SNOW BOARD ILLUSTRAION:

Follow this Adobe Illustrator tutorial to create a cool snowboard illustration. We'll build up the design with an array of bright shapes, trendy lines and patterns to produce a bright and funky vector composition. The final design will then be mocked up on a handy snowboard deck template to show off the design in all its glory.

A typical snowboard deck comes in at 64x12inches, but with the design being created in vector format we can easily scale this to 32x6inches to ease the strain on our processors.

Create a new Illustrator document at the appropriate dimensions and select CMYK for the Color Mode.

One of the first steps is to plan out a colour scheme for the design. I've picked out this cool palette from ColourLovers which has a good mix of bright tones as well as a dark blue which would work perfectly as a background. Select the rectangle tool and click on the artboard. Enter the dimensions of 32x6inches and align the rectangle with the Align palette. Press CMD+2 to lock this element to avoid accidentally selecting it.

Elsewhere on the document create a small square, note the dimensions, then Copy (CMD+C) and Paste in Front (CMD+F). Hit the Enter key to bring up the Move options and input the same value as the square's height in the vertical field. Press the Paste in Front shortcut then CMD+D to repeat the move transformation until you have a row of four squares.

Fill each of the four squares with a swatch from the colour palette, then with all four squares selected click the 'new' icon at the bottom of the Brushes palette. Select New Art Brush in the subsequent options box.

Make sure the direction arrow is flowing across the squares, then click OK to create the new brush.

Use the Pen tool to draw a zig-zagging path across the design. Hold Shift to constrain the angles to 45 degrees. Add the newly created brush as the path's stroke.

With the path still selected, go to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners. Enter a Radius of around 1.5inches to transform the angles into smooth bends.

Continue drawing a couple more lined paths with the same round corner styling. Decrease the stroke weight to create thinner paths.

To transform the paths into solid and editable shapes, select each one and go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to tweak the edges of each coloured strip so each one ends at a different point. Keep the Shift key held to constrain to that 45 degree angle.

Draw a circle on the artboard and add a thick stroke. Aim to match the weight of the stroke perfectly with the size of the coloured strips. Use the Direct Selection Tool to delete out the top and right points to leave a quarter-circle.

Zoom right in and match up the curved strip with the straight strips. Extend the straight edges after the curve by continuing the path with the Pen tool.

Cool effects can be created by varying the stacking order of each strip, and overlapping the colours so they seem to seamlessly flow between each path.

Elsewhere on the document draw a small circle and fill it with a colour from the design's colour scheme. Draw a slightly larger blank square around the circle and align the two perfectly. Select both objects and drag them into the Swatches palette.

Use the Blob brush to fill a selection within a closed area of the design and add the newly created swatch as a fill. The swatch will repeat to create a repeating pattern swatch. Repeatedly press the shortcut CMD+[ to send the pattern underneath the linework.

Draw a series of filled circles on one end of the design and merge them all together with the Pathfinder tool.

Draw a long thin rectangle elsewhere on the artboard, then duplicate it by dragging while holding the ALT and Shift keys. Press the shortcut CMD+D to create a series of lines.

Select the series of rectangles and go to Object > Compound Path > Make. This allows them to be used with the Pathfinder in the next step.

Draw a circle in the centre of the rectangles, then use the Intersect option from the Pathfinder to clip the rectangles to the confines of the circle.

Use copies of these circle graphics in various colours to decorate the design. Alter the stacking order using the shortcut CMD+[ to allow the circles to creep in from behind other objects.

Study the design for blank spaces or gaps and fill them with various shapes and graphics. A few simple circles overlapping over areas of the same colour can create a cool effect.

Sticking to the simple 5-colour palette will allow same colour elements to blend together and balance the design with the same series of colours flowing across the whole board.

When the design is complete, group all the elements together. Don't forget to press CMD+Alt+2 to unlock that background rectangle. Add a blank rectangle over the design and align it centrally with the artboard.

Select the group of elements and go to Object > Expand Appearance to convert any remaining paths and strokes to solid objects.

Select both the group of elements and the blank rectangle then hit the Crop option from the Pathfinder palette to trim everything down to size.

MASCOT CHARACTER:

How to create a mascot character:
Mascots can be a great asset to a company’s branding, providing a face and emotion to an otherwise stale design. This illustration began as a rejected new mascot for the redesign of thewikigame.com but he was just too adorable to ignore, so I had to share! This tutorial requires a strong grasp of the pen tool and how to create custom shapes in illustrator. Let’s dive right in and show you how to illustrate this cute little octopus mascot.
Step 1:
Create a new document with an 450 x 450px artboard and a document color mode of RGB. Draw a square covering the whole artboard and apply a gradient to the square from #BEE4E8 to #45A7D8. Make sure the angle of the gradient is 90°.
Next, outline the shape of the octopus with the pen tool. A quick advice on the pen tool – try to use as few vertices as possible, usually you will only need one per a curve. Once you are done outlining and satisfied with your shape fill it with #3BA8C3. Go to Effect>Stylize>Inner Glow… (Multiply, #82E4F4, 100%, 22px, edge) and Outer Glow… (Screen, #BBEDF2, 20%, 28px) Make sure you select Inner Glow first or you will get a strange halo around your shape.
Tip: Sketch you character first then scan your sketch and trace the outline from that. You will find your illustrations will usually end up a looking a lot better when you’ve taken the time to sketch them out fully.

Step 2:
Draw the pinkish areas under his tentacles. You can draw these so they both extend outside of the body outline we drew in Step 1 and to where the pink would be hidden by other tentacles, we will mask out or cover the parts we don’t want to see later. Apply a gradient to each from #938FBB to #B599C8 and then use the gradient tool to angle the gradient from dark to light away from the body of the octopus.
Tip: when drawing shapes that cover other shapes, but require visiblity the shaped being covered (the octopus body) to use as a reference you can lower the opacity like I’ve done for the middle tentacles and then raise it back up once you’re done drawing.
Duplicate the octopus body layer and move it to the top of your layers. Select the pink tentacle layers and the top body layer and Group them (Cmd+G or Ctrl+G). Select only the top body layer then highlight the group layer in the layer palette and then select the Make/Release Clipping Path at the bottom of the layer palette. This will mask all the layers (pink tentacle undersides) in the group to the clipping path (the octopus body).

Step 3:
Draw an outline underneath the pink areas but still in the group we just masked in Step 2. Color them #3BA8C3 and lower the opacity to 40% and set the blend mode to Multiply.
Next you need to draw out the 4 tentacles in the foreground so we can cover up the pink areas of the tentacles behind them. Color them #3BA8C3. You will have to arrange your layers so these new tentacles cover only what they need to. The layer order of each tentacle from the top down should be pink underside area, then dark highlight then the full tentacle arms we just drew. 

Step 4:
The final step for the tentacles is to add shading to give the four tentacles in the foreground more depth. Duplicate one of the tentacles you drew in Step 4 and add a Inner glow (Multiply, #50D1D8, 100%, 14px, edge) you should see what 4.A looks like. Now you need to pull the edge close to the pink farther away from the pink so we see almost none of the inner glow on that side; this will look like 4.B.
We have the shading, but now we need to mask it so the tentacles look like the are smoothly attached to the body. Again, duplicate one of the tentacles you drew in step 4 and add a black to white gradient like in 4.C. Make sure this gradient layer is directly above the shading layer we just made. Select both of the layers we made in this step and select Make Opacity Mask from the extra options window. You should now see step 4.D; repeat Step 4 for all tentacles.
Optional: the inner glows provide a nice sense of giving the body volume, but for an extra bit you can duplicate the body path, move it to the top layer, color it with a gradient that from #FFFFFF to #A3DADC, and set the layer to multiply.

Step 5:
Draw out the basic shape of the eyeglass frames in #404040 Draw the closed eyes in #00444C. Next, draw the lenses and apply a gradient (#FFFFFF to #26A9E0, -30°) Lower the opacity of the lenses to 40%. Duplicate the lens paths and move the copies down below the eyeglass frames path and use the minus back button again to cut out the lens portion. Your glasses should look like Step 5.A
Now we’ll draw the shadows of the glasses. Begin by duplicating the eyeglass frames, grouping it and making it a clipping mask like we did with the body path in Step 2. Now you can draw in the shading with #333333 inside the group.

Step 6:
For the tape on the glasses draw the two shapes in 6.A; the top one above the eyeglasses and filled with #E5E5E5 and the second below the eyeglasses colored #BCBCBC.
Duplicate the top layer, group it and make it a clipping mask. Now you can draw in the shadows of the tape like 6.B and in color #D1D1D1
The last step is to give the tape some more depth. Duplicate the top layer again and color it with a gradient from black(100% opacity) to black(0% opacity) to black(100% opacity). Set the gradient angle to -80°. Change the location of the middle point of the first black to black gradient to 25%. Reread that last sentence and if you still aren’t sure what I’m talking about, I’ve circled what I’m referring to in red on the image. What this will do it make the highlight we are creating look a bit more natural and make the light source appear above the subject. Next change the opacity of the layer to 40% and specify the blend mode as multiply.

Step 7
Next we’ll work on the mouth which is by far the most complex part of the illustration, so bear with me. Draw the mouth shape (7.A) color with a gradient from #00444C to #002127 and apply an inner glow (Multiply, #04507B, 60%, 8.5px, edge)
Duplicate the top layer, group it and make it a clipping mask, you should be familiar with this process by now In that group draw the tongue in #AC294E with an inner glow (Multiply, #04507B, 20%, 5.5px, edge) Also in that group draw the teeth with an inner glow (Multiply, #AABEC8, 80%, 2.75px, edge) and an outer glow (Multiply, #05646E, 100%, 2.75px). Next we need to add a rather complex gradient to the teeth to give them an accurate shine. From left to right and with their respective locations and with the midpoint locations: #999999/0%, MID-70%, #CCCCCC/15%, MID-50%, F2F2F2/50%, MID-50%, #CCCCCC/85%, MID-50%, #999999/100%.

Step 8:
Duplicate the mouth again, move it above the teeth and tongue, color it white, set the blending mode to multiply and give it an inner glow. (Multiply, #04507B, 60%, 2.75px, edge) This will give your mouth a little more depth as you can see in 8.A. For the upper lip shadow we’re going to use the same clipping mask/inner shadow trick we used for the tentacles. Draw the two shapes in 8.B, color the larger one white, set the blending mode to multiply and give it an inner glow. (Multiply, #04507B, 30%, 4.25px, edge) Then group them both and make the smaller shape the clipping mask. Now you have a nice taper in the lower lip shadow. Tip: the two shapes share the same top edge with each other and the mouth layer – instead of drawing each one you can duplicate the mouth layer and modify them as necessary.

Step 9:
The last step for the mouth is to add some highlights above and below it. We’re going to use the same clipping mask trick we’ve been using, except with outer glows. Create the two shapes in 9.A, apply an outer glow (Screen, #DB3072, 100%, 11.25px) to the top one. Group them and create a clipping mask with the bottom shape and you should see only the pinkish outer glow under the mouth. Repeat this process with the shapes in 9.B to create the upper glow.

Step 10:
Add some spots in dark and lighter tones and at varying opacities.

Conclusion:
Whew, you made it! now you should feel more comfortable working with masks and outer/inner glows. Thanks for reading, for more of my tutorials and design resources please visit chapolito.

MAKING A GIFT BOX:

There are times when you will need to do vector gift box and effects for special occasions. This Illustrator tutorial will give you an idea how this can be done using brushes and some other techniques.

1. Breakdown of Layers

The illustration consists of 6 different layers. We will look at how each layer is done.

2. Background Layer
The is the background mesh of the illustration. First we create a blue square and we start adding points using the Gradient Mesh Tool and tweak it to the the shape below. You can see that I have set the bottom points to a darker blue and the middle point to white. If you have difficulty creating this gradient mesh, take a look at my Gradient Mesh tutorial.

3. Gift Box
Drawing the gift box is pretty simple. All you need is the Pen Tool. A tip for beginner is to turn on the Grid (View>Show Grid) and Enable Snapping(View>Enable Snap to Grid). With the grid on, you can precisely snap each points to the grid so that each intersecting shape will line up perfectly.

After you have drawn the gift box, fill it will different gradients to give the box volume. Finally, draw the ribbons to complete the illustration.

Here is the final gift box.

4. Line Patterns
For the line patterns on the gift box, you will find that there are actually some perspective. We can easily achieve the effect by using the Blend Tool. Below are the steps on creating it…

First we create a long rectangle and place it at the start point(left side). Next, we duplicate the rectangle and rotate it slightly and we place it at the end point(right side). 

Select the Blend Tool. Click on the left rectangle stripe and hold Alt/Option and click on the right rectangle stripe. If you do it correctly, it would pop up the Blend Options. Select Specified Steps for Spacing and enter a value of 7.

This is what it will look like after we applied the blend correctly. Next, we need to expand the blend. Go Object>Expand to expand it into individual shapes.

Finally, we need to trim off the exceeding shape. Copy the rectangle face on the gift box underneath the stripes. Press Ctrl/Command+F to paste it in front. Select both the pasted shape and stripes. Open up Pathfinder and hold Alt/Option and select Intersect Shape to trim away the protruding areas. After that, we apply a gradient to the shape to achieve the effect I have done for my stripes.

5. Swirl Explosion
The gift explosion effect can be easily achieved by using the Brush Tool.

Let's start drawing our swirly lines using your Pencil Tool or Pen Tool. Make sure you draw from one single direction, so that when you apply the art brush it will point in the same direction.

Next we will create the brush by drawing a long triangle stripe shape. Open up your Brushes Palette and click New. Select New Art Brush when the option pops up.

Finally, we select all the swirly lines and apply the new art brush we have made. (If the lines are going in the opposite direction, you can double click your Brush in the Brushes palette and check Flip Along to swap the direction.) You notice that I have varying widths for my swirly, you can do this by selecting each individual swirly and setting the line stroke to a smaller/bigger value.

After you are satisfied with what you have done. Go Object>Expand Appearance to expand the swirly. Open up your Gradient Palette and apply different gradients to your swirly to finish up the swirls. To hide the unwanted parts we can mask it out.

6. Fairy dust

If you have no idea how to achieve this fairy dust effect in less than 3 mins. Then you better check out my Starry Night tutorial.

Hope after reading this tutorial you will have a better idea on how this illustration is done.