WHAT WE’RE CREATING:

Hello Design Cutters! Renee back with an Illustrator-based tutorial for a tattoo shop poster. We’ll create our layout using vintage illustrations, hand drawn ornaments, textures and grunge elements. We’ll learn how to use masks, blend modes and tons of layering.

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Here’s a look at what we’ll be creating:

Tattoo Shop Poster

Follow along with this tutorial: Download the freebie files

This huge freebie pack includes vector elements courtesy of Gearwright, Ghostly Pixels, Qilli, Swedish Points and The Artifex Forge. (Please note that resources from The Vector Bakery are also used but unfortunately they were unable to provide these as freebies so please feel free to use an alternate shape if you haven’t yet purchased the bundle.

This freebie pack is just a small sample of the resources available in The Essential Hand-Made Vectors Collection for just $29 (that’s an unbelievable 99% off). This bundle includes hundreds of high-quality vector elements – from detailed vintage illustrations to hand drawn ornaments and tons of shapes and textures you’ll use again and again.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Step 1: Background

Open Illustrator and go to File > New. In the New Document dialog box, enter a width of 18 inches and a height of 24 inches. Under Bleed, make sure the link icon on the far right is selected (to apply our input to all four sides) and enter a Top bleed of .125 inches.

Click OK to create the document.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Save your file.

At the bottom of the Layers palette (Window > Layers), double click the name of the layer, Layer 1, and change it to Background.

Open your Color palette (Window > Color) and enter a black value of 10%.

Select the Rectangle Tool (m). Click once on the artboard. In the dialog popup box, enter a width of 18.25 inches (18 inches plus .125 inches bleed on each side = 18.25). Enter a height of 24.25 inches. Click OK.

To center the rectangle on the artboard, open your Align palette (Window > Align) and under Align Objects, select the icons for Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center.

Note: If nothing happens when you click the align icons, you may need to change your Align To settings. Click on the arrow just below Align To at the bottom right of the Align palette and select Align to Artboard.

Tattoo Shop Poster

In the freebies folder, navigate to the GinormousGrunge_Frames3b file from Swedish Points. Open the file in Illustrator. With your Selection tool (v), select the frame. Press cmd + c to Copy. In the main layout file, press cmd + v to Paste.

In the Color palette, change the CMYK values of the Fill color to 0/0/8/20.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Open your Transparency palette (Window > Transparency) and change the Blending Mode from Normal to Multiply.

With your Selection tool, click and drag the corner handles on the selected frame to enlarge it until it’s the same size as the artboard (with bleeds).

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Now we’ll lock this layer. Open the Layers palette and click the space between the eye icon and the layer name.

At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Create New Layer icon. Double click the layer name and rename it Grunge Overlay.

We’re going to repeat the same process of making a grungy frame, but this one will always sit on top of the rest of the art instead of behind it.

In the freebies folder, navigate to the GinormousGrunge_Frames4a file from Swedish Points. Open the file in Illustrator. With your Selection tool (v), select the frame. Press cmd + c to Copy. In the main layout file, press cmd + v to Paste.

In the Color palette, change the CMYK values of the Fill color to 0/0/8/20.

In your Transparency palette, change the Blending Mode from Normal to Multiply.

With your Selection tool, click and drag the corner handles on the selected frame to enlarge it until it’s the same size as the artboard (with bleeds).

Tattoo Shop Poster

Now lock this layer. Open the Layers palette and click the space between the eye icon and the layer name.

Step 2: Card Elements

In the Layers palette, click once on the Background layer, then click the Create New Layer icon. This should create a new layer between the Background layer and Grunge Overlay layer. Double click the layer name and change it to Card Elements.

Select the Rectangle Tool (m). Click once on the artboard. In the dialog popup box, enter a width of 13 inches. Enter a height of 19 inches. Click OK.

To center the rectangle on the artboard, open your Align palette and under Align Objects, select the icons for Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center.

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Open your Gradient palette (Window > Gradient). Next to Type, select Radial.

Click on the White arrow on the far left side of the gradient slider. In your Color palette, click on the top right arrow to access the flyout menu and choose CMYK. Enter CMYK values of 77/87/47/52.

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Click on the Black arrow on the far right side of the gradient slider. In your Color palette, click on the top right arrow to access the flyout menu and choose CMYK. Enter CMYK values of 82/75/60/80.

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In the Gradient palette next to Aspect Ratio, enter 150%. Click on the diamond in the middle of the gradient slider. Next to Location, enter 75%.

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In the freebies folder, navigate to the VintageVectorFrames_Frame13 file from Qilli. Open the file in Illustrator. With your Selection tool, select the frame. Press cmd + c to Copy. In the main layout file, press cmd + v to Paste.

In the Color palette, change the CMYK values of the Fill color to 85/80/45/45.

Tattoo Shop Poster

At the top of the artboard, make sure the link icon between Width and Height is turned on. Next to Width, enter 16.5 and press Enter.

Use Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center to center the shape on the artboard.

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Now we’ll mask the ornamental shape so it’s only visible within the purple rectangle.

With your Selection Tool, select the purple rectangle and press cmd + c to Copy. Press cmd + f to Paste in Place. Hold Shift and select the ornamental shape (you should now have both the pasted rectangle and the ornamental shape selected).

Press cmd + 7 (or go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make) to create the mask.

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In the freebies folder, navigate to the GinormousGrunge_Frames1b file from Swedish Points. Open the file in Illustrator. With your Selection tool, select the frame. Press cmd + c to Copy. In the main layout file, press cmd + v to Paste.

In the Color palette, change the CMYK values of the Fill color to 0/0/0/30.

In the Transparency palette, change the Blending Mode from Normal to Multiply.

Finally, use the corner handles to increase the size until it fits just inside the purple rectangle.

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In the freebies folder, navigate to the TattooArt_CardStars file from The Artifex Forge. Open the file in Illustrator.

Select your Group Selection tool – it’s the white arrow with a plus sign that’s available on the flyout menu of the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow) on the toolbar.

Click once on the A in the top left of the playing card. If you click on the fill area of the letter, it will select the entire letter. If you click on one of the edges, you’ll have to click twice to select the entire letter (both paths that make up the A).

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Hold Shift and select the club under the A. Then press cmd + c to Copy.

Go back to your main layout file and press cmd + v to Paste. Group the A and club together by pressing cmd + g.

At the top of the artboard, enter a Height of 3 inches and press Enter. Position the A and club group in the top left corner of the artboard.

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Select your Pen tool (p). Click once about an inch below the club to create your first point. Then click again at the bottom left corner of the artboard. We want to have our lines centered in the “white” area between the purple rectangle and the edge of the artboard. For the last point, continue to hold Shift and click in the bottom right of the artboard, about an inch to the left of where the purple rectangle ends.

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At the bottom of the toolbar, click the double headed arrow at the top right of the Fill color swatch to swap the Fill and Stroke, giving us a black stroke with no fill.

Open your Stroke palette. Increase your Weight to 4 pt. Next to Profile, select Width Profile 2.

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Go back to the freebies file from The Artifex Forge. This time, use your Group Selection tool to click twice on one of the small dots that dust the bottom left corner of the card. Clicking twice on one dot should select all of the dots.

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Press cmd + c to Copy, then Paste into the main layout using cmd + v. Then press cmd + g to Group the dots together.

At the top of the artboard, change the Height to 13.5 inches. Position in the bottom left corner of the artboard so it follows the same rough path as the lines we made earlier.

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Back in the file from The Artifex Forge, use your regular Selection Tool to copy the little cluster of dots with a tiny star (not the nautical star). Paste them into the main layout file and position at the bottom left corner of the artboard.

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Hold Shift and use your Selection Tool to select the A and club, the line we drew with the Pen tool, the dots and the star cluster. Press cmd + g to Group them together.

Go to Object > Transform > Rotate. In the popup box, enter 180 degrees and select Copy (instead of OK). Position the copied elements in the same relative position at the bottom right of the artboard.

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In the Layers palette, lock the Card Elements layer.

Step 3: Skeleton and Frame

In the Layers palette, click the Create New Layer icon. Double click the layer name and change it to Skeleton and Frame.

In the freebies folder, open the Gearwright file. Select the skeleton and press cmd + c to Copy. Paste it into the main layout file using cmd + v.

To make it easier to see what we’re doing, drag the skeleton off to the left or right of the artboard.

Now we’ll use our Group Selection tool to select the words and dotted lines, then delete them. When you can, drag across sections of letters to select more than one at a time. At times, you’ll have to select one piece at a time.

Note: If you select something you don’t want to delete, just press Shift and click it again to deselect it.

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Any sections of the dotted lines that are part of the skeleton (like the image below) can be left alone. The style of this illustration lets us get away with a lot.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Gradually work your way around the skeleton, deleting words and dotted lines until you’re left with just skeleton. Don’t forget the word on the sternum!

Tattoo Shop Poster

Use your regular Selection Tool to select the entire skeleton. At the top of the artboard, change the Height to 21.5 inches. Position just left of center on the artboard so the skeletons thumb is just falling off the left edge and his skull just peeks off the top of the purple rectangle.

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The next step is to fill in the skeleton and it can get a little tedious, but we’ll take a bit of a shortcut to speed up the process.

Select your Group Selection tool. Select the most complete outer path of the skeleton – the outside path in the right armpit.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Press cmd + c to Copy, click off the skeleton in an empty space, then cmd + f to Paste in Place. In the Color palette, change the Fill color to 0/0/0/20.

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Now this is a good starting point for our skeleton filler color. With this piece still selected, select your Blob Brush tool (shift + b).

Note: To change the size of the Blob Brush on the fly, click the left and right bracket keys ( [ ] ) on your keyboard.

Begin clicking and dragging to fill in the missing areas behind the skeleton outline. Focus on the head, arms, ribcage and legs. The spine and pelvic bone areas won’t be visible, so no need to spend time on those.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Use your regular Selection tool to select the gray skeleton filler color we just created. Press cmd + left bracket ( [ ) to send it behind the skeleton outline.

If you need to do clean-up, select the gray skeleton filler color, then use your Eraser tool (shift + e) to delete any areas you don’t want.

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Step 4: Frame

Open the Vector Bakery file. Select the shape and press cmd + c to Copy. Paste it into the main layout file using cmd + v.

In the Swatches palette, change the Fill color to Black.

At the top of the artboard, enter a Width of 12.5 inches and press Enter.

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Go to Object > Path > Offset Path. In the popup dialog box, enter an Offset of -0.5 inches and click OK.

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Press cmd + c to Copy the new shape, then press delete. Next, press cmd + f to Paste in Place. This separates the red frame from the black frame. Otherwise, they’d be grouped together.

In your Color palette, enter CMYK values of 27/100/100/30.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Now we’re going to make it appear that our skeleton’s hand is in front of the shape while his body is behind it. There are multiple ways to accomplish this, but we’re going to go with the one that doesn’t require us to duplicate the complicated skeleton vector (that would increase your file size).

Hold Shift and select both the red and black frames. Press cmd + c to Copy them, then press shift + cmd + [ (left bracket) to send them behind the skeleton.

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Press cmd + f to Paste the copies in Place above the skeleton.

Select your Rectangle tool (m). Draw a rectangle that covers the right side of the shapes.

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Press cmd + c to Copy the shape. We’ll use a copy of it in the next step.

With the rectangle still selected, hold Shift and also select the red frame shape.

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Now open your Pathfinder palette (Window > Pathfinder). Click the second icon under Shape Modes, Minus Front.

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Press cmd + f to Paste the rectangle shape in Place. Hold Shift and select the black frame shape, then press the Minus Front icon in the Pathfinder palette.

This brings the black frame to the front, so just press cmd + [ (left bracket) to send it behind the red half shape.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Next up, we’ll add a little grunge texture, but this time, we’ll make the grungy part brighter.

In the freebies folder, open Swedish Points GinormousGrunge_Stains5d. Select the stain, Copy using cmd + c and Paste into the main layout using cmd + v.

Use the corner handles to drag out the edges to almost fill the red shape – don’t worry about keeping the aspect ratio in tact, just stretch to fill the space.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Open the Color palette and enter CMYK values of 0/100/90/27.

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Next, we’ll mask the red stain so it stays within the confines of the red frame shape. Use your regular Selection tool to select the original red frame shape (click on the right side) and press cmd + c to Copy. Press cmd + f to Paste in Place.

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Hold Shift and select a visible piece of the bright red stain. With both selected, press cmd + 7 to create a mask.

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In the Qilli freebies folder, open 210BigVintageSet_BannerOrnaments. Press cmd + a to Select All and press cmd + c to Copy. Back in the main layout file, press cmd + v to Paste.

In the Swatches palette, change the Fill color to Black.

Select the banner (the bottom of the three vectors just pasted). At the top of the artboard, change the Width to 10.8 inches and press Enter. Hold Shift and drag it down to the bottom of the red frame shape.

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Switch to your Group Selection tool (white arrow with a plus sign). Click once to select the outermost edge of the banner vector.

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Press cmd + c to Copy, then click an empty space to deselect the original and press cmd + f to Paste in Place.

In the Color palette, change the CMYK values to 0/50/100/0. Then, press cmd + [ (left bracket) three times to send the fill behind the original vector.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Select the top little ornament we recently pasted in. At the top of the artboard, change the Width to 1.5 inches and position it at the bottom of the red area, just above the yellow banner.

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Now select the longer curly ornament. At the top of the artboard, increase the Width to 4.25 inches. Position toward the top of the red frame shape.

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It looks an awful lot like a mustache, so let’s rotate it. Go to Object > Transform > Rotate and enter 180 degrees in the popup, then press OK.

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In the freebies folder, open the file in the folder from The Artifex Forge. Copy the nautical star and paste it into the main layout file.

Go to Object > Transform > Rotate and enter a rotation of 15 degrees, then press OK.

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At the top of the artboard, decrease the Width to 1.25 inches. Open your Swatches palette and change the Fill color to Black. Position on top of the longer ornament at the top of the red frame shape.

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Use your Group Selection tool to select the outermost path of the star. Press cmd + c to Copy, then deselect by clicking off the artboard in an empty space. Press cmd + f to Paste in Place.

In the Color palette, change the CMYK value to 0/50/100/0. Then press cmd + [ (left bracket) to send the yellow fill behind the original star vector.

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In the Layers palette, lock the Skeleton and Frame layer.

Step 5: Text

In the Layers palette, create a new layer and name it Text. It should be above Skeleton and Frame, but below Grunge Overlay.

Select your Type tool (t) and click once at the top right of the artboard.

Type:
World-Famous Tattoo and Body Piercing

In your Color palette, change the Fill color to 0/50/100/0.

Open your Character palette (Windows > Type > Character) and change the font to a tattoo-style font. I’m using Fontbox Jolly Sailor at 60 pt. There are a ton of free tattoo-style fonts available for free at your favorite font site if you don’t have this one, though.

Tattoo Shop Poster

With your Type tool, click once at the bottom right of the poster.

Type:
137 N. Kam Avenue, Dallas, Texas Open Noon – Midnight 7 days a week Appointments Preferred 965.555.6217 Designcuts.com

This time, make the fill color White. I’m continuing to use Fontbox Jolly Sailor, but at a smaller size – 24 pt.

Open your Paragraph palette (Windows > Type > Paragraph) and select Align Right.

This will live in the bottom right corner of the poster.

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One more tiny detail that will bring a surprising amount of authenticity to this poster is a copyright date.

Click once on the artboard and type: ©2016 designcuts.com

Change the Fill color to black. I’m going to use a handwritten font, Canvas Text Sans, at 14 pt. Any simple or handwritten font will work, just remember to keep it small.

Switch to your Selection Tool. Hold Shift and use the corner handles to rotate the text 90 degrees to the left. Position just outside the bottom left of the purple rectangle.

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Select your Type tool and click on the yellow banner. Type: Dallas, Texas.

Your Fill color should be Black. In the Character palette, change your font to Apotheque Regular at 30 pt (we used this same free font on our treasure map tutorial a couple of months ago).

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Go to Effect > Warp > Arc. In the dialog box, select Horizontal and set the Bend to -10%. Press OK.

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Vertically center the words in the yellow banner using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

Now for our shop name!

With your Type tool, click once in the red frame shape and type:
Big Nik’s

I’m using a free font called Sailer Larry by Tioem. We’ll start by setting Big Nik’s in Sailor Larry – Fancy at 180 pt. Unfortunately, this font doesn’t include an apostrophe, so use Apotheque for the apostrophe (same size).

Position toward the mid-top of the red frame shape.

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Use your Selection tool to select Big Nik’s and press cmd + c to Copy. Press cmd + f to Paste in Place. Change this one to Sailor Larry – Fade, still at 180 pt and still using Apotheque for the apostrophe. In the Color palette, change the Fill color to 0/50/100/0.

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Press cmd + [ to send it behind the black Big Nik’s text.

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With your Type tool, click below Big Nik’s and type: Tattoo Parlor.

We’ll use Apotheque at 88 pt and change the Fill color to 0/0/0/20. Center below Big Nik’s.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Now we’ll just add a few more grunge elements so the text doesn’t look too clean compared to the rest of the poster.

In the Layers palette, lock the Text layer. Unlock the Grunge Overlay layer and click on it once to make it the active layer.

In the Swedish Points freebies folder, open GinormousGrunge_Stains4o. Copy the stain and paste it into the main layout.

At the top of the artboard, increase the Width to 6 inches. In the Color palette, change the CMYK value to 0/0/0/15. Position it so it covers the top section of the N and I in Big Nik’s.

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Hold Opt, click on the stain and drag down to make a copy. Rotate the copy using the corner handles – any direction and any amount. We want to keep it from looking like an exact copy. I went about -60 degrees.

Position it over the end of the word Parlor.

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Drag out a copy of the second stain by holding Opt while clicking and dragging to the left. Rotate again (about -170 degrees) using the corner handles. Position over the bottom section of Big and covering part of Tattoo.

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Hold Shift and use your Selection tool to select all three stains. Press cmd + g to Group them together.

Open your Transparency palette and change the Blending Mode to Multiply.

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And we’re done! We have an awesome tattoo shop poster with loads of illustrated elements and grungy touches.

Tattoo Shop Poster

Remember that whether it’s your outcome for this tutorial or something new you’ve made, we’d love to see your designs on our Facebook page.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions. I always look forward to hearing from you!

And there’s still time to check out The Essential Hand-Made Vectors Collection to get an enormous selection of hand made vectors for only $29.