– Packaging Vector Pack

– Awesome Tech Shapes

– 60 Free Illustrator Brushes

– Chris Spooner’s Design Process for the VividWays logo

– How to create a Panda Bear Face Icon

– mckibillo’s Emergency!

– New Cushion design from Candybird

– Free Poster Sized “Little Brother” Illustrations

– New work from Donough O’Malley

– New work from Jonathan Cusick

– Cool Illustrations from McBess

– Colorful Illustration by beaucoupzero

– Color Angels Session at 2009 SXSWi

– Gold by Cuypi

– The Lodown Gallery

– “Scarygirl The Game” preview (illustrations by Nathan Jurvecius)

– HDR-FX1 by Drew Griffith

– Sad Monkey Design silhouettes

– Pencils by PinkonHead

– Redmillion Knives by Web design Galway

– Gift Box 01 by Noel Martinez

– The Iron Doodlers

– Dave Gibbons (Watchmen artist) creating comics digitally

– Vintage Hollywood Caricatures by Henry Major

– Hina Patterns for download

– Design a Print Ready Beer Label

– Sachi Vector Characters by Onur Guverner

– Cool Miscellaneous Icons by BigVectors

– How to create Cartoon Characters from Ordinary Objects

– How to Create an Awesome Skateboard Deck Graphic

– Create your own Mini-Moggie Pop-Up

– Jesse Kuhn’s Meathead in Applied Arts Illustration Annual

– New work from Phil McAndrew

– Pop Surrealist Jason Freeny takes top honors

– Crossing the Sky by Vincente Marti

– Amazing Illustrations by Giovanni Tabolacci

– Caramelaw’s “In My World”

– Marius Bauer’s “Circe”

– Giant Spirit from the Wood by NIARK1

– Papercuts by pehaa

– Cloudery supports First Book charity

– Twilight doodles gallery

– Christian Pearce’s “Deadly Sleds”

– Package Design at Lovely Package

– Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

– Jakob Hinrichs Woodcut Inspired Illustration

– The Astronomer’s Dream by Malcolm Sutherland

– Seamless Pattern Swatches

We live in a world of beautiful, vibrant color. As artists, we try to replicate what we see and feel using color – but in order to do so effectively, you must understand the science behind it. I’ve put together a list with a number of techniques and lessons that will help you better understand color theory.

Color Theory Basics

Here is a starter tutorial on Color Theory from a contributor over at Amateur Illustrator.

Color Matters

Jill Morton at Color Matters discusses the concepts of color.

Introduction to Color Theory + Exercises

Laurie Garo provides a technical lesson and exercises based on color theory. (University lesson)

Electronic Colors, Models, Mixing and Application

Starting with the basics of electronic color, this information site offers comprehensive coverage of color theory, the history and science behind it and its applications.

Worqx.com Resources

Worqx.com has a large resource of information on color, theory, practices and applications. There is enough information here to guide you further along in your use of color after you’ve understood the basics. I’ve used the information from Worqx time and time again. Make sure you bookmark this site for sure!

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And there you go – learn from these resources and enjoy your new-found knowledge of color as you apply it to your next projects!

– Create a Milk Bottle with a Funny Cow Label

– The Mechanics of Comics

– Quickly Reset your 3D Options in Illustrator

– Jay Taylor’s “Throw-Away Art Book”

– Dino Dash POS by TWEEKHED

– Daniel Eric Wilson’s Moleskine Sketchbook Project

– Mail me ART Exhibition coming soon!

– Beautiful Girls by Brian Viveros

– Amazing Illustrations by Theo Aartsma (SUMECO)

– Drawing a Piano Keyboard

– KINGSTRIKE! art for apparel companies

– Sonic Battle Gods by Dacosta

– Curly Vector Social Bookmarking Site Icons

– Gradient Mesh Objects Pack

– Swimming Woman by DaPino

– Nature Vector by IJdesign

– Music Silhouettes by Abid Ali

– Just Add some Color!

– AlphaDoodles – Illustrative Alphabets

– Alison Bechdel on Drawing her Graphic Novel “Fan Home”

– Dan Paladin designs the Cyclops Boss from “Castle Crashers”

– March MODOK Madness – interpretations of Marvel villain MODOK

– Michal Levy’s Jazz + Animation (storyboards included)

– Just Seeds Co-Op

– Making Illustrator More Efficient

I’ve had a number of people inquire about the gradient mesh tool in Illustrator. Many people find the tool difficult to use at first glance, but trust me – once you get the hang of it, it can be one of the most versatile ways of creating realistic looking forms. Here are a few tutorials that explain how to use this tool.

Creating Drapery Folds

Magical Butterfly presents a tutorial on how to create drapery folds using Illustrator.

Gradient Mesh Portrait Tutorial

Check out this amazing potrait created with gradient mesh from Creative Bush.

Basic Gradient Mesh Tutorial

Kevin Hulsey gives an in-depth explanation of the facets of Gradient Mesh and how to apply them effectively in this basic tutorial.

Using the Gradient Mesh Tool in Illustrator

In this video tutorial, Bert Montroy from PixelPerfect shows you 2 different methods of applying the gradient mesh to your illustrations.

Going Bananas for the Gradient Mesh Tool

Sarah Froelich from Designorati goes bananas in this D-I-Y tutorial, and so will you!

Create Realistic Illustrations using the Gradient Mesh Tool

Veerle Pieters offers a PDF download tutorial on creating realistic illustrations with the gradient mesh tool. Don’t be fooled by the date – just because its from 2004 doesn’t mean its out of date! Veerle has been doing this successfully for a long time!

Crayons – A Study in Gradient Mesh

Leo Blanchette, a freelance illustrator and a regular contributor to istockphoto, has posted this in-depth tutorial on creating realistic looking crayons from a photo reference.

Basic Bag Tutorial

Create a cloth bag illustration in a few easy steps!

Create Scalable Clouds

Cheryl Graham offers this tutorial at AdobePress on scalable vector based Gradient Mesh clouds.

The World’s Most Photorealistic Vector Art

This link isn’t a tutorial; it’s more inspiration – check out the amazing work from some of the pros in the industry using advanced gradient mesh!

I hope this answers some of the burning questions you may have on how to apply gradient mesh effectively!

– How to Design a Classic Heraldic Figure

– Free Vector Graphics Pack – Doodles and Sketches

– The Rainy Season by Andy Smith. Get your copy before it’s gone!

– Pol Turgeon’s conference at the AIIQ (March 18th) in Montreal

– Olly Patterson, The Illustrated Edinburgh High Street

– Fernanda Cohen illustrations for Derek Loves Shopping

– Create an Elegant Ribbon in Illustrator

– Pasting Smart Objects in Photoshop from Illustrator

– Heist! Caramelaw’s entry into DepthCore 36th exhibition

– Speedball #3 is out now!

– Intersection.fr has been launched!

– Rated Rookies Line Launch 2009

– Kokeshi vectors by pehaa

– Nike Dunks by Einbahn Studio

– Clare Mohjer’s Peculiar Little Fancy Things

– Ghostpatrol in his Mitten Fortress (video)

– SuperGo! by Lindsey Small and Alex Butera

– 165 Bots with Stuff by Chris Grine

– Lucy Knisley’s Comics

– Draw a Windy Sunset Illustration

So you have a WACOM tablet. Now what?

I see a lot of people out there who are talented or aspiring artists looking to get into the digital drawing world and are overwhelmed because they have absolutely no clue where to start. I’ve scoured the internet looking for a pile of easy to learn tutorials for beginners looking to get their feet wet. These tutorials are also decent for intermediate users who need a refresher or some reinforcement from some key fundamentals they may have forgotten along the way.

Setting Up Your Tablet Settings & Preferences

This next informative tutorial comes from Kevin Hulsey, who shows you how to set up your tablet and stylus through the settings and preferences. The examples shown are for an Intuos tablet, but the settings panels are roughly the same for the Bamboo and Cintiq.

Tablet Sensitivity and Pen Pressure

This DeviantArt video tutorial by user Lucky13 explains the concepts behind Tablet sensitivity and Pen Pressure.

Illustrator Pen Pressure with Wacom Tablet

This video tutorial by Terry White shows you how to set up your pressure sensitivity options and the explains the integration of the Tablet into Adobe Illustrator and how to use these options to your advantage.

Bamboo Setup and Basics

This tutorial by Dr Diablo at the Republic of Code will shows you how to setup a Wacom Bamboo on Windows Vista and configure it to run well in Adobe Photoshop.

Basic Inking and Coloring Techniques using a Tablet

This tutorial shows Tablet users how to ink sketches with varied line weight brushes and coloring techniques within Photoshop. Make sure you watch both parts of this tutorial for the basics on how to achieve great results in a digital comic-book style rendering.

Skull Drawing Time Lapsed

This drawing technique is a time lapse video from Jeff Finley of GoMediaZine. He goes through his process of creating a skull drawing based off a reference photo. Pay close attenton to the brush settings and the techniques (you can pause and rewind as you see fit!). You may want to turn down your speakers – the music may be a bit much for some.

WACOM’s Tutorial Repository

WACOM has a section on their site dedicated to basic tutorials to get novice users well on their way to using their Tablets in Photoshop (or any other graphic editing program).

Digital Painting for BIOSHOCK

Roberto Campus explains how he used Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom Tablet to paint a character from the new videogame Bioshock for GamePro Magazine. His walkthrough gives you an overview on how to use texture in digital painting.

And there you have it. These starter Tutorials should get you set up and ready to tackle your illustration goals. If you’re new to using the Adobe Illustrator, try the Illustrator Pen Tutorial in conjunction with some other tutorials to build up your skill. Practice makes perfect!

– Make an Old Style Sign from Scratch using CorelDRAW

– Skull Vector Pack 2 from ScyberSpace

– More cards from Suit Up!

– Babylon Circus Shirt Designs

– The Art of Videogames – Video Games Attack! by NIARK1

– Julien Chung’s View from the Zoo

– Valéry wins an ACE award for Calendars

– Make More Pictures – Ben the Illustrator with a new Speakerdog poster

– Coffee Girls by Bryan Collins – reserve yours today!

– Lion for a Day – Frank Daenen

– Penelope Dullaghan spotlight at HAI (Hire an Illustrator)

– Vote for French Gang at La Fraise

– Mexican Style Skull by Fuctastic

– Sport Silhouettes by ArtShare

– City Vector Icons by ArtShare

– Drawing a character’s face in Illustrator

– Share the Love contest winners!

– Drawing Vancouver – The Splinter in your Eye.

– Tom Gauld Guardian Cartoons on Flickr

– Kids Books and Bad Moods

– Creating a scatter brush in Illustrator