Design Process of Phoenix Illustration
March 23rd, 2007 Filed in: Design, Tricks & Tips Jump to comments
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.


April 15th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Cool art work
First i like ur style …
i am a amateur designer too
may i know u? i wanna u to be my teacher
i am in indonesia,thx
April 14th, 2007 at 3:28 am
I browse and saw you website and I found it very interesting.Thank you for the good work, greetings
April 13th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Really nice, I love your work, gets me in the mood to make my own website. haha. =]
April 12th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
i love the shape you create. thanks a lot !
April 12th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
That’s amazing! Good work
April 12th, 2007 at 11:58 am
I like it!
April 12th, 2007 at 8:50 am
good work, you can use Inkscape, it’s free or Xara. thank you.
عمل رائع وجميل بالفعل، يمكنك أيضا أن تستعمل برامج حرة تلبي نفس الغرض ، تحياتي.
April 12th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Wow, amazing work ;)
I like your style
April 12th, 2007 at 1:21 am
amazing work
April 12th, 2007 at 1:19 am
your ideas and style is amazing every illustration is detailed and the colours you use creates different moods. Your site is very educative for up coming designers.The tutorials have improved my designing skills I just love your work.
many regards from India