Vectorize A Flower

This tutorial will show you how to vectorize objects in photographs. The flowers on the background of this site are vectorized, so it will show you how to create something like that. If you have never worked with the Pen Tool, you'll need to look at that tutorial first, and mess around with it a bit.

Step 1

I will be using this photograph I found on google, so if you want, you can do the same. You could also use a different one, but keep it to simple things if you're just starting out. This will prevent frustration that would possibly lead to you throwing your computer at the wall ;) Just a disclaimer.
Click Here
All Credit to KPOD on the photograph.

Step 2

First off, I cropped the photo and only kept the flower. You don't have to, but it takes out all the excess space. Now, that you've got your photo to work with, zoom in so that it's easier to create each shape.

Step 3

First I outline the whole flower in the shade of purple I liked. I extracted the color from one of the petals. After you create this image you're going to go to your layers window and make it invisible by clicking the eye to the left of the layer.

Step 4

Now, I'm going to do the center of the flower. And remember, when you vectorize, you don't have to create a shape for every little detail or you might as well just use the photograph as is.:) After you've made the vectors for the center, you're going to create the next vectors underneath it. If you think about it, it's logical, the white lines in the flower would be over the middle, so you have to create these layers underneath the ones you just made. This can simply be done by clicking on your invisble layer of the whole flower and just start using the pen tool. Or you can do the white lines and things first and do this step later. I like to do the center first because it shows me where the white lines will fall beneath the center, so those white lines that meet in the center don't have to be perfect once they're being covered by the center.

Step 5

The next part im going to vectorize is the white lines on the petals. As you can see I also didn't make the lines where they meet at the center accurate because the center of the petal's going to cover it anyways. Now, you'll see what I was talking about in the last step. I'm sure I confused you :D But you see by having the center done, I knew what it would cover so I didn't have to make it look fantastic where the lines met in the center, because you're not going to see them anyways, as you can see in the second picture. This is why a lot of times I work backwards :)

Now, you don't have to do this, but I did and I don't want you to be sitting there thinking 'ummm..mine's not doing that' and get all mad at me. My lines on the flowers have gradient overlays because in the actual photo, the white color fades as it gets towards the edge of the petal. To do this, go to Layer> Layer Style> Gradient Overlay... Or, there's a shortcut where you can go to the layers window and double click to the right of name of the layer, and the layer style box will come up. Gradient overlay's on one of the tabs to the left. So select this, and then change the gradient to the colors you want and you can also change the angle. For example, the bottom petals I had it at around 90 degrees where as the top petal stripes I had it at -90 degrees. So there's that :)

Step 6

So now it's time for the darker purple you see between the white lines on the petals. I'm going to do the same thing I did on the last step and make these layers underneath the white stripes. I'm also going to do the same gradient effect.

Step 7

And now you're done :D You have a lovely flower to use wherever you'd like. Hopefully you understood the tutorial, I'm sorry, it's hard to explain. But I hope you got it :) let me know how it goes for you.