Moody Vietnam Sunset Illustration – Illustrator Tutorial

Moody Vietnam Sunset Illustration - Illustrator Tutorial

Learn to create this moody sunset illustration from a sketch in Adobe Illustrator. We’ll learn some cool tricks to build out color, build shapes using a tablet, and much, much more.

Inspired by: https://dribbble.com/shots/3437852-Guilin-Illustration-Scenery

DOWNLOAD SKETCH AND COLOR PALETTE HERE

Tags: adobe illustrator tutorial, graphic design, illustrator cc, vector illustration, illustrator tutorials, illustration, vector, graphic design tutorials, graphic design tutorial, illustrator tutorial for beginners, adobe illustrator cc tutorial, how to draw, creative cloud, tutvid, how to, nathaniel dodson, AI

Recording notes:

  • New document sized: 800×600 and set it to RGB color mode
  • Load in the colors we’ll use
  • Load in the sketch and place it on a new layer and set it to Multiply + lock it up
  • Create base sky with a rectangle and a gradient of the first two colors as a radial gradient
  • Create a sun a little smaller than the sketch and fill with thirds color and set to 80% opacity and offset path 20px and reduce opacity of each copy by 15% opacity
  • Group all rings of the sun together
  • Create rays of sun light floating up there with Curvature Pen
  • Create a mask on this overall layer to clip everything into this layer
  • Grab pencil and set to your preference and choose the tick second-closest to accurate
  • Start drawing mountains in the back first
  • Draw all the mountains out––add color as you go
  • Create rectangle for the water and drag below all the mountains
  • Adjust the water line where needed
  • Add radial gradient to the water and adjust as needed
  • Mask the bottom of the sun so it hides behind the hills
  • Group all mountains together and duplicate them
  • Fill with a white to white gradient with the right handle set to 0% opacity, rotated to 90º, and the left handle to 30% opacity
  • Open both groups of shapes and drag each mountain’s highlight/glow to just above the mountain to which it belongs
  • Create a radial gradient glow from the sun area using the same gradient as the sun and mask behind the front hill faces
  • Draw the man on the boat using pencil or pen tool and fill with a dark color
  • Expand any strokes to fill and then group all shapes together
  • Duplicate the group and flip upside down and reduce opacity to make reflection on water.
  • Use Wrinkle tool to mix up the reflection
  • Build out boat reflection a little more
  • Use the pencil tool and start scribbling in reflections along the coastlines
  • Move each shadow just above the water (auto masking it in place essentially) and reduce opacity to anywhere between 35%-10% opacity
  • Tweak it until it’s looking good

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