Design Process of Phoenix Illustration

March 23rd, 2007 Filed in: Design, Tricks & Tips Jump to comments

illustration process 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.

sketch

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?

research

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.

tracing

4. Illustrator Files

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

Illustrator files

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".

Photoshop effects

6. Final

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

final illustration

Tolu Olubu

# 194

September 1st, 2008 at 2:51 pm

I love your work. You are skillful. Keep it up. Tolu

SasaVtech

# 193

August 4th, 2008 at 3:48 am

Nick, you have an amazing talent.

It’s always a pleasure to be able to stop by from time to time and see what’s brewing!

johny

# 192

July 31st, 2008 at 4:03 pm

it’s wonderful…

synoz

# 191

July 25th, 2008 at 11:58 pm

U r a good disigner.ilike ur work.God bless u,SYNOZ

Ronny

# 190

July 10th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

your design is absolutely great!
really nice work, also the icons, well done!

Doni

# 189

July 9th, 2008 at 12:44 am

That’s really great! I really like the way how you draw and your imaginations. Can you show in your tutorial how to draw hairs or something like slick and smooth. Mostly you can find in designs 2 color artworks of flowers or something like hairs comes from a corner in a darker color then background. I think you know what I mean. Thank you. Cheers!