Transcripts
1. Class Introduction: Well, hello. Are you ready to level up
your vector illustrations? Well you came to the right spot. In this class, I'm going to show you how something as simple as line can be used to
transform your illustrations. That line may be simple, but it's oh so versatile. I'm Amy, a surface pattern
designer and illustrator, and welcome to my 5th Skillshare class. You may know me from
my previous classes where I teach how to create
digital artwork on the iPad. I've been using the iPad since 2016 to create my artwork. And I started with Adobe Fresco shortly after came out in 2019. But long before that, I started with pencil and paper. I have over 30 years of
experience as an artist. So the iPad didn't exist
when I got started. Early on, I tried
many forms of art, all made by hand with
traditional media. And I even went to
school to get my Bachelors of Fine Art where
I studied oil painting. Eventually I found vector art when I needed to create a logo. Vectors offer scalability
without the loss of quality. But at first they just
felt really flat to me. I wanted to infuse a hand-drawn painterly
style to my illustrations. And this can be achieved
in a variety of ways, but one of the simplest
is through line. In this class, we're going
to take our illustrations up a notch through the
versatility of lines. We will go from basic
shapes to organic shapes, adding form and texture through the use of line
weight and spacing. The class is for anyone wanting to learn
techniques for line drawing, and illustration. We'll
be using Adobe Fresco and I'm going to teach
you all the tools you're going to
need for the class, but it may be
helpful to know some of the basics before
you get started. If you need a refresher
on Adobe Fresco, I teach everything you
need to know about the app in my Skillshare class, Intro to iPad Art:
Part 2 - Adobe Fresco. If you want to stay updated on all my classes and be notified
of any discussions I post, you can follow me on Skillshare. You can also find
me on Instagram or Pinterest at Amy EB Designs. If you love the versatility of vectors and you
want to create dynamic illustrations, you're
going to love this class. So let's dive right in.
2. Class Project: The project for this class is in the form of a
5-day challenge. Now, each day you'll get a different prompt
that's going to allow you to try the
different techniques that we're going to talk
about in this class. We're going to
start by discussing the power and
versatility of lines in art and how they can be used to transform your vector
illustrations. We're going to review the
vector brush options in Adobe Fresco and how to make adjustments to
the brush settings, as well as all the ways to use the vector trimming
tool to speed up your process when creating
beautiful clean illustrations. At the end, we'll be ready to apply what we learned in
a 5-day challenge, I've included some images of the Project and Resources
tab for you to use. These are basic sketches
for you to build on and are meant to work as
guides to get you started. You can download these files
from your browser and save them in a location that is
accessible on your iPad. I like to use the iCloud
Drive to save my files. As always, I'd really
love to see your work, so don't forget to upload it
to the class project page. You could start with day one and
then continue to come back and update your project as
you go. To upload a project, just go to the project
and resources section of the class page and
tap Create Project. When the page opens, you can simply
upload your image, add a project title and description,
and then hit publish. In the next lesson, we're
going to start by reviewing some basics about a
fundamental element of art. That simple and versatile line.
3. Lines: Simple but Versatile: Lines. They're one of the fundamental
elements of visual art. They may seem really simple, but there, oh, so versatile. They can be straight,
curved, jagged, loose and free form, or precise and clean. They can also be continuous, broken, or even implied. Contour lines define the
outline of a shape while cross contour lines follow the form of a shape and
give it dimension, you can have variations in
the line weight or quality, which can subtly create
depth and shadow and form. Lines can also be used to
imply movement or space to add tone and texture and
even to convey energy. Let's take a look at
the way Da Vinci uses line to create tone,
form, and texture in his study for
the Head of Leda. You'll also notice
that there's a lot of movement in the
flow of her hair. All of this is achieved
through his use of line. In Albrecht
Durer's Praying Hands, notice how those short
curved hatch marks create form and roundness
to the fingers and how he creates the implied lines of veins on the
back of the hands with his use of negative space where the hatch marks
start and stop. He creates highlights
and shadows, not only by his change of color, but also in the tightness
of his crosshatching. As you can see, the
simple line is incredibly versatile in its ability to
transform a piece of art. Now that you know the
power of the line, in the next lesson, we're going to add
lines to basic shapes to create the illusion
of form and dimension.
4. Lines + Basic Shapes: Let's take a look at the
ways that lines can help transform basic shapes and
the illustrations we draw. Here we have some basic
geometric shapes. The shapes are defined by the
contour lines or outlines, and they're flat and two-dimensional with a consistent
weight to the outlines. If we were to vary the weight or thickness of the contour lines, we begin to add a sense
of form and shadow. If we add straight
lines to our shapes, they remain a bit flat and
the lines feel more like a decorative
embellishment rather than adding any
dimension to the shape. But if we add some curvature to those lines and follow the
contours of the shape, we're able to add
depth and form. Now instead of a flat circle
and a rectangle with stripes, they become a sphere
and a cylinder. All we did was add a bit of curvature to the
cross contour lines. We can take those
cross contours a step further by adjusting the
spacing between them. If we decrease the spacing
between our lines, we start to create differences
in tone and value. This gives even more
dimension to our shape. We can also draw a mix of vertical and horizontal lines, or crosshatching, to give
an even greater sense of dimension and
tonal variation. Now, these are just
basic geometric shapes, but these same principles
can be applied to any organic shape
that we want to draw. Let's apply these principles to an organic shape
like this leaf. How many ways can we apply
cross contour lines? How do slight variations
change the form, the areas of shadows
and highlights, or the texture of our leaf. Now, instead of a
rigid flat outline, Let's be a little more free
form with our leaf shape, we can draw a loose contour line and we can play around
with our cross contours. Notice how the areas where the line spacing
weaves in and out, we have this sense of
folds in the leaf, sometimes leaving
a broken line can add an extra spot of
bright highlight. The thicker lines
creates shadows while the thinner lines
create highlights. And if we add a thick rib
down the center of the leaf and then draw the cross
contour lines outward, we can create even
more dimension and curvature to our leaf. Notice how the spacing and
thickness of the lines on the left add more shadow
to that side of the leaf. We haven't added any shading
or color or texture, but we haven't created
an organic shape with dimension through the weight
and curvature of our lines. That's pretty simple, right? We started with basic,
flat geometric shapes and worked our way up into organic forms that have tone and dimension and all
through the use of line. In the next lesson, we're gonna go over
various vector brushes in Adobe Fresco and how to make adjustments to them
to suit our needs.
5. Vector Brush Basics: Let's take a look at the vector
brushes in Adobe Fresco, which you'll find as the
third option on your toolbar. I'm going to tap and then drag
from this little gray bar. And then when I see this
blue line, I'll let go and this menu will be locked in place and remain open as
we discuss these brushes. You're welcome to do the same on your end if you want
to follow along. First up, we have
the basic brushes. Now, the first three
brushes all have different end caps and their names tell
you what they are. So you have a round cap, a taper, and a flat. The chisel and terminal brushes are just variations
of the flat brush, but they have a flatter
shape and sharper angle. And the main difference
between these two is how much the line weight varies with the
pressure of your pen. The last three are just
variations of your taper brush. You have a taper
at the beginning, taper at the end. And your velocity taper
brush is affected by the speed of your stroke as well as the
pressure of your pen. Next up we have our
jitter brushes. And these just add a
bit of bumpiness to the line by randomly varying the shape of
your brush as you draw. There are three basic
jitter brushes, and they just
increase or decrease the exaggeration of
this jitter effect. You also have the manga brushes which have been created with features for different needs
if you're drawing comics, these are just variations of the basic brushes with
specific brush settings. Now, you have the ability
to fine-tune any of your brushes using the
brush settings panel. And that can be found here at
the bottom of the toolbar. I'm going to pull this out, unlock it from the side. I'm going to tap here on our brush settings and I'm
going do the same thing. I'm going to lock
it open so we can see this without
it closing on us. Now, as you scroll
through the brushes, you'll notice how
the settings change. And this can give
you an idea of just how the settings
work. The roundness, if we go up to our basic round, you'll notice that
roundness is at 100%. So 100% means it's a fully
round circular shape of the tip of your brush. As you go down towards 0%, you're gonna find that it's
a more linear brush tip. The angle of the brush gives you a more
chiseled brush tip. So if you want a
more chiseled brush, you are going to have to
take the roundness down. You'll notice that if
I change the angle, I'm actually going to
increase this a minute so you can see this. If I decrease the angle when
it's at a 100% roundness, it won't change anything. But if I take the roundness
down a little bit, you'll notice how the angle
of your brush changes. You also have, of
course, your taper, so you can change the amount
of taper at the beginning, the amount of taper at the end. And your taper mode just sets whether or not the
taper is affected by the length of your stroke or the velocity at which
you draw your stroke. You can also adjust
the pressure dynamics. So if we tap here, you'll see that a 100%
pressure dynamics means the harder you
press your pen down, the thicker your line will be. You can go all the way
down to -100, which of course does
the exact opposite. 0, of course, doesn't
affect it at all. And if you're looking
for a monoline brush, this would be how
you'd want to adjust your brush settings
so that there was no pressure dynamics at all. You can also tap in any one of these boxes and
type in an amount. Or you can tap and slide and it'll slide
that slider up and down. The velocity dynamics
allow you to affect the line weight by
the speed of your stroke. If I turn it all the
way up to 100%, that means that the faster
you draw your stroke, the thicker it's going to be. And you can go all the
way down to -100, which of course does the exact
opposite. The shape dynamics are how you create
the jitter brushes. So you have two options here, the size of the jitter and
the distance of the jitter. So obviously as you
increase the size, the jitter is going
to be larger. And then you can increase or decrease the spacing between. So as you increase the distance, it's going to smooth
it out a little bit. A heavy jitter brush
is going to be on the lower distance end and the higher size end,
something about there. Now, if at any point you're
playing with these settings and you want to go back
to the original settings, you can just simply
come down here and tap the reset button, and it will reset to
the original settings. And you can use that brush or you can continue to
play around with it. Up here, you'll notice there's a little box and you can
try out the brush and see how the changes you're creating affect
the way it draws. The last thing I
want to point out is the smoothing tool which
can be found down here. If you tap, you'll notice that you have the
ability to turn the smoothing down from 0
all the way up to 100. Smoothing can be a really helpful feature
if you are having trouble drawing
your strokes with the Apple Pencil on glass. It can take a bit
of getting used to, if you're used to
pencil and paper. And the smoothing tool just allows you to create
a cleaner stroke. So if you want more precision, you're going to want to turn
your smoothing up to 100. And if you want to keep more of your imperfections and a
real hand-drawn feel, you can keep the smoothing
turned way down. I like to vary based on what I'm drawing at the time and the look that I'm
trying to achieve. But if you want a little
bit of assistance, I would just keep it at
least at 50 or more. Now that you're familiar
with all of these settings, in the next lesson, we'll go over some
specific brush adjustments that we can make to
create different effects.
6. Fine Tuning Your Vector Brushes: So now that we've
discussed all the brushes, Let's take a look at
some of these in action. So let's talk about how to
create a monoline brush. So your basic round brush
has full roundness, which is what we want 100%. But we actually don't want any pressure or
velocity dynamics. And of course we
don't want the taper which the original
settings don't have. So we're good here, so we're going to keep our
roundness up to 100. We're going to turn off
all these other settings. And that will allow for a
monoline brush that has no variations in
weight or texture and can help us achieve the
look we want to go for there. So I'm going to
exit out of these. And let's look at this brush. So if we come here, I'm going to draw and I'm
actually going to pause at the end and it'll snap
to a straight line. And you'll notice that the line is nice and smooth,
nice and clean, and has a nice round cap. And this can help us
if we want to create a stylized and more precise
look to our vector lines, I'm going to undo that. And let's say that
I want to draw, let me draw a little airplane. Okay, so I've got a little
paper airplane shape here. And I can use this
monoline brush to create some cross hatching, to create a little bit
of shadow to this area. Maybe a little bit
more over here. Or maybe I want to create some interesting
little embellishments. And maybe I want to
create some movement. I want to make it
look like this plane is flying through the air. So I'm going to draw and snap. Sometimes it's nice to combine the monoline with the look here of the snapping feature because it just suits it really well for that
nice clean look. So I've got a
little quick doodle of a paper airplane with
this monoline brush. Next up, let's look
at a taper brush. So I'm going to take my taper. I'm going to come over
to my brush settings and I'm going to make sure that the Begin Taper is down
to maybe about 13, let's say. I'm going to turn
my End Taper up a little bit higher and I'm going to keep my pressure dynamics up to 100. So the harder I press, the thicker mine
lines is going to be. And I'm going to actually keep my velocity dynamics
down to -100, so the faster I draw my stroke, the thinner it will be. And I'm going to
create a new layer. And I'll just start drawing. So you can kinda
see that as I draw, it gets a little fatter
and ends at a taper, but it has a really
tiny Begin Taper and a longer End Taper. And if I press down really hard, you'll notice that it
gets a little thicker. I'm actually going to increase to around the 60 brush size. And I'm going to really press down and create a
nice thick look. So you'll see it has this nice
teardrop or leaf shape. And so if I want to
go and draw with kind of a nice press
down and flick out. You'll get these nice
teardrop leafy shapes. You can also vary your stroke a little as you go and it'll create
these ridges. So give it a little bit of a flick as you go and you can create some textures to that. You can also start off real light and then
work your way up. If you want to create like more of a stem. Real light, nice and big. So you can play around
with this and try different ways of drawing. Start off slow,
get really big. Start from the beginning. Kinda wiggle as you go. You'll create different
variations with the same brush. Let me clear that out. So let's say I wanted to
draw a bit of a vine. And you'll notice that
because I'm pressing down really lightly,
it's quite thin. But the faster that I draw, the thicker it gets when I draw here, I don't
really like that. So two finger tap I'll undo. Nice and light to big. Nice and light to big. Don't love that one. That one's a little better. Nice and light, to big. So I can kinda create
this vine shape and all through a taper brush
and some different ways of doing my stroke
from light pressure to heavy pressure and from
slow to fast strokes. And you'll see you can create this interesting
little vine here. You can also use it to
create loose floral shapes. So let's say I want to create
a little something here. I'll create sort of a rose,
abstract flower. You can either keep it nice
and smooth or you can give it a little variation as
you go and it'll create these kind of bumpy,
wavy textures. So you can use this brush for
a lot of different things. Just with one stroke, you can create a lot of shape
to it and you don't have to worry about drawing,
outlining, filling in. You've got that shape here. So I'm going to hide that one. We're going to
create a new layer and let's try one
of the jitter brushes. So I'm going to go
with a medium jitter. I'm going to take the size
up a little bit heavier. Now, the basic jitter brushes, I think work really
well on things like water or landscapes. They just have a nice
natural organic bumpiness to them that leads to
something really interesting. So that as you draw, as I press down, you'll see I can
go pretty thick. The higher my brush size, the more variation in the line weight I'm going
to get as I press down. So thin to thick to thin. And you can create sort of a mountain-y look and give
a lot of weight to it. I think it also works really
well for things like water. So that kind of natural waviness kinda creates a nice organic feel. Landscapes, water, I like the jitter brushes for
something like that. Now you can also
combine these and I'm going to start with
a taper brush. And I'm gonna come over here. And let's just
create a nice shape. I'm going to pick
a second color. I'm going to create a little
bit of a shadow here. And then I'll take
this darker green. And let's say I want to come
over it with a jitter brush. Turn that down
just a little bit. And I can create a contour. And I can sort of create
these contours and cross contours that are a
little offset from my fills. I can use different colors to create a nice
stylized, leafy shape. And what's nice about this is even though it's
on the same layer, because there are three
different colors, I can recolor them if I want to. I can come up here. Maybe I want a little bit
more of a yellow-green. I'll take my fill
bucket and I can fill in this shape because it
is separate from this darker green and also the super dark, almost black,
outline that I've created. And I suggest that if you're not sure where you wanna
go with your drawings, keep them separate colors, at least as you're drawing the elements that you
think you might want to be separate because you can always merge them later
as the same color. But if you create them, anything that is continuous
in the same color is going to then remain connected. And every time you re-color it, it's going to
recolor everything. So you can play around, you can mix and
match these brushes. You can play around with
the brush settings, see if you find something
that you really like. And I encourage you
to try them all out and just see how they feel. Now that you know how to
make these adjustments, why don't you take a minute
and play around with the brush settings until you
find what suits your style. Then join me in the next
lesson where we're going to go over Adobe Fresco's
vector trimming tools, which make drawing
and cleaning up your vector
illustrations a breeze.
7. Vector Trimming in Adobe Fresco: If there is one tool in
Adobe Fresco that can streamline your workflow when creating vector
illustrations, it's the vector trimming tool. I have to say it is easily my favorite tool
in Adobe Fresco. I use it all the time. And I think once
you get started, you're going to be
addicted to it too. So what is it and
how does it work? Vector trimming lets
you quickly trim the overlapping areas of
intersecting strokes. If I were to draw a line, and then I wanted to
draw another one, I could do so, but it would mean
that where they meet, it's going to be really hard
to match it up perfectly. Just because you see here,
I got it pretty close, but I've got this little divot right here because matching up your line is just really
hard to do precisely. So instead what I wanna do is just draw my stroke a little
underneath where it meets. And now I have the ability
to trim these extra pieces. Now, one way I could
do that is take my eraser brush and erase out and try to get it as close as I
possibly could to the edge. But it's probably always going
to leave a little overlap. Or if you keep
going, you're gonna get this little divot here. Again, the eraser brush
just isn't very precise. But if I take my vector brush and I come
over to my touch shortcut, I double tap and tap once more. I'll get the secondary touch
shortcut and you'll know that it's in the right
position because this outer ring will be blue. Now, if I come in, I simply draw a line through this edge of the segment
that I don't want anymore, and it is gone. You'll notice that as I draw this blue line
comes up and that's how I know I've got my vector trimming line versus
drawing a stroke. And you'll also
notice that the trim segment flyout
comes out as well. So now when I come in, I've got this
beautiful clean edge and there's no overlap. Double-tap to get out of that. So I can continue
drawing like this. I could draw some more lines. Maybe I want to create
a little shading there. Once again, I simply double tap, tap once more and
I draw through, and you can draw through
multiple lines at once. Now, let's say that I don't
like this line at all. I could draw through and
trim off each segment. But another option is
to scratch three times, or at least three times, and it
will remove the entire line. So if you've drawn
a bunch of, say, cross contour lines and they are really close together and you want
to trim out one, but you don't want to, you don't know exactly
where they overlap. This is a good option
too. So just scratch through and it'll just get
rid of all of those lines. Now, an alternative to the vector trimming would
be the fill bucket. So let's say that I
want to come up here. I'm going to draw some
more lines again so you can see this. I can actually come
over to my fill bucket. And if I tap the transparency, full transparency
on the color wheel, I can actually... well you just saw
it in action there ... I can tap on any line and essentially filling with
transparency, erases it. But you'll notice
that because all of my lines are connected and
they're all the same color. The fill bucket just
erases everything. If I were to come up here, let's get a color and draw across with a
different color line. The fill bucket at full
transparency will now only erase out anywhere where the black
line is continuous. If the red line
overlaps it, crosses it, it is going to then cut it off. Using different color
lines can help you as you move forward in distinguishing areas that you want to
keep unique from another. It's important to note that
your vector trimming tool, if you're on full transparency, does not actually work. So if I come up here to my vector brush again and I tried to turn
on vector trimming. You'll notice that it's
not doing anything. And that's because I have
no color in my color wheel. All I have to do is
select any color. And now my vector trimming
tool will turn on. And you'll also notice
that I am actually only trimming this central line because it has
overlapped this area. And even though I
erased out this extra, it still remembers that these are different
line segments. So even where they overlap, you can create an
interesting effect by simply drawing over
with a different color. And it'll keep these
different line segments all on the same stroke. Another important
thing to know about the vector trimming
tool is (turn that off) let's say that I want
to draw a leaf shape and I were to draw it as
one continuous stroke. Now I've left these
overlapping areas and maybe I wanted
to trim them out. Well, if I turned
on vector trimming, it's actually going to trim the entire leaf because
that was one stroke. So you actually have to have at least two separate strokes to make the vector
trimming work. So let's say I draw
the leaf this time, but I stop and I pick up my pen. Then I can turn on vector trimming and trim
off these extra pieces. So you need at least two separate strokes
for that to work. So let's say I wanted to add some cross contour
lines to this leaf. I can come in and
I can simply draw. And I don't have to
worry about where my lines meet because I'm just going to trim off
these edges at the end. The nice thing about
this is a lot of times when you're drawing
with a vector brush. And let's say you're trying
to make these ends meet. You kinda slow down. And then maybe you want to
draw some interior lines. And your stroke kind
of becomes slow. And the slower you draw, I find the more jittery
your hand gets. So with vector trimming, one of the great
things about it is, you can continue your stroke in its natural fluid movement and you don't have
to cut it short. And so it just makes for a more natural and organic feel to drawing things like
cross contour lines. So you could keep your outline, your contour line, and
then your cross contours. You can also (oops going to redo that) let's say I wanna do
the same type of leaf, but I don't want the outline, I want the cross contours
and I want to fill it. Well, if I were to fill
this one that I just drew, I'm going to keep
this outline look, which is perfectly fine. But let's say you don't
want the outline, but you do want
cross contour lines. I'm going to come here. I'm going to draw
that same leaf. Turn on my vector trimming,
trim off those edges, and I'm going to fill it
with this green color. Now, I'm going to come in
with a different color. And I'm going to draw
my cross contour lines. I can still use the
vector trimming on the areas where I've
got a filled shape too. So I can come in here, I can trim off this extra. And I've got cross contour lines with a filled shape and
there's no outline. So you just have
different options based on what you
want it to look like. Sometimes I don't want my
vector shapes to have outlines. I want them to be more uniform. And I can do a filled shape
and still my cross contours are trimmed off perfectly along the edge with
my filled shapes. It's also important
to note that, say I've got this shape
here and I want to get rid of any of these lines, sorry, any of these fills. I can also use vector trimming and trim off the
filled shapes to. Now I have my cross contours
and they're perfectly aligned to that original
shape of that leaf I drew. So you have a lot of different ways to play
around with vector trimming. One other thing I
want to show you is how to use vector
trimming to do cutouts. So I'm just going to hide
that and add a new layer. Take off my vector trimming. And I'm gonna get a little
bit darker shape here. I can come in here. And let's say I want to draw a monstera leaf because
those are really popular. I'm gonna come in here and I'm actually going to
duplicate this shape. I'm going to flip it, turn on my primary
touch shortcut, which locks it in
place so as I drag it across, it's perfectly aligned. Okay. Done. And now I'm going to merge down. So now I have my monstera leaf, both lines, both sides
of it on the same layer. And even though
they were drawn on separate layers and merged, the vector trimming tools
still work so I can come in and I can trim off the excess lines because once
they're on the same layer, I can trim out any overlap. I can then go along and say, I want to draw these sort of cut-out
shapes that you see in a monstera leaf. And when I turn my
vector trimming tool on, I can just trim off the areas of that original outline and
then my excess lines here. Sometimes if you can't, you find that you're
trimming off too much, you can actually zoom right in. You can get pretty close and trim right up to the edge
and it'll take it off. And now I've got this
interesting kind of shape here, and it's all through cutting out negative spaces in
my original shape. So a vector trimming can
also be used to do that and you can create some
really interesting effects by drawing a shape
and then removing sections of that shape cleanly with the
vector trimming tool. Now if I want to come
in and I want to fill, I can fill and I can
continue to draw, say, different
parts of the shape. I can come in with
a different color and draw some contours and just have some fun with
it and create some details. Now you're familiar with all the basics of the vector trimming tool and how you can apply
it to your workflow. Next up, let's take everything that we've learned about lines, vector brushes, and vector trimming into our
5-day challenge.
8. 5-Day Challenge: Now that you know how powerful lines can be in your artwork, and you've learned all about the vector tools
in Adobe Fresco, I want you to take that into
this 5-day challenge. I really want you to
try using lines and different ways to transform
your vector illustrations. Here are a few goals
for this challenge. I want you to try different
vector brushes and modify some of the standard
brushes to your liking. Try full outlines, some broken outlines and maybe some
with no outlines at all. Try changing the
weight of your lines, both your contours
and your cross contours, use cross contours
to add curves and folds and imply shadows
and highlights. Explore the use of negative
space to create form. Use lines as texture, decorative elements,
or embellishments. I have included some basic
sketches of objects in the Projects and Resources tab that you can download and use. Now, these are meant to be guides to help you get started, but you can also feel free to
draw any objects you want. You can download the file
to your iPad and then import them into Adobe
Fresco using the place menu. If you decrease the opacity of the image layer and then
keep it as a guide. You can start a new vector
layer to draw over it. Now you're all set. So let's
get started with Day 1.
9. Day 1: Form: Day one is all about
creating form and dimension through the use of
contours and cross contours. I have some flower sketches and a floral bouquet that
you can work on. You can try using variations
in your line weight to create form and try with
and without contour lines. You can also choose to keep it simple or add cross contours. Here are some examples
of my own work where I tried various techniques
and different brushes. A few tips as you get started, make the most of layers
and change colors as you draw to differentiate areas you may want to color
separately later, give yourself options,
because you can always merge layers and colors
together at the end. Remember that the
distance between your cross contour lines can
create differences in tone and the weight of your line
can create areas of shadow or highlight to create a sense
of roundness to your petals. Remember to add curvature
to your strokes. Your flowers can be loose and abstract or clean and precise, and don't be afraid to mix and match like I did
with my bouquet. Have fun with it and
try different styles to see what suits you.
When you're ready, join me for Day 2.
10. Day 2: Embellishments: On Day 2, we're going to build on our work from Day 1, but this time we
will focus on using lines for decorative
elements and embellishments. I've included sketches of
a butterfly, a moth and a dragonfly that I think work nicely for these
fun embellishments. You can stick closely to the basic outlines
I've provided, but I encourage you
to really play around with your embellishments
to make these your own. Do you enjoy adding decorative elements to your illustrations? Because I definitely do. This is one of my
favorite ways to add interests to
my illustrations because your options are only limited by
your imagination. I tend to make mine
a bit stylized, but you can feel free
to draw inspiration from real images. This is also a time when
I love creating cross contour lines on filled shapes
instead of using outlines. And the vector trimming tool ensures I trim right
up to the edge. I also loved to use vector
trimming to cut out details and redefine a shape like I did with the
body of this moth. You can create some
interesting embellishments with a taper and jitter brushes, if you want less control
over the texture of your line. For these
particular motifs, and especially because
they have so much detail, I'll make use of the
transform tool for symmetry. Just draw half of your image, then duplicate
your layer and use the transform tool to flip
it and slide it across. Remember to turn on the
primary touch shortcut to keep the sides
lined up perfectly. Now it's time for you to create
your own beautiful bugs. When you're finished, I'll
see you in Day 3.
11. Day 3: Texture: Day 3 is all about texture, so we're going to use lines
to create textural elements. I've included some feathers and fruit sketches for
this exercise. Try adding some juicy pulp to the lime wedge or a nice
pitted texture to its rind. You can add fine, delicate
details to the feathers to create a soft texture by using
a very small size brush. If you adjust the
pressure dynamics to 100% and draw very lightly, you can achieve a wispy line
that's perfect for feathers. You can also choose to be stylized and go with
a monoline brush. I encourage you to
try different styles and brushes with
each new feather. You can also create texture
by using a jitter brush and drawing lots of quick strokes
that overlap randomly. Don't be afraid to let some
negative spaces show through and this will create
a rough texture. Or try making lots of short
marks or a series of dots to create textural elements. For the puckered
look of the lime, I used a monoline brush and a series of dots in two tones, which helped create
a little bit of light and shadow for texture. For smoother textures, you can create cleaner and
more precise lines. While it may be easier to create texture with pixel brushes, I think you can create
a lot of texture with vector brushes by experimenting
with your line work. Just have fun with it. When you have completed
this challenge, join me for Day 4.
12. Day 4: Movement: For Day 4's practice, we're going to use line
to express movement. What better way to do this than with some paper airplanes
and ocean waves? How can you express the rolling
movement of the wave or the speed of the airplane
as it flies through the sky by the use of lines? This may be one of the simplest things you can do with line, because something is simple as a few straight lines
paired with anything from this paper airplane to a bird or a car can imply
forward movement. How many ways can you style
those lines? Thin or thick? Short, quick strokes or
long, stylized ones? Continuous or broken lines? Feel free to add dimension to your paper planes with some
cross hatching marks too. For my dashed line, I created a continuous stroke to
keep the movement natural, but I segmented it
by crossing through my lines with a new color to
trim it down. For the waves, I love a good jitter
brush because the natural imperfections
make for a nice organic line, for extra dynamic lines
mix up the length of them as you draw and change
the angle of the curves. Varying up your
strokes makes for a more dynamic illustration and helps create that movement. You can create depth by layering different types of lines
on top of each other. Remember, these are
organic shapes, so don't worry about
being perfect. I hope you have fun
creating movement in these illustrations. We're almost finished with this challenge. So when you're ready,
I'll see you in Day 5.
13. Day 5: Line Weight: For our final day
of the challenge, we're gonna play
with line weight, including broken and
implied lines to create our illustrations
as examples, I've given you the
basic outlines of a few cupcakes and cakes slices. How can you illustrate
these deserts with the illusion of form through
the weight of your line? We can use thin or broken
lines in areas we want to lighten with highlights and then use thicker
lines for shadows. Try to imagine a
light source and work from that
angle consistently. Remember, you can also space lines closer together
to create shadows. So thicker lines close together will really help you
shape an area of shadow. Use filled areas or keep it
simple with just your lines. I love a good taper brush for
the swirls of the cupcakes. And the jitter brushes give a nice look for that
crumbly slice of cake. Negative space is
your friend here. Don't feel the need to fill every inch of the illustration. See what you can
do with your lines alone. To break up your outline, you can try drawing
it in full and then erasing out areas
you no longer need. Turn your brush into an eraser with the primary touch shortcut. If you want to keep
the same weight and texture of your brush
when you erase, you can also bring some of what you learned in the
previous days to this challenge to add decorations or texture
to these cakes. Just have fun with it. Wow, that was a pretty
fast five days, right? Look at that. After five days,
you were able to create a variety of vector
illustrations that have tone, form, texture, and movement, all with the power of line. Did you find that you had
any particular style or approach to drawing
vector illustrations that you really enjoyed? You can export your project by tapping the Share button in the top right corner and
selecting Publish and Export, Export As, and then
choosing your format. PNGs or JPGs are great options. Remember, I'd really love
to see your progress so you can start
by uploading Day 1 and then just keep coming back and updating it
as you move forward.
14. Final Thoughts: Wow, look what you've managed
to create in five days. Now, do you
see the power and versatility of the line? I bet you'll never look
at a simple line the same way after working
through this class. I would love to hear what
you thought about the class. And also any questions
you may have for me. You can ask questions and share your thoughts in the discussion
section of the class, and I'd love for you
to leave a review. I read every single one and I love getting feedback
from students. Your reviews helped me see
areas I can improve on, but they also help
other students find the class and decide whether
it's right for them. So please consider
leaving a review. And as I've said before, please upload your class
project to the project page. I really do want to
see what you've done. And remember, you can
upload it each day as you go along and just continue to update the page as
you move forward. If you enjoyed this
class and you want to learn more about creating
artwork on the iPad. You can check out my other
classes here on Skillshare. You can also follow me on
Skillshare if you want to be the first to know about the
next classes that I teach. Thank you so much for watching. As always, it's been
an honor to teach you. And I'll see you
in the next class.
Amy Bradley, Surface Pattern Designer & Artist
