead of creating a line, it creates a shape of what you draw. so you can adjust your coloring like your lines. I think it's a great way to add shadows to your images. But older versions unfortunately don't have it (I think its CS4 and higher)
blob brush tool Step 5: Finish
Basically were done here. What I like to add a more loosey-goosey look, is that I seperate the lines from the coloring (like copy everything, delete the color from one and the strokes from the other one and bring the colors to back) and then move the colors a little bit away from the lines like it's sloppy colored.
Sooo I hope I could help you a little bit to take your first step into the awesome world of Illustrator. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Maybe I can even answer them. Or maybe not.
And there's more: you can also find me on Pinterest now. Yep I jumped on another social bandwagon. Hahaaah~
I know I'm rather late to say that, but I wish all of you a very happy and cozy Christmas time and of course a great new year. May all your dreams and planned new years resolutions come true. (○⌒∇⌒○)ノ
If you still need something to listen to, here's my favourite christmas song for this year:
And now, especially for Nado, my latest drawing which is really kitschy hahaah. Awkward... /DD
Tourist stuff from my hometown
Today I had to go to the city center of Bremen to pick up a letter at the post office, which is about ten minutes to walk from my house. And since I wanted to take some tourist-like pictures of Bremen anyway for some time, I took my camera with me. And I really felt like a tourist today lol. It was fun though ( ´ ∀`)ノ
The "kleine Weser" (little Weser) about two minutes from my home (・ ω ・)♡
One of formerly four Lionheads at the Weser (the big one lol). Two of them were found in 1998, the other two are lost since the bridge they were attached to was blown up in 1945.
A small alley at the Schnoor, a pretty cute district, where all alleys are only like one or two metres broad (seriously)
The famous Bremen Town Musicians by Gerhard Marcks. Most tourists are a little bit disappointed, when they see them, because they're rather unimpressive. But still everyone wants to touch them (it's said, that it brings luck to touch the donkeys legs) and so it's not that easy to take a picture without a tourist on it.
The "Lichtbringer" by Bernhard Hoetger above the entrance to the Böttcherstraße. Actually it represents "the victory of the Führer over the powers of darkness" So... yeah, it's some kind of nazi-stuff. But it's still pretty /D
Feature: Free artist patterns on repeatxrepeaty.com
I just came across a pretty cool site, called repeatxrepeaty.com, where you can download cool and some funny patterns for free. All made by great artists and illustrators, so no crappy stuff. You can find some kawaii patterns there as well. Enjoy.
Via How About Orange
Via How About Orange
DIY Lip Scrub
I normally have an annoying flaky lips problem, which makes me avoid wearing lipsticks. But I love lipsticks, so I made this lip scrub, which helps a lot. I did some research before, but I ended up with the information that you can almost use whatever you want. The only necessary ingredients are sugar and oil (optimally olive or almond oil - they're good for skin treatment). So here's what I used:
▫ 5 TSP. SUGAR
▫ 1 TSP. HONEY
▫ 2 TSP. ALMOND OIL
▫ 3 DRP. ORANGE FLAVOUR
▫ SOME FOOD DYE
(TSP = Teaspoons, DRP = Drops)
I use it 2-3 times a week. And now my lips look almost as luscious as LSPs dream lips ( ˘ ³˘)♥
