FOR BETTER DESIGNS

In today post I will present you a new tuto­r­ial from me. It’s a detailed tuto­r­ial of how to make a vec­tor car from photo in Adobe Illustrator.

In this tuto­r­ial I will show you the basic tech­niques and some tips for mak­ing vec­tor objects using pen tool in Illus­tra­tor. For this tuto­r­ial we’ll not draw directly, but we’ll draw with pen tool over a photo. Before we start let’s choose a good photo, I will use a stock photo from sxc.hu which you can find here: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/953130

Photo we’ll use:

Step 1:

Open the car photo in Illus­tra­tor and take pen tool. Select yel­low color and start draw­ing with pen tool on a new layer. Look my work on the image:

Step 2:

Con­tinue the work with pen tool and look care­fully about the details.

Step 3:

Con­tinue the work with pen tool and look care­fully about the details.

Step 4:

Con­tinue the work with pen tool and look care­fully about the details. Here I use lower opac­ity, so I can see bet­ter what’s going on around.

Step 5:

If you’re fol­low­ing the tuto­r­ial step by step, look care­fully at the points I make.

Step 6:

If you’re fol­low­ing the tuto­r­ial step by step, look care­fully at the points I make.

Step 7:

And here we’re almost at the final. After we close the path of this shape we’ll have the basic shape for the car, but we’ll need to make some changes for it.

Step 8:

We will need the Pathfinder panel so if it’s not open go to Win­dow menu and choose Pathfinder

Step 9:

We need to cut out the win­dows and the lights and also some other parts of our car. Let’s start with this light below. Begin to draw with the pen tool and make the exact same shape.

Step 10:

When you’re ready with the shape, select on both shapes, the both and the one for the light then click on Sub­tract from Shape Area but­ton in Pathfinder panel

Step 11:

Using the same tech­nique you can cut out the other parts. Below is the result you should have if every­thing is done right.

Step 12:

The next thing is to draw some of parts which are black and behind the body of the car. Do this on a new layer and move it below the 1st one.

Step 13:

Again on a new layer draw the win­dows shapes.

Step 14:

Next let’s con­tinue with the wheels. Begin to draw the threads of the tire.

Step 15:

When you’re done with them draw the tire. It should be behind them so make on new layer again and move it below.

Step 16:

Use the oval tool and draw a shape. Then you can adjust it using free trans­form and direct select tool.

Step 17:

Copy and paste this exact shape and make it smaller. Then select both shapes and click on Sub­tract from shape area but­ton in Pathfinder panel.

Step 18:

Using the same tech­niques let’s make the other wheel.

Step 19:

Also mak­ing of the rims can be done using same meth­ods. This is the car until now.

Step 20:

Now make the sign for the car num­ber using pen tool.

Step 21:

Lower the opac­ity of the car body start to draw the lines of the car, but use only bor­der color here.

Step 22:

Con­tinue that for all the lines of the car.

Step 23:

Make the light shade for the win­dows. Draw them choose white color and lower the opacity.

Step 24:

You can also use a gra­di­ent color for them. Here is how they look now.

Step 25:

Make the lights of the car using the same tech­niques and meth­ods we have used until now.

Step 26:

Here’s a whole car pre­view again: Here I have add the han­dle for the door.

Step 27:

In that way you can add all the details you like for the car, it takes some time but at the end the results are bet­ter if you spent more time on it. Here I also played a bit with some col­ors and so on.

Step 28:

Now let’s make some shades of light for the car. There is very dif­fer­ent meth­ods for mak­ing this, you can use mesh tool or gra­di­ent col­ors. It depends on you, here I will show you sim­ple way. Just draw the shape where you see most of the lights reflec­tion are and choose white color for them.

Step 29:

When you’re done, lower the opac­ity a bit, as much as you like.

Step 30:

And here I also add a shadow beyond the car. Black color with lower opacity.

Final:

Here is the final vec­tor car we have. I hope you like it.

Thank you for read­ing this. I hope you like it and you’ve learned some­thing here. Or at least you find it a bit fun. In a sep­a­rate post later I will give you the free Ai file of this vec­tor car so don’t miss it.

Feel free to share this tuto­r­ial with your friends and you’re wel­come to com­ment and ask any ques­tions or to say you critique.

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