In following this tutorial, I learned several new tools in illustrator, including how to use a gradient mesh. I will have to explore gradient meshes more in the future as they seem quite cool.

gradient mesh used to make the artwork

Here is my result from following the tutorial:

I hope you like it!  I am very happy with the result.

The character I chose to make is Sherlock (from the new BBC mini series).  Sherlock is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is also in the upcoming Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie, based on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel and next year’s The Hobbit.

If you haven’t watched the BBC Sherlock, I highly recommend it! It’s three 90 minute episodes and is set in modern London.  Sherlock is a “consulting detective” and uses all sorts of modern technology to solve crimes.  He even has his own website: The Science of Deduction. You can buy Sherlock: Season One on DVD or Blu-Ray now, and the next season will be airing in 2012 in the UK.

sherlock and watson in BBC's Sherlock

So to get started on the paper toy, I looked at several reference photos of Benedict, and did a couple of sketches to get warmed up:

my first sketch was a bit off on the dimensions of his face (too squished)

the second sketch had the face shape a bit better

I printed out the blank template so I could sketch on it as well.

blank paper toy template

Since I needed different planes in the toy to match up, I decided to do something really simple, just the Sherlock figure, no props.

To get the face just right, I copied this reference photo into Illustrator and dimmed it to 50% transparency to trace the face on top of it.

sherlock movie still

Reference photo from Aithine.org, which has a large collection of Sherlock BBC movie stills.

I then did the final toy design in Illustrator, mainly using the Brush tool.

BBC Sherlock paper toy template

I printed it out on nice cardstock and followed the cutting and folding directions.

Now it was ready for a mini photoshoot against a modern London backdrop:

This project was a lot of fun.  Definitely check out the new Sherlock: Season One if you haven’t seen it yet!

So the latest tutorial I did is How to Create a Trendy Retro Type Treatment.  Here is a brief overview of the steps involved (see the link for the complete tutorial).

letter size rectangle with purple radial gradient

So I started out with a letter size document in Illustrator and created a rectangle to fill the artboard.  Then I filled this rectangle with a purple radial gradient.

Then I created two 45 degree angle lines on each side of the rectangle and blended them together using the Blend tool.  I specified 15 steps in this blend, so there are 17 diagonal lines total.  I filled these lines with a similar gradient texture.

lines blended on top of the gradient and filled with a similar gradient

Next I learned how to create a new “scatter brush”.  This brush can be set to randomly scatter whatever shape you start out with, and it can vary the size of each shape as well.

new brush for scatter brush

Using the brush tool, I drew some wavy lines with my new scatter brush.  It created a very nice subtle background.

wavy lines with scatter brush

Next I added a few highlights by taking the original brush shape and scaling it up to place randomly around.  I varied the size and the opacity of these shapes.

radial highlights complete the background

Next for the type treatment.  I used the “Museo” font, which you can download for free here.

I typed out my name and adjusted the “tracking” to -100, which pushed the letterforms close together.  Then I took parts of each letter and connected the letterforms so each word is a completely connected shape (except for the ‘i’ dot in ‘Callie’).  I added a white-to-green gradient fill.

connecting the letterforms

I created a black teardrop shape to make into a new art brush.  An art brush is different from a scatter brush because the shape of the art brush will follow the stroke that you draw exactly.

new teardrop art brush

I drew two teardrop shapes next to the letterforms and filled the shapes with a blue-green gradient.

adding teardrop shapes

As the final steps, I copy-pasted these teardrop shapes all around the text and alternated the colors.  Some of the shapes are mirrored for variety.  The left most and right most teardrops are elongated.

Callie's retro type treatment

I also tried a different color version:

different color type treatment

This version has a different background pattern and different colored scatter brushes:

different background pattern

Thank you to Rype (vectortutsplus author) for posting this excellent tutorial!

From Green Cafe Network’s contest page: “The goal of this contest is to bridge creative style with environmental responsibility – helping to make sustainability cool, mainstream and easy to understand in our communities.  With your help – we can use hip, innovative signage to help cafe customers to save energy, conserve water and greatly reduce waste.”

At first I wanted to submit designs in every category, because I would love to win a few hundred bucks!  So I sketched out several ideas in class:

Pencil sketches to work out different ideas.

some more good ideas

However, as we also had other homework that week, I could only choose one of my ideas to flesh out.  Our teacher, Adele Bass (Typography and Graphic Design teacher at Art Center College of Design), emphasized that the design solution should be Typographic in nature, as it is a Typography class.

So I settled on the simplest, and first, idea – “conserve your napkins”, with “napkins” drawn like actual napkins.

Pencil sketch of napkins font

I then scanned the drawing into Illustrator, and traced the lines with the Pen tool.  I added some shadows on the napkins for a more 3D look.  It was still a little plain, so I found a good tutorial on creating a textured background in Illustrator, Creating Seamless Textures in Illustrator, and added some grain texture on a blue-green background.  I used the same font styling as the tutorial as well, and added a little drop shadow behind “napkins”.  I also altered the “N”s on the word napkins so they were immediately readable.

My Green Cafe Network design entry

I entered it in the contest – so maybe I’ll get a couple hundred bucks!