Adobe Illustrator: Transform Flat Vector Illustration into a Textured Hand-Drawn Style | Sahar Heumesser | Skillshare

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Adobe Illustrator: Transform Flat Vector Illustration into a Textured Hand-Drawn Style

teacher avatar Sahar Heumesser, ⭐ Graphic Designer ⭐

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Intro

      2:14

    • 2.

      About The Class

      2:07

    • 3.

      Basic Vector Facts

      2:00

    • 4.

      What Gives Away a Vector Graphic

      2:06

    • 5.

      Round Corner

      2:26

    • 6.

      Round Stroke Caps Imperfect Circles

      1:51

    • 7.

      Freehand Drawing Instead of Shape Tool

      2:36

    • 8.

      Asymetry

      1:17

    • 9.

      Uneven Spacing Distribution

      2:49

    • 10.

      Distortion with Liquify Tool

      2:35

    • 11.

      Color Variation & Decorative Details

      1:20

    • 12.

      Built in Vector Effects Roughen

      3:27

    • 13.

      Pattern As Texture

      13:41

    • 14.

      Stroke Thickness

      1:50

    • 15.

      Brush Type

      2:17

    • 16.

      Creating the Class Project

      2:48

    • 17.

      Texture Overlay

      3:54

    • 18.

      Final Thought

      1:37

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About This Class

In this skillshare class, I’ll show you how to transform flat vector illustration into a more textured, hand-drawn style using Adobe Illustrator.

Vector illustration offers precision, scalability, and a highly efficient workflow. But it often comes with a visual downside: it can look flat, overly clean, and unmistakably digital.

In this class, we focus on how to move beyond that.

We’ll go through the best practical methods and techniques to reshape vector illustrations and introduce a more organic, natural feel—without just relying on overlays textures.

You’ll learn how to build that hand-drawn quality step by step, through shapes, strokes, color, and composition.

I’ll be demonstrating using a combination of the desktop and iPad versions of Adobe Illustrator, but the same principles apply to other vector software as well.

Who this class is for

This class is created for illustrators, pattern designers, hand-lettering artists, and hobbyists of all skill level who work with vector graphics.

If you feel that your vector drawing looks too “digital” and non-dimensional, this class will help you approach it differently and develop a more organic visual style.

You will Learn:

  • how to reduce the rigid, uniform look of vector shapes
  • techniques for introducing asymmetry and uneven spacing and 
  • how to make the curves and edges look more natural and irregular
  • ways to vary stroke thickness and use brush-based textures
  • using distortion tools in a controlled and intentional way
  • The role of expanded color palette and decorative details
  • using patterns and built-in effects as subtle texture
  • combining different techniques
  • bringing all prats of the illustration into one cohesive unit.

Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based design software used for creating illustrations, icons, logos, and scalable graphics.

One of the biggest advantages of working with vectors is that your artwork remains fully editable and scalable at any stage.

When it comes to vector graphics, Illustrator is the industry standard. It offers a level of control, precision, and flexibility that is very hard to match.

You can easily adjust shapes, colors, and compositions, create variations, and reuse elements across different projects—all without losing quality.

This makes Illustrator not only powerful, but also very efficient once you get comfortable with it. It’s one of those tools that becomes essential very quickly.

If you don’t have Adobe Illustrator, no problem. You can sign up for a free trial through Adobe’s website in just a few minutes.

If you don’t have Illustrator, no problem. You can sign up for a free trial online in just a few minutes:

https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/free-trial-download.html

I'm Sahar, a creative dreamer and a graphic designer based in Vienna, Austria.

I’m obsessed with learning; I do love to sharpen my skills and learn new ones as a daily base routine and I'm so passionate to be a part of YOUR creative path by sharing what I've learned along the way.

 Links  |  Instagram YouTube 

To celebrate the launch of the class, I’m going to  GIVEAWAY⁠ one year of skillshare membership! (everyone can participate )

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY all you need to do is to:

  1. Upload your class project on @skillshare AND
  2. Post it on Instagram and tag me @saharheumesser

If you don't have a skillshare account:

Use this link to get 30 days MEMBERSHIP of Skillshare for free

Trademark Attribution : "Adobe Illustrator is either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries.

Disclaim : Music used in this class is Carefree by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3476-carefree
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

@ Sahar Heumesser

Meet Your Teacher

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Sahar Heumesser

⭐ Graphic Designer ⭐

Teacher

Hey, I'm Sahar!

I'm a creative dreamer and a graphic designer based in Vienna, Austria.

I'm obsessed with learning; I do love to sharpen my skills and learn new ones as a daily base routine and I'm so passionate to be a part of YOUR creative path by sharing what I've learned along the way.

Links | Instagram | Youtube

See full profile

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Transcripts

1. Intro: Adobe Illustrator or Procreate Vctor or raster. This is the dilemma that many digital artists are facing. If we draw in a raster based sofers like Procreate, Adobe Fresco or Photoshop, it is easy to achieve a rich hand drawn texture look, but the artwork become resolution dependent, harder to scale, and very difficult to edit. If we draw in a vector suffers like Affinity Designer or Adobe Illustrator, we get precision, scalability, and a highly flexible, efficient workflow. In vector environment, without much effort, we can resize, edit, and create multiple variations or entire collection from one single design. And that is exactly why many art directors or clients specifically request for an AIFi for professional and licensing artworks. But there is a trade off. Vctor artwork often look flat, overly keen, and digital in the most obvious way. Well, in this class, we will learn that vector do not have to appear flat. Hi, I'm Sahar Heumesser. I'm a graphic designer and a design instructor based in Vienna, Austria. Alongside creating my own artwork, I teach graphic design topics and digital illustration covering both vector and raster based workflows. In this sketcher class, I am going to share my techniques, methods and practical approach to transform a flat vector graphic into a textured hand-drawn style using Adobe Illustrator. By the end of this class, you will be able to take any key vector illustration and give it character depth and a handmade quality that feels intentional, not forced. I'm super excited to get started, see you on the class, and fit in. 2. About The Class: Welcome to my Skillshare class, Transform vector illustration into a textured hand-drawn style with Adobe Illustrator. Thank you for joining me here. This class is divided in two parts. First, we start with a short overview of vector graphics and break down the visual characteristics that make a vector illustration look flat, predictable, and obviously digital. Then we move into a fully guided workflow where we systematically break those mechanical qualities and we construct the illustration to achieve a more organic hand drawn field, similar to what you might expect from a Rasta based tool like Procreate. We are going to learn different methods that shapes the hand drawn look on a vector graphic, anchor points, stroke, feel or color, composition, and texture. For each of these methods, we will learn practical techniques to manipulate and refine them. Every technique is demonstrated step by step inside Adobe Illustrator with a clear and repeatable instruction. As for class project, you get to choose to either work on the exact same artwork that I'm using in the class or work on one of your own vector drawings. It is totally up to you. Your assignment is to start with some flat vector graphics, apply the techniques from this class and share your work here on a sketch. I will be demonstrating using a combination of desktop and iPad version of Adobe Illustrator. To access your class resources and references, go to the project and resource tab and download the files. Make sure to download the interactive practice file before you start this class. And during the class and whenever you have a question, head to the discussion tab here, start the conversation and post your question. Okay, we are all set. Let's open the Illustrator up and get a starter. 3. Basic Vector Facts: In this video, we are going to learn some basic facts about vector graphics. In vector environment, every object that we are drawing is called a path. Regardless of which drawing tool we are using, we are drawing a path, and each path has three elements, fill stroke, and anchor point. Fill is the color contained inside the path. Stroke is the outline of the path, and anchor points are the points that defines the boundary of segments. Path needs at least two anchor points. The part between the two anchor points is called segment, and segments can be straight lines or curved one. A path with three or more anchor points is called a shape. A shape can be open or closed. A closed shape is created when two ending point merge. Each shape can have only a feel, only a stroke or both of them applied. Now let's have a quick review. What is a vector graphic? Vctor is a mathematical calculation that defines how a path would appear. It works by keeping track of anchor points and equation for any segments that connects those anchor points together. Because these paths are recalculated continuously, vector graphics can be scaled infinitely without any loss of image quality. You can scale up your vector artwork or zoom in as much as you want, and the resolution will remain intact. Common vector file types are EPS, SVG, and AI. AI is the Adobe Illustrator file format. If you're interested in vector drawing, check my Skillshare class Adobe Illustrator on the iPad and learn how to draw vector illustration. That is all the basics you need to know for now. I see in the next video. 4. What Gives Away a Vector Graphic: In this lesson, we will review some common features that gives away a vector graphic. The first giveaway is perfection in shapes. Vector shapes are built with mathematically calculated geometry, which makes them look precise, but it also removes the small irregularity that we naturally associate with something drawn by hand. Next vector sign is predictable anchor points and clean edges. In both type of anchor points, corner points and smooth points, the edges follow a very predictable path. Another giveaway is stroke behavior. Vctor segments are usually too smooth, too consistent and have equal thickness from beginning to the end. But handraw lines usually shift slightly in thickness, smoothness, and even texture. Other common giveaway is flat uniform color. Vector shapes are often filled with a single solid color and no internal variations or details. Next common giveaway is perfect symmetry. That mirror effect is a very strong sign for vector. Slight shift in each side can easily break that down. Another thing in the list is equally distributed repetition. Evenly repeated elements reveal vector artwork very quickly. In handwrawn illustration, repetition still exists, but usually with variation in shape, spacing, placement, and even size. Finally, we have texture or lack of it. Absence of texture on both feel and stroke reinforce a clean digital look that immediately signals for vector. In more organic style, texture is not something added on top. It is often integrated into the structure through all elements. All right, open your interactive practice file, and let's get started. 5. Round Corner: Before we begin, open the practice file and navigate to Artboard Number one. You can use the slide number shown in top right corner of my artboard to follow along with each lesson. In this lesson, we will talk about round corners and curved lines. We are starting with a simple Christmas tree made entirely of straight lines and corner points or basically a combination of a few triangle and one rectangle, very typical vector look. One of the first techniques I like to use is to round the corners. Since this is an action on the anchor points, I first need to select a path with selection tool and then switch to direct selection tool to be able to have access to the anchor points. The moment I activate the direct selection tool, the corner rigits appear. Since all of these points are selected, I can grab any of these corner rigits and round all of them at once. You don't need to overdo this just enough to break that sharpness. You can also use the control bar up here and enter an exact value. I will leave it at two pixel. Already, this small change made the shape feel less aggressive and slightly more natural. But if you look closely, it still feels very structured. So next, I'm going to work on the lines. Instead of keeping these segments perfectly straight, I'm going to start curving them very slightly. There are different ways to do this. I like using either the curvature tool or the anchor point tool. With the curvature tool, if you click and drag on the line, it adds a new point by curving the line on that very point. But with the anchor point tool, it's here under the pen tool. If you click and drag, it curves the line without adding any new point. I'm not trying to distort the chef. I'm just removing the perfect straightness. This is where the illustration start to feel more organic. This is one of the simplest technique, but as you can see, a very effective one. Okay, great. Now let's move to the next lesson and learn more techniques. 6. Round Stroke Caps Imperfect Circles: In this lesson, we will learn about round stroke caps and imperfect circle shape. We're working with a slightly more detailed illustration here. We have some curved lines with sharp corners and some circles that look a bit too perfect. Let's start with rounding the end of our strokes. First, make sure your stroke panel is open. You can access it from the window menu up here, and then I'm going to zoom in a little bit. So let's select the strokes. Right now, the line endings are very sharp and aggressive. In the stroke panel, you can see the cap is set into butt cap, and yes, that's the name of it. So I'm going to change this from butt cap to round cap and change the end of the stroke from that flat cut to a rounded end. Okay, great. Next, I'm going to change the corners from the meter join to round join. You see that already make a huge difference. Now let's have a look at the berries. Right now, they are perfect circles, which is a very strong vector signal. So I'm going to slightly distorting them using the curvature tool. I will click and drag gently on the edges to introduce small irregularities. Nothing extreme, just enough to break that perfect roundness. Now, each circle feel a bit more natural and less generated. As you can see, softening the stroke ends and slightly distorting the geometric shapes was just a small adjustment, but made a great impact on building a hand drawn character into my illustration. All right, let's head to the next lesson and learn some more techniques. 7. Freehand Drawing Instead of Shape Tool: In this lesson, we learn about the impact of using different drawing tool on the style of vector drawing. So I'm going to draw the same Christmas ornament using three different tools, shape tool, pencil tool, and blood brush tool and show you how that affects the vector look. Just a heads up for the lessons that involves drawing, I'll be working on the iPad version of Adobe Illustrator, partly so the iPad users don't feel left behind and mainly because I really struggle drawing with a mouse. So, first, I would draw this Christmas ball using the shape tool. I'm going to use a very thin rectangle for the hanging ribbon, and then let's change the color and draw another rectangle and then round the corners for the hook part, and then switch the color back and grab the apes tool and draw the grass ball itself. This is the most typical vector approach, and as you can see, it looks super geometric. Now, I would draw the same shape, but this time using the pencil tool. I'm just drawing it free hand. Then I would draw the ball and then flip the stroke to fill. You notice immediately that the shape already feels a bit more natural. Okay, now for the third version, I will be using the blood Brush tool. I'm on the basic brush and low smooth setting, if you're curious. For this one, I am also drawing the glass bowl itself, slightly atypical. I mean, not perfectly round. Blood Brush tool works a bit differently because I'm not drawing strokes. I'm drawing field shape. So instead of outlining, I am building the shape from within in a loose and organic way. This is a similar feeling as if you would draw with a raster drawing brushes like in Procreate or Photoshop. As you see, even for the form itself, I'm introducing some variations to make the result feel even more hand drawn. When you use Shape tool, you already start with perfection. But when you draw free hand, you introduce variation from the very beginning and while drawing, and that difference is immediately visible. Alright, that was the impact of tool choice, and I see in the next video with more techniques. 8. Asymetry: In this example, I want to focus on something very simple yet important asymmetry. Vector illustration naturally tend to be very symmetrical. And while that can look keen and balanced, it can also make the artwork feel artificial. In the left side, we have a perfectly symmetrical belb. Now, I'll start by redrawing the belt, but I'm going to intentionally letting it be slightly asymmetrical. Nothing dramatic, just some small differences to avoid that perfect mirror effect. The same idea applies for the details and ornaments as well. Even though these are smaller elements, I still keeping them slightly different from one side to the other side. The goal is to not have that mirror effect. Introducing small asymmetries, both in the main shape and in the details makes a noticeable difference in how the illustration feels. Alright, let's move to the next technique I see in the next video. 9. Uneven Spacing Distribution: In this lesson, we will learn about the impact of un even spacing and distribution on the vector look. Even when two shapes are identical like these two kansa, the way they are drawn and the way that details are spaced can completely change how vector and how hand drawn the result feels. Let's demonstrate that by making a flower wreath. So we want to repeat this flower all around this ring and make a wreath. To do that vector way, select the element that you want to repeat. In this case, is flower. The use keyboard shortcut to activate the rotation to and then hold the option key on Mac or art key on Windows. And while holding that, click in the center of this ring to determine the position of rotation point. Now, the setting window would pop up. I want nine flowers, so I divide 360 degree by nine, which gives me 40 degrees. Then instead of hitting Okay, I will click Copy. This creates a duplicate and rotates the second copy at the same time. Now comes one of my absolute favorite keyboard shortcut in Adobe Illustrator. Command D on Mac or Control D on Windows. This would repeat the last action or last command that you did on Illustrator. So I'm going to just press Command D again and again and again until the whole round is complete. This looks very clean, very precise and very vector. Now let's do the same thing, but this time in a more intuitive way. I've already slightly distorted the ring itself with the previous technique, so it feels a bit more organic. This time, instead of using rotation tool, I'm going to hold the option key on Mac or Alt key on Windows and drag the flower manually. When you hold the option key and drag an item, it creates a copy of it while dragging. Because I'm not a machine, the spacing would never be perfectly even, and that's exactly the point. This creates small variation in distance and placement, which makes the result feel more hand drawn. Now you can go even one step further and resize some of these flowers to bigger or smaller to add the size variation as well. Sometimes letting go of control Jas deliverer creates a more interesting result. Okay, let's head to the next lesson and learn more techniques. 10. Distortion with Liquify Tool : In this lesson, we will learn how to use the liquefied tools and create organic distortion to break that perfect vector look. Liquefied tools are over here in the toolbar. Before we start distorting anything, I will slightly soften the corners because the sharp edges tend to not distort nicely. Well select the ribbon on top and round the corners to three pixel, and then the box itself and round the corners to, let's say, six pixel. Just a small base adjustment before we distort. Now with everything selected, I will begin with the Warp tool. If you click and hold, you would see the full liquefied group, then you can hover over your tool and click to Select. With your tool selected, if you double click on it, you can enter to the setting option of that tool. For this example, I'm going to set both width and height of the brush to 40 pixel, and I'm going to keep the intensity on 10%, the details on five, simplify at ten, and hit okay. You should play around and find the perfect setting for your own project and your own drawing style. Now let's go back to our shape and brush over it. You want to use this very gently to introduce small controlled imperfection. Otherwise, this can easily backfire. So take it easy and go slow. Okay. Next, I will work with the wrinkle tool and add some irregularities along the edges. Let's have a click and open the setting. I'm going to keep the width and height on 40 pixel, the intensity on 10%, and this wrinkle size both around 50%. I'm going to lower the details to one. These options over here, I usually turn off these effect anchor points because I don't want to aggressively distort the structure. No, I would gently go over the edges and just slightly pushing them to remove that perfect straightness. Just enough to perfect that clean vector edge. Remember, when it comes to distortion, less is always always more. All right, great. Now, let's head to the next video and learn even more techniques. 11. Color Variation & Decorative Details: In this lesson, we learn about the impact of color palettes and decorative details. If you look at the first example, the whole object, which is a sock is run in one solid color. Large area filled with a single flat tone is a very typical vector look. Feels flat and a bit digital. Instead of keeping everything in one solid color, I'm going to expand my palette and add some color diversity. So whenever possible, try to divide the large area into smaller sections and introduce shift in color by letting the color move across the shape. To take this even further, we are going to add some decorative ornaments. Adding small details, even simple shapes, lines or patterns can add a lot of hand drawn characters in vector illustration. And together, these two things, the color variation and decorative details, help to break the uniform flat look. Make the shape feel more layered, more intentional, and closer to something hand crafted. Okay, let's head to the next lesson and learn even more techniques. 12. Built in Vector Effects Roughen: In this lesson, we learn how to use built in vector effect of Adobe Illustrator and roughen the edges of our vector drawing. We will be using the roughen effect from distort and transform category. Okay, let's start with selecting this small shape here and then going to menu Effect, Distort and Transform, and let's choose Roughen. This would open the setting panel. The size slider here jumps one by one. So for the values lower than one, we need to type in the value. I'm going to say 0.5 or maybe four for the size, and then put it on relative details on 60 points on a smooth and hit okay. You can already see that how this roughen the edges of this shape just with one click. Now, I will try the second variation by selecting the second shape. Again, effect, distort and transform and roughen. This, I'm going to set the size at 0.2 and the detail on 80. So you can see how lower size and higher details can give you a finer and more detailed edge. You need to play around and find a perfect setting for your own project and your own drawing style. Now, let's have a brief talk about graphic style library. You can access graphic style panel from the window menu up here and also bring your property panel and make sure both of these two options are checked. Scale corners and scale stroke and effect. This is very important that you have both of these checked. Graphic Style library is an amazing feature to speed your workflow. You can add the effects that we just created to your library by either dragging the effect into the panel or by selecting the effect and then hitting the plus icon down here. Now, anytime you want to use it, you can just select any shape and then click on the style from your library. And there you go, the effect is applied instantly. This work with multiple shapes as well. Just select everything. And then apply your effect. A protip here is to know that this is a live effect, meaning you can readjust the setting even after you applied it. So select the shape, then go either to appearance panel or to property panel and find the Fx sign. This stands for effect. You can even see that here is telling you that you're using the roughen effect. Then double click on icon, open the setting and tweak whatever you need. The new changes would only impact your selected shape and would not alter the effects in your library. Adobe Illustrator has quite a number of effects that can be combined in different ways and create texture and hand drum look. If you want to explore the topic of vector texture, I have a full class here on Skillshare. Focus just on how to create and use vector texture in Adobe Illustrator. Make sure to check it out. Alright, now let's head to the next lesson and learn more techniques. 13. Pattern As Texture: In this lesson, I want to show you how to use pattern as texture. We are not talking about surface pattern design or pattern as an individual artwork. We're talking about using patterns for the sake of adding texture. So we need to make sure that we are using very simple and very minimal motives. First, make sure your search panel is open. You can access it from the window menu up here. And now let's head to the pattern library. To do that, you need to click on the library icon here and then go to patterns, basic graphics and texture. This will open a separate panel with different premade pattern option. Now, I would select each of these squares one by one and try some patterns. There are quite a number of options here, so pick something that fits your style. Every pattern that we selected from the library is automatically added to our swatch panel as Pattern Swatch. Now let's apply one of these on an actual object. I'm going to select this tree. Now, if I would apply the pattern directly, it would replace the field completely with the pattern. But I don't want that. I want the pattern to be used as a texture on top of the color. So I will first duplicate the shape by pressing Command C on Mac or Control C on window to copy and then Command F to paste in front. Now, the front copy that we just created is automatically selected. If I apply the pattern on this now, the button shape keeps the base color and the top one contains the pattern texture. Perfect. Now, if you like the style of the pattern, but you are not happy with the color of it, you can change the color by going to the swatch panel and double click on this pattern swatch. Then you can select the motif, change the color, and click Done to update your pattern swatch. We don't have to always apply the pattern on the full area of a shape. Sometimes you can apply the texture just on a small section of the shape as highlight shadows or surface variation. I think creating your own custom made vector texture library is where you can get creative and find a personal approach in your vector drawing. All right, let's head to the next lesson and learn more techniques. 14. Stroke Thickness: In this lesson, we will learn how to adjust the stroke thickness and break that perfect vector. We will learn that by using two different techniques by changing the stroke profile type or by using the V tool. With the V tool selected, when you hover over a stroke, you see the Vt point. Then you can click and drag the handle of that point inward or outward to make the stroke thicker or thinner on that very point. You can do this on any part of the line from beginning to end or even on multiple parts of the line. Play around with it and see what fits best for your current drawing project. Next, we want to work on a stroke profile type. Make sure your stroke panel is available. As always, you can find it in the window menu up here. When you select a stroke line, you can have access to the profile setting either on the control bar up here or here directly in the stroke panel. I'm going to choose the D profile number two for this one. And as you see, unlike the it tool that was point based, this would apply the effect across the whole selected line. Let's try it again, selecting the next one and choosing another profile type. Right, great. Now, you can see how adding variation in stroke thickness made your lin boo to feel more natural and hand drawn. We are not done with the strokes yet, so let's head to the next lesson and learn some more techniques. 15. Brush Type: In this lesson, we learn about brushes style and how it can impact the overall feel of vector illustration. When it comes to stroke line, we already talked about round caps and joins and creating variety in stroke thickness. Now, let's push that a bit further by using the items in our brush library. So with the stroke selected, we want to change the brush type from standard basic to something with more character. So let's go to the brush library. I'm going to go to artistic. Then I'm going to chalk charcoal pencils, grab chalk feather number two. Yes, that works well. Okay, now let's try that again. And this time we are going to a different category. Let's say brush library decorative, elegant curves and floor brush, and I choose scallop. This create a completely different look, more stylized and more illustrative. There are so many different ways to play around with the brush stroke and add some sort of character to your line bod. You should just play around and see what fits best to your style. A handy tip here is that you should know you can change the it profile even after you change the brush type. So let's make a copy of this and say, I wanted to also change the profile of it, and then let's do that again with the next one and also change the profile. If you compare this, you can clearly see that the combination of these two technique can push the linework of your illustration into the whole new level. There are a lot of brushes available in Illustrator, but you can also expand your library by purchasing vector brush pack from other artists or even learn to create your own brushes based on your personal drawing style. Alright, now let's head to the next video and learn some very interesting tips. 16. Creating the Class Project: In this lesson, we will start making our class project together. If you wish to work on your own vector drawing, you're more than welcome to do that. But if you decided to follow along with me, I want you to gather a copy of all the elements we've worked on so far and gather them all here. And as you do, resize them, so they all fit on one single artboard. Arrange them into a nice composition. You do not have to follow the same order as I do. Just sort them out so they look nice next to each other. This is where things get interesting. So what we are going to do is to go over each element and start applying some of those techniques that we've learned depending on what each shape needs. This is actually a great time for you to go through your notes and take what you've learned and apply it as you see best. Just as a quick reminder, here are some of the things that we learned. Breaking the perfection in shapes, adjusting anchor points, making the ends and corners round and even the spacing and distribution, asymmetry, color variation, adding decorative details, distorting with liquified tools, using built in effects, using pattern as texture, changing the stroke thickness and profile variation, and adding some brush texture. I want you to take your time here and look at this as your practice stage. Okay, great. Next, we will adjust the colors. I've prepared some color palettes here for you to give you a starting point, but feel free to use your own color palette. My tip here is to start with the background color because all the other colors would depend on that. So go to the layer panel and go all the way done and unlock this layer, and then select your background, change the color, and head back to the layer panel and lock this layer again, so it is out of your way. I think there should be no limit here. Do as you wish and always, always, always be creative. And don't forget to add some details as well, making sure everything feels consistent as a set. All right, this looks great. Let's head to the next lesson and learn the very last technique and finalize our class project. 17. Texture Overlay: In this video, we want to talk about overlay texture. The first thing I would do add in paper texture overlay. So go to fight, place, and bring in the paper texture that I shared with you as your class resources, or bring in any other paper texture that you like. Then resize it so it covers the entire artboard and make sure to hit embed so it is not linked. Then head to your layer panel and drag this paper texture all the way up on top of everything. Then make sure your transparency panel is open. As always, you can access it through Window menu, then the paper still selected, go to this transparency panel and change the blending mode to multiply. This will pass the paper texture all the way down through every layer and make it look like you've been drawing on an actual paper. Then make sure you lock your paper texture layer because this is on top of everything and it would be selected accidentally and bother you. Next, I want to add a background texture. Why? Because the same rule of not having a big flat color which is a strong vector sign applies for the background color as well. To do that, I'm going to go to the layer panel, go all the way down, unlock the background layer and select it. Then I'm going to duplicate it by pressing the Control C or Command C to copy it and Control F or Command F to paste it in front. Then with the front one still selected, I'm going to add a pattern texture over it. Nothing too visible, just enough to break that solid color. Then you want to play around with the blending mode options and opacity to adjust this in a way that it looks good on the color of background that you chose. And if none of the satisfied you, you can still double click on the pattern swatch and change the color of the pattern. Now, once you're done here, make sure to lock this away as well, so you don't accidentally select it. We're almost done here. I just want to share my last tip. This is something that I always like to do for my vector drawings. I like to draw a rectangle as big as my whole artboard. And then drag it on top of everything. Then I'm going to add a pattern that goes on top of everything, not just the background, the whole illustration. Same as before, I'm going to play around with the blending mode with opacity. I'm going to play with color until I'm happy with this. Kind of overlay texture over everything creates a shared surface across the whole illustration. To me, this is like a glue that ties all the elements of my artwork together and gives it the last final hand drawn character. And this final overlay texture is where many artists like to create their own hand crafted texture because this can be used across all your projects and be perceived as a part of your personal drawing style. If you wish to learn how to craft your own hand drawn overlay texture, watch my other Skillshare class that is all about creating custom made vector texture in Adobe Illustrator. That's it. Now your class project is ready to be uploaded here on Skillshare. So let's head to the menu file, export, export as, and select JPEG and save. We are almost done, as we see in the very last video with final Talks. 18. Final Thought: Congratulations on finishing this Skillshare class, and thank you so much for your time and engagement here. I hope you had fun watching this class and that you've sharpened your skills or learned something new. I can't wait to see what you've created, so please upload your class project here on Skillshare in the project and resource tab. I will personally go through every single project and comment on it. If you have any question about the lessons, I'll be more than happy to help head over to the Discussion tab. Start a conversation and post your questions. If you found this class to be helpful, it would mean a lot to me if you could leave a review and let me know what you think about this class. And if you're up to learn more graphic design skills, you can check my other Skillshare class here or follow me here on Skillshare to get notification when I publish a new course. I also share design tips, tools, and tutorials on my blog and my YouTube channel. Before you go, if you end up sharing your project on Instagram or other platforms, you can tag me at Sahar hi Messer so I can keep in touch with you. Also, I occasionally give away one year of Skillshare membership to one of those Skillshare projects that I randomly find in my Insta. Thanks again for joining this class and I see you in the next one. Offend