Advanced brushes and textures

Pattern in design and illustration can be interesting, but duplicated shapes betray a work's origin and can rob it of mystery. With deadlines looming, it's hard to resist the temptation of Copy and Paste, so we need to find tools that encourage us to flex those artistic muscles, and meet our deadlines. Enter advanced brushes for Adobe Illustrator CS.

This tutorial will demonstrate how to marry the best of both worlds using a few rather complex custom Photoshop brushes - or seemingly complex elements that vary from one to the next but are all made with a single brush stroke. The possibilities are endless, but here we'll concentrate on creating a forest scene with trees, flowers and a happy lumberjack. From there, you'll briefly use Photoshop to introduce texture, do a little rendering, and finally composite your vector art with a nice chunk of wood. This will further add to the image's handdrawn charm and character.

By completing this tutorial you will learn three important skills. One, you will have a stronger handle on how brush creation works. Two, you will be more comfortable drawing with the Pencil tool instead of going point to point, and three, you will see how a few easy steps in Photoshop can make your digital art look a little less, well, digital.

Click here to download the tutorial for free