Cut & paste cool background textures

Take cut-&-paste further by compositing elements onto textured, colour backgrounds. Brian Grant shows you how on a piece of his fantastic work… Image backgrounds in digital art can be more than simply act as incidental scenery to a piece of work. Rather, with good planning and some honed colour skills, it’s possible for backgrounds to frame an image in an incredible variety of ways. For this tutorial, leading designer and artist Brian Grant shows us how he has created one of his latest pieces, and in the process using the background to transform a basic image of a model to create...

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Create an iconic T-Shirt artwork

Joshua Smith, aka maverick illustrator Hydro74, has a style that’s instantly recognisable – combining the thick, clean lines of graffiti with the iconography of tattoos and the symmetry and patterns of vector art. Here he takes you through how he created his latest work, based around his regular motifs of skulls and swirls mixed with this spring/summer’s illustration icon, the owl.As you follow this tutorial, you’ll discover lots of tricks to help you create better art and work faster in Illustrator. You’ll learn how to improve your skills with line art, shading using flat fills and colour techniques for limited palettes (to keep printing...

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High-end photo compositing techniques

Want to merge a number of images seamlessly into one design? In this tutorial, Kevin Roodhorst illustrates how to make an Africa-inspired graphic compiled from a number of photographic elements. You will be shown how to add several textures and effects, including lighting effects, using Photoshop and Illustrator.Step 1 In Photoshop, start with a dark background that has grungy textures. Download the images you want – I chose anelephant (bit.ly/9SZhD1), a frog (bit.ly/9YoxOa), bongos (bit.ly/a0dLB4) and a tiger (bit.ly/cLyWHT). You will also need a model shot. Paste them into the image and desaturate usingImage > Adjustments > Desaturate.Step...

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Discover tattoo illustration techniques

Want to produce clean and detailed line work but with a hand drawn edge? Not sure whether to use the pen tool in Illustrator or a tablet in Photoshop? With his stunning tattoo-style designs, digital illustrator and ‘part-time thrasher’ Chris Parks has all the answers and more in this tutorial. You’ll be introduced to Illustrator’s pressure sensitive ‘Blob Brush’ and you’ll learn some techniques for adding quick colour and detailed depth. You’ll also pick up some good tips on workflow and how to add detail by creating separate graphics and duplicating them to save time without sacrificing quality.Step 1 To get started, you’ll need a healthy dose...

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