This is Dirty: From Sketch to Vector Illustration Video Tutorial

Go Media is a firm with a rich history of illustration. There is just something magical about putting pencil to paper. We love to draw, what else can I say.

In our early years our firm focused almost exclusively on projects that involved illustration. One of those markets was rock ‘n’ roll apparel. We did so much apparel that we wrote the book on it (Thread’s Not Dead)!  Apparel is printed with silk screens. One aspect of creating designs for silk screen printing is having nice solid, clean shapes to print with. And what’s better than vector art created with software like Illustrator for clean solid shapes?

As a result, Go Media was doing a lot of illustration and then converting it into vector graphics. Another good example of the use of our sketch to vector illustration technique is our vector packs.

One result of us using this process so frequently was a tutorial that we posted for free on the GoMediaZine. This was about seven years ago. To this day, it is still the most viewed tutorial on our website EVERY SINGLE MONTH. It seems this is information artists and designers really want.

It gave me the idea – why not make a video tutorial version and sexy music video to promote it? Ok, I’ll admit, I was most excited about the sexy music video. I had the whole thing mapped out perfectly in my head.

So, here’s what I did; I mounted a camera over my drawing table and recorded every second of my illustration. Then I used screen capture technology to record every second of the vector inking and coloring process. By the time the entire process was complete, I probably had about 14 hours of video. For the music video you see above, I compressed all of it down into four minutes.

This is Dirty Deets:

The video tutorial available for purchase is the extended version, 1 hour and 11 minutes – here, I discuss give you, the viewer, a raw, rare look into my process, including:

Supplies
The Staedler Mars mechanical pencil and sharpener
Eraser of choice
The pros and cons of hard vs. soft lead
Preferred paper type

Drawing (Pencil Sketch)
Getting into the right head-space
Getting your arm loose
Why starting with rough sketches is so important
Getting started
Having proper expectations of yourself
Being flexible while drawing
Drawing using basic geometrical shapes
Drawing the human face
Developing a series of cheats to draw
Shading – how much black vs. white
Using reference materials

Scanning
Equipment specifications
Scanning specifications

(Vector) Inking
Equipment and software specifications
Dell(PC) vs. Apple
Mouse vs. Wacom
Nodes and bezier lines
Setting up your layers
Setting up gradients and picking colors
Inking options
Creating shapes in Illustrator
Cross hatching

Coloring
Photoshop vs. Illustrator
Setting up your layers
Process strategy
Highlights and secondary light source
Adding Shadows
Adding a texture

What you receive with the download:

• Extended Tutorial (MP4 Video)
• Blue Concrete Square texture (jpeg)
• This is Dirty Illustration (pencil art)
• This is Dirty Illustration Version 1 (jpeg)
• This is Dirty Illustration Version 2 (jpeg)
• This is Dirty Illustration – Final (AI File)

Total Time: 1 hour, 11 minutes

Go see what we love about this product in the image library!

Want to keep learning from Bill? Pick up his book, Drawn to Business, about how he grew a million dollar design firm from the ground up.
View the From Sketch to Vector Illustration Tutorial on our ‘Zine