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Create a vector art of yourself using simple photoshop & Illustrator techniques

There are many tutorials on how to create a vector image of yourself but I think they are way too complicated to follow for some people. In this tutorial I will teach you how to create a vector image of yourself. Yes of YOURSELF. If you follow my techniques you should come out with a great vector. Ready to get started. Lets do it

Materials you need!

  • Image of yourself
  • Photoshop/Illustrator
  • Patients

Step 1

Open illustrator and Create new document 1000px x 1000px.
Create new document

Then grab a image of YOURSELF and place it on the canvas.
Place on Canvas

Step 2

Ok so if you have seen others tutorials they have probably stated at this step that you should use the pen tool. Since the pen tool takes time to use and get used to we will use the brush tool with a stroke and no color throughout the entire tutorial. Select the brush tool(or press B). Then change the stroke to 0.75. Now trace your face. take your time also.

As you can see I have trace my face with the image turned on.
Trace Face

One you turn the image off you should have a trace like the one below.
Trace Face Only

Step 3

Now we’re going to trace the hair. I have a buzz hair cut so it might be easy for me to trace but if you have long hair or curly or Afro just trace the outline and we will add details later.
hair

Step 4

Next we will draw the lips. I started with the bottom lip then added the top lip. Zoom in if you need to also. If it takes you multiple tries do not worry the face is one of the hardest things to do.
lips

Note: I am tracing with the image on but looks as if I’m not from the images.

Step 5

I know the nose should be next but we’re going to do the eyes now. Trace your eyes now. When tracing the eyes if you have to change the stroke or the brush depending on what looks good. We will add details later.
eyes

Step 6

Next we’re going to draw the nose. Do not draw the entire nose.Draw it piece by piece. Your nose will be different from mines but just look at how I have outlined
it.
Nose Outline

Now draw your nostrils. Try not to connect it to your nose. But do not leave to much space in between the nose and nostrils.
Nostrils

Step 7

Next we’re going to get back to the eyes section. Create a line above your eye. That will indicate the outer edge of your eyes. Hope that made sense
eye outter

Step 8

Now lets create our eye brows. Trace your eye brows.
trace brows

Now click on the eye brows and change the fill color to black(#000) or whatever color your eyebrows are.
dark brows

Step 9

Now create two lines for your facial structure. It might make you look like you have wrinkle skins but that will change later. You might have to change the stroke to a thinner stroke. Depends on the person.
lines

Step 10

Now just you should only have to trace your body and add details your ear. I decided to skip some parts to get to the painting. If you’re having trouble just look at how have traced my image.
trace done

Step 11

Now we’re going to bring it over into photoshop and start painting it. I guess this is the fun part, well aleast for me it is haha. Go to File>>Export and give your trace a name and save it as a Photoshop Document(PSD).
export"/

Step 12

Open photoshop and drag your vector trace into photoshop. The vector will be bigger in photoshop(Just a heads up).
new photo

Note: Painting takes a while. Select the Paint brush tool and paint slowly. I painted the inside first then zoomed in and painted the edges.

Step 13

Select the paint brush tool and go around and paint the shirt and hair of your vector. If you have long hair Just create a custom brush pattern with a bunch of lines or
just select the paint brush tool 1px and draw string by string. Yes it takes a while.
shirthair

Step 14

Now select the best skin tone color for your skin. Since I am a dark brown I will use a dark brown color. If you have light tones and your face we’ll worry about that later. For now just create the basic tone.
basic tone

Step 15

Now lets work on our eyes. With the brush tool slowly and carefully fill the background of the eye. I did not choose white as the color. Instead I used something a bit darker(#e8e8e8<--Light Grey/white).
eye background

Step 16

Select the color of your eyes. In my case my eyes are dark brown so I choose a dark brown color for my eyes. Then added two pupils.
eye real

Step 17

Depending on the lighting select the basic color of your lips. I choose a darker color for my bottom lip and lighter color for my top lip. We will add details later.
lips

Now if you look at my original image you will see my lips you see i have lighter spots on some parts of them. So what you want to do to accomplish a great look is select the paint brush tool and whatever color your lips are lighter then select that color. In my case they were a pinkish color so I selected a pink type of color then added 4 dots. After you have the dots go to Filter>>Blur>>Gaussian blur then blur it til it looks good on you. Do that for the top and bottom lip then erase the extra blur around the lips.
lips done

Step 18

Ok so remember how we applied a basic tone to our skin. Well this is the part where you add the lighter or dark spots on your skin. I have darker spots on my skin so I selected a dark brown color with the paint brush tool and marked my dark spots(I didn’t really get too detail). Then I added a Gaussian blur to it.
dark blur

Step 19

Next we’re going to do the exact same thing as step 18 but for our eye shadows. Select the paint brush tool and use the same color that you used for your dark/light spots then add two circles right under your eyebrows then apply a Gaussian blur.
blur under

Step 20

Finally add a background image then you’re done! Your vector should be completed. I know I did not use a image that we could of all use because that would make this
tutorial worthless. If you followed my steps then you should be good to go.
final

I know this tutorial was not very detailed but it should of helped you create a vector image of yourself using simple techniques. I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial.

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Marcell Purham

Marcell is the founder of Webdevtuts. He is also a web designer & developer who loves to design and develop websites. If you're looking for him you can find him via @webdevtuts


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