How to Create Vector Portrait in Adobe Illustrator [Step by Step]

 Start by choosing a good picture

The final result will depend greatly on the kind of picture you choose. Look for something not only good looking, but also with good lighting, contrast (which will make your work a lot easier, as you will see later) and nice details. Least but not last, it’s preferable to use a high quality picture because you might zoom in and out a lot. If you need to remove a distracting background, see our tutorial on removing the background from an image.

Setup your document

To get started, open Adobe illustrator and create a new document. Created a video tutorial on how to create a document and setup your layers so that your canvas is ready to start illustrating.

Creating Lineart Drawing:

Learn how you can draw line art of any object in Adobe illustrator. Line art is the base of every flat vector illustration, if you get that right then you illustration will look more attractive than it would be earlier. Make sure to make you line art perfect before moving to coloring process.

How to Draw Vector Eye:
 

The utmost important part in human face is eyes and eyes must have to look realistic and catchy to make your Vector Portrait illustration stand out. This video tutorial is about Vector Eyes and Eyebrows drawing in Adobe Illustrator. I have explained how you can create eyes from scratch and add coloring & shading the eye till adding the highlights,

 Create Vector Lips Step by Step

Learn how to create Vector Lips in Portrait Illustration using Adobe Illustrator. This video is the Part 4 of the Vector Portrait Illustration series and you'll learn how to create vector lips from scratch from line art drawing till the coloring and shading process.

Create Vector Face Step by Step:

The most important part in Vector Portrait Illustration is Face Shading. Face Shading plays an important role in making or breaking your illustration work. Here is the video tutorial on how you can add shading using simple flat colors to give life to your Portrait Illustration drawing. This techniques applied is same for Pro create or if you using any other Software. You need to add more than two layers of shading to make your drawing look realistic. Primary & Secondary shading is must and same is the case for Highlights.

 Vector Hair Shading Step by Step:

Don't worry if you don't have a graphic tablet you can still create realistic vector hairs in adobe illustrator using the technique I showed in this video. Don't let tools stop your creativity and excel with what you have in vector Illustrations. You'll learn how you can add hair streaks to give depth to your hairs using pen tool and then have you can use width profile function to add interest in your illustration.

Create Gradient Shading Step by Step:

Here comes a little advance tutorial on how to do face shading using Gradients. There are a lot of ways to shade your vector Portrait which includes Gradient face Shading, Simple Flat color Shading and Shading through Blending. I have tried to explain the Gradient Face Shading in this video and how you can use the Gradient Shading technique to give life to your drawings.

Create a Realistic Skintone Palette:

How you can find realistic skintone colors for vector illustration for shading your portraits in Adobe Illustrator. I have been asked many times how you choose your colors for artwork so this is the detailed video on how you can use Illustrator build in Swatches and how you can make your own colors for shading and Highlighting your Vector Flat Portraits. Hope you'll get value from this video.

Finishes Touches:

This video is the final video of Vector Portrait Illustration in Adobe Illustrator and in this video you'll learn how to a simple trick to make you vector portrait pop by adding a simple round circle in background of a Portrait to make it look Awesome. Hope you'll enjoy this video tutorial