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no 1 • january 2007 vexel + vector specialty magazine

IN THE ZONE
Sarah Teer’s experiences

DO YOUR THING
Katie Holmes,
Alicia Keys, Lilyjets
and more...
a conversation with an outspoken artist
IN THE ZONE
COULD YOU TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT YOURSELF?
“Well, my name is Sarah, and I’m a seventeen year old girl from
Sydney Australia. I’m in my final grade of high school, struggling to
stay awake most days with the amount of homework I have
(hehe), and, well.. That pretty much sums it up! hehhehe. I love
listening to music, drawing, vexelling (of course) and spending
time with my boyfriend, who lives in New Zealand.”
HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT VEXELS?
“It would have been about .. hmm.. At least four years ago now.
I was a member of a forum called Nova Boards which a friend of
mine (Linda) ran: Linda basically introduced what was then called
vectors to me, and I started with a cheap version of paint shop pro.
My first vexels were tragic, let me tell you! I used a tutorial that
was similar to Linda’s current one on yoursite.nu, except I had to
alter it to work in paint shop pro. Using the magnetic lasso tool is
a pain, I tell you!”
WHAT MADE YOU START MAKING VEXELS?
“I suppose I was at that stage in my life where I needed to try new
things all the time. When something was introduced to me, I’d lap
it up and milk it for all its worth, and if I failed, well, it didn’t really
matter. Luckilly I didn’t fail, because otherwise I wouldn’t be at this
point where I am today!”
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
“There are heaps of things, probably too many to list on paper,
However, music, deviantart.com, other artists at vexels.net, and my
boyfriend are constantly inspiring me. I have so many vexels that
i’ve started and not finished because something has inspired me,
and I have a whole directory full of photos which probably
will never get touched!” (laughs)
É   “Almost here” ft. Delta Goodrem, 18th March 2006
WHAT IS YOUR STYLE IN YOUR OWN WORDS?
“I always find this question particularly hard, because my “Style”
is constantly changing. I’m never quite satisfied with what I do,
so I will always find new ways to fix the problem in the next vexel
I make. At the moment, its bordering on realism. There’s still
aspects of a cartoon nature in there, like in my latest Delta vexel.”
COULD YOU TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR METHODS AND
PROCEDURE?
“Oh no... what a question! (laughs) Okay...
I use a fairly cheap logitech mouse. It’s an optical mouse, so it’s
smooth and doesn’t get caught very easilly. I love it. I also use my
Wacom tablet if intense amounts of dotting are required, such as
in my major work vexels (explained later)
When vexelling, I almost ALWAYS start with the face. If the face
isn’t available, I’ll start with the highest part of the body which
involves skin, such as the neck or the arm. When I pick colours,
I either pick my own very carefully and vary them slightly (such
as more red hue, more yellow hue, etc) or I pick them out of the
image, which can get tricky after about 30ish skin layers. I will
start with the darkest hues unless the shadows are too dramatic,
and then I’ll start with the lightest hues. Clothing and scenery are
normally the last thing I do. Blend modes are also my best friend.
Soft light, using black (for shadows) and white (for highlights)
works miracles.
My program of choice is Adobe Photoshop. I use CS, however,
PS 7 and above is good for my method. I use the pen tool,
which provides a hell of a lot less drama than the lasso tool.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR OTHER ARTISTS AND BEGINNERS?
“For the beginners: Yes, your first vexels might seem crap, but with
practice, anyone can get better! Don’t give up, because that will
get you nowhere. If I still had my very first vexel, I’d share.
Honestly, time and practice can cure anything!
And for other artists: Don’t let other artists get you down about
your work. Yes, they may seem better than you, but nobody has
exactly the same work as you. It’s all different. The context of your
artwork is going to be different, so cherish that, and be proud of
your work. Focus on the positives, rather than the negatives - you’d
be surprised at how much people prefer it when you do that!”
“TIME AND PRACTICE
CAN CURE ANYTHING”
YOU ARE CURRENTLY DOING A STUDY ON VEXELS. WHAT ARE THE
PROJECTS YOU ARE WORKING ON? AND WHAT KIND OF STUDY IS
IT? TELL US SOMETHING MORE ABOUT IT.
“Well, actually, it’s not even for art school specifically! Art is one
of the subjects I’m taking for my last year of high school. Because
I’m doing this, it requires that I produce some artworks which all
relate to the same concept which I submit for external marking. It’s
incredibly scary, and must involve about 60 hours of work!
Whilst I love drawing, painting, and the like, I’m not incredible at it,
so if I was to submit drawings, paintings, and so on, for external
marking, I probably wouldn’t get the mark that I want. After some
thinking, I decided that I would use photoshop as my medium.
I’m creating vexels, which are heavilly based on the surfing culture
and the beaches of Southern New South Wales (Australia). Using
my cousin as a model, I took many photos of her at the beach and
surfing. About five of these were to be vexelled, but unfortunately,
I’ve had to alter my concept, and as a result, I don’t have the
photos required for what I need, so I have to start all again!
That means new photos, and starting my vexels again! It’s very
stressful, but so long as I put the work in I should be able to finish
it. The artworks I submit are only half of the work I need to do
though! The artwork is worth 50% of my final mark, and the
other 50% is theory work on art history... (Bleugh! hehehe)”
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM YOU IN THE FUTURE?
“Unfortunately, I’m not sure myself yet, which is the sad thing.
Because I’ve had to restart my major work, most of my vexelling
time will probably be spent vexelling the beach and my cousin
(both of which I’ll probably never want to see again after I’ve
finished.. hehehe!) However, at the moment, I have a vexel of my
family, which is going to be a late birthday present for my Dad,
a vexel of Mandy (suicide-stock.deviantart.com), and a
collaboration vexel with my friend, Matt, all in the works.
Hopefully I will be able to finish those in my Easter break!”
ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE?
“I’d just love to thank Lilly for giving me the opportunity to be your
featured artist for your magazine, and particularly, your first!
It’s a great honour, and I love you dearly for it. I also thank all
my friends at vexels.net for giving me such great feedback on my
vexels. It really pushes me along, and gives me the support I need,
particularly when I’m so worried about my final marks this year for
both art, and all my other subjects.”
Å  Surf’s Lost, 2nd April 2006
vexel + vector specialty magazine • no 1
What’s the deal?

TOP5
NEW
NEW ARTISTS
ARTISTS
The world of vector and
vexel artists keeps on
growing and gaining
more and more artists
ARTIST: ARTIST: ARTIST:
every day. OR chrisb Michelle, aka superficial
Gregory Kulesza
ARTIST: WEB: ARTIST: WEB:
WEB: Matthijs Haak www.vexels.net/users/3910 Daisy www.vexels.net/users/3766
In this section, some of obrobkareczna.deviantart.com Invinsibleforce  
WEB: ART: ART:
the outstanding new ART: www.total-illusion.nl No name WEB: Hayden Christensen
Solstice “In my vector work, there are www.vexels.net/users/3740 “This is a line art featuring the oh
artists are featured. “This time I wanted to make ART: a few elements I almost always so gorgeous Hayden Christensen.
something personal. Lilyjets include. I usually try to ART: It’s actually one of the first vexels
Their work is promising “I’ve tried to make this picture mechanify every picture I can get Keira Knightley I’ve made using the line art
The illustration was based look like a digital painting and my hands on, and I usually like “This is my second vexel and technique, but I really like how
and shows that the on a photo by kopytko.” I think I’ve done quite well. to break things up or have I attempted my first one about it turned out. I know a lot of
The girl on the picture is one of something fragmented. This a year ago. It wasn’t good, so people like to go into great detail
artists have a lot of the members of the Norse band case is not any different. I stopped. But then I was bored with their shading and such, but
called Lilyjets. I always like to see if I can get one day and decided to start up I actually prefer the more
talent. something deifferent out of the again. I learned some new simplier look. I think its great if
I don’t know any other artists picture than what it is portraying.” techniques which proved to be you can put in minimial detail
with this style. I think this is very effective. I picked keira and still make your artwork
because, just recently i’ve knightley because I love her outstanding. I favourite part of
We definitely wanna researched it more thouroughly. face and she is so beautiful. this vexel would definiatley have
And I chose the specific image of to be the skin shading. (hands,
see more of them, I have never written a turotial, her because it wasn’t complicated face, etc) I chose more cartoony
because I’m not good enough and did not have to many shadows shades vs the more realistic skin
so go and comment on yet to teach others.” or dramatic color changes. tones. Overall, I think this is one
The only thing I should’ve realized of my best vexels. Also, browsing
their work, help them was her extremely difficult hair. through Vexels.net (there’s some
I almost gave up when I was up to amazing work on that site, hands
improve and encourage the hair. But I stuck through it and down) and I noticed how there’s
now I love vexeling.” a lack of vexels done of males.
them to keep up the So while there’s no shortage of
Angelina Jolie vexels (which
great work! I have shamelessly contributed
to) there’s only about one or two
other Hayden Christensen vexels
that I’ve seen. I guess that makes
me feel kind of special. Haha.”

vexel + vector specialty magazine • no 1

 ARTIST:
Stella Tu

WEB:
thursdaymorning.deviantart.com
catchmybreath.org

ART:
Les Histoire d’A
“This was my chance to practice
with linework, which I have done
several times before, but not to the
extent with hair and so on.
I kept the shading as soft as
possible by using different blend
modes from the norm. I kept the
facial features flat to make them
stand out a bit more. I made each
element a brighter colour (brighter
red lips, blue shirt, yellowish toilet,
etc.) to contrast her light, fair skin.
This vector is titled after the song
by Rita Misouko, a French artist.
“Les Histoire d’amour finissent mal”
goes along the line of “Love stories
end badly”. The reference to this
vector is courtesy of splucy-stock.”

ARTIST:
Ariel Fleurimond

WEB:
www.fleur-du-monde.com
www.vexels.net/users/1300
joaris333.deviantart.com

ART:
Alicia Keys
“This is a semi-realism portrait
of Alicia Keys, an American R&B
vocalist, songwriter and performer.
It was created using Adobe
Illustrator CS and Adobe Photoshop
CS2.”

vexel + vector specialty magazine • no 1

ARTIST:
Katy Or
WEB:
vector-rae.deviantart.com
ART:
Myriad
“This is a vector I completed not
too long ago. I took the photo
and divided it up into equal parts.
It was a color study to see how
normal skin tones would look in
different shades. All major colors
are represented; red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, purple, and
pink. I also vectored each part on
it’s own, instead of vectoring the
thing whole and changing the
colors afterwards. I wanted a
true color study.”
ARTIST:
Kyla
WEB:
www.vexels.net/users/6
kutekyla.deviantart.com
ART:
I’ve been a bad, bad girl
“This is a vexel of Fiona Apple,
made in Photoshop CS with the
pen tool and the use of gradients.
Originally done in greyscale, but
I then added some light color to
add to the mood of this vexel.
I used paths and the stimulate
pressure for the hair and
eyebrows.”
vexel + vector specialty magazine • no 1
 ARTIST:
Drew Kirschner

WEB:
www.vexels.net/users/1282

ART:
Nothing But A Day
“This is a picture of the beautiful
Katie Holmes. It’s unique style
comes from the level of realism
it is at. It was quite hard to make
a realistic vector, still appear like
a vector. But that is how this one
was executed. The reason I find
it such an intriguing picture is
because of the natural look it
holds.”

ARTIST:
Ewa ‘Manitu’ Manikowska

WEB:
manitu.blo.pl

ART:
Postcard from Nowhere
“Work inspired by Elisha Cuthbert
photo.
Used techniques: solid colour
blocks, gradients and stroke paths.”

vexel + vector specialty magazine • no 1

 ARTIST:
David Nanchin

WEB:
www.vexelme.com/portfolio/9
www.davidnanchin.com

ART:
Clarkson
“I had intended this to be a black
and white vexel, but from looking
at the refrence photo, I thought
that the colour palette used would
be more effective to generate
interest and give this piece a bit of
an edge.
I use Adobe Photoshop 7 and
vector shape layers.”

ARTIST:
Baz Pringle

WEB:
www.g66.co.uk

ART:
The Candy Shop
“I created many custom Photoshop
brushes for this piece. They were
used to add detail and texture to
the vector illustration of the girl.
I created the basic rendition of the
girl in Illustrator, and then added
the details in Photoshop.
This is one of the first pieces that
I started to incorporate some of
my photography. Photos were
used to create the graphic “Candy”
element in the bottom left corner,
and many of the smaller brushes
used throughout the piece.
The first thing I like to resolve in
my illustration process is the colour
scheme. The colours will dictate
the overall mood and feel of a
piece, and guides the rest of the
design process. Experimentation is
very important to me so I will try
palettes that I wouldn’t normally
gravitate to, and themes that may
be challenging to me.”

vexel + vector specialty magazine • no 1

 ARTIST:
Minakat

WEB:
www.myspace.com/minakat
minakat.deviantart.com
revolver.idflux.net

ART:
Maria Carla’s hair
“A tribute to Klimt and the 1900’s
art movement In Europe, mixing
a beautifull but weird face girl
with the Medusa myth.”

ARTIST:
Sarah Teer

WEB:
www.vexels.net/users/17
sewwy.deviantart.com
www.sewwy.com

ART:
Aesthetics
“Aesthetics was created for a
vexels.net competition in which
I placed second. It consists of over
600 layers, and was probably my
most detailed vexel I had done at
the time “

vexel + vector specialty magazine • no 1

 So, the big moment was there. I decided to
show my vexels to my dad, something I didn’t
fancy doing for quite a long time. Why? I don’t
know – there was no need to and I thought he
wouldn’t understand it anyway.
DO YOUR THING
Me, with pride: Look dad. This is a vexel.
Dad: …. Ooh.
Me: What do you think?
Dad: Well… I mean… I don’t know. It’s like a digitalized version
of the reality, isn’t it?
Me: Yeah. That’s the point of it.
Dad: ….
Me: Don’t you like it?
Me, impatiently: Well?
Dad: But look at her neck, if you would take away the face it
looks like a moon landscape! And you see all these layers in it.
Me: Ehr, yeah dad. You are supposed to see them. *duh*
Dad: But do you think it adds anything to the original image?
Me: I think it does, I think it’s beautiful. And I enjoy doing it.
Dad, surprised and feeling awkward: Wait, YOU made this???!!!!
*Dad starts telling me over and over that I shouldn’t care about
what he thinks, as long as I think it’s pretty and enjoy doing it.*
I was heart-broken, torn up, and sobbing in tears I left the room.
I locked myself up in my room, ate tons of chocolate and swore
I would never vexel again! Oh, and I nearly committed suicide too.
Well, that’s not really true. It did bother me that my dad didn’t
like it. Of course his opinion matters to me. But my point is that,
whenever someone doesn’t like your work or you don’t get the
most splendid reactions on your new style, you shouldn’t let them
discourage you. Especially if you don’t even know the commenter
in person. Lately I have seen some artists giving up their original
style or thinking about it, just because people didn’t seem to like
it much. To me this is such a big shame, cause I love seeing new
styles. I am almost sure that if people don’t give up after one vexel
because they didn’t get much feedback, eventually people will
start noticing them. This is of course because you will master your
style, but also partly because you let people see that you like the
style and that you’re serious about it - that it’s not just another
funny experiment.
Try to do the opposite of giving up, and use the bad (or lack of)
comments as a motivation to prove everyone who doesn’t see
anything in your work wrong. Oh, the clichéness, might be going
through your head right now, but this idea works out for me.
I hope I made myself clear here. This is something that – in my
opinion - happens to many artists in general. But to give a simple
example, did Monet quit because his first “impressionistic”
(a mocking name given by critics) work didn’t get received too
well? So you might not be the next Monet, but you get the
principle. Just do what you want to do and don’t let other people
prevent you from doing it. Or in other words and to put another
clichéd phrase in this article, “do your thing”.
- Andrea
BOY
by vidrio_verde
Andrea (not me, we just happen to have
the same name) is a truly talented artist.
Her style is very unique and different
from what I have seen on the vexels.net
site but also on Deviant Art. Especially
her “Boy” vexel really spoke to me.
The beautiful skintones and the choppy
shapes make this work very special.
Take a look at her gallery; creativity
everywhere.
portfolio: www.vexels.net/users/3670
artwork suggested by Andrea
The Only Gay in the Village
by michelleion
Michelle doesn’t have a big gallery
but is certainly a promising talent.
“The Only Gay In The Village” must be one
of the most funny vexels ever and the
style is amazing too – especially how
she worked with the latex. I’m looking
forward to seeing more of her work and
I bet you now do too. Pay her Deviant Art
gallery a visit as well, her drawings are
worth it!
portfolio: www.vexels.net/users/2293
and michelleion.deviantart.com
artwork suggested by Andrea
Love Bird
by brontobot
Love Bird is a vexel that Liz has put a lot
of effort into perfecting. It has simple line
art in combination with detailed shading
and beautiful spring colors.
The image is vexelled with permission
from photographer Kadrip55. Liz worked
on this image for about a week and it
has198 shapes and 14 layers.
portfolio: www.vexels.net/users/1487
artwork suggested by LiL
IN THE
SPOTLIGHT
Ó
Getting familiar with the Toolbar
by Katy Or
Some of the icons found in the Adobe Illustrator toolbar might look familiar. However, if you are new to
the program, the various tools can be a little bit more daunting. I’m going to do a general outline of the
more basic and more commonly used tools found in the toolbar. Some of the tools I will not go over in
this basic tutorial, however in the future when I write more tutorials, I will introduce some of the other
tools or expand more on some of the tools I will be talking about here. Lets get started!
01: SELECTION TOOL
This tool is used to select various shapes in the program and move
them around. By selecting a shape you will then have a bounding
box around the shape, which you can then manipulate to change
how the shape looks. To do this, select an object with the selection
tool, and then while still using the selection tool, click on one of the
four corners of the bounding box and drag.
02: MAGIC WAND TOOL
The magic wand tool is also used for selection. It is used in
situations where you want to select more than one shape.
The magic wand tools tends to select shapes that are close together,
so it can save time when selecting multipe shapes or groups.
03: PEN TOOL
The pen tool is the most famous Adobe tool of all time and can be
found in almost every Adobe program. This tool is used to create
shapes by making and manipulating anchor points. The pen tool and
its sisters and brothers (the add anchor pen tool, etc) all deserve
their own tutorial and we will be getting more into the
pen tool with a future tutorial.
04: LINE TOOL
To create a straight line, simply hold down the shift key when
drawing a line. Grouped with the line tool is also the arc tool and
some other neat tools. These can be easily mastered by simply
playing around with them.
05: ROTATE TOOL
The rotate tool is grouped with the mirror tool and can sometimes
be extremely handy. To use the rotate tool, select an object using
the selection tool, then click the rotate tool and click on the shape
and drag around the shape until you have reached a desired
location. Hold down the shift key to get a more equal rotation. Do
the same with the mirror option.
06: EYEDROPPER TOOL
The eyedropper tool is used to copy colors and settings from one
shape to another. If you have one shape that has a brown fill and a
orange stroke that is a weight of 2, and you would like another
shape to look like that, select the latter shape and then click the
eyedropper and then click on the brown and orange object. These
properties are now copied to the latter object. However, if you
would just like to fill the later object with the same color as the
orange stroke, hold down the shift key while click on the orange
border with the eyedropper. You will only select colors when the
shift key is held down.
07: HAND TOOL
This tool doesn’t have many uses except simply to move about your
work space. He won’t select anything so its safe to use it at all
times. The shortcut to this tool is usually the spacebar. If you hold
down the spacebar a little white hand should become your cursor.
Feel free to drag about at that time to move around your work area.
08: DIRECT SELECTION TOOL
The direct selection tool can also select shapes and groups but is
usually used to manipulate anchor points. We will get into anchor
points and their qualities in a later tutorial.
09: LASSO TOOL
The main use for this tool is also, you guessed it, selection!
However with this tool you can control exactly what shapes you
select. Click in a spot and drag around the shapes you want to select,
and then they will all be selected. This is great for having to move
around other shapes you do not wish to be selected.
10: TEXT TOOL
The text tool is used for just that, adding text! You can add text as its
own shape to a piece, add text on a path, and many other things.
Use the Character and Paragraph palattes to
manipulate your text.
11: SHAPE TOOL
Create shapes by clicking in the work area
and dragging out the shape. Grouped with 01 08
the rectangle tool you can find many tools 02 09
that are used to create various shapes.
03 10
12: PENCIL TOOL 04 11
The pencil tool is similar in some ways to the
pen tool. Unlike the pen tool, however, 12
which creates shapes by clicking and making
anchor points, the pencil tool is used by 05
drawing a shape usually in one full swoop.
Click on your work area and drag to make a
circle to test out the pencil tool. Double click
on the pencil tool icon in the tool bar to
manipulates its properties.
06
13: SCISSOR TOOL
The scissor tool is used for cutting down
shapes if they are not to your liking. Click on
paths while the scissor tool is selected to 13
sever paths. 07 14
14: MAGNIFYING GLASS TOOL
Use this tool to zoom in and out of your
work. Click on your work with this selected
to zoom in. When you wish to zoom out,
hold down the alt key and click down.
vexel + vector specialty magazine • no 1
Tutorials: Which to pick when?
by Andrea
So you are a complete newbie to vexelling, and you really want to learn how to do it. But there are so
many tutorials, and it’s all so confusing! Which one to choose? Which technique to go for?
Here we will recommend some good tutorials to help you getting started with the basics and getting

STEP ONE: The pentool STEP FOUR: Special techniques

First of all, you need to know how to use the pen tool. It will take
some time to get used to it, but eventually it will save you a lot of
time and create much smoother shapes compared to par example
the polygonal lasso tool. Turp has made a very good tutorial where
she tells you all about the basics of this tool.
turp.deviantart.com
STEP TWO: The shading basics
Now, it is important for you to learn how to shade skin, hair, eyes,
lips, etc. Linda has made a very comprehensible tutorial on this,
but you should definitely take some time to read through it and
understand it. You don’t learn how to vexel in ten minutes! The
best thing to do is to choose a picture and follow the steps while
reading them.
www.yoursite.nu
You can find another verygood tutorial here:
vectortea.com/vtut
Now that you know all about realism vexels, you might want to
know more about specific techniques to vexel specific parts.
A stroke path (pen tool) tutorial by Linda:
www.vexels.net/articles/40
The vexel tip guide at www.vexels.net: useful tips for everything
that has something do with vexelling.
STEP FIVE: Get inspired for your own style
Now that you know you are able to create realism vexels and know
about different techniques, you might want to learn something
about other styles to help you develop your own style.
A walk-through by verucasalt82 on line-art:
verucasalt82.deviantart.com

STEP THREE: Getting more skilled

Basically now you know how to vexel, but you want to get more
skilled, right? Natalie has made a very good tutorial and shows us
how she makes those incredibly detailed vexels.
Definitely worth a read:
akirichan.net
Just play around a lot with the techniques you’ve just learned, you
can do a lot with line-art.

Get experimenting!

Would you like to have your tutorial published in the next

issue of VVM? Send the link and info to vvm@lil-online.nl

Post-it!
Share your opinion! Ask your questions! Show your talents!

Questions about special techniques, skin tones, saving in

good quality… or if you have a short message, story or
anything else to say about vexels and vectors, you name it!
This is the right place for you!
Send your email and a reply might be published in the next
issue of V VM!
Post-it!
vvm@lil-online.nl
vexel + vector specialty magazine • no 1