Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
Second Pass - Instructions.docx59.3 KB Second Pass - Exercise.ai
1.2 MB Second Pass - Exercise Solution.ai
1.2 MB
Quick reference
Second Pass
Once we trace the outlines we can begin focusing on the next largest shapes in our design.
When to use
Typically when working on logos or illustrations it can be helpful to start with the largest groups or shapes before honing in on the details. A lot of times people like to get to the details and so they start on that before tackling some of the larger elements which is a mistake because it can distract you and take more time in the long run.
Instructions
- Open the Second Pass - Exercise.ai file in Illustrator
- Create a new layer above your 'Trace' layer
- Grab the Pen Tool (P) and begin tracing the largest shapes in the sketch (the horns, the eyes, the nose etc)
- You will also want to retrace the shape of the head as well as the neck, even though we have an outline of this on our Trace layer.
- Once you have traced all of these larger shapes, be sure to save your work before continuing to the next step.
Hints & tips
- When you are tracing and looking at everything as an outline, don't worry if some of your shapes overlap.
- It is okay to trace certain parts of an image more than once as it gives you more options later on in the process.
- 00:04 So now that we have our trace layer I'm actually gonna turn that off for a moment,
- 00:08 lock the layer, and go ahead and create another new layer.
- 00:11 Now if my pen tool is selected I can come in and
- 00:14 begin tracing the next largest group of shapes here.
- 00:17 So we're gonna basically be following the same procedure to trace things like
- 00:21 the shape of the eye and all of the other shapes in here as well.
- 00:25 So again, we're just gonna use the sketch layer as a base and
- 00:28 then we're gonna kind of work our way into the smaller details.
- 00:32 So I'm gonna go through this, trace both of the eyes and
- 00:35 maybe if we like one more than the other.
- 00:38 We can reflect them and
- 00:39 copy it on the other side to make those symmetrical if we want.
- 00:42 This is the part where you can kind of get in the zone and
- 00:45 you get into a rhythm where you begin tracing these larger shapes, right?
- 00:50 So even though we already done the outline we're gonna go ahead and
- 00:53 trace the horns once again, just so that I could have them kind of separating.
- 00:56 And we'll see how they match up with our outline towards the end, all right?
- 01:01 The outline is really going to help us out though because it can still add a certain
- 01:05 bit of variety and boldness to our design.
- 01:09 And for the moment,
- 01:09 I'm actually going to kind of trace through some of these shapes here.
- 01:12 So you'll see where the ear is.
- 01:15 I'm just kind of ignoring that for a second so
- 01:17 that I can just get the horn by it's self.
- 01:20 So don't be afraid to go over some of these lines, or
- 01:23 make them a little bit different than the actual drawing that we are tracing, okay?
- 01:27 So here I'm just going around this part of the horn once again.
- 01:31 And now I can come back in here and maybe do the ear separately.
- 01:34 I'll start on the outside this time.
- 01:37 And the goal is that I just wanna be able to kind of separate these and segment all
- 01:40 of these pieces that we can break them down a little bit more, all right?
- 01:44 Because the more that you kinda break this up, the more detail your image can
- 01:47 have and the more opportunities you have to do something unique.
- 01:51 So I'm not too worried about the lines and the shading at this point,
- 01:55 I'm really just focusing on these larger shapes.
- 01:59 I apologize if that sounds redundant, but this part is fairly self explanatory,
- 02:04 once you kind of get into the groove with the pen tool.
- 02:07 So I'm just going to continue to trace over some of these shapes, so as you've
- 02:12 seen me doing so far and so we can break this up into more digestible chunks.
- 02:17 For example, I can come down here, focus on the nose and the snout and everything,
- 02:21 and we'll kinda see where we're at once we get through these larger pieces.
- 02:25 All right, so I encourage you guys, take your time with this.
- 02:29 Have some fun, put on some good music and
- 02:31 just kind of zone out as you make your way through.
- 02:34 I don't want to say, zone out in the sense that you don't pay attention.
- 02:37 You still wanna be mindful of what you're doing, right?
- 02:40 You can always come back in and tweak these and finesse them afterwards.
- 02:44 So they don't have to be perfect right out of the gate, okay?
- 02:46 So I'm just closing the shape here.
- 02:49 Next, we'll kind of tackle the nostrils here, the nose.
- 02:54 Looking again, just kinda starting with the overall the broad shape and
- 02:58 then we'll work our way in towards the center where we can add more details.
- 03:03 We're still thinking kind of in broad strokes here, so that's okay.
- 03:08 All right just continuing to make my way around the nose.
- 03:11 Maybe add a few more of these lines in here if you want to.
- 03:13 But for now let's just keep it going, okay?
- 03:16 And I'm kind of redrawing and going over the jaw again, and just so
- 03:20 they can separate this lower portion of the mouth here, all right?
- 03:24 I think I'll just make it just one kind of downward curved line like that.
- 03:29 All right, and if we want to we can kind of draw on top of this
- 03:34 afterwards to merge these shapes together.
- 03:37 All right, so here for example, I'm just kind of adding a shape.
- 03:44 Gonna do the same thing on this side use that corner of the mouth here.
- 03:47 Well, we don't really need a shape there.
- 03:50 I think these will probably need to tap over a couple of clicks,
- 03:54 a couple of notches there.
- 03:56 All right, so I'm just using the arrow key and
- 03:58 selecting those points with my Direct Selection tool.
- 04:02 And then I can kind of come in here and take a look at the base of the nose,
- 04:07 or this, I don't know what you would call this.
- 04:11 I'm not too familiar with the appropriate anatomy for
- 04:15 all the parts of a bull, so I apologize.
- 04:19 And here I'm just grabbing this point to kind of make a more angular shape here,
- 04:23 come back up here, follow that line,
- 04:26 go all the way to the corner in the nose here, right?
- 04:29 And then I can just make one long smooth shape and then close it up top, all right?
- 04:34 Zoom out a little bit, and now I can kind of go over and
- 04:37 get just the main shape of the head once again before adding more detail.
- 04:45 I'm kinda using the existing here as a guide since we've already traced that.
- 04:51 And I can go around to here just follow the outer portion of the skull here.
- 04:59 Okay, and you may notice that there are some parts that I'm kind of retracing and
- 05:04 going over.
- 05:07 Which you don't have to do, we can just come through here,
- 05:10 since we've already got the lower portion created.
- 05:13 It's okay if your lines overlap because once those are filled with solid color
- 05:17 you're not really going to even notice.
- 05:21 I think it might be nice that it's not actually perfectly symmetrical throughout
- 05:26 the entire graphic.
- 05:30 Sometimes it's the asymmetry that can be nice.
- 05:37 All right, just make sure that I had my points selected there.
- 05:41 I think I accidentally grabbed my Zoom tool by accident.
- 05:46 Okay, if I turned off the sketch layer, you can see that we're starting to build
- 05:50 up some of these main shapes, which is great.
- 05:52 So I'm just gonna continue doing this for a few more minutes until we have
- 05:57 a few more of these elements traced and built out, right.
- 06:01 I'm kinda going in and drawing the shape that will be underneath the eye,
- 06:06 All right?
- 06:06 Kinda like the lower eye lid here.
- 06:09 I'm just gonna go around the eye and maybe extend it a bit further, just so
- 06:13 I have a little more of an interesting shape to play with.
- 06:16 Okay, so you can see where I'm using the sketch is just a reference really.
- 06:20 As I've said, you don't have to follow it exactly.
- 06:23 We'll do the same thing over here.
- 06:25 Tracing the eye following that shape.
- 06:27 Going around it adding a little bit more to it than we had originally.
- 06:30 Pick up my last point here.
- 06:31 Cuz I don't want the handle to be going all the way out to the side.
- 06:35 Now I can start to add some of these other large shapes in here.
- 06:41 No, not gonna worry about that shape for right now.
- 06:46 Cuz like I said,
- 06:47 I just want to be focusing on some of these larger areas initially.
- 06:50 All right, there's always time to add more details later.
- 06:53 I just find that it's better to start with the big shapes and work your way in.
- 07:00 All right, and then, of course we have the outside,
- 07:03 which we could just use our outline layer but
- 07:06 I think I might just take another pass at it to see how this will look.
- 07:12 All right, kind of bring it down to a point here.
- 07:13 All right, let me kinda do something like that, bring it in.
- 07:24 And I'm actually just going to connect those two points.
- 07:27 All right, so it might look weird when you're just looking at the outlines, but
- 07:30 it'll make sense later, okay?
- 07:32 So let's do something like this in the center here,
- 07:37 Which gonna create this large shape, and
- 07:41 this is going to connect all the way to the outside and
- 07:46 just follow that all the way back around.
- 07:50 Okay, and I think once we've got this piece down here we pretty much have all
- 07:54 the big pieces that we're going to need initially, all right?
- 07:57 It's not rocket science by any means, but
- 08:00 it does take a little bit of skill and finesse to to get this down.
- 08:05 So I encourage you guys, again, to take your time with it, practice, be patient.
- 08:10 Don't worry too much about messing up.
- 08:11 Because a lot of the tools in Illustrator are meant to help you correct
- 08:14 these things.
- 08:15 So let's just go ahead and the sketch layer off for a second.
- 08:18 It looks like we're in pretty good shape.
- 08:20 From here, there's just a lot of more details on the inside or on the eyes and
- 08:24 the horns and everything like that.
- 08:25 But for now, we've got most of the large shapes covered.
Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.