Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop tutorial: Put a low-poly spin on music cover art

Step 6

I thought having the clouds drawn in the same style would be a bit much, especially as I'm going for a 'dreamy adventurer' feel. I wanted something light and ethereal that surrounds the figures and brings a sense of atmosphere.

I ended up converting some stock images of clouds to greyscale and increasing the contrast. I then applied them using a Screen blending mode so only their highlights appear.

Step 7

I also used the clouds to make brushes. I always enjoy this step of the process, giving a little extra life to the vector base using texturing. I've made a lot of custom 'paint splash' brushes and I encourage you to do so too.

I used the clouds and paint splashes subtly across the whole composition. To create the circular elements, I drew some circles and turned them into clipping masks, then painted inside them using the cloud brushes.

Step 8

Since I'm also a photographer, I always look at a piece as if it were a photo. To heighten the vintage feel here, I decided to add little details that you find in old pictures, like vignetting.

A vignette is a darkening at the edges, which can help to make your viewers focus on the centre. This was painted on, with the layer's blending mode set to Multiply. I also added dust and scratches by applying a texture.