I Tried Creating Vector Hair | Illustrator Adventures With Anu

Hello Lovelies!

I have some good news to share. Today I start on my new job as an online coding instructor for kids and teens. The past two weeks had been a whirlwind attending interviews, juggling phone calls and video calls, taking care of my home, dogs, my mom -  I've been on my toes all day every day of the week!

But, it's been worth it in the end.

And today is my first day at work (The best part is - I get to work from home; so, thank god, I don't have to sacrifice this blog! :P )

Alright!

Let's get to it, shall we? Where my girl at?

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Ah! There she is!

Just look at her hair! She's a vision in...black hair. I wish my hair could flow in the wind like this. 

This whole vector art took me about four hours to complete. That's it. Easy peazy, ain't it? That's because I followed a tutorial from my go-to website for illustrator tutorials - Tutplus!

Link to the Tutorial:- How To Vector Hair With Brushes in Adobe Illustrator

Now it's time to find out how I managed to draw this gorgeous hair. I started at 10:30 in the night and completed at 2:30 in the wee hours of the morning. Why would I do that, right? :P

I was taken a back when I saw the end result. I learned quite a lot while attempting this tutorial.

One: I learned how to create brushes in Illustrator.
Two: I am confident about creating my own vector artworks in the future!

(My forte is drawing girls. At least that's what I think. And the confidence wasn't there before. So this tutorial definitely planted a seed inside me. An idea for a girl!) Where am I going with this? :D

Let's have a look at the process - my process -  of creating vector HAIRRRR!!!!.(The caps were unnecessary. I know.)

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I started by creating the brushes for the hair as suggested by the tutorial.

At first, I didn't understand anything - as is the case every time I attempt to draw something I had never done before.

But then I got a hang of it. And I created the brushes and named them just the way the tutor had named them in the tutorial. (She didn't write them in some places, so I had to squint and read it in the snapshots!)

And also, I needed a head for the hair. (Obviously!)

So, this is what I came up with.

She's a beauty, ain't she?

The first step was drawing the hairline with the Hairline Brush.

And then, I suddenly felt the need to be crazy. So, I did this. :D

This is not part of the tutorial. But, if you would like a signed copy of this 'original' artwork, I'll send ya. Just make sure to hang it on the wall in front of your bed so that every morning you can greet her - or rather, she you.

Then, it was time for the Hair-piece Brush to do it's magic! I just created a couple of stray strokes on the art-board just to get comfortable using the brush. I didn't have to put in any effort at all. The brush did everything for me. Which was really awesome.

I gave a pat on my back for no reason and continued. But then I realized I didn't like the way the hair just stood there like spikes. So, I erased the strokes and started over.

And, honestly, when I curled the strokes a little, the hair looked like it had come alive out of nowhere. I felt like a hair-dresser who had done a really good job at blow drying the hair. 

Next, it was time to exaggerate the movements of the individual strands of hair. For that, the tutorial suggested I use the Tapered Brush. And boy it enhanced the already good-looking hair.

I'm not sure if you can see them, but there are more strands flying in the wind in the above picture. To me it felt like she's in a photo-shoot or a hair commercial! *sends a flying kiss to my own drawing*

The next part was to draw the shine. Oooh! I loved doing this part. It definitely added some depth and gave texture to the hair. And shine!

The final element that I added was some extra shine using the tapered brush. I followed the tutorial to the T, and voila! It was finished! 

Here are the different versions. I couldn't help clowning around with it.

I settled with the one below. ^_^

It was a pleasure drawing the vector hair. 

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Hope you liked this episode of 'Illustrator Adventures With Anu.' 

Stay tuned. There are many more to come in the future.

Until then, have a lovely day ahead! :)

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If you missed my previous posts, click on these links for quick access!

The Mandala | Adobe Illustrator Adventures With Anu
I'm in Love With Drawing Flats!
Photoshopping My Face Five Different Ways
I Made A Book Cover For A Thriller Story I Wrote
I Tried Creating A LOGO For My Blog (And Went Insane)
'Photoshopping' my Dogs
Looking Back: My First Ever Photoshop Drawing
Event Posters Using Photoshop
Hello there!

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The Mandala | Adobe Illustrator Adventures with Anu

It took me four days. My routine was the same for all of the days. Wake up. Walk the dogs. Have breakfast. And when the clock strikes ten, open Illustrator, and select a brush to help me draw the mandala.

I had saved dagubi's tutorial on 'How to Create a Lace Pattern in Adobe Illustrator,' to my Graphic Design Pet Projects Playlist on YouTube and it had already been around ten days since I had saved it.

It was time.

It was time for me to stop putting it away for another day and just watch it and... DO SOMETHING! Mostly because I needed to keep my promise to this blog.

For the uninitiated, this blog should have an article uploaded to it every Saturday. Period. No Excuses. That was the promise I made with this blog in my very first article.

Because: 1. I want to become an Illustrator. 2. I'm weird.

But, as is the case every time when I 'embark' on a new journey of some kind, things seldom go as planned. (I know some of you can relate to it.) And Blue Eye Candy is not an exception.

It's been almost a month since I rambled on something about being 'in love' with flat drawings. My future self always recoils when reading my blog posts. (Hey, future self!) Not a whole lot of you had read my previous article, so it was kind of relieving, to be honest. ('Hey' to those who write something but don't want to read it ever again. Or have it read by the whole wide world. Nobody? Okay.)

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Thirty minutes is a REALLY long time to be squinting your eyes and watching a tutorial where the tutor is drawing intricate patterns - which, when you try to replicate, turns out looking nothing like it.

But I went through it. For four days. By the time I had completed it, my toenails had grown 2 inches longer and I had forgotten that I was suffocating my derriere. 

And my mandala looked nothing like the one in the tutorial - which can sometimes be a good thing. I always try not to copy a tutorial from A to Z. Instead, I try to make it look different. On purpose. Sometimes it works. And sometimes, it doesn't.

This time around, while creating the mandala, it actually worked! Apart from a few errors here and there, that is. They weren't visible in the final piece, but, oh well, the truth is: 

The more I tried fixing them, the more my mandala started skewing.

So I decided to just embrace all the errors and just...let them be. Because nothing in this world is perfect. So my mandala needn't be; it didn't have to try to become the mandala in the tutorial; it accepted the way it is. It was, for the very first time, happy to be himself. Imperfect and skewed.

Okay, I'll stop.

That was a weird monologue.

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To those who managed to read all of the above: Congratulations! You get a free video tour of my mandala. Just scroll to the bottom.

To those who just couldn't get through the first few sentences: Congratulations! It' the best decision you've ever made in your life! And you, also, get a free video tour of my mandala! 

Because my mandala needs attention. No matter who or what you are. :D

I know. None of you asked for any of this, but I just had to flaunt my mandala and do a video-shoot for it - I'm sorry - 'him.' We've been calling this guy 'it' all through this article. :O

'Dear Mandala, I give you life. From henceforth, you shall be called Mandy. Mandy the Mandala.'

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Before this article gets any more weirder, let me just show the thing that you came here for. Let me present to you: The Birth of Mandy. In pictures.

This is how he looks today. He's four days old in this picture. 

'Mandy The Mandala' in all his glory!

This is him when he was just a few hours old.

And the following are pictures of him when he was growing up inside my Adobe Illustrator. (I fed him lot of black and white goop!)

This is him at two days old. His hair started growing haphazardly. So I had to chop it! (He cried a lot that day.)

And as promised to all of you, here is a video of his video-shoot.

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I hope you enjoyed this article. Share and comment if you liked this episode of 'Adobe Illustrator Adventures with Anu.' 

Next time, I'll be doing something totally out of my comfort zone again. It will be yet another adventure that you wouldn't want to miss!

Let's all take one step closer to our dream by doing something that we love today.

Thanks for reading and Happy November! :)

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If you missed my previous posts, click on these links for quick access!

I'm in Love With Drawing Flats!
Photoshopping My Face Five Different Ways
I Made A Book Cover For A Thriller Story I Wrote
I Tried Creating A LOGO For My Blog (And Went Insane)
'Photoshopping' my Dogs
Looking Back: My First Ever Photoshop Drawing
Event Posters Using Photoshop
Hello there!

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