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Description
Many have asked the process in which I create my vector pieces, so this time around, I decided to do something a little different It's not quite a tutorial, but rather, snapshots of how I lay out my ideas when creating vector scenes.

Inspiration
I'm still in that dreamy nostalgic mood and I've been looking at old posters and photographs of the vintage luxury trains. I was chatting with a friend about saving up some money someday to do a grand travel tour in the luxury cabin of the Orient Express, and at that point, I just felt like doing a piece about it. So I sketched out some random ideas just to get some visuals going and figure out perspective stuff.

First Panel
Lines, lines and LOTS of lines! I figure out in my head how I'd like to have the walls, windows, seat and table setup and I make some rough guiding lines and create an abstract template for myself. It actually feels a lot like architectural drafting at this point. Sure, it looks kinda messy and some people wonder how the hell I make sense of it, but it helps me! I kinda like the initial technical approach and it really helps me see what I want to do. At this point, if I feel like changing the entire perspective of the scene, it's still pretty easy since all I have to do is move a couple anchor points around and shift lines. For this piece, I'm going with a two point perspective, and you can kinda see where the vanishing points lead out to.

Second Panel
Now that I'm satisfied with the guides I've put in, I begin creating different layers and start creating the basic shapes following the guiding lines. Oh, and here's something important that I should mention: I always have the 'Smart Guides' turned on in Illustrator. It REALLY helps in pinpointing anchor points and intersections so that the illustration can at least be technically perfect. When creating all the different shapes, I don't really focus on color just yet. I just roughly choose a few base colors that I might use, but most of the time colors always get changed anyway. I make sure all the base elements have distinct colors so that I can differentiate them.

Third Panel
Now that I have the base elements placed in the illustration, I start figuring out the mood I'd like this piece to have, and start placing the gradients for the appropriate pieces. I start adding some basic details just by playing around with how the gradients perceive a shape or object. I added a curtain by the window which was something I didn't initially plan on, but it's something I like at the moment. Basically, the ONLY thing I pre-plan in the beginning is just the outline of the scene itself. All the little details and objects get added spontaneously as inpiration and ideas happen. At this stage, nothing is set in stone yet.

So the basic scene is done, but there's still a lot of things that I am going to do. There's definitely going to be a passenger sitting there, and maybe some random bits of luggage or personal belongings on the table.

Go to WIP II...

Description
Many have asked the process in which I create my vector pieces, so this time around, I decided to do something a little different It's not quite a tutorial, but rather, snapshots of how I lay out my ideas when creating vector scenes.

Inspiration
I'm still in that dreamy nostalgic mood and I've been looking at old posters and photographs of the vintage luxury trains. I was chatting with a friend about saving up some money someday to do a grand travel tour in the luxury cabin of the Orient Express, and at that point, I just felt like doing a piece about it. So I sketched out some random ideas just to get some visuals going and figure out perspective stuff.

First Panel
Lines, lines and LOTS of lines! I figure out in my head how I'd like to have the walls, windows, seat and table setup and I make some rough guiding lines and create an abstract template for myself. It actually feels a lot like architectural drafting at this point. Sure, it looks kinda messy and some people wonder how the hell I make sense of it, but it helps me! I kinda like the initial technical approach and it really helps me see what I want to do. At this point, if I feel like changing the entire perspective of the scene, it's still pretty easy since all I have to do is move a couple anchor points around and shift lines. For this piece, I'm going with a two point perspective, and you can kinda see where the vanishing points lead out to.

Second Panel
Now that I'm satisfied with the guides I've put in, I begin creating different layers and start creating the basic shapes following the guiding lines. Oh, and here's something important that I should mention: I always have the 'Smart Guides' turned on in Illustrator. It REALLY helps in pinpointing anchor points and intersections so that the illustration can at least be technically perfect. When creating all the different shapes, I don't really focus on color just yet. I just roughly choose a few base colors that I might use, but most of the time colors always get changed anyway. I make sure all the base elements have distinct colors so that I can differentiate them.

Third Panel
Now that I have the base elements placed in the illustration, I start figuring out the mood I'd like this piece to have, and start placing the gradients for the appropriate pieces. I start adding some basic details just by playing around with how the gradients perceive a shape or object. I added a curtain by the window which was something I didn't initially plan on, but it's something I like at the moment. Basically, the ONLY thing I pre-plan in the beginning is just the outline of the scene itself. All the little details and objects get added spontaneously as inpiration and ideas happen. At this stage, nothing is set in stone yet.

So the basic scene is done, but there's still a lot of things that I am going to do. There's definitely going to be a passenger sitting there, and maybe some random bits of luggage or personal belongings on the table.

Go to WIP II...