I would like to share my style with you and give an insite into my style of illustration. I generally use a mix of vector artwork and raster work in photoshop for layout and colour effects. There are no rules to the process you choose to make your elements with, although I recommend a Vector package such as Illustrator to give you the freedom to shape and size with out limitations to the scale and dimensions of your pieces.

In this tutorial I am going to show the final arrangement steps I use to get the effects that I love so much, I may in the future do a character and elements set but I chose to skip this for now as everybody will come up with their own style and attempting to copy another’s usually doesn’t work.

So I recommend you just sit and fiddle until you get a character that suits and your happy with and role with it, its on ongoing process which I can find hard at times but as they say practice makes perfect…..and I am far from perfect.

Step 1.

Starting in Photoshop (or Gimp if your using that) Create a document to your prefered size and dimensions.
Here I have Started by applying a colour to the background and used a mix of the paint brush set on darken and the gradient tool to create a shadowy deep backing.

Step 2.

Over this backing and on a new layer I have added my secret ingredient and something I would recomend any photoshop user could do with building up a collection of. Textures such as Rock faces rusting metal, paper (like below) and anything that would require a lot of work to reproduce by your self.

the Higher the Rez and size the better for your collection as I find these invaluable for projects of all kinds, to add realism and work well for the gritty look I’m after here

Step 3.

Here shown together the Texture is to be “Overlade” in Photoshop or transparency added to allow the backing colour bleed through.

Step 4.

Next open your Vector files in Photoshop and cut into Individual Ellements that can be dragged and arranged on your artwork. Illustrator files come into Photoshop with a transparent backing which is great as we dont need to cut the surrounding area away.

For added realism you can add a texture to these files to, if you know how to use masks in Photoshop then thats the most ideal way to go.

Step 5.

Place the images onto your artwork as seperate layers so you can arrange them to your liking, just play about until you get the look you like.

Finish

Thats it your done, Export your Work and post into the GDFC site for us all to admire and discuss

Here is my finished piece below: