All language subtitles for Abstracting 1 and Teaching the Rules (Flat)

(upbeat music)

Hey, guys, I hope you're having a lovely week.

I'm really excited to dive into some more solid shapes

and expanded color pallets today in the exercise.

I'm gonna go over a few different ways

that you can take real life forms

and begin breaking them down and abstracting them.

And when I say abstracting forms,

I don't mean creating an abstract modern art painting

with expressive lines and random shapes.

I mean taking real life forms,

I mean taking real life forms,

breaking those down, reducing them, simplifying them

and turning them into a more reduced stylized version

of themselves in Photoshop.

The Tate Museum defines abstract as a mean

to separate or withdraw something from something else.

And I really wanna hone in on shape.

Shapes are the building blocks of illustration and design.

We of course know them as the closed loops

that create the forms in our illustrations,

but they can also be the sweeping movement

of a character running in animation,

of a character running in animation,

or they can be the implied form and shape that we create

with composition and negative space.

The shapes you use will define any piece that you make.

(text swooshing)

Illustrators can use shapes to organize visual information

through connection and separation.

Shapes can evoke movement, texture or depth.

They can also convey emotion.

Geometric shapes are usually what come to mind

when one is defining the word shape.

These are regular shapes like circle,

squares, triangles, octagons, et cetera.

squares, triangles, octagons, et cetera.

Because of their regularity,

they suggest structure and order,

so that's what we see over here on the left.

And on the right,

organic shapes have more irregularity than geometric shapes.

They're usually uneven and have more curves,

which makes them more pleasing and comforting.

But since they're so irregular

and feel more organic, natural,

we're gonna try to avoid using organic shapes too much

when dealing with abstraction.

(text swooshing)

Symmetry is a very easy way

Symmetry is a very easy way

to make something feel more geometric and abstracted.

Mainly because it's unnatural and less organic.

You hardly ever see true, perfect symmetry in nature,

but it's also super pleasing to the eye.

Our brains are hardwired to look for it,

our bodies, faces and other living creatures

are essentially structured in a bilaterally symmetrical way,

albeit not perfect symmetry.

And when I say bilateral symmetry,

I mean imagine diving a line

down the center of our face and flipping it,

so that just means the left side looks the same

so that just means the left side looks the same

as the right side, basically.

Symmetry creates balance and a sense of stability,

and if we look at these examples here,

most of these are examples of bilateral symmetry

even with this top down view of a human here.

We see some symmetry of course.

There are some aspects

that make it a little bit asymmetrical,

just as with all these examples here

and we'll get into that a little bit more later.

But we can tell that if you drew a line

down the middle of this pear and this apple

and you flipped it,

the outer shape would actually be the exact same

and it create a more abstracted feel.

and it create a more abstracted feel.

You can tell this is a pear,

but this is not what an actual pear looks like.

And we see this with the flowers here,

all the flowers repeated

and then actually almost the overall composition.

So if you got rid of the sun and the bees here,

you'd have a completely symmetrical composition

and same with this carrot over here on the right.

So, symmetry is clearly used

to abstract organic elements all the time

and it works super well.

It's a great technique.

And that's something that I do a lot

and you've already seen that I've taken shapes

and flipped them in Photoshop

and flipped them in Photoshop

to create a more perfect looking form.

And we're just gonna do a couple little warmups

and examples of that here.

So, if we were gonna go back to preview

and look at what I have here,

maybe you'll create a fruit shape like one of these.

Maybe I'll create an apple,

'cause that's always a nice one.

And when doing this,

I usually draw the center line first actually,

just so it makes it easier to line everything up.

And that looks pretty weird,

but if I flatten it and erase the center line

but if I flatten it and erase the center line

and maybe even distort it a little bit by transforming it,

that could look more like an apple.

And that's an interesting stylized,

abstracted version of an apple.

Another place I like to use it a lot

is with leaves or plants.

So if we look at this leaf here, obviously it's organic,

it's a real leaf, so it's not perfect,

but we do see some bilateral symmetry here

and it's actually really obvious with this leaf

because there is this, actually,

a straight line that basically goes right down the middle.

So I'm actually gonna use this photo

So I'm actually gonna use this photo

to draw a symmetrical leaf just as a guide.

And I often try to avoid actually tracing photographs

because I think that's kind of copyright infringement

and I don't wanna do that often.

But if you are gonna practice creating leaves

or apples or anything organic

and you need a photo reference to work off of,

that's totally fine.

I think using photographs to learn how to create symmetry

and abstraction is perfectly normal and fine

and doing this a lot actually gives you great muscle memory

and doing this a lot actually gives you great muscle memory

for creating stuff like this.

So I definitely would recommend doing a couple warmups

or even taking some of your own photos outside or plants

or fruit or anything that you wanna abstract

and practicing it in Photoshop here,

would be an awesome idea.

I'm just gonna generally use the shape of this here,

but I'm gonna try to just flatten it out

and not include as many of the curves.

Duplicate it, Command + J and flip it.

Duplicate it, Command + J and flip it.

And there we have a leaf.

And you can add things using that symmetry as well,

like lines in the leaf

to create more detail add a little bit more interest.

And I actually wanna point out

a cool new tool that Photoshop has,

so if you have the latest version

and you click this little butterfly in the options toolbar,

it'll show you different types of symmetry

that it can create for you.

So if you press the vertical one,

So if you press the vertical one,

that will create some bilateral symmetry vertically.

If you start drawing on that layer,

it'll actually create the vertical symmetry for you,

which is really neat.

And you can do that horizontally as well.

It takes a little bit getting used to.

I sometimes don't really like to use a symmetry tool

because I can't really see as well what I'm doing

and I'd almost prefer to draw half of it first

and figure out if I like that half of it

before I start with the symmetry tool

or flipping it or whatever I choose to do,

or flipping it or whatever I choose to do,

but it is really cool

that you can preview what you're doing as you're going.

And then once you're done using the symmetry tool,

just make sure you go and press symmetry off in that option,

the butterfly option.

Because if you don't,

you'll accidentally start drawing symmetrical things

all over your composition.

So we have that bilateral symmetry

and we understand what that is,

but we also have radial symmetry,

which is more like a flower.

So if we're gonna draw the leaves of a flower,

we can use the tool here.

And I actually really like the symmetry tool in Photoshop

And I actually really like the symmetry tool in Photoshop

more for radial symmetry,

because it's just harder to get the perfect segments

all separately apart from each other,

so it's really great for that.

The only bummer is

you have to actually be drawing it with your brush tool.

If you wanted to use a shape layer

to get more perfect shapes,

you would probably wanna use symmetry tool in Illustrator

because you can only do it with the brush here.

We have this cool radial symmetrical flower,

but it is pretty basic.

It's less interesting to look at because it is so perfect.

On the flip side, you can create interest in a more natural,

On the flip side, you can create interest in a more natural,

organic feeling to your shapes by creating them a symmetry.

But then, adjusting one side

or one part to be a bit asymmetrical.

So adding a little bit of a mistake

feels more true to nature

as nothing is perfect in the real world.

So, once I have that symmetry tool off,

if I actually wanna take one of these petals here,

put it on its own layer

and then maybe offset it slightly so it's overlapping

with one of the other petals,

that can make things a lot more interesting.

Maybe we scoot this other petal over

Maybe we scoot this other petal over

just to feel a little bit more centered,

just so it's a little less awkward of negative space.

Just add a little bit of a shadow in there.

I feel like that is so much more interesting to look at.

It's cool because it still has

that abstracted geometric feel,

but a little asymmetry goes a long way

and makes your peace a little bit more unique.

Our brains can be more drawn to this

because they're so trained to spot symmetry,

that a little disruption in the symmetry

that a little disruption in the symmetry

is very obvious and in your face.

And one of my favorite artists,

and I'm probably gonna butcher his name,

but Giacomo Bagnara?

I'm not even sure how you say it,

but I really admire his work

and he's really, really great at abstracting things,

but then creating some interest with that asymmetry.

So, have got this chain link right here on the left

where one of the chain's links is open.

And we have all these perfect flowers right here,

but they feel a little bit off balance.

Or the sun and a piece of it's missing.

Or even this top down view of a character looking into a box

Or even this top down view of a character looking into a box

becomes a bit more interesting

because he adds this abstracted box lid on the right side,

which creates an uneven composition.

Or even this ghost mouth,

leaning a little bit to the left

makes it a little bit off putting and creepy,

especially with this little ghost hair on the left side.

Makes it kind of seem like a Monday ghost,

it's too early in week to be working.

So I think if you're interested in really abstracting things

but adding a little bit more intrigue,

checking out his work is really awesome.

Example of that, now obviously, as always,

I'm gonna say don't copy his work,

I'm gonna say don't copy his work,

but it is great inspiration

and it's definitely worth a look.

(text swooshing)

All right, so the curved to straight trick is a big one.

The edges of shapes

can either be defined as curved or straight,

there's no in between really.

This implies either linear or circular movement.

Straights can be relative to the curves around them.

Magnifying contrast to emphasize straights against curves

creates elegance and intrigue and also pulls the viewer in.

creates elegance and intrigue and also pulls the viewer in.

The choices you make when drawing your shapes

will effect the overall feeling of your piece.

When I'm talking about curved to straight,

I mean kind of what we're seeing here

in some of these examples.

So here, on this woman's leg,

we see a curve of her hip

meeting up with a straight on the side of her body.

And you see that in her arm as well

and we also seen that where this big snake curve

intersects with this geometric book.

And again here on the left side of this dark shape

where you see two very intersecting curves abruptly turning

into a straight line at the bottom.

into a straight line at the bottom.

So because we see so much contrast

between the curves and straights in this piece,

it's kind of aesthetically pleasing to look at

and there's a lot of balance.

But obviously there's some differences

when you use mainly straight lines

and mainly curved lines.

If you use mainly straight, harsh lines in your shapes,

you'll create a more angular, harsh feeling to your art,

so up here is more severe or aggressive.

The lack of refinement makes it feel more edgy,

and an animation's straight lines

can emphasize powerful movement, direction and force,

thrusts of action, dynamic sharp turns, all of the like.

thrusts of action, dynamic sharp turns, all of the like.

And so, we do see a lot of that harsh intensity

in these pieces right here.

This piece on the left, it still feels friendly,

we've got some curves in there,

but these really intense edges on the hand

and this diagonal we see here, makes it feel pretty severe.

And then in this middle piece,

it's almost all straight lines,

it's a very architectural feeling.

It feels very manmade, and because it's super elongated,

also feels very jarring

and it doesn't feel very friendly at all,

and it doesn't feel very friendly at all,

it feels pretty severe.

On the right side here,

we also have an architectural type scene.

This time it has a lot of depth,

it's more of an environment,

so even when you're using mainly straight lines

in a landscape or environment, it can appear very harsh.

We still have this directional movement.

It's almost like a circular movement,

but it's been given really harsh edges instead of a circle.

So this almost feels kind of scary,

like I'm off kilter and I'm gonna fall into the middle of it

because it's very harsh.

And when I'm talking about action lines

and how straight lines imply action and motion,

and how straight lines imply action and motion,

we see that here.

We see these directional lines

that are coming out from behind this main character

and it implies that he's moving towards us.

And on the bottom left here,

we see a tractor moving towards the bottom left

and the lines of the environment

are all directional and diagonal

and implying that this tractor's moving through space.

And then even though we do have some curves here

and some nice balance of curves and straights,

it does have a lot of angular moments

where we wouldn't expect them.

where we wouldn't expect them.

And then with these big bursts of explosion

popping out of the ground,

even though there are some puffs behind them,

we have these straight, severe lines

that are implying upward movement.

So, straight lines are really great for implying motion

and they're used a lot in animation for that purpose.

And if you use mainly curves,

your piece will appear more soft and friendly.

Curves are reminiscent of circles,

which represent wholeness,

so curves emanate comfort and harmony, wholeness.

In animation, more curved movements

In animation, more curved movements

can appear pleasing, friendly and approachable.

We also think of beauty,

things that are round and plush and they add some bounce.

So, on this left side here,

we have a couple straight moments,

but almost everywhere,

we have more of an organic, soft, curve edge.

This is obviously not as geometric feeling,

but it is very playful and plush feeling.

And then on the right side,

we have an abstracted scene of two lovers

and almost this entire piece is filled with curves.

It feels super soft

and it's kind of emanating that feeling of love

and it's kind of emanating that feeling of love

because it's pretty and the colors are calming

and overall just feels very warm and happy.

And how can we actually bring this into practice?

Well, it is a good idea to look at photos,

look at the world around you and try to see objects

that you could apply this to.

For example, I think this vase could be a really good one.

I'm gonna turn the opacity down on it

and just kind of show you what I mean.

So, even though it is already geometric shape,

it's a manmade object, it's not organic.

We can still apply this curved to straight trick to it

to make it feel a bit more geometric.

to make it feel a bit more geometric.

I'm also gonna be using symmetry here

and I'm gonna draw one side of it first.

And it's gotta straight top

and then I'm gonna actually interpret this curve right here

as a straight line.

And that is going to meet a big bulbous curve on the bottom.

So when I say curved to straight,

I mean you have very intense straight lines

meeting up with curved lines

and I try to implement that wherever I can.

A place that you see it a lot in motion graphics,

and we'll get into more character stuff later,

but if I'm drawing the legs of a character,

I always kind of add it to the calves,

so we've got two straight lines and the calf is a curve.

So you see that a lot in motion graphics

So you see that a lot in motion graphics

and that's turning an organic shape

into something more abstracted and geometric

by using that curved to straight trick.

So, back to our vase here.

I'm just gonna duplicate it and flip it

and we have an aesthetically pleasing vase.

And to me, that feels more geometric and abstracted

than the actual vase here.

Which, if we do the same thing,

if we portray it how it actually is

and it's just like a curvy blob,

it's still interesting

and it's still its own abstracted object.

But the vase on the left

has a little bit more structure and character

and it feels more stylized

because there's a little bit more thought

put into the edge of it, the silhouette of it.

And silhouette is really what the human eye grasps on to

as it's looking at objects.

And so, if we we're gonna apply that to this leaf here too,

And so, if we we're gonna apply that to this leaf here too,

we could round the top of it and then use a straight line.

So use a curve shape and then add a straight line to it

and that will make it instantly feel more geometric.

And I might actually flip that as well.

It doesn't always perfectly line up,

so you might have to adjust some things.

And it kinda just looks like an elongated heart,

but it's kind of a cool abstracted version of this leaf.

but it's kind of a cool abstracted version of this leaf.

So we could go in and add that stem as well.

Maybe we make that a curve and a straight.

Got a curve and then a straight line going down.

And already, that feels so much more interesting.

I mean, I could one for one trace this,

but I would feel much less considered.

And especially if you're trying to stylize something

and the client wants a more vectorized look,

something like this is gonna be a lot more eye catching

and feel more considered

than just simply tracing a photograph.

than just simply tracing a photograph.

And if we really want, we can just put it all together

to create a little composition.

So, maybe before getting too deep in today's exercise,

it'd be nice to go in and just free yourself,

just try practicing this a couple different times.

Maybe take photos of things around your house

or just grab some photos off the internet

and just practice abstracting things

using this curve to straight trick.

using this curve to straight trick.

And also try out the symmetry trick.

Both of them work hand in hand and I use them all the time.

(text swooshing)

So once you know how to abstract individual objects,

you should also learn how to put them all together

to create an aesthetically pleasing composition.

You can do this by quite literally

shaping up your compositions.

Use shapes to organize and strategize.

Use squares and rectangles as the base for your composition,

creating a grid of sorts.

And the rule of thirds is how a grid of rectangles and lines

And the rule of thirds is how a grid of rectangles and lines

controls the balance in any composition.

It separates your canvas into nine equal parts

and the most important areas

are these points of intersection,

starting at the top left

and then down and over to the right.

Most of us humans tend to look naturally

at the top left first in any composition.

In a lot of cultures,

this is how we write, from left to right.

And this bottom right corner

attracts the least amount of attention.

A common practice of the rule of thirds

is to divide the image into three main vertical sections

and place the subject on one of those sides,

instead of in the center.

It can help create stronger compositions.

It can help create stronger compositions.

By doing this, you're also creating negative space

on one side of your composition,

which creates nice contrast and adds breathing room.

Try to use negative space strategically

to draw attention or focus to heavier areas of the scene.

I don't think we actually even need a grid here

to see that these compositions are using the rule of thirds.

Whether the artist did it intentionally or not,

it's just very aesthetically pleasing to the eye

and it's a good rule of thumb to use.

So we see this couple in the bottom right area

and I can tell that they're probably

on that point of intersection right there.

on that point of intersection right there.

You see the characters on the left third of the frame

and we see that in all of these frames.

So even though we see characters in this entire frame,

the mom is what stands out the most.

She has the most contrast from the background

and she's on the left one third of the frame.

Now you don't always need to follow the rule of thirds,

there's plenty of different types

of composition practices out there,

but this is one of the most basic

composition techniques to follow

and I often end up using it without even realizing.

It's a really good one to know

and even though it might not appear in your exercise today,

it will definitely appear at some point during this class,

it will definitely appear at some point during this class,

so just try to keep it in mind

as you're working on your compositions in negative space.

(text swooshing)

Above all else,

start training your eye to see abstract shapes

in your everyday life.

Once you understand how to abstract shapes

and real life objects in Photoshop

or on your computer or wherever you're sketching,

you can start using these techniques as a filter

through your own naked eye on the day to day.

Challenge yourself to look around your room

and only see ellipsis and rectangles and triangles.

Try to reduce all of the things in your sight

to those simple shapes.

First, pay attention to the main overall shape of an object,

so if we see a desk, for example, I think rectangle.

So once you've thought about the main overall shape,

you could start adding in the smaller shapes on top of that

to make your object more identifiable.

(text swooshing)

(text swooshing)

A creative industry news site has reached out to me

about working on one of their ongoing projects.

They would like me to create an illustration

to sit alongside one of the articles,

and after that, they're gonna have an animator

turn my illustration into a looking gif,

so I'll need to set up my file for animation.

So here's the industry news site that has reached out to me.

They're a creative industry news site called Me & You,

and they're focusing on the freelance lifestyle.

They also say here that,

"We're currently working on a series of articles

"featuring desk setups from a variety of creatives.

"featuring desk setups from a variety of creatives.

"Each creative involved

"is required to illustrate their own desk.

"Down the line, we also plan on animating each desk feature

"as a looping gif.

"We'd love to have you be our next featured illustrator!

"Your style is great

"and we think you'd be a perfect fit for the project."

So, right off the bat,

this seems like a really fun one for me.

They're interested me showcasing something that is my own,

so that means I get to make it the way I like.

They also like my style,

so I get to play with that, which is amazing.

And then here on third page,

they've got their illustration guidelines,

they've got their illustration guidelines,

I'm assuming so this can all fit

with their brand pretty well.

It says that the final illustration should be

in a 16:9 ratio and should be prepped for animation.

At 1920 by 1080 pixels, 300 dpi, RGB color,

so definitely a format I'm familiar with.

And they've also added a color palette

which they want me to work loosely off of,

so I can tell from their deck here

that their brand color saturated blue color.

So definitely I wanna make sure that

I'm keeping that in my project.

And then we have two other colors

and this nice warm hue to offset the cool of the other two.

and this nice warm hue to offset the cool of the other two.

They've also included some neutrals to work with,

so like very deep gray

and kind of an off white pinkish color here.

And I honestly really like when clients

provide me with color palettes

because it gives me a place to jump off of

and begin working with,

so it makes color-blocking a little bit easier for me.

I know what they're looking for,

I know based off this color palette

that they want it to be very bold and playful.

I also can tell from their deck

that they just like big, bright colors, big washes of color,

that they just like big, bright colors, big washes of color,

very graphic, definitely vectory feeling,

so I'm gonna keep that in mind as I'm working.

And I have so that they like my style

and sometimes without any reference,

that's a little broad for me to base my illustration off of

because on my website, my work is pretty versatile,

so it really just means that they are trusting me

and excited about what I could potentially do

with this project.

So it seems like I'm gonna have to go take a photo

of my desk now, my workspace setup,

so that I can get a better feel for

so that I can get a better feel for

what I'll be illustrating today.

(text whooshes)

One of my favorite techniques for abstracting

and drawing real life forms in general

is taking my own reference photos.

And I like to take my own reference photos

especially when I need to practice drawing something

and it really helps when I'm drawing something

that I'm unfamiliar with.

So I'm gonna do that here with own desk

and I'm gonna have to tidy it up a bit

and I'm gonna move some things around and adjust things

to get the composition how I'd like it.

to get the composition how I'd like it.

And it never hurts to take multiple photos of things,

take photos of all the elements from different angles,

take top down photos, take side photos,

just anything that you need to get a better look

at the objects you're gonna be illustrating.

And for me, I wanna challenge myself a bit here

to draw something organic and use some of the things

we just learned to abstract that object,

so maybe I'll add a couple plants in and see how that works

with my curve to straight trick or symmetry.

So, yeah, I'm just gonna try to add in

a couple organic objects here

because most things I normally keep on my desk

because most things I normally keep on my desk

are pretty geometric.

(bright music)

(text whooshes)

So, here are all the reference photos I just took

and I absolutely love the fact that phones these days

will just directly connect to your photos, to your computer

or whatever you're using, the iPad, your laptop.

Because it's so easy for me to just take a photo

and then immediately drag it into Photoshop

and use as reference.

So, as you can see here,

I created a couple different compositions.

Here's my desk before I did anything to it,

Here's my desk before I did anything to it,

it's a little bit messy.

And then I played around with some different plants

and placing things in different places.

I think towards the end,

I finally got to a place that I liked.

And then, of course, I took some top down photos

and some close up photos of some of the objects

just in case I need to look at those more closely later

while I'm abstracting.

And before I get too deep into starting

my sketch and everything,

I also wanna show you this mood board I put together.

And since we're talking about abstracting this week,

I thought this would be a fun route to go.

I thought this would be a fun route to go.

Kind of playing with some flat perspective

and breaking things down into their basic shapes.

So, even though we see some things from the side view here,

we also see some objects from top down,

it's kind of a cool way to mix different perspectives.

But it also simplifies the abstraction of each object

because we don't have to draw in perspective,

we can kinda just layer things to imply depth

rather than actually creating one-point

or two-point perspective to show depth.

And I also just chose these

because I like the color palettes, I like the compositions.

because I like the color palettes, I like the compositions.

And this top right one here,

I kinda like that there's a little bit more texture.

And I don't wanna go too deep into texture today

because I'm really focusing on abstracting.

But I wanna show you how I can imply form a bit

with a very subtle amount of texture.

Besides this middle one here,

overall this has a pretty like vectorized hueing,

so I'm thinking I might use some more shape layers today

since in the last lesson,

we really went over more hand-drawn techniques.

And in addition to the mood board,

I brainstormed a few different words in a word list

I brainstormed a few different words in a word list

that I think about as in designing here.

This is kinda the way I wanna portray my workspace

and my desk, I want it to feel warm,

inviting, playful, organized, fun.

I also wanna showcase that it's a desk of a designer,

so including any of the tools that I need to design.

And then, I also really want it to feel balanced,

I don't want it to feel chaotic,

I want it to feel carefully curated.

Even though this client brief is really straight-forward,

I would definitely encourage you to write out a word list

even when your concept is pretty simple.

And just use this as a guideline to check back on yourself,

And just use this as a guideline to check back on yourself,

to check back on the concept as you're working.

Just relate back to this word list here and your mood board

as you're working to see if you're staying on track

with your original goal.

And it's totally fine,

if your goal fluctuates a bit during the process,

especially for this project because it is so open

and because the client seems pretty trusting

with having me do whatever I want for this illustration.

So I'm not too worried about sticking a certain concept

to keep the client happy here

but it is really nice to have this guideline.

but it is really nice to have this guideline.

So, even if you don't necessarily need to

for the client's sake,

it's always good to have a word list or a mine map

or just some initial brainstorming just to make sure

that you're thinking about everything

before diving into illustration.

And looking back at the illustration guidelines here,

I'm gonna use my average ratio which is 16:9,

300 dpi, RGB color.

So I already do have a template

that has all of that information in it,

so I'm just gonna open that up and before I do anything,

I'm just gonna save that

so I don't ruin my template or save over it.

so I don't ruin my template or save over it.

I'm just gonna save this to my desktop,

Me & You workspace.

I'm also going to drag my mood board into it,

so I'm just gonna copy that as a flat layer and paste it in.

And I'm gonna create a reference folder

to put everything in it

that I wanna reference as I'm working,

so I don't have to keep opening multiple files

to see everything.

So I'm gonna label this mood.

And then I also wanna bring the color palette in

because the color palette

seems pretty important to the client.

But if I just screenshot this color palette

But if I just screenshot this color palette

and import that into Photoshop,

it's going to get kind of de-saturated

and you'll be able to tell

when I actually bring in the real one.

So I'm gonna pull the actual PDF straight into Photoshop

just so I make sure I get the accurate hex codes

because the client didn't provide me any hex codes,

they just provided me this palette in their PDF.

So the best way to get the accurate color

is by using the PDF itself.

And so, when you drag a PDF into Photoshop,

it gives you these options.

it gives you these options.

I'm just gonna choose page three

which is where the color palette is

and it doesn't really matter what size

or how you bring it into Photoshop right now

'cause I'm just taking the color palette out and press open

and then I will paste that in here

and I actually have the accurate color palette now.

So I'm just gonna Command + J that onto its own layer

and we can see that these colors slightly different.

It might not be obvious

but it will dull your piece out a little bit.

So if I actually just show you in comparison,

we could see that the blue is a little bit deeper

and the green is slightly off in color.

and the green is slightly off in color.

It's really, really not obvious to the naked eye

but it will make a difference in your final piece,

so I just try to stick to the actual colors

that they gave us.

And I'm just gonna drag that to the top right corner

and label it color.

And then in my reference folder as well,

I'm going to pull in one of the reference photos

that I took.

So I think this might a nice one.

I don't need my color palette yet,

I don't need my color palette yet,

so I'm just gonna turn the visibility off on that.

I'm gonna reduce the opacity in here

so that I can just use it as a guide

as I'm working on my initial sketch here.

So even though I haven't started creating a sketch,

I can see that there's already some breaking up

of thirds in this photo.

And just as a quick aside here,

I'm gonna show you how you can easily break

your composition up into thirds.

And I think the best way to do this

is just to use the shape tool.

Just put on stroke only and then just make a shape

Just put on stroke only and then just make a shape

that's about the size of your canvas, a 1/3 of the size,

but it doesn't have to be perfect yet.

And then just duplicate that twice

and line them up perfectly.

And so, even if it's not exactly the size

of your composition here,

you know that they're all the width already.

And now, when you have them all selected,

you can just drag them out

and they'll stay the same equal widths

because you're selecting them together.

So just pull that into the edge of your composition

and even though it may not be distinctly pixel perfect,

and even though it may not be distinctly pixel perfect,

it gives you a really rough idea

of the three different parts of your composition.

And you can use this

and make this for any document anywhere,

even if the square or a really tall vertical composition,

you can break it up into thirds very easily

just using shape tools.

So back to our project here.

For the most part,

the computer is in the center of the frame,

so I'm just gonna even that out a bit

to make it fit more in rule of thirds.

And this is really just a guide, right?

So if I illustrate some of this stuff

and I wanna move it around, it doesn't need to be

completely 100% accurate to my workspace.

I'm trying to do what's best for the composition

and the illustration here,

rather than trying to make it 100% accurate.

I wanna showcase the spirit of my desk

but it doesn't need to be like a life drawing of my desk,

that's not what the client is asking for here.

So I'm just gonna try to make it fun

and compositionally sound.

So we've got that broken up into thirds

and it maybe doesn't work completely accurately

and it maybe doesn't work completely accurately

with the photo here,

maybe it doesn't feel compositionally strong right now

but it will pay off later

to have this rule of thirds here as a guideline.

And before I get too far into sketching,

I'm gonna start by working with

some of those abstraction rules that I mentioned earlier.

I'm just gonna break everything down into basic,

basic, basic shapes.

And this is really just to start mapping things out,

it's not my sketch yet.

So maybe I'll just neaten the shapes.

And I'm actually going to use the shape tool here

And I'm actually going to use the shape tool here

because it's just a really quick,

dirty way to see those shapes.

So I'm gonna start with a rectangle for the desk,

and clearly, I know that this is a desk in prospective

but if I were to just very basically illustrate a desk,

it would be a rectangle.

Same goes for the computer.

And for the keyboard.

As well as this little Cintiq right here.

And of course, eventually, I wanna add a little bit more

interest to this by making somethings asymmetrical.

So one quick way to do that to make this

more of like a parallelogram shape

because it's leaning to the left is press A

because it's leaning to the left is press A

which will bring up your direct selection tool.

And then only select the two bottom points

and drag those to the right.

And we could say my headphones

are more rounded rectangle shapes.

And in Photoshop, we have Live Shapes now,

you didn't use to but it's kind of like Illustrator

where you can adjust the round of the corners.

So once this property top comes up,

if you want to evenly increase

the roundness of your corners,

the roundness of your corners,

just drag your mouse over this rounded corner symbol here.

And if you drag it all the way

until it won't let you anymore,

it will usually make a shape like this

where the corners are so rounded,

that they kind of become like an oval shape almost.

And then I've got my glasses.

And then we could say that these vases on the right

are more like triangles.

are more like triangles.

So, to do that, I'm gonna choose the polygon tool

and just click and just make sure

that the number of sides is three

and press OK and that will give me a triangle to work with.

And I can just freeform drag that up to create

an elongated triangle, duplicate it, flip it.

And I can duplicate that triangle as well

for the bottom of this vase

for the bottom of this vase

'cause it is a very small triangle.

And then we could say that

if we looked at a cylinder from the side,

it's more of a rectangle

so I'm just gonna use a rectangle shape here.

And then these plants are a bit more complicated

and we'll get further into depth about those

when we start sketching.

But for now, they kinda look like half ellipses

or half-rounded rectangles.

Just gonna delete one point to make it half.

Same goes for this one.

Okay, so when I'm talking about breaking everything down

into their most basic shapes, this is kind of what I mean.

When you're looking around your house

or you're looking at photos or you're walking in nature,

just challenge yourself to think about these objects

as just shapes, as their basic geometric shapes.

Or how you could break down a plant

Or how you could break down a plant

into multiple different geometric shapes,

this is kind of what I mean.

So this is kind of a guideline

for where we're gonna be going with the sketch.

I'm just gonna start sketching with my brush tool

instead of using these shapes

but this kinda gives me a better idea

of how to map everything out as I'm creating my composition.

So even though I don't have much done sketch-wise,

this kind of shows me that using a rectangle

for the desk itself would be kinda cool.

It kinda reminds me of this reference

on the left in the mood board

where we kind of have an implied flat surface

where we kind of have an implied flat surface

behind everything just created by a rectangle

or square shape and then we have these single angle

and top down views of everything.

And it still feels like a tabletop

but just a stylized and abstracted tabletop.

Same with these stairs over here

and seeing this square desk right here, kinda the same idea.

And then I chose the top right reference,

obviously we don't see that square behind it,

a rectangle behind it but we do see everything

broken down into their simplified geometric forms.

So, also as I'm looking at this,

I don't feel like the composition is very strong

I don't feel like the composition is very strong

and that's gonna change as I create my sketch

but it's something to keep in mind.

I might have to move something around,

I might want to put one of the plants on the other side

to even out the color.

Because if we do look at the color palette,

we see that green and I'm thinking of using

the green for the plants

and we want that to kinda be balanced

throughout the composition.

So, might wanna have one plant on the left

and one plant on the right

to make everything feel more harmonious.

All right, so let's get sketching.

I'm gonna use the one base rectangle

for the shape of the desk

for the shape of the desk

and start illustrating everything else

just really roughly to get the composition felt out.

I'm just gonna be using a lot of shift

to create those straight lines.

And normally, I would say,

"Go ahead, flatten everything as you're working,

"it's totally fine."

And that is fine, you could totally move things around

And that is fine, you could totally move things around

once they're flattened if you need to.

But here since I'm gonna keep playing with the composition

after I've sketched everything out,

I'm just gonna try to keep everything

on separate layers right now

just so I can have easy access to grab pieces

of the composition and move them.

Gonna use that symmetry trick here for this vase,

just make it feel more perfect.

The same with this one.

Even though it's not an organic shape,

the symmetry trick always helps.

I'm gonna grab those rounded rectangles for my shape group

to add into my sketch

because it's just easier than drawing them.

(laughs)

(laughs)

And for these glasses, I'm kinda just trying to image

how they'd look flat and abstracting them

by having a little bit of perspective in there.

But mainly, they just look like they're flat on the desk.

And while I'm sketching,

sometimes I'll select both a shape layer

and a drawn layer and press Command + E

and that will just turn it on into a raster shape.

And I don't really mind too much now

And I don't really mind too much now

that I'm not using shape layers

because this is just a sketch.

Later, if I'm trying to keep my shapes manipulative

or I'm trying to keep them as Live Shapes

so that I can edit the beziers.

I don't really wanna do that,

especially if I wanna increase the size of something,

but for now, it's totally fine to merge things together.

I'm just gonna do a really base level

abstraction here for this plant.

We have these very tall fronds here in the snake plant

and I'm just gonna try to use the curve to straight trick

by drawing one side straight and then curving one side.

by drawing one side straight and then curving one side.

And since the plant has this directional feeling

where it's moving towards the left,

I'm gonna keep one side of all of the leaves

pretty much straight on the same side.

So, straight line the one side

and maybe a curved long line on the other side.

And we do that for all of the fronds.

And we do that for all of the fronds.

Maybe add a bit more variation

in the height as I'm working here.

It doesn't appear to flatten this one shape together.

And then as I'm looking

at this one shape here of this planter,

I'm not really sure how it looks from the side,

so I'm gonna go and grab a photo of it from my references.

so I'm gonna go and grab a photo of it from my references.

So this gives me a more accurate view

and I'm just gonna kinda use that to draw something

a bit more abstracted using that curve to straight trick.

So we've got the straight top

and then a very straight inner edge

and then it jumps out as a curve.

And maybe instead of it getting so round on the bottom,

I can just add another straight.

Flip it using my symmetry trick

Flip it using my symmetry trick

and then merge that together.

Maybe distort it a little bit by holding shift

to create a more freeform transform.

And then this shape is pretty geometric already,

so I'm just gonna sketch that a bit here.

Just keep it pretty straight,

maybe as we get into the final illustration,

we can make this more symmetrical on both sides.

we can make this more symmetrical on both sides.

So I'm looking at all of it together,

it feels pretty low so I'm gonna move it up.

And the composition does feel

like it's getting a bit heavy on this side,

so I'm gonna start moving a couple things around,

just to even things out.

So maybe these glasses go over here

and then that feels a bit crowded and low in the frame,

so I'm just gonna adjust the placement of these vases.

so I'm just gonna adjust the placement of these vases.

And maybe it would be nice

to have something break the top line a bit,

so it's feeling more depthy and layered.

And I really wanna try to keep some overlap in here

and I can add more as I go,

but I just want everything to feel

like they're interacting with each other

and they're not just on their own separate part of the desk.

You can adjust sizes as well,

just to make sure everything fits a little bit better.

And I'm gonna start masking or erasing some pieces out,

And I'm gonna start masking or erasing some pieces out,

just so that I can see how everything looks

without this big line through it.

So already that's feeling pretty nice,

but I kind of wanna move a few things around

so it's not just clusters of the same things on each side.

So we've got the two vases on the right

and the two plants on the left,

maybe we change it up so that there's one vase on each side

and one plant on each side.

And that's just to keep it balanced.

I'm thinking ahead about color here,

since I already have the color palette.

And I know that eventually

I'm gonna want the color to feel balanced,

so I might as well just move some things around

before I even get started on the refined sketch.

before I even get started on the refined sketch.

Maybe I try to add a bite more

overlapping with the headphones.

I know this doesn't actually make sense perspective-wise,

but we are drawing everything pretty flat anyways,

so if the headphones are supposed to be

in front of the plant,

why not have them overlap a little bit?

I'm gonna increase the size a bit,

I'm gonna increase the size a bit,

just to make the left side feel more balanced with the right

and maybe I'll elongate them fronds a bit,

just so they don't create any awkward tangents

with the edge of the desk.

And I actually kind of want to try making

an intentional tangent down here,

because we do have these two parallel lines

from the Cintiq and the edge of the desk.

And I'm wondering if it would look nice

And I'm wondering if it would look nice

if they were just all the same line

because I do keep my Cintiq's the edge of the desk anyway,

so that'd be kind of accurate

and might actually break up the color

that we put in the desk a little bit more.

And now there's a little bit of awkward space

but maybe I'll just increase the vertical height of that

using the shift and the transform tool at the same time.

And of course, now,

everywhere I mask in the desk shape is wrong.

But thankfully I just masked it and I didn't erase it,

But thankfully I just masked it and I didn't erase it,

so I don't have to go and redraw everything,

I can just delete the layer mask

and create a new layer mask.

And I am getting some weird tangents

right here with this plant,

so I'll definitely have to do some size adjustments,

or I'll adjust the symmetry of it as I'm working.

So I am feeling a little bit happier with this now,

I think the composition is pretty nice

and I'm gonna go back and check with the rule of thirds.

It's a little bit off,

but let me just see if I can move the computer over a bit

to make it feel a little less off centered.

Actually, the whole desk is a little bit off center,

so maybe I'll just move everything over.

And that seems to fit much better into our rule of thirds.

Maybe I'll bring the whole desk a bit down

because I am pretty close to the edge up here

and there's a lot of empty space in the bottom.

So even though the rectangle of the desk

isn't completely centered,

overall the composition feels centered,

so I'm actually really liking where this is heading.

And I think I'm gonna start refining my sketch a bit more,

And I think I'm gonna start refining my sketch a bit more,

so I may be able to use more shape layers.

Maybe I'll add in a little bit more detail

and add a couple more shapes to make everything feel

a bit more lifelike and accurate.

So, I'll meet you there when I'm done.

(text swooshing)

So I skipped ahead to my refined sketch here,

because I don't think you guys needed to see me

trace everything over and over and over,

because that's just boring.

(chuckles)

But basically it was gone from here to here

But basically it was gone from here to here

and what I've done basically

is refine some of the shapes more,

added a bit of rounded corners.

Because if we look back at the word list I created,

I wanted you to feel organized, playful,

warm, inviting, balanced,

so I've added in a little bit of curve

on some of the objects.

You can add a little bit more of that in design,

but I've also made sure everything feels balanced.

I've also added in some places of detail

and I can add more of that in later as well.

But yeah, this is where I'm at

and so my next will be color-blocking.

and so my next will be color-blocking.

And we haven't really gotten into color-blocking much yet,

because we've mainly been working with line work,

but since we have more of a color palette now

from the client,

that's gonna be really helpful when color-blocking here

because I have set rules in the colors.

These are the colors that I should be using.

I can use tints and shades,

but I really would like

to stick pretty closely to this color palette

because it feels very bold and on brand for them.

So when I say color-blocking,

I just wanna emphasize the importance of that.

It's really deciding where I wanna add color,

so I will be going in

and creating the final shapes for everything

and creating the final shapes for everything

and making sure it's properly setup for animation as I go.

But by color-blocking,

I mean I'm figuring out where all of the color goes

on each of the objects.

So I'm deciding what parts of it will be green

and what parts of it will be black

and what parts of it will be blue.

And by blocking,

I mean I'm just creating the base shapes of everything,

so I'll just be creating this one big rectangle

that's perhaps black.

And then one blue shape for the Cintiq

and everything will be separated and a very simple color

and I won't add any detail in yet.

And maybe this is just a personal preference for me,

And maybe this is just a personal preference for me,

but I don't like to add too much detail to something

before getting my colors in a comfortable spot

because it's pretty annoying to have to go back

and adjust the colors of every detail layer.

So here I'm gonna be creating the shape layers as I go

and I'm gonna start blocking everything out now.

So here we go.

To make everything pop,

I'm gonna use this light pink neutral background color.

And then because I have the background color in there now,

I need to make the refined sketch

on its own layer above everything else,

just so I can see it faintly as I'm working.

just so I can see it faintly as I'm working.

So I'm gonna Command + J the refined sketch

and Command + E to create that as one flattened layer.

I'm gonna turn that down to about 10% opacity,

so very faint, and begin using that color palette.

And as I'm working here, I think I'm gonna add

a little bit more of rounded corners to everything

using those Live Shapes that Photoshop has

because I want everything to feel

a little bit more warm and inviting.

Right now in the sketch, everything looks kind of sharp,

Right now in the sketch, everything looks kind of sharp,

so I'm just gonna try to incorporate

more of those rounded corners.

Also, to make sure everything stays

organized as I'm working.

So putting things in their own groups,

labeling the layers within the groups

if you don't have too many of them.

I can still fill my layer using a shortcut,

which is ALT + Shift + Delete to fill with a foreground.

And that works really well with shape layers as well,

And that works really well with shape layers as well,

with raster layers.

So that will just fill the entire layer.

And for the computer,

I want the screen to be black but as in real life,

the actual base of it will be more of a white gray color,

so I'm going to use a clipping mask

to create that white space.

And since the base is more of an organic shape,

I'm actually just gonna draw that with a brush tool.

And for my brush here,

since I want it to match that of the edge of a shape layer,

since I want it to match that of the edge of a shape layer,

I'm just using the hard round pressure size brush.

So that will emulate the more clean edge feel

of a vector look.

And I could create this in vector,

but personal preference is I just like to mix techniques

and use what's easier for me at the moment.

Often times I'm just not the greatest

at getting the beziers how I like them.

It's easier for me to draw it.

And especially as something that needs to be symmetrical,

I just like to flip my layer.

And use my fill action.

And as always,

even though the keyboard is hidden behind the Cintiq here,

I wanna draw the whole shape layer

so that when they bring it into animation

to creating the looping gif out of it,

they don't have half of a keyboard here.

And make sure that's centered.

Maybe add a little bit of rounded corner on that.

Just a really small, subtle one.

I feel that even though it's very subtle,

you can see the difference there.

you can see the difference there.

It really still makes the piece feel overall more friendly,

not as jarring with those sharp edges.

And for the Cintiq, I kinda wanna try

using this blue just so there's not this really dark,

heavy black at the bottom.

The blue is still about the same value as the black,

but it feels a little bit more uplifting

because it's so bright and saturated.

And just as I showed you earlier with the shape tools,

I like to break everything down into their very basic shapes

and to get a more perfect looking edge.

I definitely wanna create these vases using the shape tool,

so I'm gonna break it into three shapes.

So we'll have our one top shape,

which is this elongated triangle.

And I'll duplicate and flip that for the bottom

and maybe the bottom triangle's

a little bit less symmetrical.

It's a little asymmetrical and top heavy

because that's what the vase looks like.

And then I'll create a middle.

And if we look at this,

the middle is basically a diamond so it's basically a square

turned 45 degrees and then flattened a bit.

And there we go, we've got our vase.

And I'll actually right click that shape

And I'll actually right click that shape

to get to the layer, duplicate that layer

and bring it over for the vase number two

so that I have a really similar shape there

since they're part of the same collection.

So that will be the middle of vase two.

Then we got the bottom...

And the top.

And I'm keeping these edges more severe

just so they're more true to life

just so they're more true to life

because in reality if I'm looking at these,

they do feel kind of harsh and severe,

so I want to make them have a bit more intensity

because not everything on the desk

needs to be perfectly round.

I was originally thinking of making these vases black

because that's what they actually look like in real life,

they're black or dark gray.

And I think that it would work nicely,

but since I already had the blue being used for the Cintuq,

I created them in this blue color

and I actually think it creates a really nice balance.

Like a triad of this blue

in different areas of the composition.

in different areas of the composition.

I really always like to keep things in uneven groups,

so groups of three or five

just are a little bit more interesting to me

and having these three big blue objects

makes the composition a bit more interesting

and leads your eye around the middle of the frame.

So there's my rounded rectangle shape for the planter,

but I'm gonna delete these top two points

by selecting them and pressing delete.

And then I'm gonna select the new top two points

And then I'm gonna select the new top two points

and just pull them up

so we get a more straight edge along the side.

And I'm actually gonna draw the fronds

just because I feel more comfortable

drawing the leaves this way.

And I'll be using this green

and I'll Drag + Shift down to create the hard edge.

And then draw the more organic side freehand.

And if we look at how I laid this out,

And if we look at how I laid this out,

any leaf that's on the right

is gonna be on top of the ones to the left of it,

so I'm gonna layer them accordingly.

So this will be number one

and then I'll put number two underneath it,

so later if I need to separate them with shadow

and I need to clipping mask a shadow onto them,

they're already in the correct layer order.

And turn off your layers as you're drawing other layers,

just so you can make sure they look good behind each other.

So if they need to move an animation,

there's not half of a leaf there.

there's not half of a leaf there.

And clearly this just looks like a big block right now

but once we go in and add some detail,

we'll create some separation between the leaves.

And this is what color-blocking is for.

And this is what color-blocking is for.

I'm getting all the right shapes out there

and making sure everything looks good.

Making sure there's no weird tangents

before getting too deep into all of the detail.

And for this planter,

I'm gonna use a couple different shapes as well.

I'm gonna use an ellipse to draw half of it

and then delete the bottom.

And you could actually use the transform tool, Command + T,

right click and press perspective

and this will actually bring

your bottom two most points together.

your bottom two most points together.

So I use this a lot

to just create a more symmetrical distortion.

And then the top is basically an upside down triangle.

And here's where I'm gonna add

some symmetry into these leaves.

some symmetry into these leaves.

I'm going to use the rounded rectangle tool for this one.

So I'm gonna create one rounded rectangle here

and make sure it's the most rounded it can be.

And then I'm gonna use that perspective transform tool again

to just bring those top two points together

and bring the bottom two points apart

so it has more of a tapered look.

And you might need to adjust a few things

with the direct selection tool to get it how you want.

And that will be the middle leaf.

And I think the best way to create these other ones

And I think the best way to create these other ones

is just actually duplicate that main leaf.

Rotate it, maybe scale it down a bit

so we can know it's thick.

And do the same again.

And then to get that symmetrical look,

I'm gonna duplicate both of those.

So select both of those layers and press Command + J

and then transform both of them at the same time.

Right click, flip horizontal.

Right click, flip horizontal.

And those will be left.

And obviously if I turn this planter off,

it's not gonna look great,

but I don't think the animator's going to have

these plant pieces animating out of the pot,

so I'm not too worried about what it looks like back there.

There's still the information there

if they need them to grow or something,

but we don't need to make sure they look perfect behind this

because realistically that's not gonna move.

because realistically that's not gonna move.

Use the rounded rectangle tool again for the headphones.

And then to create the actual headphone shape here,

I'm actually gonna use the rounded rectangle tool again.

But this time instead of a filled shape,

I'm gonna use a stroke.

Maybe make that blue

to make it a little bit more interesting.

And before I rotate that to fit in there,

I want to make sure it's a correct shape,

so I'm gonna delete this bottom point

so it's not a closed loop anymore.

And just so you know,

if you wanna adjust the end of the stroke,

you can go into the shape tool itself and you see this line,

you can go in and change the caps to be hard caps like this.

Or you can make them more friendly and rounded like this.

You can also change where the alignment is,

so right now the stroke is on the inside of my bezier curve,

but it can also be on the outside

but it can also be on the outside

or it can align to the center.

And I don't really run into issues with that often,

but sometimes I need the alignment to be on the inside

for whatever reason, or on the outside.

And since I have more of a tapered shape here,

I'm actually gonna use that distort tool again.

Command + T to transform, right click and press perspective.

And then we're getting more of a tapered look here.

It also feels a little long.

I'm gonna free transform it by pushing it down

and then I'm going to turn it sideways to fit.

and then I'm going to turn it sideways to fit.

I may have to adjust the size a bit

and it's not exactly how I envisioned it with my sketch,

but it works.

Now, once you start transforming something this way,

it loses its live shape ability,

so I can't really go back in

and grab the corners more or anything.

I'm gonna have to go in manually adjust these points

if I want it to be more tapered around it.

So that's why I try to do all of that stuff

before I transform it and turn it sideways.

But I can adjust the pixel stroke size,

so maybe it's a little bigger, like 15.

And I might need to adjust

where these pieces of the headphone are, the ear part,

so that it looks more accurate with the headband part.

So that's creating a weird tangent there.

I'm just gonna move the headphones up slightly

so it's not as awkward.

There's more overlap.

And I guess I really only have the glasses left to do now.

And I will mask shapes out sometimes,

so if I want this line to work all the way across,

but I don't wanna have to create

three multiple little lines, I can just mask that out.

And one thing you should know about this alignment feature

with the stroke is that,

if you duplicate a shape that is a stroke and you flip it,

it's going to align to the other side.

it's going to align to the other side.

So if you see the alignment that's on the inside

on this left piece and on the right side,

it's on the outside.

I think that's just because it's mirroring,

but I always have to go in and press U

to get to your shape tool and align it on the other side.

Now, I think that the glasses really stand out

because they're the only part right now

that is purely line work.

So I'm gonna try maybe making the glass part just white.

And I think that fits in a lot better.

And I think that fits in a lot better.

We are gonna add more detail and more line work,

but if the glasses were only line work,

it would look kind of strange.

If the glasses part were filled and line work,

I think that would look strange too

because we don't have any outlines on anything

and this is what that's doing basically there.

So I'm just trying to keep solid shapes and lines separate.

So overall, I've color-blocked things to feel balanced.

I could go back in

and see what all of this looks like in black.

And since I have everything blocked out,

And since I have everything blocked out,

it's really easy to just press ALT + Shift + Delete

to see what that looks like.

And in my opinion, it looks nice, but it is really heavy

and we don't have our eye led around the composition anymore

by that blue, so I'm gonna just go back to what it was.

I think the blue was the right call.

And just a note on animation and shape layers in Photoshop,

I will say that shape layers in Photoshop

are definitely not as intuitive in AE

are definitely not as intuitive in AE

as Illustrator shape layers are,

but the bezes are still a good guide

for the animator at least.

And the animator

might still need to recreate your shape layers,

especially if you end up masking your shape layer

or adding clipping masks to it.

And of course I always wanna consider the animator,

but I also can't sacrifice

my entire process and comfort levels

to go above and beyond for them,

so I'm doing what I can here

to organize everything very clearly,

label everything very clearly.

And I think shape layers, even in Photoshop,

are better than the raster layers that I normally use.

It just depends on what look I'm trying to achieve,

It just depends on what look I'm trying to achieve,

so I won't always use shape layers

just because I wanna satisfy the animator.

I don't wanna sacrifice the look of the project

just so I can make it easier for them.

And the other reason I do this in Photoshop

is because I do wanna go in add clipping masks.

I want to add texture using raster texture brushes

and that's something I can easily do

all together in Photoshop.

Whereas if I use shape layers in Illustrator,

I'd have to create them in Illustrator

and then carry them all in

using either smart objects or bezier palettes,

which would just them into Photoshop layers.

which would just them into Photoshop layers.

Bring all that Illustrator stuff into Photoshop

and then add texture there.

So I would have the shape layers

from Illustrator to work with,

the animator could take that file as well,

which would be great if they really need it

and I could do that if I needed to.

But here, these shape layers should work fine

for the animator,

if they do need to create something, that's fine.

That's also part of their process.

Just keep everything as clear as possible.

Try to not flatten things and group things accordingly

so that it can help the animator,

but if Photoshop is better

for your workflow than Illustrator, then use Photoshop.

Just try to stay comfortable if you can

Just try to stay comfortable if you can

because you wanna focus more on the look of everything,

rather than the execution.

(text swooshing)

So now we'll move on to creating some detail

and adding some very basic texturing

and shading to create form.

And we'll do that by using clipping masks

to add this texture and shading.

Most of the time,

I'll use a shade of my hue to create shadows

and then I'll use a tint to create light.

So for this piece, I'm going to add

So for this piece, I'm going to add

a little bit of hard shadows and light texture,

just to give it a little bit more depth,

a little bit more realism to separate the leaves

to create a feeling of that extra attention to detail.

And I usually almost always use texture intentionally.

I don't just add it randomly

to give something a textured feel,

I wanna use the texture to emphasize the light

coming from a certain direction.

Or use texture as shading

to create form and dimension of an object.

We will have a whole lesson on texturing

We will have a whole lesson on texturing

and different textures and how to use them.

So this is just a very, very small overview

of ways you can use it to start with.

Just get comfortable with it here.

I wanna start by figuring out where my light is coming from

and it's not like this is going to be all shaded

and have shadows everywhere when I'm done with it,

this is very graphic and subtle

and I don't wanna go too far with it.

The best way for me to show where the light is coming from

is to show where the reflection is on the screen

because we just have this big black computer screen here

that is drawing all the attention in the frame.

that is drawing all the attention in the frame.

Your eye goes directly to it

because it's such a huge area of contrast.

But maybe we can break that up a bit and lighten it a bit

by adding a little reflection on the screen.

So I'm gonna right click the layer to get to it

and then create a new clipping mask

and then I'm going to use this white color

and use my pen tool to create a shape over the black.

And that will be filled with the white.

So clearly that's not what it's gonna look like,

we'll just turn the opacity really far down, maybe like 15%.

we'll just turn the opacity really far down, maybe like 15%.

Maybe even more.

So that already breaks up the composition a bit more.

It means the light is coming more from this way,

from the top right,

so now I know where I can put my shadows.

So I'm gonna put a shadow on this base here, a hard shadow,

create a new clipping mask.

I'm just gonna use the brush tool here

with a dark gray color.

And that means my shadow would be going the opposite way.

And that means my shadow would be going the opposite way.

And I really like to use shadows

to create separation between colors,

especially in graphic compositions.

And now that I know what direction that's going,

I'm gonna create some more hard shadows on my plants

just to create that separation as well.

And it doesn't need to go all the way down.

It's kind of an implied line that creates a separation.

Make sure you're labeling these as well

and keeping them separate.

and keeping them separate.

You might find that you need to adjust

some of your shapes as you go to make sure

that all of your techniques are working properly.

And trying to make sure those shadows don't look like this.

And trying to make sure those shadows don't look like this.

So after some adjustment, here's where I landed with that.

I'll apply it to the other side with the other plant.

And now that we've got our hard shadows,

I'm gonna add a tiny bit of texturing as well.

I'm gonna add a tiny bit of texturing as well.

And I think on all of these dark objects,

it'd be kind of nice

to use this orangish-peach color for my light.

It's a little bit more interesting

and there's a lot less contrast

between the blue and this peach

as there is with the background.

The white just might make it feel a little bit washed out.

So I'm gonna go and use a big grainy brush that I have,

it's the spray rough brush.

Got from a friend a while ago.

And I'm gonna add just a little bit of lighting

And I'm gonna add just a little bit of lighting

to this vase here.

So as I use this brush

and the clipping mask gets a really giant brush

and it's gonna look wrong at first.

But then once I mask the clipping masks

with the light on it, I can go in

and start getting rid of any of the light that I don't want.

And a lot of times it'll turn this opacity pressure tool,

which will increase the opacity

the harder I press with my pen tool

and that makes it a little bit more flexible.

I'm just putting the light on this right side

because that's where the light's coming from,

so it's kind of implying a bit of form,

adds a little bit more interest and depth to the piece,

but it's not really fully forming an object.

We don't see shading on the other side,

I'm just keeping it real simple for this one.

I might even add a little bit on the computer itself.

It's very subtle.

And mainly just adding this light to all the dark objects

because the light wouldn't really show up

if I put it on the white objects

and we don't really need it everywhere.

and we don't really need it everywhere.

It's not supposed to be realistic here.

And there we've got some simple light

and some simple shading throughout.

Now I'm gonna go in and add the final touches.

So as I noted earlier, these glasses right here

are almost the only part of the piece

that has this line work going for it.

So I'm gonna go and add a little it of line work

throughout the piece to balance it out.

throughout the piece to balance it out.

I'm also gonna take any final steps

to adjust the composition that I need to.

(bright music)

So now that I've added a lot of detail, texturing, lighting,

I feel like it's really coming together,

but the one object that ties everything together, the desk,

feels like it's lacking a bit of detail.

And I'm thinking maybe since it's wood,

we could add some horizontal lines to really emphasize

that there's a bit of texture and life to that desk,

it's not just sitting back there doing nothing.

And I think it will feel a lot more cohesive

And I think it will feel a lot more cohesive

with the lines that I've added here

if we can add a bit of that in.

So I'm just gonna go ahead and use my bezier tool

to create some straight lines

and I'll make those lines a shade of this peach hue

so that it's a very subtle texture in the background.

And now that I've dropped these in here,

it is slightly awkward

because there are some weird tangents happening,

like we can barely see this line

appearing out form under the computer.

And it's hitting the horizontal line on this planter

and this planter here.

And I kinda wanna just avoid those tangents if I can,

And I kinda wanna just avoid those tangents if I can,

because they feel a little bit awkward.

So I'm gonna play around with that,

move a couple things around just so everything fits right.

And another thing you can do

to just make sure your overall composition is working

is zoom our super far and squint your eyes at the frame

and try to focus on what is the center of attention.

Try to see where your eye is drawn to first.

And definitely that big computer screen

is what my eye goes to first,

but the vase is feeling very close to it,

the vase on the right side.

the vase on the right side.

It just feels a little crowded over there,

so I might adjust that a bit,

maybe you have to move a couple things around

because of that.

But overall as I'm squinting at this frame,

everything feels pretty balanced.

I will say that the Cintiq is feeling a little bit powerful,

so maybe if I take this line that I've created here,

this detail line, and make it a lighter color.

I might brighten it up a bit so it doesn't feel

like it's competing with the computer screen as much.

I'm just gonna go ahead

and make those adjustments with the lines on the desk

and make those adjustments with the lines on the desk

in the background and with the vase.

(bright music)

So I've dusted everything,

so there's no super awkward tangents.

I mean, of course there's always gonna be a few little ones

that happen here and there,

but I have overlapped the computer over one of the lines.

I've moved the keyboard down

so it doesn't have any weird tangents

and I actually felt that the green

was getting a little bit too balanced.

So the green was almost in the exact same spot

on the other side, which is fine,

but I wanted to make it a little bit more interesting

with some asymmetrical composition,

with some asymmetrical composition,

so I moved this left plant down a bit.

I increased the size of it

so that it covered more of the side of the desk.

I moved the headphones down a bit

so they didn't have any weird interaction with this planter

but then I feel that it's nicely contrasting

and holding the weight of the bottom left of this frame,

in comparison to this tall, heavy planter on the top right.

So lots of little adjusts here and there

and now that I'm finally feeling happy with it,

I just want to double check everything

and make sure that I am hitting the goals

and make sure that I am hitting the goals

that I originally had for myself,

so compositionally, it feels pretty good.

If we look at the rule of thirds,

we're still staying pretty true to that.

We've got an equal balance of color on the left side here

and on the right side and the outermost thirds

and then in the center,

we've got our main point of attention,

which is the computer.

So, rule of thirds, pretty good.

And we've got negative space around it

so that it has some breathing room,

it doesn't feel too heavy.

And then if we look back at our mood board,

I feel like we're staying pretty true to that.

I feel like we're staying pretty true to that.

We've got this more clean style which I like,

but we also have this flattened perspective

that I was inspired by.

I also am staying true

to this word list that I created for myself.

Everything feels pretty accurate

to what I had in my goal list.

And if we're looking back at the client brief,

we followed their instructions of a 16:9 ratio,

1920 by 1080 pixels, 300 dpi, RGB color

and we used this color palette almost exactly.

And it seems like we're hitting all of our goals here

and I'm pretty happy with how this is looking,

and I'm pretty happy with how this is looking,

so I'm actually ready to send this to my client now.

So I know we went over a lot here today,

but I'm confident that these techniques for abstraction

will help to transform

your illustration skillset completely.

The curve to straight trick especially really helped me

to better understand the interplay

between organic and geometric shapes.

And like with every other technique we've learned,

the more you practice, the better you'll get at it.

So as you're practicing this today in your own exercise,

just know that if you don't get it right the first time

or it's a little bit difficult, it will come with time.

or it's a little bit difficult, it will come with time.

And not to get too ahead of myself here,

but I am really excited to dive into the next lesson as well

because we're gonna be expanding upon these techniques

by bending reality a bit

and playing with and pushing proportion.

So go ahead and open up the exercise for this lesson

and start illustrating your own workspace.

(text swooshing)

(upbeat music)