This post is part of a weekly series showcasing inspirational vector art. Although the series showcases vector art, some work might just be vector inspired, not created completely with vector art. If you have any art suggestions, feel free to comment! For more vector art inspiration, check out the Vectips Flickr group.

Semi-Permanent by Hugo Ortiz

Vectorguru by bubblefriends

Daily Drop Cap

Magazine Illustration by Lindedesign

Zmey G. by ya-na

Japanesque Musique by stubbornsideburn

10 years of Chopping Block by Chop Shop

INSECTS by NIARK1

alphabeasties: and other Amazing Types by Werner Design Werks

¬.¬ by CarlosFernando

Pasquale D’Silva

The Crystal Cloud by Zeptonn

Richard Buckner Poster by Mike Burton

Lone Wolves by Florian Bertmer

Timothy’s Monster by Dario Dr.Pepper Maggiore

Behind Our House by Chris Leavens

Jörn Kaspuhl

Jones Soda Halloween Edition by Superbig Creative

Mother Nature by cryssy

bsv exhibition by zutto

rush by bboypion

Halloween is almost here, and I’m sure some of you need to do some last minute graphics for a client project or maybe so graphics for your Halloween party. So in this intermediate tutorial you will learn how to create a zombie illustration with a pen tablet from a photo. Have fun utilizing the Blob Brush and Eraser tool in recreating this tutorial or apply these techniques to other ghoulish illustrations!

Final Image

Below is the final zombie illustration we will be working towards.

Tutorial Details

• Program : Adobe Illustrator CS4 (This tutorial use the Blob Brush, a tool specific to CS4. If you have an earlier version of Illustrator, refer to the Alternate Tutorial Methods step at the end of this post.)
• Hardware Needed: Pen Tablet (I used a Wacom Intous4 for the tutorial. If you don’t have a pen tablet, refer to the Alternate Tutorial Methods step at the end of the tutorial for other methods for creating the tutorial.)
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour – 1.5 hours

Step 1

First, you need to find a scary or angry portrait to trace. I purchased a image from iStockphoto.com. You can do the same or take a picture of yourself. The resolution of the image is not hugely important, just make sure you can make out some of the face details in the portrait.

Step 2

Create a new document in Illustrator, go File > Place, navigate to the folder with your image, and click the Place button.

Step 3

Once placed, use the Selection tool (V) and scale the image to your desired size. From the Layers panel, click the Lock icon on the placed image layer. To keep better organization of the layers, double-click on the image layer and rename it to “Image Template”. Next, press the Create New Layer button and rename it to “Outline”. We are going to do most of our tracing in the “Outline” layer.

Step 4

For tracing the image. We are going to use the Blob Brush (Shift + B). This is a new tool in Illustrator CS4, but if you have a version below, you can still use a Calligraphy brush (Refer to the Alternate Tutorial Methods step at the bottom of the post). The Blob Brush (Shift +B) settings are set using a pen tablet’s pressure sensitivity. For this tutorial, I am using a Intuos4 Medium sized tablet. If you don’t have a pen tablet refer to the same Optional Methods step as noted previously.

To set up the Blob Brush (Shift + B) to use the pressure sensitivity of you pen tablet, double-click on the Blob Brush (Shift + B) in the Tools panel to open the Blob Brush Tool Options. In the dialog, uncheck Keep Selected, check Selection Limits Merge, Change your Fidelity to 2, Smoothness to 0, Brush Size to 5 pt, select Pressure from the Size drop-down menu, Variation to 5 pt, Angle to 0, and Roundness to 100%. These Blob Brush settings will create a stroke that can be varied by the pressure of the pen tablet.

Step 5

Now that we have our Blob Brush (Shift + B) settings, we can start tracing the image. In the “Outline” layer, start tracing the predominate lines in the image. When tracing with the Blob Brush, vary the thickness of the stroke by applying less presses for thin parts of the stroke and more pressure for the thick parts of the stroke.

Step 6

When tracing the image I keep the Eraser Tool (Shift + E) handy for erasing mistakes and subtracting from the traced elements. You can set up the Eraser tool (Shift + E) to work like a subtractive Blob Brush (Shift + B). To set the Eraser tool (Shift + E) up, double click on it in the Tools panel. In the Eraser Tool Options dialog change the Angle to 0, the Roundness to 100%, the Diameter to 5 pt, select Pressure from the Diameter drop-down menu, and change the Variation to 5 pt. Now you can use the Eraser Tool (Shift + E) just like the Blob Brush (Shift + B) to correct mistakes and subtract from your tracing stokes. For example, I used the Eraser Tool (Shift + E) to subtract a highlight from the eye.

Step 7

Continue tracing and erasing the predominate lines in the image with the Blob Brush (Shift + B) and Eraser tool (Shift + E) until you have traced them all. You can exclude lines as you feel is necessary. For example, in the image I chose, I’m not tracing the beard on the man’s face. You can also toggle the visibility of the “Image Template” layer to see how the outline is going by pressing the Visibility icon of the “Image Template” layer from the Layers panel.

Step 8

Now that we have the predominate lines, go through and add extra lines around the current ones, embellishing the features like eye sockets, cheek bones, mouth, and so on.

Step 9

Our zombie is starting to look pretty grisly, but let add some more horror with the Blob Brush (Shift + B) to the teeth and around the face. Add extra strokes to the teeth to make them look old and worn. Also, add more strokes around the face where the skin has ripped off. You can even use the Eraser tool (Shift + E) and erase sections of the head and ears where the skin has ripped off.

Step 10

Now that the outline is done, we can add some color. First, create a light green grey color from your Color panel and save it as a swatch in the Swatch panel. Next, select all the outlines and choose the Live Paint Bucket (K) tool from the Tools panel. Hover over the area you want to fill with the Live Paint Bucket (K), cycle through your swatches with the arrow keys until you find you light green color, and click to fill the area. Illustrator will then convert the strokes to a Live Paint Group. Continue filling in the area with the Live Paint Bucket until you have filled in the zombie. You might notice that it is hard to get every little area, but don’t worry, we will fill these areas in the next steps.

Step 11

Select the Live Paint group and go Object > Live Paint > Expand. With the Magic Wand tool (Y) select only the green color. Once selected, Cut (Command + X) the green objects. In the Layers panel, create a new layer, label it “Color”, drag the layer below the “Outlines” layer, and Paste in Front (Command + F) the green colored shapes.

Step 12

In the new “Color” layer, use the Blob Brush (Shift +B) to add shadows with a green grey color darker than your first green color.

Step 13

Use the Blob Brush (Shift + B) to create white highlights around the zombie’s face.

Step 14

Now we can start adding some other color to the teeth and exposed skull areas. Use varying shades of a dingy yellow color to color these shapes, and like the last couple of steps, use the Blob Brush (Shift + B).

Step 15

Add some more color to the illustration in the eyes and add some blood around the illustration.

Step 16

Create a new layer from the Layers panel, name it “Background”, drag it below the “Color” layer, and create a grey filled rectangle with the Rectangle tool (M) filling the artboard. Next, with the Blob Brush (Shift + B) create some light grey highlights on the top of the shirt.

Step 17

To add a little extra fun, place some type over the shirt. I used the font Feast of Flesh from Dafont and filled it with the same zombie green color in the face. Also, I shifted all the elements, except the background color, up. All done! Hope you have fun with this grisly zombie!

Final Image

Again below is zombie illustration all done.

Alternate Tutorial Methods

Calligraphic Brush

If you don’t have CS4 yet but you do have a pen tablet you can use a Calligraphic brush instead of a Blob Brush (Shift +B) for the outlines of the zombie. If you have CS3 you can use the Live Paint technique or you can just create shapes of color with the Pen tool (P), Pencil tool (N), or another tool of your choice. To set up a Calligraphic brush with the same settings as the Blob Brush settings in this tutorials, click the New Brush Icon in the Brush panel. When the New Brush dialog opens, choose New Calligraphic Brush. In the Calligraphic Brush Options, change the Angle to 0, the Roundness to 100%, the Diameter to 5 pt, select Pressure from the Size drop-down menu, and change the Variation to 5 pt. Now you can outline the image with the same pressure sensitivity as the Blob Brush.

Art Brushes

If you don’t have a pen tablet, you can always use an Art brush for the outline instead of the Blob Brush (Shift +B) . Art brushes are still very versatile, but they will not use you pen tablets pressure sensitivity. Still, you can find a brush that has similar tapered lines. This technique is similar to the tutorial I wrote for Vectortuts called Illustrate a Grunge Style Talking Skull in Vector, so check it out to learn more. My previous article Create Sketchy-Style Vectors will help if finding and creating Art brushes.

This post is part of a weekly series showcasing inspirational vector art. Although the series showcases vector art, some work might just be vector inspired, not created completely with vector art. If you have any art suggestions, feel free to comment! For more vector art inspiration, check out the Vectips Flickr group.

CandyGirlV2 by Batonboys Loguy

The Others by OwaikeO

Bill’s Dairy Farm3 by ilovedust

Artisan Pillows From Dirty Cream

Sea Cider by ilovedust

Swartz-KMag Summer 09 Cover by Daniel Swartz

The ARK Project by caramelaw

Nannkoo Kzeng

La Pedrera Short Film Festival by Ralph Karam

Crazy for Vector by Orlando Aquije

Zombie Headphones by Jesse Sanz

The Taboo Temper Tantrum by Jared Nickerson

When I Was A Pumpkin by Josh Tuininga

Guess Who by Budi Satria Kwan

It Would Have Been Cooler as a Van by Brandon Ortwein

Gibson Les Paul by hbielen

Brian Ewing

Say Cheese! by Roller Monkey

Vanila BCN

Metalocalypse by Childofthewild666

Lusty Ladies by chibighibli

NIARK1

SoundYourHappyHorn by Happycentro

A symbiotic kind of love by Boris Hasabike

Commission Work – Books by LimKis

July Bubbles by taho

sailing by P3xelArt

Both American Apparel and American Airlines have very similar branding, but their separation is made through kerning, color, weight, and space variables

As Graphic Artists, our daily job and requirement is to clearly communicate (through imagery) the emotion, representation, and goals of the businesses that we create for. If Graphic Artistry is your job, you may know through experience that successful work is not just creating original artwork, but capturing and excelling the clients accumulative brand. Early stage Graphic Artists seek to create original artwork first, and find a way to make it work for the client second. The unfortunate nature of the beast is that even Graphic Artists who have years of experience still want to make original artwork. It’s not unfortunate because of this drive to create original artwork (or else we wouldn’t have a job), but the idea that a strive for original artwork in itself creates competition.

Museum of Arts and Design material created by Pentagram

In more recent news, the publication of “rips” or “copy-cat” content and work has become more frequent. My goal is to demolish this sense of competition through basic logic. While the depth of these two ideologies (original artwork and brand communication, yes, two different ideas) proceeds much more than I could write in short terms. I still want to give it a try. If you really think about it, life only has so many choices, and on a daily basis we make only a select few amount of choices (or decisions). “Should I go to the grocery store or stay home?” We turn these choices into variables, and with Print and Web, these variables are even more limited. How? The decision to match one idea to another is a choice and over time ultimately becomes a limitation. But limitations to design are not bad. Our limitations to design keep our idea’s plausible. If we didn’t have these limitations, designers would no longer need theory, and our work would no longer be valuable. If you believe that another person hasn’t matched the same two variables you did when you had that next “big idea” then your mistaken. We take one idea, match it to another execution, and try to make it equal innovation (this is the light version of this equation).

India cellular provider Tata advertisement created by
Wolff Olins

But before I go too in-depth about the idea of limited variables, I mentioned that this article isn’t about that. It’s about disproving the idea that original artwork is “good design.” Some of the biggest brands in the world use the same styling. We could look at American Apparel, and American Airlines. Both use Helvetica, roughly the same weight, and even have close to the same amount of lettering to make up their name. But the public doesn’t see it as a “copy-cat.” Why? If you have watched Helvetica the film, you would know that Helvetica was the correct type face to capture the right brand emotion, bridging the consumer gap to the corporate mentality. The goal was to make the customer feel as though the corporate identity wasn’t “above you” or “not welcoming.” One of the main reasons Helvetica became so over-used is because of this transparent and modular nature. But using the most recent public logic of “copy-cat” material, one firm would be the business who used it first. Then the designer or firm who used it next would be bombarded with brief, one or two sentence cave-man-like negative comments about their recent work.

One sentence comments feel good, like this hot tub I am in

The extremely funny thing about this type of logic, is that the more a specific style or “trend” is used in design, it becomes less innovative. Causing these “trends” to be used more frequently, and the more frequent it is used, the more chance it has of becoming a design style (it is no longer a trend — i.e: grids in design was used as a trend first, but then became a rule). This is the natural evolution of the industry. But how can we simplify this? Instead of changing the evolution, how can we change our thinking? Easy, designers need to take less focus into what is original material, and more focus into how well that material or collateral accomplished the communication the brand was seeking. From a designer to designer basis, we still judge each others talent based on how radical their material is from the rest. When in reality, that’s not successful design nor do I feel it is the best way to judge design in general.

There is no direct answer to this riddle, because if designers stated more clearly what the client or brands communication goals where, we would no longer need the visuals to express them. It’s quite the oxymoron in a way. But we can challenge these facts by thinking about another idea, that maybe it was not two designers or two firms that copied each others material. Instead, maybe it was two brands looking to emotionally and visually communicate the same message.

This post is part of a weekly series showcasing inspirational vector art. Although the series showcases vector art, some work might just be vector inspired, not created completely with vector art. If you have any art suggestions, feel free to comment! For more vector art inspiration, check out the Vectips Flickr group.

DeliciousMusicUnion by san@ce

Koi Illustration by Nick L

Mr. Villain’s Class of 1983 by Christopher Lee

Ellsswhere “Lo-Fi Funk”

Aleksandra Marchocka

The Little Things of Life by Anna Rusakova

TEARS by agus trianto

The Phantom Of The Opera by Martin Ansin

I’m The Real Designer 2nd by Agung Syaifudin

Cupcake by Applemoment

monfa

Kaleidoscope September by Hannah Busekrus

Organic Climate Changing Wallpaper by Ben the Illustrator

French Cook : “Le Trader à l’Orange” by Rose Kipik

Pumpkin Princess- Print by =Blush-Art

CardSeries Queen by tokyo-go-go

CardSeries by tokyo-go-go

Daddy Was A Jewel Thief by j3concepts

LOVE IS ALL AROUND by jaalondon

Fernando Volken Togni

LouLou & Tummie – Free iPhone wallpapers!

BloodSweatVector Exhibition Nov. 2009 by J3Concepts

Naoba2 Posters by Mikhail Karagezyan

BACKGROUNDS DESIGN by SalBa Combe

Chaya Brasserie 25th Anniversary Branding by Ries

Well, it’s Blog Action Day 2009 today and the topic is Climate Change. So I decided to create a fun sun character tutorial. This intermediate tutorial is great for logos, children illustrations, and other projects relating to climate change. Moreover, you can easily apply this tutorial to other illustrations, logos, and projects!

Blog Action Day Day 2009: Climate Change

Climate change is an important issue that affects everyone on this planet. If you are reading this, you are probably a designer, illustrator, or involved in these industries in some way. Being part of these industries, we have a unique responsibility to visually communicate issues such as climate change. That makes it fun an easy to spread the word about climate change through artwork like in this tutorial. Even if you are not part of the design industry, you can learn more about climate change form the Blog Action Day site.

Final Image

Below is the final illustration we will be working towards.

Tutorial Details

• Program : Adobe Illustrator CS4 (tutorial can be completed with other version of Illustrator)
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes – 1 hour

Step 1

Create a new document and with the Ellipse tool (L), create an ellipse.

Step 2

Fill the ellipse with a radial gradient from the Gradient panel. In the Gradient panel, change the first color stop in the gradient to a light orange color and change the second color stop to a orange color. Next, from the Gradient panel, select your first light orange color stop and change the Location to 43. Select the Middlepoint on the Gradient Slider and change the location to 60. With the Gradient tool (G) move the center of the gradient slightly up and to the right.

Step 3

Create a new ellipse and fill it with a radial gradient. Make the first color stop in the gradient white and the second color stop a light gray color. Change the location of the gradient’s Middlepoint to 87.

Step 4

Create a new smaller ellipse in the center and to the right of the previous ellipse. Fill the ellipse with a radial gradient with the first color stop a light cyan color and the second color stop a dark cyan color. Change the location of the gradient’s Middlepoint to 87.

Step 5

Create another ellipse in the center of the previous ellipse and fill it with black. Next, create two other smaller white ellipses and place them over the black ellipse. Now we have an eye!

Step 6

Select the white eye ellipse, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Back (Command + B). With the copy still selected, move it up slightly. Change the fill of the ellipse to a dark orange color. Select the white ellipse again, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Back (Command + B). This time, move the copy down slightly and change the color to a light yellow color.

Step 7

Select all the eye shapes, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Front (Command + F). With the copies selected, move them to the right of the main ellipse shape and scale down slightly with the Selection tool (V).

Step 8

With the Rectangle tool (M) create an rectangle about the width of the eye shape and about a fourth of it’s height.

Step 9

Go Effects > Stylize > Round Corners and in the Round Corners dialog, change the radius to 10 px. The radius might change depending on dimension of your artwork. Just play around until you get something similar to the preview image below. Next, go Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 10

Go Effects > Warp > Arch. With the Warp Options dialog open, make sure the Horizontal radial button in selected, change the Bend percentage to 25, and change the Horizontal Distortion to 40. Next, go Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 11

Change the fill of the warped shape to a linear gradient. Make the first color stop in the gradient a red-brown color and the second color stop a dark red-brown color. With the Gradient tool (G) adjust the gradient so the darker part of the gradient is at the bottom of the shape.

Step 12

Copy (Command + C) the eyebrow shape and Paste in Back (Command + B). With the copy selected, move it down and to the left slightly. Change the fill of the copy to a dark orange.

Step 13

With both eyebrow shapes selected, rotate them to the left slightly with the Selection tool (V). Copy (Command + C) the eyebrow shapes and Paste in Front (Command + F). With the copy selected, go Object > Transform > Reflect. In the reflect dialog, select the Vertical radial button and press OK. Next, move the copies to the other side of the face above the other eye. Select the dark orange shadow of the copies and move it the left side of the eyebrow.

Step 14

Create an ellipse about the size of one of the eyes and place it in-between the eyes towards the bottom.

Step 15

Fill the new ellipse with a radial gradient. For this gradient we are going to add one more color stop, making a total of three color stops in the gradient. To do this, click in the middle of the Gradient Slider in the Gradient panel. Next, change the first color stop to a lighter orange color than your original light orange from the main sun shape, change the middle color stop to the same orange color as the main sun body shape, and change the last color stop to the same light orange as the main sun shape. Change the first Middlepoint of the first two color stop to 65. Finally, with the Gradient tool (G), scale the gradient so the center of the gradient is in the top right corner of the ellipse.

Step 16

Copy (Command + C) the nose shape and Paste in Back (Command + B). With the Direct Selection tool (A) grab the bottom anchor point and drag in down and to the left, creating a shadow.

Step 17

Create an ellipse about half the size of the main sun shape. Draw a rectangle covering the top half of the ellipse. Select both shapes and press the Minus Front button in the Pathfinder panel.

Step 18

Fill the new mouth shape with a linear gradient with the first color stop a red-brown color and the second color stop a darker red-brown color. With the Gradient tool (G) adjust the gradient bottom up so the darker part of the gradient is at the top of the mouth.

Step 19

Copy (Command + C) the mouth shape and Paste in Back (Command + B). Move the copy up slightly and change the color to your dark orange color. Copy (Command + C) the mouth shape and Paste in Back (Command + B) again. This time, move the shape down and change the fill to your light orange color.

Step 20

Create an oblong ellipse that is about one third the size of the mouth. Copy (Command + C) the ellipse and Paste in Front (Command + F). Move the copy down slightly and scale up about a fourth of the original size. Next, select both shapes and press the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel.

Step 21

Fill the new shape with your dark orange color. Copy (Command + C) the shape and Paste in Back (Command + B). Next, scale the copied shape up and change the color to your light orange color. Center both shapes on the bottom of the mouth shapes you have already created.

Step 22

Select the newest curved shapes you created, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Front (Command + F). Scale down and rotate the shapes to the left with the Selection tool (V), then  place them on the left top side of the mouth. Next, Copy (Command + C) the original curved shapes, Paste in Front (Command + F), rotate and scale the shapes to the right, and place on the right side of the mouth shape.

Step 23

Select the main dark mouth shape, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Front (Command + F). With the Selection tool (V), hold down the Shift key and scale the copy bottom up slightly. Still with the Selection tool (V), squish the copied shape from the bottom up until the copy is about one fourth the original size. Change the first color stop in the linear gradient to white and the second to a light orange. Also, change the Location of the Middlepoint to 80.

Step 24

With the Star tool (found under the shape tools in the Tools panel), click on the artboard to open the Star dialog. In the dialog change Radius 1 to 30 px, Radius 2 to 15 px, and the Point to 3 (your radius dimensions might be different depending on the dimension of your artwork, just make sure that Radius 2 is half the size of Radius 1). Squish the triangle shape horizontally to about half it’s original size. Place the triangle over the center of the teeth to the right . Next, select the teeth and the triangle and press the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel.

Step 25

With the Ellipse tool (L) create two ellipse toward the bottom of the mouth shape, making sure half of the ellipses are hanging outside of the mouth shape. Select the main dark mouth shape, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Front (Command + F) two times. Select one of the copies, select the right ellipse, and press the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel. Repeat the same for the left ellipse. Fill both ellipses with a linear gradient with the first color stop a light pink and the second color stop a pink color. Separately adjust each ellipse’s gradient with the Gradient tool (G)  from the top right of the ellipse to the bottom left.

Step 26

Select all the mouth shapes and place them on the sun’s face. Next, Rotate the mouth shape to the left slightly.

Step 27

With the Star tool, click on the artboard to bring up the Star dialog. Create a star with a Radius 1 of 100 px, a Radius 2 of 50 px, and 3 Points (like before these dimensions might be different depending on your artwork). Next, go Effects > Stylize > Round Corners and in the Round Corners dialog, change to Radius to 20 px. Expand the shape and squish it down slightly with the Selection tool (V).

Step 28

Fill the triangle with a three color stop gradient, making the first color stop a light orange color, the second a orange color, and the third a dark orange color. Select the Middlepoint in between the first two color stops in and change the Location to 65. Next, change the Location of the second color stop to 60 and the Middlepoint Location of the last two color stop to 15. Adjust the gradient from top to bottom with the Gradient tool (G).

Step 29

Make a copy of the triangle so you have a total of two. With the copy selected, go Effect > Warp > Arch. Within the Warp Options dialog, select the Vertical radial button and change the Bend percentage to 30 and expand the appearance.

Step 30

Make a copy of the first triangle, move, and rotate the copy so it radiates from the sun face shape, creating sun bursts. Make sure the triangle is behind all other artwork by going Object > Arrange > Send to Back. Next, rotate and place copies of the triangles, alternating between the two, around the sun. Make sure that all the triangles are sent to the back.

Step 31

Select the main sun face shape, (Command + C), and Paste in Back (Command + B). With the copy still selected, move it down slightly and change the color to your dark orange color.

Step 32

To add just a little more detail and fun to the sun, draw varying sized ellipses above the corners of the mouth. All done!

Final Image

Again below is the final image we just created.

Sample Usage

Below are some sample images of this tutorial in use. One is a logo for a fictional alternate energy learning center for kids (just made that up, but you get the point). The second one is a global warming diagram for children (not very accurate, I know). It is easy to apply this illustration to other projects or adapt it to other illustrations (like the earth illustration in the Global Warming diagram). Try to see what you can use it for!

I picked up this book fairly recently, realizing that I was extremely late to do so. I remember all the of initial public shock of the books first days on shelf, but I just couldn’t find the time to pick it up. At a point when I was desperately looking for inspiration, and not finding it online, I decided to take a step away and go hunt down this amazing book.

The fairly large front cover and large type on the sides made it quite easy for me to find it on a shelf of hundreds. Once I found it, a rushed smile appeared to my face as I instantly knew this would entrap my inner design humor. There is a funny sense of humor designers and artists sometimes have, mostly just being so blatantly childish that it just makes anyone smile. But our “designer smile” also pops out because of the second thought we have, which most times shows through as an inner monologue saying something like, “Man, why didn’t I think of that.”

The book contains hours of effort and planning, which isn’t seen often

The depth of this book proceeds further than it’s very visual cover, very modular and transforming nature, and the very bright content. The book contains hours of effort and planning, which isn’t seen often. The content is simply useful, not in the fact that it’s just useful, but what I mean is that if you don’t find the content to be insightful, you’re probably not looking hard enough. It’s quick, to the point, and instantly inspiring. A journal, bible, and trophy for all Graphic Artists and collectors.

Purchase this book from Amazon. Watch a video demonstration of this books beauty:

This post is part of a weekly series showcasing inspirational vector art. Although the series showcases vector art, some work might just be vector inspired, not created completely with vector art. If you have any art suggestions, feel free to comment! For more vector art inspiration, check out the Vectips Flickr group.

Egor Bashakov

Technical Illustration by James Provost

Random Friendly Things by Anna Luther

I Fell In Love… by losfokos

SuperExpresso Design

OFFF NYC 07 by Vasava

mysterious creatures living in patterns by Zhishi design

Hundai tiburon Sport coupe by DNAike Tony

where stars come from by zutto

Sloorp for Candy by Giorgos Vasiliadis

Rhea by RONINSS

BRAND!! fryer design by Marumiyan

Little Ship by Andrea De Santis

Peter Omasz

helvetica by frodo7605

Chris Parks

One Eyed Purple People Eater (laFraise Edition) by Jared Nickerson

Robot Earth 3009 by Strongstuff

MUGO by YUP | paulo.arraiano

We Are All Made Of Stars by Rubens Scarelli

The Shower Tea Monster by Juan Molinet

LA BALLENAAZUL by ospina_oscar

for the LOVE of ALLAH by singpentinkhappy

This post is part of a weekly series showcasing inspirational vector art. Although the series showcases vector art, some work might just be vector inspired, not created completely with vector art. If you have any art suggestions, feel free to comment! For more vector art inspiration, check out the Vectips Flickr group.

Good Luck Card by Rob Denis

Yummy Ice Cream by Joao Ricardo Machado

Bjork Poster by Gianni Rossi

Selected Works 5 by Ollyby Markoliver

Selected Works 4 by Ollyby Markoliver

Duke of Hoxton by J3Concepts

I ♥ LDN by Rubens Cantuni

Jesus Iso. Experimental Typographic artwork by Thomas Pavitte

Santa Fe Reporter Cover by Charlene Chua

Ode TO Edo by BuckRuckus

Simon Cook

The Dirty Cream typo by TokyoCandies

The Guitarist by aonis666

Nike Air – Sea & Heaven by VanilaBCN

Lion Series by Erik Baars

The Octonauts & the Great Ghost Reef by Meomi

FITC Chicago Poster by RON GERVAIS

April 2009 monthly listings flyer by Barney Ibbotson

Sweet Beat! by Gaku Imai

mech makes everything easier by JrDragao

AFI by Childofthewild666

AJ Poster – Dallas Toy Show by oraclesaturn

Icecream by CQcat

There are a number of great tutorials, freebies, and articles related to vectors coming out on the web daily. Each month, I roundup some of the best posts I have found useful. I can’t include everything I’ve seen throughout the month, but you can follow my Twitter feed to get all the daily links. Post comments with links that I have missed so everyone can see them!

Tutorials

Create a Vintage TV Set Icon in Illustrator

Roughen up your vector work

Zee Logo in Illustrator

How to Design a Skate Deck with a Cool Skull Pattern

Create An Awesome Space Rocket Avatar in Illustrator

How To Create A Vector Wacom Tablet In Illustrator

Other Tutorial Links For September

How To Create An Academy Icon From Simple Shapes

How to Create an Energy Saving Bulb in Illustrator

How to Bake a Cake in Illustrator

Create a Logo from Sketch to Vector Artwork in Adobe Illustrator

Tips and Tricks

See Spot? Run!

20 More Useful Adobe Illustrator Menu Tips

Drawing People Part 2

How to Create a Wide Range of Custom Color Swatches in Illustrator

Using Transform Again in Illustrator

Other Tips and Tricks Links For September

TECHNIQUE: Distribute Art Around a Path

Vector Freebies

Official Classic Free Vector Set 2

Free Keep Fit Vectors – Give Your Designs a Workout!

Vector Freebies: 12 Floral Borders & Dividers

Drips and Spray Paint Pack – 30 Free Vectors

Other Vector Freebies For September

World map Vector Graphic

Airborne: A Free Wings Vector Set

Vector Pattern

Free Vector Ornament

Vector Inspiration and Articles

Little Friends of Printmaking interview

25 Inspiring Examples of Abstract Vector Design

Back-to-School With 40 Excellent Adobe Illustrator Tutorials

30 Illustrator Gradient Mesh Tutorials to Help Enhance Your Vector Realism

Interview with Jonathan Ball