Illustrate Your Social Avatar - Part 1
Lesson 7 from: Ignite Your Business Marketing Kit in Adobe IllustratorKladi Vergine
Illustrate Your Social Avatar - Part 1
Lesson 7 from: Ignite Your Business Marketing Kit in Adobe IllustratorKladi Vergine
Lesson Info
7. Illustrate Your Social Avatar - Part 1
Lessons
Introduction
01:19 2Adobe Illustrator Workspace
05:35 3Design For Print
05:03 4Create a Promotional Flyer
10:15 5Pattern Tile Creation
09:39 6Fun and Useful Stickers
11:00 7Illustrate Your Social Avatar - Part 1
11:42 8Illustrate Your Social Avatar - Part 2
10:22Lesson Info
Illustrate Your Social Avatar - Part 1
Yeah. In this lesson you will learn how to leverage adobe illustrator to design a social media avatar. Being able to create your very own avatar will make you stand out from the crowd, learn how to use illustrators, key drawing tools like the pencil tool and the shape builder tool, combined with a W. Color too easily translate your brand into a unique image. And if the first thing that comes to your mind is I don't know how to draw. Don't worry, this lesson is perfect for you. What you need to know is the goal of this miniature image is to present the mood of your brand and convey in just a few shapes and colors the key characteristics that represent what you or your company are all about. Today, I will create an avatar for a skincare brand which uses the power of cactus extracts. As you will see. We will not be drawing skincare products but we'll be focusing on what makes this business different. In this case the magic of the characters. Feel free to use the starter file provided to f...
ollow along. Or you can also follow the tips and techniques that I will share with you to build your own illustrated avatar before you start, remember not to focus on the material, product or service but to ask yourself what is your unique selling point. Open the illustrator file and let's prepare the work space for our project. Click on the dots located at the very bottom of the toolbar, then head to the top of the panel that will pop up and click on the burger menu icon from here, select advanced. As you can see the basic toolbar will be replaced by a very similar panel which has many more exciting tools. Head to the toolbar and click and hold on the shaper tool to reveal the hidden tools. Then select the pencil tool. You can also activate the pencil tool by pressing the N. Key on your keyboard. Now head over to the R. Board and click and drug. To start experimenting with the pencil tool and to start your drawing. The pencil tool is great for fast sketching or creating a hand drawn look. We will use it to create an abstract background. The black line that appears when you draw is called path. A path is made up of a series of points called anchor points and line segments between these anchor points. Anchor points are the elements that make adobe illustrator a very special up. In fact, illustrator is a better based design software and your artwork can now be used in applications of any size. You will be able to scale the anchor points without compromising the quality of the result and without any pics elation. And with the pencil tool you will be able to use the anchor points to create freeform shapes and lines and don't worry if your drawings are not perfect on your first attempt, you can keep drawing again and again until you're happy with the result. And here is a tip. If you wish to delete any line that you created, press the letter V. To activate the selection tool and click on the path that you wish to delete. Then simply press the backspace or delete key. The path created so far are open paths as you can see they have starting and ending points when using the pencil tool. It will be ideal to draw with the pen on a tablet. But if you're using a mouse just like me, there are a few different ways in which you can make your path curves smoother. The first thing that we can do is to head back to the toolbar and double click on the pencil to the pencil to option panel will pop up from here. You can move the fiddle tunes lighter all the way to the right side to achieve smoother curves, then click on. Ok, Then head back to the art board and give it a go as you can see the path is much smoother. Another way to edit a path that you've already created is to use this musto. The smooth two is one of my favorite tools in illustrator as it allows you to achieve the perfect look in just a few clicks before heading to the toolbar, make sure first to select the path that you wish to edit. Then you can find and activate the smooth tool nested under the pencil tool in the hidden tools panel with the smooth tool selected head back to the path and click and drag over the areas that you wish to modify illustrator will automatically remove unnecessary anchor points to get you to your desired results in a few seconds, wind down, press the letter M on your keyboard to activate the rectangle too. Then click and drag over the past year, created since all the online avatars are either a square or a circle. Make sure to hold the shift key while using the rectangle tool to create a perfect square. Use the shortcut Control A on Windows. That's command a on a Mac to select all the graphics located inside the document, then head to the toolbar and select the shape builder tool. Head over your graphics and as you can see the shape builder tool will highlight edges and regions which can be merged to form a new complex shape, click on the areas inside the square, the limited by the past to create a new shape. And here is a quick tip. You can also use the shape builder tool to delete unwanted path or areas within the selected shapes to do so, access the race mode of the shape builder tool. By pressing the old key on windows or the option key on a Mac. The plus icon will change into a minus now, simply click and drag on any region to delete it. If you are unhappy with the result, you can undo it at any time by using the keyboard shortcut, Control Z on Windows that commands it on a Mac. And by the way, the shortcut will also work with any other action. Inside adobe illustrator when building auditors images remember that they will be viewed in many different resolutions depending on the devices and therefore you will have to keep in mind that they will have to work on very different scales large but also very small. And that's the reason why I encourage you to focus on a few or even one key element and if possible to use a very simple and non distracting background. This will also allow the color palette to convey emotions and the general mood. And since we're talking about color, let me show you how you can easily leverage one of adobe most exciting services integrated inside illustrator. But let's learn first how to apply color to apply color to any shape. Simply press the wiki to access the selection too and select the first shape that you would like to style. If you wish to style more than one object with the same attributes, simply hold the shift key and select another graphic in order to add it to the selection. Once you've selected your shapes, you can either go to the Properties panel and from there use the fill and stroke options and their appearance to assign a color to your shape by clicking on the respective icon and then selecting an existing color from the swatches. Or by selecting the color mixer tab and creating a new one. You can also apply color to stroke and feel by using the fill and stroke controls. Look at it at the bottom of the toolbar. In this case, double click on one of the two icons to access the color picker from here, select the color of your choice and when done, click on. Ok. When selecting colors. My first recommendation is to head to your brand guidelines. But if you're just starting building your visual identity and if you're unsure about the color to use or how to combine them, don't worry, illustrator comes to the rescue by allowing us to browse and use inspirational color themes directly inside the app, choose the window menu, then select color themes from the adobe color themes panel. You will be able to create, explore and save beautiful color combinations to start click on the explore tab to see the most popular color palettes from here, use the search bar to narrow down the list by using a meaningful key word that describes the mood or the content of your artwork. I'm going to use the word magic as I really want the colours to convey the superpower elements contained in the cactus based products. When done, press enter to explore the color teams connected to the key word, scroll down the list to find the color theme that fits your design. Once you find a color or a color theme that you would like to use, Click on the three dots located under the pallet of your choice and then select add to swatches. Don't forget that you can come back and add multiple color themes at any time and you can also add new keywords and repeat the same actions to add more inspiring colors in your project when that you can close the panel. Now, head to the swatches panel by choosing the window menu and then swatches here. You will find the new folders containing the color themes you've just added. Now let's put our lovely color palettes to use select each individual shape and apply a color to its fuel or the stroke by using the Properties panel. All the fill a stroke controls. Well you do that. I want to remind you that adobe color is also available online by heading to color dot adobe dot com. And here you will be able to create browse and learn more about colors and also you will be able to discover how to design with color blindness in mind. Thanks to one of the most amazing accessibility features on this wonderful website. To do so, select accessibility tools and from here you will be able to access the color blind safe intent. This tool will detect color conflicts that create confusion for people with color blindness. Adobe color will also allow you to extract color themes from any image by simply uploading it from your machine and you will be able to do the same Also to create gradients. Adobe color is one of the amazing adobe services which you can also find available on your tablet and mobile devices. Thanks to the amazing adobe capture up. Yeah. Adobe capture will automatically connect your camera to help you create professional design assets in a snap, even if you're not a designer, but let's get back to illustrator. I will meet you in the next lesson to complete and export the avatar.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Lisa Carney
Kladi is very clear in her explanations all while being very inspiring. Great class!!
Mazhar Iqbal
Great Kladi is a legend I really appreciate
a Creativelive Student
Very good teacher. I wish she had more classes.
Student Work
Related Classes
Adobe Illustrator