Drawing and Painting Tutorials

Vector files can be huge, with so many layers, paths, anchor points, and effects. Expanding a pattern or brush can easily create lag in the average machine, and with Adobe Illustrator CC 2015's latest features, older machines may find it hard to keep up. Here are four quick tips for reducing lag and hopefully preventing your app from crashing. | Tags: Problem Solving, Adobe Illustrator, Vector

Learn how to create custom brushes for digital inking and what methods to use for a quick and smooth workflow. | Difficulty: Intermediate; Length: Medium; Tags: Comics, Adobe Illustrator, Vector, Cartoon, AI Brushes, Fantasy, Illustration

Today I'm going to show you how to create a koala climbing on a tree. It's easy and fun tutorial for those who just started to learn Adobe Illustrator. | Difficulty: Beginner; Length: Medium; Tags: Character Design, Adobe Illustrator, Illustration, Animals

"Learn how to create a trendy long shadow effect using a Blend in Adobe Illustrator. | Difficulty: Beginner; Length: Quick"

In the following steps you will learn how to create a vintage notebook illustration in Adobe Illustrator.

"When I was a kid, I used to say: "I don't care about drawing books, I don't need to draw a pose, I just know how to draw something as a whole". This kind of thinking was a serious blockade to my progress, but a lot of time has to fly for me to realize it. Now I know building a pose is the most important part of the drawing. Do you want to learn why? Or maybe you know it, but poses are still your weak point?"

"When you're fresh to Adobe Illustrator, the task of creating characters and designs within the program entirely can be quite daunting."

"The human hand is probably one of the hardest things to learn how to draw, since it can take many forms and, thus, express varied emotions. In cartoon it is no different. You need to be able to draw hands in different angles, which are dynamic and attractive in the eyes of the viewer. Don’t underestimate the power of a well drawn cartoon hand – it can save your art from the monotony!"

I grew up playing with paper dolls. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but with Adobe Illustrator, creating digital paper dolls can be a fun and easy project due to the program’s customizable nature, and a jumping off point for making drag and drop Flash games. Follow along as I break down doll-like anatomy in creating a base body for a dress-up community challenge.

"In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the steps of creating a comic strip using Illustrator’s Pen Tool, custom brushes and masking features. This is a fun tutorial that covers the process I use, while showcasing the comic strip I write called "The Brads.""

In this tutorial we’ll be creating a colorful cartoon hot-dog van, going down the road and bringing yummy snacks! We’ll be using basic shapes and playing around with Blending Modes, adding semi-realistic shadows and highlights to our van to make it more glossy and three-dimensional. Let’s get started! | Difficulty: Intermediate; Length: Medium; Tags: Illustration, Adobe Illustrator, Vector, Food, Cartoon

In this tutorial you'll learn to create a cute chibi character. We'll use simple shapes, brushes, gradients, which are easy to apply in other illustrations. | Difficulty: Intermediate; Length: Long; Tags: Global Influences, Illustration, Vector, Adobe Illustrator

"In this tutorial I'd like to show you the possibilities of using the Mesh Tool in creating a stylish fashion illustration of a young woman in Adobe Illustrator. In this first part I'll be using a gradient mesh for hair and I will also show you my usual routine of drawing hair, using custom made brushes."

 I often hear designers say that although they love vector artwork they wish it wasn't so inherently flat.

In this tutorial I'm going to cover the main features of Art and Scatter Brushes in Adobe Illustrator, how to create and apply them. 

"In the following tutorial I will show you how to create cool and bright graffiti arrows in Adobe Illustrator. You will learn how to create wild styled graffiti design elements using the Paintbrush Tool first (for sketching) and the Pen Tool (making forms and colors)."

"Follow this tutorial and learn how to create beautiful flowers with the help of the Gradient Mesh function in Adobe Illustrator."

Turn out the lights and turn on the black light where neon shapes pop from fuzzy posters and the psychedelic fashion scene of the 1960's is alive once more.

"Do you struggle with a simple circle from the first step of every tutorial? Do your straight lines keep bending no matter how hard you try? Do you seem to be unable to draw two points with a given distance between? Do your pictures look wrong even after repeating carefully every single step from a detailed tutorial?

These problems may come from lack of basic skills that are ignored when learning how to draw. In fact, these skills are obvious for someone who’s been drawing a lot, but they also can be easily forgotten after a few years without a pencil in your hand. So, are you ready to catch up?"