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Design Process of The Phoenix Illustration

Mar 23, 2007 3 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.

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 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.

final illustration

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3 Comments… +add yours?

  1. Dec 10, 2009 @ 19:04:45

    jasmine

    good pic you guys i like the pictures yall tried to draw

  2. Feb 17, 2010 @ 09:45:41

    Weddings Fashion

    piecocks are awsome can i ask source site?

  3. Aug 15, 2010 @ 05:44:16

    Stephane

    Wow ! That phoenix is just breathtaking ! belive it or not, of all the illustration I’ve seen from various artist in the internet, this one is my number one !^^

    streaming audio save

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