How to create a grain effect illustration using Photoshop
When I was young, I used to draw all the time, no matter where I was. At some point, even on the walls of my bedroom (*sorry mom*), but mostly on paper or in note books. It’s just so easy to draw and then zone out.
I still doodle in note books, mostly during meetings (*old habits die hard I guess*), but it made me realise, even in a world where we all design with computers, its something I shouldn’t stop doing.
I started doodling a picture of my two cats who love to play in the garden. I’ve created a couple of illustrations over the last couple of months and shown them to my colleagues at Big Radical for feedback. Which thankfully, has been good. However, they were mostly curious as to what the process was to create the images. So here we go Dan, here is the process behind the illustrations. (Although remember what works for me won’t necessarily work for you — but it’s a good guide).
My process:
How to create a grain effect illustration using Photoshop in six steps:
- Getting inspiration
- Start sketching
- Digitise your sketch
- Add colour
- Create light and shade
- All-important finishing touches
Step 1 : Get inspiration
There are many places you can get inspiration, it could be a magazine, a billboard or some designs you have seen online. Create a mood board out of different styles, shapes, colours or anything that might help you with your illustration. I use Pinterest to collect, store and organise my references.
Step 2: Start sketching
Now it’s time to start drawing things on paper. You can start just doodling and if you’ve got something start defining it. Keep sketching until you’ve created something you like. Don’t worry if your first draft isn’t perfect, mine never is, you can correct things later once you make it digital, just keep sketching.
Step 3: Digitise your sketch
Once you are happy with your sketch — import it into photoshop. Use your pen tool and redraw your sketch into vector shapes. At this stage, try to find the best shapes and composition by only using greyscale.
I know, outlining a sketch isn’t the most exciting thing. It feels like a boring task that seems to take forever. But this foundation stage is a really important one. This will be your framework, the bedrock in which you layer your colour and effects on to. Whatever you do, make sure your composition looks good. You don’t want to make any adjustments at the final stage as it will take even more time. Spend the time now tweaking it to get it as you want it to look.
Step 4: Add Colour
The next step is to give your illustration colour. You start this by creating a general colour scheme. And while the psychology behind colours is a completely separate blog post — all I’m saying for this one is choosing the right colours will be key for your design piece. You can either hand pick yours based on your preferences or what you feel is right, or you can ‘steal’ colours from examples in your mood boards or inspiration. Whatever works for you.
For this illustration, I wanted to create a warm evening vibe, so I’ve chosen a purple and brown colour scheme. Within the example above you can see a gradient from light purple, to dark purple, to brown and then finally to pink.
As mentioned before: if you’re not completely happy with the composition, this is the moment to change it. You certainly don’t want to change things at the last stage, as it will take up too much time.
Step 5: Create light and shade
You’ll be feeling great this stage! Your ‘flat’ illustration is coming to life — but we’re still not finished. It’s now time to add some richness to it by adding texture, light and shade. It will add so much more depth to the illustration.
You will need to pick the right brush effect. For this picture, I tried a couple of different brushes with different settings and played around with angles of my Wacom pen.
To bring all the colours together I’ve used the darkest purple for all the shading (with the multiply blend mode) and pink for all the lighting (screen blend mode) and then I gently play with the other colours.
If you put the flat image and the grain effect image side by side — there is quite a difference! You might even think you are finished. But no! One more step.
Step 6: Those all-important finishing touches
The final step is like adding the cherry on a cake. It’s about adding those small details that will bring your illustration to life. I’ve adding tiny, but important things, such as: giving the cats some teeth, claws and fur. I’ve also added flowers, wood texture, branches, berries and stones to the overall setting. It really finishes the image off — which is why they are all-important finishing touches.
And voila! You’re done! Well, as with any designer I could tweak forever — but hey, we need deadlines!
I hope this helps, have fun trying it for yourself.
---Further references---
While writing this article, I found a video from Dan Gartman with a similar approach. He uses different types of brushes and is refers to the KyleBrush website. Go and have a look. There are a couple of free options, so give it a try.
