Best of the Web – June

Jul 1st in Web Roundups by Sean Hodge

There are great Illustrator tutorials, design articles, and freebies across the web this month. There are more places on the web then you may realize that cover vector graphics and teach how to create them. I'm excited to put together this first monthly roundup showcasing this material elsewhere on the web.

Author: Sean Hodge

Hi All! I recently moved to the outskirts of Orlando, Florida. I'm the editor of Psdtuts+ and Vectortuts+. Also, visit my blog AiBURN where I feature some of my creative work and ideas. Or follow me on Twitter: @seanHodge.

Tutorial Wrap

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  Simple organic shapes the Illustrator way

  Veerle shows us a simple way to make organic vector shapes, and form them into a composition. Numerous transparency and layer effects are used to get an interesting result. This tutorial is great for beginners.

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  Tutorial : Create a cool water effect

  In this tutorial you will learn how to use mesh tool to create water droplets. You'll also use the symbol sprayer tool to place the water droplets. The water droplets on the gradient background look great in this tutorial.

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  Trendy Geometric Lines Design Tutorial

  The lines in this design are created in Illustrator. They are simple to create, but deliver a dynamic and interesting result. The vector lines are copied and then placed into Photoshop to finish the modern poster design.

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  3D Logo Tutorial

  This tutorial presents a good workflow for using Illustrators 3D tools. Typically, the results from of the 3D tool should be Expanded, and then each piece colored separately. This tutorial uses that workflow and delivers a cool letting result.

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  How to Make a Map in Illustrator

  This is a basic introduction to map making technique in Illustrator. The tutorial covers building custom brushes for the roads, creating legends, and constructing the shapes of buildings. Illustrator is a powerful map making tool. I really like this tutorial, as it reminds me of a project on designing maps I did in grad school.

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  Free Watercolor Brushes and Tutorial

  Rype has written a great follow up tutorial to his popular Create a Watercolor Vector Flower Illustration tutorial here on Vectortuts. The follow up shows you how to create your own vector watercolor brushes in Illustrator.

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(FREE!) Download Picks

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  Fishing Equipment Vista Icons

  DaPino has a huge selection of custom vector freebies. It's a site worth checking up on. The vector file for these fishing icons is available. It is a good learning tool to see how these are created.

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  Vector Art Free Download - Envelope Icon Set

  Some great envelope designs from professional stock artist Phil Earley. If you need some vector envelopes for your next design project than check these out, as they're professional quality.

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  Free Vector Series: Flourishes

  Here are some unique flourish designs form Neno Design Blog. A selection from the introduction, "These can really add texture to your design, perhaps as a background element or even as a way to grunge it up in the foreground."

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  Top 15 Free Vector Resources for Designers & Developers

  This article points to some great resources to find vector freebies. With fifteen resources linked to you're sure to find places you haven't heard of. This is one of those posts to bookmark in del.icio.us.

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  Free Vector Pack 11 Sampler

  This new vector freebie sampler pack has an assortment of professional vector designs. You'll get trees, doodles, exploding type and more. Also, GoMedia has launched a new site design. It has some awesome branding, good organization of content, and a great design that fits their creative image.

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Article Wrap

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  30+ Outstanding Character Illustrations In Modern Web Design

  Vector character design in websites is awesome. This post rounds up a large collection of great designs. "Vector characters can establish a memorable image of your site in the reader’s mind. So if you are looking for inspiration for your web design, here is an amazing collection of over 30 Vector illustrated websites."

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  ASK MORDY: Preview Without Bleed

  The Real World Illustrator blog is a great place to get practical advice on Illustrator techniques. Mordy often answers user questions he receives through email in full comprehensive posts. This one shows how to use Masks to set up previews without the artwork showing outside the bleed area. It's not as efficient as InDesign unfortunately.

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  30 Insane Freelance Illustrator Portfolios Part 1

  This post points to some great vector artists. The artists presented are working vector artists with great skill. This is a must see post this month.

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  SVG to go mainstream with Apples Snow Leopard?

  Some interesting buzz about Scalable Vector Graphics. It would be great to have Flash replaced by this an open source technology. Not Flash as a program, as Flash can export to SVG. The post talks about the browser issues hindering the growth of the technology, but there is hope. "SVG could be Apples flash and could be an important part of SproutCore future widgets like pay charts and diagrams." Some interesting developments at Apple.

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  Colorburned Texture Roundup

  All to often we make clear crisp vector graphics. It's not difficult to add a little texture before exporting. I have a simple tutorial on how to do that over at AiBURN titled Design a Business Report Cover. Grant has a plethora of textures available over at Colorburn that he recently put together. Download them and use them to add some texture to your next vector design.

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