Sunday, October 11th, 2015

Create long shadows for flat icon design in Illustrator

long shadows flat design illustrator

Flat icons with long shadows are the rage right now – here’s how to make them in Illustrator

Flat icons look great with long shadows. There are a few ways to make long shadows in Illustrator and, in this video, I show you two of them.

One method will work fine for your own icons – it’s fast and easy. The second method is suitable for selling flat design icon vectors as stock images – in that case you will want your shadows to be neater so the image you are selling is easier to understand by the person buying it. For this second method I’ll show you how to make shadows as neat paths.

Here is the video – enjoy!

 

 

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Categories:Illustrator

posted by Helen Bradley @ 10:03 amNo Comments links to this post

Thursday, July 9th, 2015

It’s Fun to Make Flat Design Portrait Icons in Illustrator

Even if you can’t draw, you can make these icons!

It sounds scary to be drawing facial icons if you can’t draw, but these are simple to make. The lovely thing about using Illustrator is that you can move pieces around until you get the result you like. You can also delete bits that you don’t like and redraw them.

In this Youtube video I’ll show you the basics of making a flat design female portrait in Illustrator. You’ll build it from the bottom up stating with the shoulders and neck and the clothes. Then make the head and add the features. Finally you’ll do the hair and the optional shadow. Building a solution up step by step like this is a great way to learn to use Illustrator and a fun way to put your skills to work.

Your design can be realistic or quirky, as these samples show but they are all done the same way with simple steps that anyone can do.

 

 

So, without further ado, here is the video for your enjoyment:

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Categories:Illustrator

posted by Helen Bradley @ 1:14 pmNo Comments links to this post