How to Draw Portrait in Adobe Illustrator for Beginners

1. Introduction & Class Overview: Hi everyone, my name is Anastasia and I am UK based illustrator with many years experience of using Adobe Illustrator. My course is about portrait illustration from Porto using PCM mouse only. So there is no expensive equipment required and it's very beginner friendly. During my course, I will be showing you basics of Adobe Illustrator like setting up your interface tools file, upload, colors and portrait drawing. By the end of this course, you should be able to create portraits like this. The skills you will learn during this course will be a fantastic base that can be taken further to create more detailed and realistic illustrations, not only limited to portraits, but also pets and many other items. So let's get started. 2. Getting Started: Hi everyone and welcome to my Getting Started tutorial in Adobe Illustrator for beginners. Today I'm going to show you how to set up a new document and how to set up your interface in Adobe Illustrator for the first time. Once you have your Adobe Illustrator open, this is the screen that you will see on your computer. The first step we're going to do is creating a new document. And as you can see here on the left, you can click new or you can press Control N on your keyboard. This is the pop-up window that you will see on your screen. Here on the top you can see different type of illustration. So we have mobile, we have web, print, we have Film and Video, we have art and illustration. I'm just going to show you the settings that I use to create portrait illustration. So if you click art and illustration, here, you will see different windows and the sizing for your artworks. So as you can see, you have some default settings for letters for the sizing a for a free. So we're going to choose a four, which is the standard. Here on the right, we can change the name of our ad board so we can write Project 1. Then the next step is selecting your measurements for the artboard, which you can see here, comes in points, millimeters, centimeters, inches, whichever is easier for you to understand. You can select one. I always just keep millimeters. The next step is selecting orientation for your artboard. So you have portrait or landscape. We're going to click portrait and one for that board. The next step we're gonna do is selecting our bleeds. So the bleeds are the tolerance and the cutting. If you want to send your illustration from the print, I always suggest to keep two millimeters. And the final step we're going to select our color mode. So we have here on the right, if you click with your mouse, you will see RGB color mode or SM YK color mode. So the attributes for the web on live and CMYK is for the print. So we're going to just select RGB for now and press Create. The next step. I'm going to show you how to select all your tools in Adobe Illustrator. I'm not gonna go into much details, but just follow my steps and select exactly the same tools that we will use in the next tutorials to create portrait illustrations. Here on the left, if you click on the window and find in this drop-down menu tools and click on Default. So this is your toolbar that we will be using a lot in our next tutorials. And if you click and hold here, you will see. Blue line, just click on it and it will attach the toolbar to your illustrate the Soyuz not going to be moving around, so it's just going to stay in place. Then also again, you can just click and drag. You can make it smaller or you can make it bigger. So we're just going to keep it this way. Then the next step we're going to select our other tools that we will use for our tutorial. So if you click again on the window, and if you go to color, then we go to Window again. We're going to select brushes. Window again. We will need a line tool. Then we need to Color Guide. Here. Layers, pathfinder tool. Then we need to find gradient tool. Perfect. Then we need to get the Pearson scroll down transparency tool and our swatches library here. So we have our Gradient Transparency color swatches, color guide, align, Pathfinder. And do we need anything else? Let me check. And that's all. Okay. So now as you can see, you have all these different pop-up windows and it looks a little bit unorganized. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna just put them all in place. I tried to keep all my color related tools just in one box. So if you find your swatches first, you can see here you can just click and drag them around. You can expand them or make them smaller. So now this what we're going to start with, this watches. Then the next one, we're going to add our color rainbow, which will go here as well. So as you can see now we have swatches of color and you can also move them around. Then the next one we're going to attach here is our Color Guide. Okay, then we're gonna have a gradient and transparency due on the same. Then if you click on the swatch and just expanded a little bit. Now the next one I always keep my layers okay, and brushes here as well. And the last one I'm going to keep is aligned to and the Pathfinder. I always keep my tools, Jason, the right here, and make it a little bit smaller for now, some people like to keep them as symbols, but I like to keep just my ones open so I can see everything that I need specially if it's just starting for the first time. And you're not sure how and which symbol you will need to use. So that's our tools panel, all set. And I'm going to show you how to save this interface for the next time you're going to open up Illustrator. So here on the top you can see something called the essentials. And if you click on the essential and press new workspace and type, project course. And press Okay, so now this is the interface that we just set it up. And if you go to default, you see it's completely changed. So it goes to default setting that you don't have any tools. And then if you go back again to project course, you will have all your tools back again. Now, let me show you how to save these other Illustrator file. And if you open it next time, you will have exactly the same settings. So if you click here on the left file and you press Save As. And then I have this folder called Illustrator course. So we're gonna say project course, course file. You can see here the next one. It's another Illustrator and click Save. Okay, so now we can close all of this and it will go back to the start. So in order for you to open your document, you just click here on the left open or you can press Control O on the keyboard. And we're going to find our project course file selected and click Open. And you will have the advert and your tools all ready for you to use. And that's all for today. We've getting started in Adobe Illustrator. Thank you for watching and I will see during my next tutorial. 3. Import & Export Files: Hi everyone and welcome back to my tutorials today I'm going to show you how to import and export files in Adobe Illustrator. First of all, let's open our document that we saved during my first tutorial. If you click Open or Control L on the keyboard for the shortcut and select project file course file. The first step we're gonna do is importing file in Adobe Illustrator. So if you click File and then Place here, and then go into your folder, you can upload your own picture or you can find this picture also in the description under discourse. Just click on the picture that you want to upload and select Place. Now, this is the picture that you will see. So if you click and drag to expand it to your art bolt. And then also this can be adjusted. So if you hold Shift to keep the same size and measurements of the picture, just expanded to your artwork. Now. So this is all done. Sometimes I have to cut the pictures because they're not sent in exactly the size. So just try to keep as much as I can to fit everything to my illustration. So I will be, this will be the cutting point for me. And I will just expand a little bit more to decide. Just go down. Okay, so, and then I will just click here to lock my picture. Let's create a new layer and we're going to just draw some things on this photo just for an example. So if you click your eyedropper tool, click on the color of the hair. And then we're going to draw some parts of the hair. So just don't worry. And tried to repeat exactly the same step by going behind this bounding box. And then we're going to draw this part of the top. So we're going to select the color and also go just behind this bounding box. This is just an example to show you how to save your Illustrator file in the correct format. Now I'm going to show you how to export this file. So if you click File here on the left, then select Export in a drop-down menu, and then export as. And if you can see here you have the format. So JPEG or PNG is the standard that they use most of the time. So we're going to just keep JPEG. And then here you can see a little box says Use Artboards. We're not clicking this one now I'm going to show you what it does to your illustration and then you can change the name. So let's click Export. Okay, Then here you have the color mode, RGB, that can be also changed to CMYK or the grayscale. So we're just going to keep on GB. For your resolution, you have 300 and sometimes default settings will say 72 PPI. So just always change it to the highest and click Okay. So if you go back to our folder, as you can see here, this is the file that we just saved. And we can see how the drawing goes beyond the bounding box. So we don't want this, we just want to have it exactly too much our illustration. So in order to do so, you need to go to fall again, Export, Export As, and click this, Use Artboards so it will save exactly what is drawn in your art board. Click Export, keep the same RGB 300. And now we have derived format for the illustration. So you can see here the cutting point. And we don't have any finger and behind this, so always tried to click that box. So if you've forgotten, you saved it in this way. Just remember to go back again and save it by clicking the box, Use Artboards. Then the next one I'm going to show you is how to save this file as a PNG with a transparent background. Just remember to always make the photo invisible. So by clicking here. And then if you go to File, Export, Export As, and we're going to select artboards and PNG. Click export. And you can see here now your transparency background. This one again will be 72 PPI once you open your illustrator for the first time. So just change it to 300 and click. Okay. And if we go back to our folder, illustrator course, and you have your PNG file saved. We've transparent background. Now if you want to place your PNG file in Adobe Illustrator, if you go to File, click Place, select this project course file. And you can just double-check PNG, select Place. And as you can see here now you have your drawing with transparent background that can be placed here. So this is usually you do when you start drawing stickers or some sort of log of in Adobe Illustrator. And we're going to delete this. Another tip I'm going to show you another Illustrator is to set up your document while you are already working on your illustration. Here the top you can see Document Setup. By clicking this, you will see the pop-up window on your screen. Or if you go to the file and also select Documents, setup is the same pop-up window will come out. Here. You can adjust your bleeds and change it to a different size. So we can do five, for example. Then if you click here, edit adverts, you can also just them layout for landscape. Or you can resize your artboard to a different size. And again, if you want to check the measurements of these artboards, you can press Control R on the keyboard to open your ruler and change it to centimeter. So then you will have an exact measurements in centimeters controller again to remove it and enter press. Okay. So that's our and Bert adjustment made. That's all for the import and export files in Adobe Illustrator. Thank you for watching and I will see you during my next tutorial. 4. Tools & Techniques: Hi everyone and welcome back to my tutorial. Today I'm going to show you how to use some basic tools in Adobe Illustrator for beginners. Once you have your file open, we're going to upload some document that I prepared for you for your practice. If you go to File and click Place, and then from your practice folder, you can choose to tutorial practice sheet. Just select this file and click and drag to expand it. As you can see here. I have prepared some shapes for you and we're going to try to practice to draw. We've your pen tool, the pencil tool, curvature to Shape Builder tool, brush to an eraser as well. If you can just click on your layers and lock this layer one. So you can see we can do anything with this layer now. And if you click to create new layer on top, we're going to start drawing on this layer. I'm going to show you how the layers work. So if we're going to draw some object here, selecting our Eclipse tool. And then you can see here the circle. If I move this layer down, it will be behind the layer one. And if you go back, it will be on top of the layer one. So I'm just going to remove this and we're going to start drawing on the layer tool. If you select Pen tool from the toolbar and then we're going to find the color that is similar to the skin tone. So let's choose this one here. And we're gonna keep the stroke as none. So we're going to just select the fill color. And now we've your bento. If you can try to copy the lines following the dash line and close the shape. So the Pentel creates a shape with anchor points that can be adjusted. And it gives more clear lines. So if you can repeat the same steps to outline the circle. If you want, click and drag the handles to adjust the curvature. And just follow the step all the way around the dashed line. If you want to go back one step, just click on the anchor and start again. So I'll show you now. You see now if I close the shape is not going to be matching with the lines. Some wanna go back one step, click on the anchor and close the shape. Then the next step, we're going to try to make this eyelash if you select black color from the swatch menu and then switch it to the stroke. And select your pen tool again. What I want you to do is click here and at the end of the line. And if you drag this line and press Enter or you can press Control Shift a to deselect. And now I want you to be the same steps to create the eyelashes. So if you click and drag. And repeat all of them. Once you have completed all of them, then we can select all and duplicate this eyelashes. So if you press Alt on the keyboard and drag down, then we have another one here. In order to create the shape from this eyelash because at the moment they're all separated. So the oldest strokes are separate, we are going to create a shape. So if you select all, go to your object and then find from the drop-down menu expand and then not changing any v here. So we just keep Fill and Stroke and press. Okay. And then if you find your pathfinder and click here, merge. So now this eyelash is created as a whole object. Okay? The next step, what we want to do is creating this effect. We have a nice stroke. So if you select all of these again, or you can press V for the selection tool. And then here the top bar, we can change the profile. So if you select this first one, it will give you a nice shape, nice effect to the eyelashes. And we can adjust the points as well so you can make it wider or thinner. So let's keep it at one for now. The next tool we're going to use the pencil tool. So what we're gonna do is create an exactly the same shapes using the pencil tool. If you click on your eyedropper tool to choose the same color. So now you can see here the fill color is exactly the same. And we select the pencil tool here from the toolbar. It can be difficult to follow in the lines with your mouse, but you just need to practice. So if you can outline this box to create the shape, and then tried to repeat exactly the same VIV, this circle. Don't worry about this effects. We can change it afterwards. And I'm going to show you which tool we're going to use two. Now, let's select the stroke for the black and repeat the same steps to create eyelashes. So we're just gonna draw a line and repeat the same by drawing eyelashes. If you create a line like this and you don't know how to remove this part. I'm going to show you how to do it. So if you select all once again, then go to Object and select Expand. And then he only your Pathfinder tool, you just need to select divide. Then press a on the keyboard for your direct selection tool. And as you can see here, now, our strokes are all divided in different shapes. So you can remove any shape that you don't want. So it's quite easy and handy so you don't have to always try to draw an exact, accurate lines. You can always adjust them after. Now we're going to repeat the same steps for the bottom one. So if we select the stroke for the black and then create a line, then we're gonna just draw eyelashes. Once you finish all the steps, then you can press Shift and select all of this eyelashes separately. And then just the stroke effect. And we can do this as well. So that's your eyelash effect applied to the strokes. And then the next tool I'm going to show you is your Curvature tool. So what I want you to do is to select a different color, let's say blue. Select the pencil tool and try to just outline this shape. Don't worry if you are not doing it exactly. I'm going to show you how to adjust this with your current major door. So if you click and select an object, Let's turn down their basicity a little bit. So we're gonna use transparency. So we can see the dashed line behind. And now by selecting your curvature at all, which is this one here, we can adjust the paths. So if you click and drag this little circles, we can adjust the bath or you can add them. So you can click on the line and add more points. So again, if you want to delete one, you just click on the path and press Delete. Just try to repeat the steps. Now our shape is adjusted with the Curvature. Do the same step we can repeat with our pencil tool drawing. So if you select curvature, it'll close the shape first and then we can remove this path to make it nice. And for our circle, so we can just repeat the same steps and so on another shape. So if you are drawing with the mouse and you don't make sometimes exactly the line or the shape you want. You can always adjust it. So that's your curvature tool. The next tool I'm going to show you is your Shape Builder tool. So if you select the Eclipse tool, choose the color purple. And then we're going to create three different circles. Doesn't have to be the same, just something similar to that shape. And then just move them around. As you can see now, they're all three different shapes and I want to create as a whole, what do you need to do is V on the keyboard. Select them all. And then here you can choose the Shape Builder tool. Click on the Shape Builder tool. And you can see this like a mesh effect applied. So if you draw a line, click and draw a line across all of these reshapes. It will then convert this shape to one, the C. And there is also another way of using this. So if you don't want to use the shape builder tool, you can use your Pathfinder. So if we go back a few steps, so control Z on the keyboard. Now we're back to our original shapes and we want to use Pathfinder tool to create one shape from all three circles. So if you select all, go to object, expand. And then on your Pathfinder tool, you click Merge. So now you have the same effect created. So there is two different ways. Whichever you find these air you can apply to create an object. Now I'm going to show you how to use the yellow race at all. So if you can select a clip stall again with your stroke color and black holding Shift, create a circle and change the size to this much so it points. And we're going to start drawing. Let's say something with this color to remove the stroke color and choose pencil tool. So now I want to draw something. For example, I wanted to color inside and I went a little bit behind the lines. Then select this and send it to back. So if you right-click, if you click on the object, then right-click, arrange, send to back. Now it's behind the black line. So if I use my razor tool now, it will delete the black color. So what I want you to do is to lock this stroke. If you click here and you can see the last path, we can press Lock here. So our Eclipse tool is locked. And then now using your eraser tool, we can just remove the color that we don't want and go a little bit on top of the stroke color in black. And I will show you. So now you see we have cleaned everything that we don't want behind the stroke and just the Phil Collins scientists left so you can always secure your outline and delete unwanted color. And again, let's draw another sign. So if we go like this, send it to bark. And then because our Eclipse is already locked, we use them razor to delete the yellow line. If you go here, you can see volume of the color inside. So this is a handy tip to remember. Now I'm going to show you how to create these rows with using your brush tool and some other tools. If you select your brush here, paintbrush tool, and then go to Brush menu. And here in the corner on the left you can select Brush Library menu, and then select Artistic Watercolor. If you go down. You can see watercolor stroke six. Let's select this. And we're going to change the fill color because the brushes only applies to the stroke. So you always need to keep the color for the stroke only. Let's select pink. And we're going to change the size to four. And let's start drawing. So if you can start creating this snail kind of movement, he sees a little bit too big for us, so we're going to change it to a smaller size. And let's change the color to something more bright like this. And now, if you choose the pencil tool, fill color. And we're going to draw this object here. And then if you write, select this, right-click arrange and send it to the back. And we can turn down the opacity a little bit so it's not as bright. The next one, we're going to draw this line. So if you select the Pen tool and we're going to use the eyedropper tool to copy the color of this. And we're going to try to change it to the stroke and create them similar line. As you can see here, have a blight and different effect to the stroke. So if you select this stroke and then select this one profile shoe, as you can see now we have this effect and we can make it bigger so that we can see. Then again, eyedropper tool to choose the color of the leaves and VEVO pencil tool, we're going to draw some leaves. Okay? Now you can copy this one. So if you press out on a keyboard, drag turn underside to duplicate and you can move them around. So that's euros. A simple rules using your brush tool and spent Hilton and your pen tool. And that's all for the basic tools in Adobe Illustrator. You can find this file under the description on this tutorial. Thank you for watching. I will see you during my next tutorial. Hi everyone and welcome to my Getting Started tutorial illustrating for beginners. Today I'm going to show you how to set up a new document and how to set up your interface in Adobe Illustrator for the first time. 5. Tips & Shortcuts: Hi everyone and welcome back to my tutorials. Today I'm going to show you some tips and shortcuts how to save time in Adobe Illustrator. First of all, let's open a new document. You can do so by pressing Control N on your keyboard. Then we're going to select the art and illustration A4 portrait, true for our bleeds, RGB for the color setting, and then press Create. In order for you to move around in Adobe Illustrator. You can see here on the right this little oval that you can move up or down. And you can see that the one at the bottom to move right or left. Or you can just scroll with your mouse up or down. In order for you to zoom in your artwork, you can press Alt on the keyboard and then scroll to zoom in or zoom out with your mouse, which is quite handy. And again, you can drag these little ovals up or down, right or left. Next, let's draw some shapes in Illustrator by selecting a star tool in your toolbar. And we're going to change the color inside. Now if you hold Shift and click with your mouse, it will create the starch shape. And I'm gonna make another one so we can just duplicate by pressing Alt on the keyboard and duplicate the star. Chu. Important shortcuts for your Adobe Illustrator is your selection tool and Direct Selection tool. So if you press V on your keyboard for your selection tool, which is this one here in your toolbar. The selection tool will always select the object as a whole. If you present an object, you will see a frame around the whole star. You can press Shift on your keyboard to zoom in and out and change the size of your object. If you press a on your keyboard, which is Direct Selection Tool, which is this one here in your toolbar. The direct selection tool will always select the segments that make up the frame. So if I click on my shape, you can see your anchor points that can be adjusted. So for example, you can change the shape of your star or you can change the curvature of your star. So you have two important shortcuts. You have selection tool and Direct Selection tool. So the anchors usually is for changing the shape. And then also, if you see here, let me show you if you press your direct selection tool. For example, we're going to create a new shape. Let's create Circle K. Now we're going to select a. As you can see here, you have your anchor points. If you click on the anchor point, you will see handles. So these handles can be moved around to change the shape. Or you can drag them further. You can select this one, can really see on the blue. But let's do this one here. You see so you can change your gesture shaped with the handles. So that's your anchor point. So this you can do with only selecting Direct Selection Tool. Now let's remove all of this. We don't need it for now, and we're going to keep this star. Next important shortcut is your rotation tool. So if you press R on the keyboard and hold this little circle inside. And now you can rotate your shape by clicking and rotating around. Or if you move this here, you see so you can rotate your shape. That's your rotation tool. The next tool that we're going to use if you want to go backwards. So you have, if you press Control Z on the keyboard, then it will go backwards. So for example, when you start drawing, you created a line that you don't like. And you can, I'm going to show you as an example. So if you created some drawing for something like this, then you want to go back space. So controls that control Z, control Z on your keyboard. Then to move your illustration around your artboard, you can press hate on the keyboards. This is the little handed you will see. And you can move your illustration around, which is also quite useful when you start drawing. And you don't want to use your keyboard, then you can just use the hand tool, which is called pansy. The next key shortcut that I use a lot to create my illustration is to deselect something. So if you select Pen tool and you start drawing a shape, it keeps the shape selected. You see when you close the path is still selected. You can select B for your selection tool and then click out to deselect. Or you can click Control Shift a on your keyboard and it will deselect as well. If you started to draw something for stickers or for the logo and you really like to know the size of your drawing, then there is a shortcut for the ruler. So if you press Control R on the keyboard, as you can see here now you have this measurement taped kind of. And then if you click, if you right-click here in the corner on the left, you can change it to different sizing, so for example, centimeters. And then Selection Tool. For example, I have this star shape and I want to know the size. As you can see here. Let's keep it from 0. So my star is about 8.8.8 or something. So then this is your ruler. So it will give you an idea, exact measurements of your artwork, which is quite Kansas. Or sometimes you want to see what size is your art board here. And then you can use the same. So you can just open the ruler and double-check just to make sure there is another shortcut for you to open your artwork. A biggest size and removal the tours. So if you press Tab on your keyboard and then tap again to go back. And that's all for today. This was just a quick tutorial on some tips and shortcuts, how to save time in Adobe Illustrator. Thank you for watching and I will see you during my next tutorials. 6. Colour Settings: Hi everyone and welcome back to my tutorial. Today I'm gonna show you some basic color settings in Adobe Illustrator for beginners. I have created a file which you will be able to find under the description of this video, and you will need to use it for this tutorial to have a practice. First of all, let's create a new document. We can press Control N on the keyboard. And we're going to name this as color settings. And we will just have a landscape orientation for this illustration and everything else. We keep the same A4 size click, Okay, then we will need to upload the file. So if you go to File and then select Place, and then you will be able to see a file called Color practice sheet. So we're going to upload this one if you select this and have Place. And now we're going to just click and drag to expanded to your art board. Now we need to select our colors. So if you just go to the color to open our doors which are here. Okay, so the first step, I'm going to show you your basic swatches. So here on the right, you can see something called splotches, which is your basic preset color swatches, which is in RGB web only color swatches. And then as you can see here, you have some grayscale. You have some color. And again, you have your fill color and stroke color, which you can change the same you can do from the tool panel here on the left. The next step I'm going to show you is how to choose the color. So if you select on the swatch and now you have this red color fill and you want to adjust it. So what do you need to do? Just double-click on the fill color here on the left, and you will see this color picker pop-up window. You can select any different color from different shades, from the white to the red. And also you can move this slider here to choose a different color as well, so called blue, yellow, green. And again, you can adjust the color you want and choose the shape that you like. Also here, you will see at different letters and numbers. So that's the color codes. It can be also used to choose the color. If, for example, you want to find the coloring the Internet and then type the number here and it will come up. But this is something a little bit more complex or I'm not going to show you this. As you can see now, this is RGB, so that's exactly what we're working with. Only web colors. Now. Let's close this 1. First of all, I'm going to show you how to create your own color palette and how to save them in different way. If you select your eyedropper tool. And as you can see here, prepared like a skin tone palette for you. And if you click with your eyedropper tool, now we have this fill color here. And if you go to the new color group here on the right, click on this folder and we're going to name the skin tone palette and press Okay, so now we have this folder here which called skin tone palette. And we want to add the rest of the colors to this folder. So if you click on the swatch and click and drag, click, then on the other one, click and drag, and another one, click and drag. So now you have all the four colors here in your folder. And we want to save these color swatches. So if you go to swatch library menu, and if you press Save Swatches. And we want to go to desktop and Illustrator course. And we're gonna save this as a skin tone palette and press safe. So in order for you to open this color folder, I will show you how to do it. If you just remove this from here. And then click again on the swatch library menu. And if you go down, you will see other library. And then we will go to illustrate a course folder, skin tone palette file. Open it. And now you have the skin color palette here. In this pop-up window, what you need to do is just click on this folder and drag to your workspace and close this. So that's how you save your swatches. You can do it by creating your own palettes and have it safe for your next time. Or you can do also for the hair colors, for the eyes and etc. There is also another way of saving this as an asset, this transparent background. So what I want you to do is to select your Star Tool. And let's select a black stroke color. And we're going to create some stars. And just press Alt to duplicate and repeat the same step for all of them. Then we can just make them a bit smaller. And this one. Okay, so now we have four stars and what you wanna do, you want to copy these colors to this star. So if you select The first one we've your selection tool, and then use the eyedropper tool. Click on the first star and now it's changing the color. So if you deselect, Control Shift a, select the second one and do the same step to select the color. And repeat the steps again with the rest of the stars. This is also the same way if you would like to prepare some color swatches from the photo that you will be drawing and have them saved next to your artwork. This is another way, so let's repeat the final steps. Selection tool and drop shadow. The last one. Perfect, So that's all stars are ready. We, we copy everything. That's just locked this object lock selection. Now if you select all of this, and then you go to right-click live your mouse export selection. As you can see, this pop-up window that says acid and acid one. So we're going to just press Export acid. And it's saved in your folder. Now we're going to close this, remove these stars. And if you go to File Place and select your asset, as you can see, this is like a sticker with the colors. We're transparent background that can be used for your illustration to create some color pallets. You can also keep it in this way next to you and just use the skin color for your illustrations. So you have two different ways. You have one that you can create the folder and the other one you can export this as an asset and use them as a presets for your illustrations. Let's expand this. The next step I'm going to show you how to use your passage tool to create like a blending effect. If you select your clip store, change the stroke color to black and create three similar circles. Let's do just this 1 first and then Alt on the keyboard to duplicate. And another one. So you have three different circles and we want to change the fill color insight to three different shades of red. Perfect, So now if you select all of them and go to your transparency TO here on the right. And as you can see here, the percentages, we're going to change it to 50 years. You can see now this is all blended done a gives a different transparency between each other and you can also adjust it to make it more transparent or gone back to normal. So you can blending the colors. If you, for example, creating some lip effect on your illustration, then you can use different passages to blend together the color. If for example, let's remove the stroke color for all three of them. So we have better visibility on the blending. And maybe we can select different color sheet. So let's do the fill colors, swatches, pink. Then we're going to change this one to the number pink and this one to the dark one. As you can see now it's all blended. And if you want to go back to transparency tool and go down to 50%, This is the fact that they will give you. So as you can see, it's nicely blended. And you can also make them a little bit smaller like this. So it's very useful if you want to apply some effects on your illustrations. You just play with opacity. And again, this one also, you have different effects here which you can choose. Luminosity, hue, color, Burn, multiply anything, but I don't change this one, so I just used the normal, the standard. So the next step we're going to try to work with our gradient tool. And I'm going to show you how to apply different gradients, how to change the position, and how to create your own. So let's create a rectangle shapes. So we're just gonna do a similar squares. And let's change the stroke color to black. And again, and repeat the same step for all of them. Perfect, So now if you select the first square, we want to create the same gradient. If you go here to swatch library menu, you will find different names and presets swatches in your Adobe Illustrator, which is already here. And then if you find a swatch quote gradient, and then if you go to gems, select this blue gradient. So it's exactly the same as this one here. Let's call this window. And we want to create reverse gradient in the second square. So if you just copied this one with your Eyedropper tool, and then you go to your gradient tool here on the right. And from this drop-down menu, you can just select radial. So that's a different way. And in position so you can have linear or let me just change. Like this way position or you can have your radio. And again, this can be also adjusted with the sliders here to make it more of a lighter blue color or the dark color. The second one, I'm going to show you again if you go to swatch library menu gradients, and if you select void. And then we're going to select where is it? Oh, color. And then you want to copy the same 30 seconds Claire video I dropped with Tor. And then select this one. And this you can see here on your left you have something called gradient tool. Click on this and you will see this slider coming up. And once you see this arrow, you can change the position of your gradient. And you can also move this around. So this is like a gradient slider. There can be adjusted, you can turn away. You can make it longer or make it smaller to apply your gradient in different positions. So you can just play around. The next thing I'm going to show you how to apply and transparent gradient. So if you select this square and go to your gradient tool here on the right. And from the drop-down menu, this little square here, you will see something called blue sky. So select this blue sky gradient. As you can see now it's blue and has a transparent part here. We want to change the color of this on your gradient slider. If you double-click on this little gradient slider, and let's change it to pink. And the same we're going to do with this one here. So now we have this nice pink gradient and we want to adjust the position of this. So we're just going to turn this the same way. And that's the transparent gradient applied. And the next one I'm going to show you how to create your own gradient. Again, let's select the square. Remember to select your gradient and go to default white and black. Now, here as you can see here, you have your gradient slider. If you double-click on the white and change it to green color. Then double-click to create one more slider and select this color. Then double-click again and select another color and blue. And you can repeat this as many times as you want and change any color you want as well. We remove this slide there, you just click and drag down to add Double-click. Then you can adjust them by moving them slightly. To position them. If you create one extra range is don't worry, you can just remove it. Now you have your gradients swatch here. So if you select your square and just click on your gradient. And again, by selecting Gradient tool or G on your keyboard, we can change the position. We are gradient. If you want to save this swatch, you can do the same way as we did the first step with the stars. So once you create a gradient swatch, you can just click and drag to your first line here. So where you can see at the gradients. So you cannot save this in this folder. You will have to go on the top. The next step I'm going to show you how you can apply a pattern to your objects. So if you select your square, once again, go to swatch library menu. And as I showed you before, You have different names here for the swatches, presets. And if you can see you also have some skin tone and some skin tone presets already here. You can, again select one and just move it to your workspace and you can work with this swatch. Or if you don't want them, you can just remove them from here. Then the next one I'm going to show you is your patterns. So if you select Patterns, nature, and if you go to nudge rather than human skin. And let's select this jaguar saw. We have selected this pattern that you can apply to objects. For example, if you draw like a t-shirt and you can just apply this button. We're going to also show you a quick way how to create your own pattern. That you can also say this swatch and use it for your next time. So we want to create something similar to this one. So as you can see here, it has some grids and defect. So what we want to do is going to your swatch library menu regions and lead select some simple radial gradient, and we're going to select the orange color. Then go to your gradient tool. We're going to just changed the shades for this swatch. And we're going to select some brown and maybe lighter beige. And we're going to reverse it. So we're going to put this on here and this one outside. Now, we're going to use our pencil tool. But first let's de-select the stroke color and just use the fill color. Let's create some shapes. Just like something similar to that kind of leopard. Skin, and we're going to select a dark brown. Let's change it to a darker color with your pen Toto. Create some similar effect as your button. You can also do this anyway, if you creating some flowers or any other pattern that you will see is the same way. So just use your imagination of creating this. And the next step we're going to select all of this and click and drag to the swatches here. And now you can see this pattern comes as a swatch. Let's delete this one. And if you select your last square and select the swatch that we just created, then we'll apply the pattern to your swatch. So this is just a simple quick way to show how you can create your own patterns. I can also show you quickly how to do like a different shape. So for example, if you're drawing let's say some flour. So Eclipse tool, Let's create quickly some flour. And we're going to use a straw color in. So we can see the details a little bit more like a gray. And let's just draw some. This is just quickly to show you how you can do it. Okay, so what do we want to do to put this on the front and make it bigger? This is just an example. Now, I want to create this as a pattern. So if you go Select All click and drag to your swatches, and select the square, and select your flower. And again, you see this button is applied to your object so you can kind of create an imitation. It doesn't have to be exactly the same, but this is a quick way to show you how you can use this for your illustrations. So the next step, we're going to try to draw this I, by using all the tools that I just showed you. So we're going to use our gradient and our policy team to play around with the object. What we're going to create first is duplicate the circle in black. So let's select the black color for the fill. No stroke and holding Shift creating the circle. Similar size to this one. Now we're going to go to Gradient tool and select the blue sky. The next step I want you to select your curvature tool. And just Changed the curve and both this much. And then move this to your circle and position this, this way at the bottom. Maybe we can make it a little bit smaller. So holding Shift and again from the sides. Okay, perfect. So now if you select this shape and moving your gradient slider, just make it more darker. Perfect. So it's like a more transparent from that side. And now we're going to select the Eclipse tool again. Black fill color and create another small circle in black. And then click and drag to, to place it here. And again, we want to just duplicate this circle. So out on the keyboard, click and drag. Reduce the size, change it to white color, and move it here. And again out on a keyboard to click and drag to duplicate, make it smaller. So if you go to your transparency tool, turn down a basicity. So now we have created this iss by using the opacity tool, your gradient tool, and your eclipse door, which is quite easy. And you can just play around and change the color of this as well. So if you go to your gradient tool, double-click and change to blue, you can change to green color. And as you can see now, this one is also still in blue. And also you can see this ingredient. And let's change it to, for example, two. Let's use the green but make it controls it. And we're just gonna make this a little bit brighter. So we go to Gradient, double-click and select the color. And again, if you double-click on this one, we can also adjust color. You have a different color for your eye. And then next step I'm going to show you how to adjust the colors. For example, if you're creating a skin color shades and you just want to blend them a little bit more and adjust them color. So if you just create four different circles, Let's just change the color. 1234. Select, change the shade. Again. Select, Change dish and select, Change the last one. And then if you select all, go to Edit. And from your drop-down menu, if you go to Edit Color and select recolor, we've preset. And then select color. Harmony. Is, you can see now we have four colors coming up here. So starting from the dark one, you can adjust the shape of this. So for example, if your color is this and you want to create similar to this color, you just go down to the right, or you want to go darker. You can just play around. Same. You can go here and make it even more darker than here. And the last one. And by clicking Okay, You will have a different color shapes for your skin tones. And that's all for the color settings for beginners. And this is the basic tools that you will be using during my tutorials. Thank you for watching and I will see you during my next tutorial. 7. Portrait Illustration Drawing: Hi everyone and welcome back to my tutorial. And today we're going to start our first portrait drawing illustration. Once you have your Adobe Illustrator open, we're going to create a new document. So we're going to press Control N on the keyboard. And we're going to rename our document here, which will be flat for great illustration. And we're keeping our sizes a four. We keeping our bleeds at two millimeters and orientation portrait press OK. Once you have your document open, please remember to select the right interface which we saved during my last tutorials. So which is the project course. And we will have all your tools ready for you. The next step we're going to upload our file, which will be drawing in Adobe Illustrator. I have selected this simple photo which you can find under the description of this video, or you can select your own whichever way want to learn. So we're going to select this photo and place. And then we're going to click and drag with your mouse to expand the Fatah. This is just about right, so we have everything we need because of the size of the picture. We just going to cut this. So we're not going to use this part, we're just going to draw up to here. And because this is the first layer which is going to lock it for now, what I did already, I have prepared some color selection for this illustration. You can either select your own by using your I drop a tool and just choose all your colors that you will be using for the illustration. Or you can just download the one I have selected for your reading. So if you go to the file, we just need to unlock this on for now. Go to the file and then click place. As you can see here, you can find this color palette. And we're just going to place it next to our photo here. So that's your colors. And we're going to lock this layer. So we're going to create the next layer. Create new. There is one thing that some people like to use when they start drawing is turned down the opacity of the photo. So you can see the lines a little bit more. It doesn't matter for me, I always just keep it at 100. But if you want to turn it down, it's just more difficult to see if you can see the colors. So I would just suggest maybe to keep at 90 or just keep it at 100. If you can see properly. Then we're going to lock this layer. And the first step we're going to do is start drawing the ice. I have already pre selected some skin color tones for you. So we're gonna select this darker shade here. And we're going to make this. The stroke color and we're going to select, buy it as a fill color. Then if you select your pen tool or press P, go chill, second layer, and we're going to start drawing. So just follow my steps and tried to outline the eye. Once you completed this step, we're going to start working on our eyelashes. So we will just need to select the black color. We have no stroke color. And again, we're going to select the Pen tool. And we're going to create this sort of eyeliner effect. Just follow the line. And as you can see, our lines is not really curved in the right way, so we can just adjust it to leave the curvature tool. And also there is another way that you can draw an eye liner. You can select the pencil tool and you can try to draw a line with your pencil tool, which is a little bit more complicated. So I would suggest for the first time to use the pen tool. Now once you have created your eyeliner, we're going to start drawing eyelashes. So what we want to do is change the black color to the stroke color. And we're gonna reduce the stroke weight to 0.5 for now. And what do we want to do is creating eyelashes. You can do it by way of your bento door or Levy of bento, which is easier for you. Again, if you want to deselect it's Control Shift a on your keyboard PT. Whichever way it's easier for your. I'm just going to use the pencil tool. For now, because she has such a big eyelashes. So we're just going to create quite a bit here. Control Z to go back if you don't like the line. And just repeat both eyes. The same steps. As you can see now this eye lashes is a little bit shorter. So what we need to do is to press shift and select them all. So we're going to do this. And then holding shift just expanded a little bit. That's perfect. And now we're going to repeat the same step for the bottom eyelashes. So we're just going to do the same. The last true and unlike some interests, but don't let this. Now, I want to select this and change the ends for their lashes. What we want to do is to select our eyeliner and our eyes. So by holding Shift, select them all, then go to Object, Lock and lock selection. So now I can just touch my eyelashes, but these ones are secure, the eyes are secure. Select all hold Shift, select that the site. Then go to the stroke profile and change it to this one here. And as you can see now, we have this effect eyelashes. So we have a different ends. And if you want to make them a little bit thicker, what we can do is to select a 75. Always just go back to the stroke uniform. So then we're going to select mental tool and which is going to draw some more thicker eyelashes. We're going to repeat this step here. And again, select all. And it's done. The next step we're going to outline our eyebrows. So I have designed broke color here if you use your eyedropper tool to select this color. And then we're going to use pencil to draw our eyebrows. So if you want to continue with this line, or you want to go back, just press on an anchor, or if you continue to press on the handle. So if you go back to the anchor and what I'm trying to do, make a little bit curvature. And again, so I'm gonna show you one, I lived the pen tool. And the second I, using your pencil tool to create the same effect. And just trying to create like a hair effect. And it's done. And the next, I am going to use a pencil tool to create the same effect. So if you press Control Shift a to deselect, and now we're going to use our mental door. Can be difficult if you just using the mouse for the first time to draw in Illustrator by just, you will get used to it. We have to practice. Okay? That's about right. As you can see, you can reach both exactly the same effect by drawing with your pen or your pencil tool. Now, the next step where we want to do is outline your nose, eyelids, our lips. So what we want to select is, again, the darker skin tone. Maybe we can create a little bit darker so we can see more K. Now what do we want to do is select to draw behind using our pencil tool and change it to the straw color. And we're just going to create an islet here. And now because it's not an accurate shape, we're going to adjust the curvature, the curvature tool. And using your selection tool, we're going to change the profile. And now we're going to repeat the same step with the pen tool. So if you just click, click and drag, as you can see, line is already curved in a nice way. So then we deselect, select again and change the profile. So in the next step we're going to outline the laws. I usually draw just the line, or we can use the pencil tool. Now we're going to outline our north. So if you select pencil dome and the fill color and just following the line and shadow. To create this shadow effect on the nose. And the same we can do here just to see the difference between the eye and the nose. And the same stepping on a repeat to highlight the jaw line. You can use the pencil tool or you can use a Bento. So this is the pencil tool. Or if you go back, we're going to select Pen tool and create a nice line to highlight. And we're gonna, just gonna reach a little bit. So you can go here and k. So now the select everything and we're going to start drawing our lips. So first, we're going to highlight the shadow. So if you select your eyedropper tool and click on the director's point and change it to the stroke color here. And using your bento, we're going to create a line following the shape of the leaf. And then again selection tool and change the profile. So now we have this nice line and we're going to select the color of the lip. And again, just remember that we drawing behind. We're going to create an outline, our lips and exact shade. Let's adjust it a little bit. The curvature. And what we want to do, they will not blend this color a little bit more so or make it more pink. So what we can do is to select and adjust our color. Co-opting this one looks a little bit better. Now, the next step we're going to do is to draw our hair. So first step is to draw darkest color first. So we're going to select this one. And using your Pen tool, I'm going to show you how to draw a hair, maybe a bento. So we're going to just highlight the darkest points. And I'm going to show you the same way with the pencil doth. I usually use just the pencil don't because it's quicker and you can make a nicer lines. But we're gonna do both ways. So just tried to repeat the same steps. Don't worry if they don't come up nicely for the first time. We're just going to practice and practice. Using the pencil tool, you can do the same. So you can just draw the shadow here. And this is not our period, so we're going to just repeat it. Okay, once you finish highlighting the darker shades of the hair, we're going to start outlining here. So you select your eyedropper tool and select this shape here. Your pen tool. And we're just going to go to outline an entire hair. Once you finish highlighting the hair, we're going to fill our face color. So we're going to select the lighter color shade for the face. And by using your Pen tool, we're going to just outline the face lines here. And to feel this. Just repeat the same step. Once you've finished with your face, we're going to repeat the same step with the arms. If you want to see behind the picture. And you can just switch this to the line color and just double-check. And you can just finish it up and close and then change it back again to the fill color. The next step, we're going to color the top. If you select this black color here, your bento. And starting from here, because we have selected to draw behind you can just start at any point and just follow the line. Same if you go over behind here. And now here. And just close the shape. Perfect. So now we have our basic 3D. And what we wanna do the next step is to draw my ISO. We're going to just lock this layer too. And then we're gonna create a new layer on top. Just move it. So if it comes between the layer 1 and lead 2, just click and drag on top. And then we're gonna turn visibility for the lead true so we can see the ice and we can start drawing. So this is the eye color I have selected already. As you can see here, we have here the black circle and the white. So what we want to do is to draw those two parts first, so the black one, by selecting your eclipse to holding Shift and dragging, recreating a black circle. Shift to change the shape. Now, the white one, you can either draw the same circle or using your pencil door, which is creating a shape. And we want to switch this to the front. So if you want to right-click with your mouse, go to arrange and bring to the front. And now what we're gonna do is selecting the Eichler and leave your pen tool. We're going to outline the shape. Okay, and now if you click on visibility for the lead shoe, this is our eye. And we want to just adjust it too much with the eyeliner. So Wifi coverage at all. Just adjust the shape. And same for the bottom part. And now we're going to repeat the same step with the second eye. If it's a proportional portrait, you can always just click and duplicate this drawing and just copy die. Or because this one is not proportional portrait, we just have to repeat the same step and draw the eye exactly the same as on this photo. So we're going to select the black color again, Eclipse to click and drag to create a black circle. Then we're going to select the white color. And nothing. They soon as a little bit too big. So we're just going to make it smaller. And we're just going to copy this white part. So if you click out on the keyboard, click and drag to duplicate. And then we're going to select this color using our pen total instead so we can create a shape, whichever is easier. But again, as you can see with the pencil tool, It's a little bit more difficult. So delete this and repeat it again. Okay, now we're gonna click visibility for the layer 2 and adjust the shape for the eye again. This one is just about right, so it's not much we can change to suggest curvature a little bit. Okay, and now what we can do is create a little bit more of an eyeliner. So if you select your pencil dog. And just draw a thicker line. And we forgot to change this one to draw at the front. So if you go back, change it to draw at the front. And repeat the step. Let's go back. Okay? And we can do the same at the end just to make a smoother line. And we're going to repeat the same steps here. Okay? Maybe a little bit more just here. Just to make it similar to the second eye. Okay, once you are happy with the eyeliner, we're going to create a little shadow on our lips. So if you click your Eyedropper Tool and then click on the leap and just change the color, fill color. So we're going to go a little bit lighter. Clique of k and v. If your pencil door just create a shape on the bottom of the lip and the top. And now we want to do the exactly the same just with a little bit lighter and just create another shape here and on top to give like a gloss effect. Now as you can see here on top, we need to correct this line here. So we just going to use Eye dropper tool again. And we can use our pencil tool. And just draw a little bit more of the hair line here. Okay, that's perfect. So now what we want to do is to remove visibility for the photo. So we can just see our drawing here. And you can always double check if there is anything that you want to adjust or change the shape or add some color. You can do so or click back again so we can see everything. And the next step, what we want to do is to add some highlights on the hair. So if you click visibility and lead shoes, you can see he or she have. Lighter hair color. So we're just going to try to create the effect. Go back again. We're going to keep drawing on the layer three. We select eyedropper tool, lighter shade. And by using her pen and pencil tool, we're going to create some light the hair. I'm going to show you both ways again. So we're going to use both tools. Okay, Now we're going to select the pencil tool. And we're going to repeat the same step on the underside to weave your pencil tool. Ten months you've finished the steps. What we want to do is to adjust the opacity of this too much with the hair a little bit more. So we're going to just hold shift and select all four objects. And we're gonna go to transparency door here on the top. And just change the transparency. So you can change to a minimum. And I will keep just around 60. And if you want to do the same with this color, you can repeat the same step. But I like to keep just the dark ones so it's highlighted. The next step we're going to do is to compare the photo and our illustration solving unlock the layer free, deselect, unlocked layer and one, click on the photo and drag. So this is your illustration. This is just a simple flat illustration which you can create by using your pen and pencil tool. And what we want to do to finish it all began to just create some background. So if you click to lock the layer one and create another layer under this illustration. And we want to select some background color. So we want to just go to our color picker and we want to choose some shade for the background saw and like this blue one. So we're going to just skip it. Then going to select our rectangle tool. We click and drag. And as you can see here, it's quite bright, so we want to just make it a little bit darker. Maybe this color blue. And now we're going to save this file. So if you go to the file, we're going to select the Export As and flood portrait illustrations. So we just keep the same name and use and brought. Again, just double-check if your PPI is at 300. Transparent and click Okay. If we go back to our folder, we can find now our illustration here. And as you can see, it's all nicely done. There is no any drawing going behind the artwork. Your outlines, so that's your flat simple illustration. Ready? Go back and read, just gonna remove the visibility for this and lock the layer. So what we want to do, we want to save this file. So if you go to File, Save as flood budget illustration and safe. And then we just click, Okay, so that's our Adobe Illustrator file saved. And if you want to change something or adjust something, you can always go back and redo it. If you want to keep this illustration and make some adjustments, but also keep the original one. Just always remember to File and click Save As so you don't just override on the same file and then you're gonna lose it, the original one. So just create another one. And that's all for today. This is your first flat illustration drawing in Adobe Illustrator for beginners. In my next tutorial, I'm gonna show you the butcher drawing with more details and more complex work and different doors. Thank you for watching. And I will see during my next tutorial. 8. Final Thoughts: Alright guys, you made it through, I hope you enjoyed my course and it was very useful. As mentioned during beginning, this is just the basics covering portrait illustrations. I will be teaching intermediate to advanced level classes as well. So see you then.