Vector Illustration Tutorial - The Hellephant

I have, for some time, been threatening to illustrate a series of Tshirts based upon a little known “science” called cryptozoology defined as:

the study of and search for animals and especially legendary animals (as Sasquatch) usually in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence.

Simple Sketch

The notion of creatures made up of the stuff of fantasy is plenty fodder for imagination. The first sketch I came up with was the Hellephant.
I started with a very quick sketch in my Moleskine and then vomited about a dozen more that rushed over me. I think I will call the line of shirt CryptoZ-t’s. Cute.

After the sketch I started ‘sculpting’ the main bulk of the beast on a red background in Illustrator using the pen tool. I never expect my first shapes to have much bearing on the final image other than the main ‘flesh’ of the form. This lack of expectation frees up my strokes in order to let the right side of my brain dictate believable form.

Note: I planned this shirt on a red field because I think the shirt should be red in order to leverage the color for the final product. If I were to plan the shirt on a black background, I would have to pay for red in the screen printing process—I am cheap when it counts. The final count on colors used in this will be two—black and yellow.

Bulking the Form

I then begin to sculpt shapes that overlap the original bulk of the beast to define the legs and any other spots that look anemic in form. These shapes will later be merged with the original bulk to make a kind of silhouette from which I will carve the details of the Hellephant.

Pasted in Place and Stroked

The silhouette, when finished, is then copied and pasted in place (command F). The upper form is colored the same red as the background and then locked (command 2). I can now select the lower shape and give it a stroke of black (about 7pts). This outlines the upper red shape nicely. The stroke is converted to a shape and I unlock the upper shape.

Fixing Stroke Artifacts

Sometimes the stroke does funny things so I have to go and clean up some of the artifacts. I simply edit the nodes (shift c) and pull the shapes around to make a cleaner outline.

I further the structure of the black detail by sculpting more bits and baubles on the work. Little structure lines and shadows start to define the beast nicely. Then I merge the shapes to keep the clutter down.

Highlighting in Yellow

It’s time for the yellow highlights. I don’t strictly maintain a light source for illustrations like these, it is nice to cheat the detail loosely because I only have the deep shadow (black), the midtone (red) and the highlights (yellow) to work with. This is kind of a chiaroscuro process.

Sometimes the Path Gets in the Way!

Sometimes the actual vector shape that I am defining covers up the work I am trying to relate to. Changing the opacity of the path allows me to see where I am headed.

It is my aim to hide some shapes in all of these illustrations that somehow relate to the overall concept of the piece. In this work I will draft a hotrod style flame that works with the fur on the back of the flaming mammoth and then work around it for the rest of its fur.

Hotrod Flames!

This is a nice spot to round out the rest of the shadows. I go back in with black to lock in the weight of the beast. I also take this moment to label the work in Helvetica (or should I say HELLVETICA!).

I also noticed that I HATED the red I chose for the background… so I darkened it up a bit.

The final

This entire piece was done with stark tones (no gradients) and was rendered with the pen tool. But it’s not ready for the screen printer yet. At this stage I merge all of the paths, excluding the red background, and I selectively delete all but a certain colored path using the select menu. Each colored path (black, red and yellow) are saved separately so that each color can be translated onto its own screen for printing.

Splitting the Colors for the Screen Printer

And yes... I know I misspelled Hellephant on that graphic. I hadn't decided how I wanted to spell it at the time of this blog's writing. 

It's official. Hellephant.