Concepts Of Vector Circles
Monday, January 5, 2009
You see them everywhere in digital art. They look cool, with a tinge of retro-ness in them. Vector circles have been long considered the holy grail of vector art, simple in concept, complex in looks. Ambiguous enough to be used in all sorts of situations, these circles played a role in one of my wallpapers.
Anyone can draw a circle in almost any digital art program. But not many get the hang of arranging them to form a nice piece. They don't get the feeling. It is the tiny little subtleties in all these vector circle arts that make them what they are.
Vector circles, grunge, retro, cute, nice, vectors, circles, disco circles, island circles,hip-hop circles, life circles, happy circles
In this post, I won't be teaching you how to make them. Instead, we will look at some artworks and appreciate their various features. Once you are familiar with these features, it will be easy to create vector circles of your own.
depthCORE - Sky (by webdiod)
Depthcore never fails to exhibit the best looking digital art on the net. This cool looking artwork is from one of the senior artist at depthcore, webdiod. In this artwork, a variety of complex looking schematics are used to enchance the image. And it includes a bunch of vector circles at one corner for even more impact.
Its A Simple Job of Copy and Paste -
These cool looking circles are actually a single circle inside a larger circle being duplicated and resized many times. This can be seen by comparing the ratio of the radius of the inner circles to the outer circles. It seems to be same throughout, which means its a simple job of duplicating the same set with various sizes, yet it looks so good. Notice how the borders of the circles "merge" with one another.
A Tiny Different Shape Makes a Difference -
A tiny arrow is used to to add the "tech" feeling to it. As the majority are circles, a single different shape appears distinct.
CSSzengarden - Revolution!
This is one of the signature designs at CSSzengarden. A beautiful example of how vector circles can be used even in webdesign. Notice how they utilize a variety of vectors, most prominently stripes and rectangles rotated at an angle of 45 degrees. The vector circles here are totally filled, not like the previous artwork that has filled circles in a thick circular border.
Three Bold Colors And A Variety Of Shapes -
A very important aspect here is that 3 main colors are used. First is the yellowish color used for the larger circles and the rectangles stuffs. Second is the red for the flowery vectors in the back. Third, it is the background color, black, used to make a series of smaller vector circles in the bigger yellow ones. This is the main trick used here for the impact.
The Circles -
Filled circles, with a blend of other vectors like stripes, with a smaller bunch of circles inside them.
Some Other Works
A very nice piece I found by google search. This picture has a very grungy feel to it, because of the splat vectors. Those can be downloaded from stock image websites or are from brushes.
2 Main Colors -
But, what we should look out here are the combination of colors and the way the circles are arranged. Many nice vector circle artwork use two main colors. For this one, its orange and black.
Unsymmetrical Circles -
There are many circles with slightly misaligned "holes" and a few other small "holes" along the thick border. ("Hole" seems to be the best word for it. haha.)
A Plus Sign -
The circle with a plus inside is an excellent example of a "hole" in a different shape. Sometimes, an artist would like to use other shapes for the hole to add a bit of "attitude" to the picture. But, such usage is only for a few circles. It has to be only few circles, if not such stuff will lose their kick.
A Touch of Dotted Lines -
This picture also uses some rectangular vectors, in the form of dotted lines rotated 45 degrees again. It seems that a bit of rectangles at an angle gives the picture a nice "shape contrast".
Many Circles Inside Each Other -
Another nice picture. It uses three different shades of brown for the circles. Unlike all the previous examples, the circles are very "layered" (one inside another and another). Furthermore, the circles don't touch at the border, but instead overlap each other. In this case, it produces a good overall effect.
But according to experience, frequent overlapping can look ugly if the circles are not "layered" enough and do not have the correct colors. Usually, a bit of overlapping combined with touching borders produce a nice effect.
Inksplats -
There is also a slight bit of inksplats if you notice carefully. Inksplats are very commonly used with vector circles as they produce a nice "retro-grungy" effect. Inksplat vectors are however, much more harder to make. Digital artists usually take these ink splat from vector packs, but free vector packs are hard to find.
Conclusion
Vector circles can be just to convey a variety of feelings, from the "retro" to the "grunge, youth hippy like", to the "techie". Some of my favorite techniques are:
- Using complementing rectangles rotated. Eg. Strips.
- "Layering circles", Putting one circle inside another.
- Using organic vectors, eg, flowers, vines. Produces a "retro, hippy" effect.
- Using different shaped hole, eg. a cross or a heart, instead of a circle.
- Using 2-3 colors.
- Touching borders.
- Overlapping filled circles.
While making your own vector circles, you may find your unique own style by combining unique features from different artwork together. The main thing about vector circles is that they have the potential to convey different feelings simply by combining different techniques and different vectors together. That's also the reason why they are so ever popular.
Labels: Graphic Tutorials, Miscancellous
<< Home