#vector like tutorial

Hey, how are you?! For this tutorial, we’ll see how to create a vector-like graphic in Photoshop. I say vector-like because, as we saw in this post, Photoshop is a pixel-based software so what you’re actually doing are rasters.

*Image from Unsplash

Let’s start by choosing a photo you want to rasterize.

Open the Pen tool on Form mode and start outlining your subject by parts (face, hair, shirt, hands, pants, etc). The Pen tool will automatically open a new layer for each shape so you don’t necessarily need to do so. 

To learn more about the Pen Tool, click the banner below!

You can either change the layer’s opacity while having a solid color-filled or, have no color for the shape while outlining and add the color when you’re done. I, personally, prefer the second option.

Then open the color picker and select the tone of her face that you want with the eyedropper.

Tip: you can rename your layers as you go so it’s easier to find what you want later when you have tons of layers. For that, just double click on the layer’s name, it’ll open to rename it. When you’re done, just click Enter.

After you’re done with one part, make the layer invisible so it doesn’t cover up the photo and outline the next part. Once everything was outlined, make everything visible again and rearrange the layers as needed.

And you should have something close to this:

You can see that is very flat and plain, so that’s why we are going to add some shades. To do so, create shapes still with the pen tool, following the shade existing in the photo. For example, her jawline:

For the color, since her face has different tones because of the lighting and you already choose her face color, I recommend going for a couple of shades darker than the color you picked rather than picking the shade’s tone since it can come out darker than the face.

This is what I have:

Another example:

It won’t probably look the best at first but it’ll, indeed, look messy before it looks good. So keep shading till you have everything done. 

Tip:  at this point of  you should have a lot of layers of each part. The keep it organized and easy to work with you can put your layers into groups, separating them by parts. To do that, select the layers you want to group and click the folder icon.

And this is my final result:

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If you have any questions, feel free to ask and if you have a suggestion on what tutorial you want to see here, go to submit!