How to Add and Create TEXTURE | Illustrator Tutorial (9 WAYS)

in today's Adobe Illustrator tutorial you'll learn nine ways to add texture to vector illustration you will see how to correctly prepare artwork to texturising how to add photo texture and adjust it with blending modes and clipping masks how to add different noise textures using opacity mask linear radial and preform gradient and even how to create unique noise brush and use it in different ways this list is not including all the tips and advices that you will learn from this video by the end of this tutorial you will understand that you made giant step from amateur to professional use trading and professional workflow you are watching TNT tutorials let's move on to follow this tutorial step by step you can download this vector illustration and follow of pepper texture by the link in the video description when you will open this document click here on swatches you should see this folder and all these colors if something went wrong just download swatches by the link in the video description also then click here click on other library and find path to the loaded swatches what you can see here is base of our artwork I used sketch to create all these shapes you can download this sketch also if you would like to create all this illustration from the very beginning if you think that your not able to create this illustration by yourself from sketch you can watch some previous videos you can watch how to create girl on bicycle for example or how to draw rows as you can see I've created different layers for each object in this scene you should do the same when you will create your own artworks because this will make your life easier and your workflow will be much faster when it will work with each of these objects I will simply unlock needed object work with it and all other layers won't distract me from working then I will lock this layer again and unlock needed layer to unlock all layers you should simply hold left mouse button here and drag mouse like this to lock them all just do the same when I'm creating artwork I do not worry about such moments as you can see I didn't cut any lines I didn't feel anything and you should do the same just create lines make sure that you're happy with overall look and then just follow this method let's unlock we layer let's pick all these lines first of all let's group them to easily pick them with one click later if you would like to edit them you can simply double click on these lines they are in isolation mode so all other layers are disabled ok for direct selection tool and play with these lines to exit isolation mode just double click somewhere now let's just simply select this base layer now press ctrl c ctrl shift V we just placed copy on top of these layers now select this copy these lines right click make clipping mask so as you can see we didn't need to cut anything or to fit any lines now if you would like to quickly play with these lines and for direct selection tool pick needed line and change it like this I always try to avoid cutting any objects because after you will cut them you will have less possibilities to play with your artwork to change something so just apply clipping mask and use direct selection tool to pick needed objects or double click on this clipping mask with selection tool you can see that we have this group here in this clipping mask you can also double click on this group to isolate group and then just simply double click summer to exit isolation mode as you can see it's very handy and it allows you to have full control on your artwork now let's do the same here unlocked a layer you can pick this line one by one or you can simply select all these objects you are not afraid to pick any unnecessary objects because they are all locked now hold shift and simply deselect this layer then press ctrl G to group and we have power lines group and we have our base layer selected control C control shift V select these two layers and sometimes you might right-click and won't be make repair mask option in this case you should go to object clipping mask make now you can do the same a for direct selection tool play with lines let's lock this layer and do the same here I will unlock all these leaves select this one control C control shift V select this object this line right click make clipping mask the same here as you can see it takes only two or three seconds let's lock these fires I made this dark part on the ground just to make big visible because we need big to be the same color as background later we will make it stand out with applying textures if I will hide this part we won't see this big so let's leave it for now let's unlock big control C control shift V select these two objects my clipping mask now what we need to do is to apply shape of bird body to head green layer unlock these two layers select bird body ctrl C lock this layer select head grid layer ctrl F now select these two layers this red layer should be on top of this grid layer right click make clipping mask also when you're creating artwork relate it like so don't worry about all elements that are outside of your add board you should feel absolutely free to play with composition and design if you don't want to see this part just click here on view trim view and you can work in this mode let's unlock these layers this method allows you to play with composition any way you want move objects play with them and you don't need to cut anything or feed anything just forget about it right now I will show you situation when we need to cut some objects we need to cut objects in such cases and to quickly check which one of these two layers we need because sometimes you would have 10 layers for example you can quickly click here now unlock this layer as you can see we have line but if you are sure with your composition object expand click OK now this is not line this is an object and I did the same with all these lines we need to cut this part let's unlock branch layer select it ctrl C then log branch layer select this layer ctrl F now let's bring this layer down select these two layers Shift + M for shape builder and just drag should builder like so now let's select only this branch layer and delete it let's lock this layer again and do the same with this layer unlock branch let's check if this layer is the one that we need unlock it select branch ctrl C lock branch select this layer ctrl F bring this layer down select these two layers Shift + M for shape builder and drag it like so select only this layer and delete it we can also expand this line we're expanding lines because later we will apply texture and we will apply it to objects not to lines block this layer again and on this stage we can say that our artwork is ready for applying texture so let's start with first method let's apply photo texture to the ground let's unlock the ground layer I will make this ellipse invisible for now let's select this background layer file place and find part to download a photo texture then just click somewhere here for example to easily play with scaling just zoom out like so as you can see this image is really large that means that this image is in high resolution so my advice for you is to always use texture with high resolutions just take your camera and take picture of any texture that you would like to use in your artwork you can even create your own texture library just take a lot of pictures then you can crop them and contrast in Photoshop and then use in your artworks so I will make this one smaller like this I think that I will also delete this layer to avoid any distraction now you can see only needed layers in this layer group with this photo texture selected properties opacity and play with blending modes let's apply multiply for example you can see how your artwork changes now you can play with opacity and you really might be happy with these results because sometimes you really need to create only one blending mode and you really might be happy with result if you don't like how multiply mode looks just remember that you can decrease opacity and everything will look just great also as you can see this multiply mode and photo texture changed color of your background a little bit later I will show you how to easily restore it right now you can press control C control F to make a copy and apply another blending modes you can apply screen for example play with opacity then you can press control C control F again apply hard drive for example change opacity also you can try different combinations after you applied all these blending modes you can make some of them invisible we turned off screen mode and we increased opacity in hard line mode you can also change it to any other modes like this and maybe after experimenting you would come to some unexpected solution so just simply take your time and try different combinations for now I will delete these layers and I will simply leave multiply you should also try soft light mode it also works very well sometimes in case if you would like to add some really soft texture it would work very well so I will return to multiply and will change opacity to something like this now what we need to do is we need to restore color just select this layer control C control shift V with this layer selected properties opacity and select color blending mode to show it better to you I'll press control C control F with our photo texture let's apply exclusion 100% and if you will turn off this color mode right here you will see that we have this color but let's turn on this rectangle with color blending mode and we restored color from our background layer I will delete this unnecessary layer and lock this layer now let me show you a second way to add photo texture let's unlock this layer and place the same photo texture to this one in your future artworks you can use different textures for different objects so I have placed it here I'll make it smaller like so now select this layer ctrl c ctrl shift V select these two layers right click make clipping mask now you can do absolutely the same you can play with blending modes change opacity duplicate this layer ctrl c ctrl f and apply different blending modes as you can see overlay makes everything brighter so when you're applying some blending modes you should just keep in mind how each one of them works but don't get too crazy with it because in different cases all these blending modes work a little bit differently so mostly you should remember your favourites try to use them and play with opacity let's make this layer invisible for now because now I want to show you third way of adjusting texture with this layer selected I will increase the PCT so you could see better click on window and select transparency no matter where this window will appear it might appear even here just drag it right here then if you see this palette you're clicking here and you see these two windows we need to see only this window so just click here and drag it then just move it here and no matter what you will do up to this you should leave this window in this place right now you will understand why we will use opacity mask and this window allows us to adjust opacity mask very quick and super easy with this layer selected let's click here on make masks then click here on clip to avoid any confusion I will tell you right now that white color makes objects visible and black color make objects invisible as you can see we applied black mask to this object and if you will click on clip here we applied white mask and we can see our object and what you should have this window opens because right now we will click on this field and please take a look at layers panel all layers are gone because we're in opacity mask mode now whatever you will do all layers are disabled you can't move anything and this is very handy don't be afraid of opacity mask because you can always return to your image by clicking on this icon if you will deselect this object you can see that you have no options here and to be able to edit object with opacity mask again just select needed object you will see these options so select mask and now comes the most interesting part let's press B for brush and as you already know that black color hides and white color reveals with stroke selected click here on grayscale because in masking there is no colors there's only grades from white to black let's pick grey color and draw a line like this as you can see when we have gray color we are decreasing opacity of this object this line is fully editable because in opacity mask you have the same layers as unusual objects so with direct selection tool for example you can move this line properties let's change stroke width now click on color and play with transparency as you can see if we will apply black color this texture will be absolutely invisible in this part how can you use this tip let's delete this line before brush you can use this tip to make your texture look more realistic for example or simply more interesting we'll just make it faded right here for example let's just draw a line pick this line and as you can see it's really rough and unrealistic but if you will click here on effect blur Gaussian blur preview play with values you can click OK after this if you would like to change blurring properties and here is your apply the fact just click on it preview and change it again before brush let's do the same here right after we applied blurring to this brush you can draw with brush and this effect will be automatically applied to your new line if you don't need it just click here to delete it I'll press ctrl Z to return it you can play with direct selection tool and this is not all now you can create another line key for example select it and change color like this just move it like so when white layer is on top it hides some parts of dark layer and if you will place dark layer on top of white layer it will do the same you can also simply change opacity of these lines like this managed to play with color you will get better control and you will understand what you're doing much better in the same way you can create more lines just don't get too crazy with it because sometimes you just need a few lines to make your texture look more interesting let's return to usual mode let's click here and let's make this layer visible if you want to apply the same mask to this object just select needed object select this mask select all objects in this mask ctrl C return to usual mode select this layer make mask click here on clip then select mask mode and press control shift V as you can see we have the same mask in this layer also if you don't need masks anymore you can click here on release and you can see that all these objects are just a bunch of grey lines let's just delete them and create a new mask make your own clip before brush let's fade this mask like this for example effect blur Gaussian blur and play with it like so let's return to usual mode and as you can see you can get some really interesting result by playing with blending modes of texture and by playing with opacity mask of these textures you can create even more layers play with blending modes even more and with opacity masks but what you should remember is that you don't want to create too many layers because sometimes you need just one or few layers to make great results but in the same time it's up to you to experiment and to get some unexpected results now it's time to show your fourth way to apply texture let's select this layer ctrl c ctrl shift V we want this layer to be on top of all these layers well just click here on effect texture grain right here in grain type you have a lot of options I mostly use soft mode because if you will zoom in in steepled mode you can see that it's really rough if you will select soft mode it will look softer I will set it to 100% and click OK now opacity and play with blending mode again will speak screen for example and play with opacity like this what we will do right now is basically the same but in opacity mask and you will see difference so let's just delete this layer let's select this layer ctrl c ctrl shift v swatches let's apply this dark color and for now for you to see better I will make these two layers invisible later we'll make them visible again now what is layer selected click here on make mask click here on clip let's enter mask mode M for rectangle tool draw huge rectangle like this select grayscale let's make this layer absolutely invisible let's make it absolutely black for you to understand better I will open this layer group so we have huge rectangle here with black color let's deselect it B for brush color click here on stroke and let's apply white color for brush now you can drag it like this now let's select this black rectangle effect texture grain click OK as you can see you have some kind of texture here with this puff selected effect blur Gaussian blur click on preview blur it like so now let's return to usual mode make these two layers visible and you can see that we have applied texture on top of these textures and how we can play with it let's enter mask mode let's just simply change color of this line to black and let's change color of this rectangle to white let's return to usual mode properties opacity and you can change your path city like this if I will move this layer with applied noise some are here to white place you can see what we did we made smooth transition of this noise from transparent to fully visible I made these two layers invisible and now you will see how to easily play with this noise let's enter this mask mode select this part effect texture grain you can play with grain type I will use soft grain type click OK color and let's change color to something like this as we applied white color to this rectangle that means that it's absolutely transparent and if you think that you won't change color to it anymore you can simply delete it now we have only strolled with grain effect here let's return to use your mode and make this two words visible I decrease the peseta fear a bit now you can even bring this layer down like this and if you don't like that this layer make this object darker you can just duplicate this base layer here properties click on opacity and change blending mode to screen for example or to overlay and play with opacity after this we can play with opacity of other layers and if you see that you need to highlight these parts on how to view noise here better with this layer selected simply click here on make mask clip enter mask mode B for brush color grayscale big black color and draw a line like this after this you can blur it to make after transition the return to usual mode and increase opacity of this layer as you can see you can get unlimited amount of variations with all these methods all you need is just keep in mind that you can always add it in use opacity mask blending modes bore effect for your brush and grain texture effect from effect panel so right now I will delete these layers I will leave only these two now it's time to show you fifth way on how to add texture to your artwork we will add texture using opacity mask and linear gradients let's lock this layer unlock ring layer selected control C ctrl F swatches let's apply this color now put here on Mac mask clip let's enter mask mode and for rectangle tool draw a rectangle like this gradient linear gradient G for gradient tool and now play with direction I will apply Direction like this after you apply direction effect texture brain you can pick any grain type that you want play with contrast and intensity I personally like to use soft grain mode and I recommend you to use it also now click OK and you can see that we have some great noise effect here which you can easily manipulate with this rectangle selected G for gradient tool and now you can play with these markers then adjust grain as you want if you would like to change grain properties you have your grain effect here just click on it then you're able to change it any time so you should not be afraid of playing with all settings and all these models let's apply contrast de type just for fun click okay and you will get this type of texture but I will press ctrl-z because I like this one let me show you another interesting thing let's apply radial gradient to opacity mask and make some transparency with it this will be met at number 6 let's unlock this layer don't copy anything just click here on make mask click here on clip let's enter mask mode let's zoom out and for rectangle tool draw a rectangle like this now gradient radial gradient G for gradient tool after you will zoom out or zoom in gradient 2 will disappear so just press G for gradient tool again now move it like so as you can see we don't need all these parts to be invisible we need this part to be invisible so just click here on reverse gradient and now play with gradient tool just as you want effect texture grain I will apply the same soft grain type click OK as you can see we have great texture here and great transparency it looks really interesting G for gradient tool and you can adjust it like this you or even move it outside of Borneo if you would like to use the same transparency on this part and if you would like to use only radial gradients later I will show you how to do this with preformed radiant but here a solution on how to do this with radial gradient let's just delete this rectangle let's create one rectangle here and one rectangle here they both have gradients now selecting both effect texture grain and click ok now you can play with them there's nothing wrong with this matter but people on gradients will allow you to play with it much better also you might have situation when you will need to move this gradient here and there will be such rough transition with the same opacity method by the way you can add texture to these clouds just click here on mate mask clip enter mask mode create rectangle gradient linear type G for gradient tool drag this to light base effect texture grain click okay and you can play with this texture as we already did what also you should notice is that if you don't want full transparency here you can select this dark marker color and play with color here the same you can do with this marker you can see that we have some really interesting resolve here return to usual mode I will just simply delete these clouds and duplicate this once like so if you see that something went wrong like this there is nothing wrong let's just drill you all you need to do is zoom in a bit or zoom out let's lock clouds layer to add noise to eyes for example you also will need radial gradient you need to copy this layer swatches adjust this color make mask clip enter mask mode create rectangle gradient radial gradient G for gradient tool change colors affect the extra grain click okay and you can change this gradient tool even like this too proportions better like so let's return to usual mode and lock this layer now it's time to show you seventh way we will apply three from radians to opacity mask let's unlock big layer select this layer ctrl c ctrl F swatches let's apply this color make mask clip let's enter mask mode create rectangle gradient and let's apply three-point gradients first of all I will delete these points let's select this one color grayscale let's apply black color for this one then click here to add new point and apply white color and what you can see here you can easily play with volume with only two points if you will add more you can add some gray color to make some smoother transitions some white point here and you can play with their radius now let's make it look more interesting let's add texture click ok and here is how you can easily adjust and play with grain with free foam gradients but this is not all because we are using points now I will show you how to use lines and then how to combine lines and points this is very useful in handy if you will decide to make this noise even darker just click here on this icon return to your base object swatches for example and adjust any color you want or you can click here on color which is B for example and play with this color like this so let's just leave this result I think you get them an idea let's lock this layer now let's use lines in free from gradients let's unlock branch select it control C control F swatches let's apply this color make mask clip let's enter mask mode zoom out and for rectangle tool let's create rectangle like this now gradient freeform gradient and before your selected lines hold shift pick all these points and delete them because if you will select lines and if you will try to pick a few points you won't be able to do this so you can always switch between points and lines let's delete these points give this one bring it here greyscale let's apply black color let's create another point and let's apply white collar I will change them like this now let's switch to lines click on this point and just create points like so along this line to stop drawing lines press escape select this point then draw another line like this now you can move it to do it more comfortable switch to points now you can easily adjust shadows and highlights here affect texture gray I will apply the same good old soft grade type click OK and as you can see you have this stunning result only in a few clicks now to play with this lightening G for gradient tool and move it anywhere you want to like this you can even select some points and adjust gray color for example now we want to add some shadows here to make this image look more realistic let's switch to normal mode select this layer ctrl c ctrl f let's bring this layer up make mask clip enter mask mode and for rectangle tool create another rectangle like this gradient print from gradient good points selected select these points delete them now move this point here color grayscale let's pick white color for this point let's create another point here and apply black color also if you want to quickly make white point here just click on point with white color and then create another point if you want to quickly create black point click on black point and then create another point so let's create black point here like so and let's create white point here then click on this black point and create another black boys you now you can move it like so as you can see when we're moving it we have some transitions right here to avoid them create another black point and now let's move this point to easily adjust shadow you like so effect the extra grain click ok if you don't want this shadow to be too dark just select this point just some kind of gray color like this let's return to usual mode lock this layer let's work with this one before this let's select all these layers properties but finder unite ctrl c ctrl F swatches apply this color make mask clip enter mask mode and for rectangle tool create rectangle gradients freeform gradient delete unnecessary points with this point selected grayscale select black add new point select white you can already a just noise texture effect the extra grain you let's just add one point here you you like so and we can return to usual mode if you want to make this result to look even better just select this object again enter mask mode G for gradient tool you can change color for this point to gray and move it here - Macke softer and smoother transitions you you you all right I will leave this result and I will return to usual mode you can do the same would be subject let's Lock this layer now let me show you methods number 8 & 9 where we will use noise brush so first of all let's create noise brush let's create a new wear let's rename it to noise brush let's double click on this fill color icon black color now I will show you method to create brush and what you should know is that you can quickly create brush that nobody used before in any other artworks so for example I will create brush like this before pencil then I will just create some random figures like this to make it look even more detailed you can duplicate some parts make them even smaller I will uncheck trim view for now you you I will stop on this brush you can create any brush you want it can be created even with rectangles like this so just experiment with them you can add ellipses for example or any other shapes start - you can simply click with start - how many points do you want to have and create brush like so it's up to you so I will select these elements brushes new brush scatter brush click okay rename it to noise one if you're going to experiment with your brushes but now let's leave all these settings as they are click OK and if you think that you will need to change your brush you can just make this layer invisible I will simply delete it it really doesn't matter because our brush is saved and ready to use so now let me show you method number 8 we will use noise brush using clipping mask let's use this leaf control C control F B for brush you can also use pen tool let me show you how to apply it to pen tool it's absolutely the same as with brush tool brushes and select your brush now let's change color to this but you can see that nothing happens so double click here on noise one brush select hue shift and click on preview again now you can play with size and width spacing just play with it like so you can see that our brush looks not very interesting so let's try to rotate it let's select random and let's adjust these values like so you can even do it like this you I will leave this result I don't touch skater click okay apply two strokes control C control shift V select these two layers right click make clipping mask pay for direct selection tool you can manipulate the stroke just as you want you can also click on properties and change stroke width like this so this is how you can play with brush and adjust shadows to your artwork you can create even more lines like this the same brush and if you want to place this stroke inside of clipping mask just drag it like so also if you want to add more texture directly to clipping mask you can double click on this clipping mask draw with a brush for example adjust this line just the same as you did with pen tool and you will draw inside of clipping mask and you don't need to adjust your object to clipping mask again so now I will delete this layer and I will show you method number 9 very interesting method method that I really like we will use noise brush and opacity mask let's select this layer swatches apply this color make mask clip enter mask mode before brush let's draw a line like this select this line color grayscale and apply black color properties change stroke wave and play with stroke like this control C controller we duplicated this line you can adjust color like this entrance stroke rib to all 25 points you you you now you can see that you can get some great custom results with this method just play with strokes like this let's duplicate this one here as you can see you don't even need to draw new stroke each time you can duplicate you can adjust them like so now let's return to usual mode I changed color to dark green just for you to see better you can adjust the same green color as you already had returned to mask mode you you and I think I will stop on this result here as you can see it looks just great so to adjust shadows to body a lot body layer select this layer duplicated here like so swatches apply this color make mask clip select mask mode create rectangle gradient fill upon gradient do it unnecessary points just black color for this point create new points and just white color you can already click on effect texture grain okay G for gradient lines you just create line like this escape now let's create line with black dots points mold you play with them like so until you will get needed result let's add some dark color here you can combine points and lines you can use point here and whitepoint here you you as you can see it's very easy and fast to do if your computer runs slow with noise effect and you want to adjust all these transitions much faster click on window appearance you can see grain effect here you can turn it off then you will be able to change anything be for selection tool and make grain effect visible again to make such transition smoother pick this point and adjust color like so you can also move these points like this now as you know all the tips that I showed you today you can easily recreate this artwork and even create your own artworks which will look very interesting and professional in conclusion I would say that all methods that you've learned from today's Adobe Illustrator tutorial need some practice if you think that you missed something just return to this video follow tips and adjust them to download the demonstration if you learn something new from this tutorial drop a comment below let me know if everything was clear enough for you and what you liked about this video if you enjoyed this tutorial support this channel by clicking on subscribe and what's most important by clicking on the bell icon to get notifications about newest tutorials from TMT I would also appreciate if you will click thumbs up and we'll share this video this was TNT tutorials see you next videos

Channel: T&T Tutorials

Views: 133,233

Keywords: illustrator tutorial, texture illustrator, illustrator texture, texture illustrator tutorial, texture in illustrator, noise texture illustrator, illustrator noise brush, add texture in illustrator, grain texture illustrator, grain brush illustrator, grain effect illustrator, texture gradient, texture gradient illustrator, texture brush illustrator, texture effect, bird illustrator, adobe illustrator tutorial, adobe illustrator, illustrator, tutorial, T&T Tutorials

Id: dKo1Nr1QdM8

Length: 50min 21sec (3021 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Liked and subscribed :). Hope to see more video tutorials from you

[u/ttaitutorials]

In this Illustrator CC tutorial you'll learn 9 ways to add texture to vector illustration. You'll see how to correctly prepare artwork to texturizing, how to add paper photo texture and adjust it with blending modes and clipping mask, how to add different noise textures using opacity mask, linear, radial and freeform gradient, and even how to create unique noise brush and use it in different ways. This list is not including all that tips and advices that you'll learn from this video. By the end of this tutorial you'll understand that you made giant step from amateur to professional illustrating and professional workflow. You'll be able to create deep, live and eye-catching illustrations with photo and grain textures that will make you proud of your new skills.

[u/Drutski]

Oh my word. I've been spending the past week placing noise over gradients in Photoshop and then image tracing them in Illustrator. These are much better methods, cheers!

[u/peetnice]

Nice, I'm not a beginner, but still learned a few new and useful tricks.

Newbies should definitely watch this though since learning opacity masks is a big way to level up your Illustrator game.

[u/The_Bubbler_]

Thank you so much, I was looking for the exact thing today!

[u/hondurican]

Bless you this is great stuff! Thank you 🙏🙏

[u/[deleted]]

Thanks for sharing!

[u/pilotplater]

Excellent video. Something many people have trouble with starting out in illustrator.

[u/icecreamtrip]

Omg method 7 😻. The free form method, the points and the lines!!! It looks so beautiful instantly. Thank you! Can’t wait to try it out.