Vector Art

Vector Art

Vector art projects require planning and a process to be followed to achieve optimal artwork. This is due to the many styles that can be employed to create the work. The strategy I normally use is to create thumbnail sketches to establish a concept and define the treatment of elements essential to the visual. It’s necessary to resolve the styling and options for the final visual to be illustrated first. Styling is variable as a linocut/etching emulation is quite different from a visual that has flatter, larger shapes or fills.

Once the conceptual sketch has been completed, it is scanned and saved for import to Adobe Illustrator. The paths and fills/shapes are then drawn up in Illustrator. Colour assignment and final artwork are then completed. Vector art is considerably more economical for print, due to the following:

Vector graphics or vector art are computer graphics images that are defined in terms of points on a Cartesian plane, which are connected by lines and curves to form polygons and different shapes, and has the unique advantage over raster graphics in that the points, lines, and curves can be scaled to any resolution without aliasing. The points determine the direction of the vector path. Each path has various properties which include values for stroke color, shape, curve, thickness, and fill.

This type of art is a part of digital illustration as it’s an artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative process.