Inject great depth into flat colours

Recently I’ve been asked to create some graphics for commissions where the client wanted the imagery to have more depth and an organic feel. In this tutorial I’ll explain how you can import a flat set of vector shapes into Photoshop and bring them to life with a handful of shading techniques.

Over the following steps I’ll reveal how the mere addition of texture and subtle shading can transform flat colours in your illustrations. These tips will help you take a simple, clean-looking vector from Illustrator and really bring it to life with a few filtered layers and some brush work in Photoshop. The great thing about these techniques is that they are really easy to get the hang of and to incorporate into your workflow. Once you’ve tried them a few times, you can begin to feel confident using layers in numerous ways to achieve the results you’re looking for.

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