Alien Insect Brushes for Adobe Illustrator

A free brush set for Adobe Illustrator from Human Nature. This pack contains four brushes that will turn your strokes into organic shapes that look a lot like alien insect creatures...

You can get more effects by experimenting with different stroke size, color and layer transparency.

To use, load the PDF file in Adobe Illustrator (Use the File>Open method, not click+drag) and open the Brushes Palette (Window>Brushes). Download

Infographics with Adobe Illustrator

A comprehensive digital illustration tutoarial from Digital Arts Magazine. Wendy Ding takes you through the differents steps of translating abstract elements into a 3D, easy to understand illustrations that will enforce the visual communication in your composition. 

"Infographics, such as the one above, are great visual tools for communicating large amounts of data. Breaking down large amounts of abstract data, they place the information in context and transform it into tangible and useful knowledge." Full tutorial

Human Nature Brushes for Adobe Illustrator

A stunning brush set for Adobe Illustrator from HumanNature84. The pack contains ten art brushes which can be used for drawing organic graphics or decorating abstract compositions.

If you experiment with different stroke sizes, colors and layer opacity value, you will get a variety of eye catchy effects...

To use, load the PDF file with Adobe Illustrator (File>Open) and bring up the brush palette (Window>Brushes). Download

Working with masks in Adobe Illustrator Tutorial

A few weeks ago, Computer Arts magazine published a PDF tutorial about various clipping and opacity masking techniques in Adobe Illustrator.

"Ben the Illustrator shows you the range of brilliant features hidden within your masking tools.

A mask might appear to be just a simple tool for covering something up, but Adobe Illustrator’s masking tools offer far more than one basic use. Along with the Compound Path, Illustrator’s Clipping and Opacity Masks can take your illustration and design onto a new level of detail, precision, texture and shape. To know when to use each tool, you simply need a clear understanding of what each one does." Full tutorial & source files.

Switching Between CMYK and RGB Color Modes in Adobe Illustrator

In the articles section of iStockphoto.com, I found a great material about using color modes when working with vectors. 

The article explains how to find out what is the color mode that you are currently using (CMYK vs RGB), how to change it and when. If you are not familiar with using color swatches in Adobe Illustrator, you may consider checking it out too. Full Article

Wonderland

Battersea Park, London

Purple Gatorade and Uger

The Brief: Purple Gatorade [The Tiny Art Director's Fish] The Critique: Why did you draw Uger? [Her sister's fish] I hate Uger! Why is his eyes like that? It looks like he's mad. What are you writing down? Grownups never lie, right Daddy? Dad, that doesn't look like Purple Gatorade. Only mine looks like Purple Gatorade. You're going to scan it, and then when you're done with it, it's going to be scrappled up and thrown in the garbage. And then mine will be our final picture. Job Status: Rejected Our Final Picture: at right

X-Ray T-Rex

The Brief: A dinosaur in a X-Ray
The Critique: I just want to see a little mousey in his tummy
Job Status: Approved (after addition of mousey)
Additional Comments: That's what kind of bones dogs like to chew on. Dinosaur leg bones.

Skateboard Deck Design Workflow (Adobe Illustrator Tutorial)

Another outstanding tutorial from Computer Arts Magazine, that explores the process of composing visual design concepts for skateboard decks with our favorite vector editor - Adobe Illustrator. To read the tutorial you need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your machine."Skate decks are without question one of the coolest products around to design. Everything from their unique shape and size to their tactile finish offers us designers a truly rewarding blank canvas to splash some color over..." Full tutorial and source files