All the best Vector tutorials, design articles, freebies, and resources across the web this month. There are some web design communities that are outputting high quality pure vector goodness. I've added a section to showcase a small selection of vector resource sites on the web as well. Let's take a look at the Best of the Web for vector graphics in July.
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Symmetrical Illustration: Thug Bunny!
Von. R. Glitschka has some of the best Illustrator tutorials in existence. This tutorial shows the thorough process of creating a "Thug Bunny" identity for a design studio Von almost launched. The tutorials on his Illustrator Class blog are available as downloads and include detailed notes, multiple photos of his drawing process, and multiple screenshots of the work in illustrator. The notes are the tutorial and each notation corresponds to the images. This is a must see tutorial.
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Illustrator Make with Mesh
Veerle creates great beginner Illustrator tutorials. This tutorial shows you how to create a simple wavy design with some less often used Illustrator tools.
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How to Draw Your Own Vector Wings
This tutorial detailed the process of drawing a vector feather and transforming it into a set of wings. The tutorial is easy to follow and also covers little details that will give you high quality results.
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Create an envelope icon with a satin feel
This tutorial uses basic illustrator tools and effects, such as gradients, the Rectangle Tool, the Pathfinder Tools, and the Line. It details the process to create a simple looking envelope and adjustable arrow.
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How to Create a Vector Safari Compass in Illustrator
This tutorial shows you how to create a Safari Compass logo design. It shows how to create the icon in Illustrator with a great degree of detail. Then the tutorial shows how to take this design over to Photoshop to add some finishing effects. It's an interesting workflow.
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Learn Illustrator CS3 in 30 Days
This is a great resource being put together, and at the time of this it's over halfway complete. For anyone struggling with Illustrator tools or workflows this is a resource to bookmark.
(FREE!) Download Picks
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How to make an animated GIF with 8-Bit Characters: Part 1: Design
This is a fun giveaway that also shows how to make these characters. You could certainly use Photoshop for this, but I love the illustrator work. Once you set up your square sizes it's easy to just drag squares around and make your characters one box at a time.
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Vector Freebie & Micro Tutorial: Seamless Swirls
This is a cool pattern freebie from GoMediaZine. Adam also breifly shows his process for creating this pattern.
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Hot Air Balloon
Another cool illustration available for download over at the Dapino's Blog. This one is of a colorful hot air balloon. This whole blog is filled with vector freebies.
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10 Great Grunge Vector Packs
This article rounds up and points to some great Grunge Vector freebies. There are links to Skulls, Splats, Grunge Banners, Floral Grunge, and more.
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Nokia N70 Black Edition
This is an awesome illustration of a mobile phone. Great detail and available over at Vecteezy. The lighting on each bottom and curve of the device is professionally illustrated.
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Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices
Huge resource post of Illustrator tutorials. There are also links to some inspirational vector artists.
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Adobe Illustrator Shortcuts
Big resource of Illustrator shortcuts are listed in this article. "Here are 26 Illustrator shortcuts that can help you to speed up productivity. I use most of them (in fact, I can’t work without them). Most of shortcuts listed in this article aren’t documented in the software, so keep reading and you’re sure to find at least one new trick to put up your sleeve."
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Interview With Vector Illustrator Charlene Chua
This artists work is stunning. The interview mostly asks questions related to freelancing, her life, and where she finds inspiration. This interview offers a glimpse into this artist. She mentions that she may be combining more traditional methods into here art in the future and molding her style in that direction. She currently has an effective commercial style.
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58 Wonderfully Cute Illustrated Monster Characters
Huge image based posts of cute character designs. All of them are reasonably sized images and link to the source they were taken from. Lot's of character inspiration here. Also, we have a nice cute character tutorial on the site here titled Create a Super Happy Octopus Character
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13 Amazing Sites to find all the Vector Tutorials you could ever need
There are quite a few sites I recognize here, though a few I'll need to check out. Always great to see these kinds of list posts that show you different places to find great Illustrator tutorials. They are mostly tutorial list sites and tutorial blogs and all worth checking out.
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Top 10 Sites for Illustrator Tutorials
Vandelay Design put out an Illustrator Tutorial site resource list as well, which has many of my favorite Illustrator resources. The format is helpful, as it explains each site and offers links to a handful of top tutorials on each site.
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Illustrator World
This is a free membership site focused on Illustrator artists and artwork. There is a tremendous amount of quality work on the site. It's also a great place to meet other vector artists to network and share tips.
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This blog is focused on teaching Adobe Illustrator. It covers advanced answers to problems, tutorials, and in depth explanations of some of Illustrators lesser known features. It is Mordy Golding's blog. He's the author of Real World Adobe Illustrator Series of Books.
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Illustrator Exchange
This is a good place to find Adobe Illustrator Brushes, Symbols, Plug-ins and more.
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Adobe Illustrator Videos on Vimeo
We're still experimenting with Vimeo over on PSDTUTS. We have a Photoshop Vimeo Channel set up. It continues to grow and is looking like a success. You'll likely see this added to VECTORTUTS in the future. Until then see what Vimeo has to offer for Vector and Illustrator tutorials. A quick search for "Adobe Illustrator" turns up quite a few resources.
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Vectips
Ryan Putnum (Rype) writes for us regularly. He's a great vector illustrator and a master with Adobe Illustrator. His site Vectips offers all kinds of tutorials and tips on Adobe Illustrator. You may notice some of his tutorials include the Vectips branding in the final image. Here is one of his popular tutorials on VECTORTUTS site Creating an Environmentally Friendly Green Type Treatment.
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