Please be aware this lesson is prepared by a person whose experience level is between beginner and intermediate. Therefore there are probably better and faster ways to achieve these results. This is just how I was taught and includes instructions that are intentionally methodical and slow, to assist the beginner in grasping the basic techniques. Others will undoubtedly have better advice, but hopefully this tutorial will continue to grow. This is a beginning.
THE JOB: This is a real project for a customer. The steps were used to create a generic logo for “Gord” the customer. He races a modified Corvette on the SCCA circuit. His racing name is Gordzilla, his desired logo is Taz, and he wants the Corvette emblem incorporated into the design. The desire is to make vector art that could be used to airbrush his car, helmet and still have a logo to use for T-shirts & banners. So lets go!
Vector 101 – the basics.
From Brands of the world website (www.brandsoftheworld.com) , I grabbed an EPS logo for the Corvette, later on that. A good idea is to create a project file to contain all the stuff you will gather for the project. (If you want to follow along, the original web JPG is the first picture, so grab it and follow along.)
1. I searched the web and found a JPG of Taz. (For clarity, I chose a black and white as opposed to a color one, but either will do, the pose was the one I wanted). Drag it to your desktop and then open it in Photoshop. I use PS7 on a Mac, so your images might vary a little. Enlarge it about 300% (Command +) so you can see it. Its quite rough at this stage as you can see.
2. Go to the filter menu and choose Sharpen/Sharpen Edges. That will help when we get in close later in Illustrator.
3. Save the JPG to your project folder.
5. Open Illustrator and import the JPG. It should look like this. It should have a highlight box around it. If it doesn’t, use the Selection Tool (Black arrow) at the top of the tools menu to highlight the JPG.
6. Right click (or double click) on the Scale tool. Set enlargement to at least 200%.
7. This is where you establish your traceable template. Lock the original JPG layer and dim it so you can see to trace over it. You will see a little padlock in the window when its done.
8. Looking at the saved “Original layer” in the Layers menu on the right, click the small arrow button on the right of that layer, and from the menu, select “New Layer”. Don’t worry about any settings other than ensuring it’s a different color that the original layer. Name it “Draw Layer” or whatever suits you. You now have a tracing layer, and will begin the vector drawing.
Written By Scott McCallum
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