Creating or acquiring customized artwork has typically been time consuming and expensive. However, by combining Illustrator's drawing capabilities with Photoshop's painting tools and color technology, you can make your own professional quality illustrative portraits in no time at all and, better yet, free of charge.

Step 1: Set up your document.
To begin, select and if necessary scan in a photograph of someone you want to turn into an illustrated portrait. Create a new document in Illustrator. Then, choose File > Place to place the image on your new document, as shown in Figure 1. Next, go to the Layers palette, and lock the layer the image is on.

Figure 1

Note: When placing your image, don't panic if a warning dialog box comes up with a message that says, Linked EPS files may not print accurately.... Normally you'd want to embed the file, but because we're just using the photo for reference, we'll never actually have to print it.

Step 2: Trace your image.
Make a new layer to work on. Using the Pen tool, carefully trace the basic features of the person, as shown in Figure 2. When tracing the image, you may want to consider creating separate layers for different parts of the portrait, as we did in Figure 3. This will help you stay organized.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Step 3: Make your strokes look more natural.
Select your entire illustration. Then, go to the Brushes palette and select the Fude brush. Upon doing so, all of your lines will become more organic looking based on your new stroke selection. Next, go to the Stroke palette and change the Weight to 0.25 points. Next, select a few areas within your illustration where you want added weight, such as the hair or shadows, and increase the stroke weight to 1 point or higher. At this time, you may also want to change the color of some of your strokes from black to gray, as we did in Figure 4.

Figure 4

Step 4: Add background texture.
Create a new layer. Using the Fude brush with a stroke of 1 point, scribble around your image in gray to frame it in, as shown in Figure 5. Now, save your Illustrator file.

Figure 5

Step 5: Export your image.
To open your image in Photoshop while preserving the layers, you have to export it. However, before doing so, delete the layer containing your actual scanned image in Illustrator. Then, choose File > Export. In the resulting dialog box, name your file, then select Photoshop (PSD) from the Format pop-up menu. Click Export. In the Photoshop Options dialog box, shown in Figure 6, change the Color Model to RGB if necessary. Select High (300 ppi) for the Resolution and make sure the Anti-alias and Write Layers check boxes are selected. Then click OK.

Figure 6