N.Design Studio

Numbers of people have asked me how to do the phoenix illustration on my site. Was it vector? Did I use Illustrator or Photoshop? Well, here I will tell you my design process from concept sketch to final illustration. Hope you will find this useful.

1. Concept Sketch

Like most other designers, I like to brainstorm and sketch out my ideas.

2. Research

Then I will go to Google image search to get design inspiration. Notice the color theme used on my site is very similar to the images that I found?

3. Tracing

Normally I will do a fine sketch and import it in Illustrator for tracing purpose. Check out my Illustrator vector tracing tutorial. Here I experimented with different color variation.

4. Illustrator Files

Here are the Illustrator files that I traced from sketches. These vector illustrations then imported into Photoshop for composition.

5. Effects

I used Photoshop to add FX effects like: rainbow, glow, particles, and gradient. One of the frequently asked questions is how to do the particles effect on the tails and flowers. To make the particles, just set the layer’s blending mode to "dissolve".

6. Final

Here is the final illustration. Download the full size wallpaper.