I posted a simple heart vector last week, which I actually had a fair amount of fun making. As I was making it, I noticed how many shortcuts and simple techniques make the process of vector illustration so much easier. I’ve learned a ton of great stuff from Vectips, Vectortuts, and Abduzeedo and wanted to pass along some workflow tips of my own. Have fun.

Oh, I should stress (as though it’s not already obvious), I’m no anatomist.

First, I always find it helpful to start with a reference sketch. So go ahead and scribble up a heart, or grab the image from above. I’m sure you noticed my ugly mug in the background. I though it added just a sinister air that complements the tutorial nicely.

We’re going to start by tracing the major central shape of the heart that we’ll build from. I always like to trace using no fill, and a really bright, contrasting color, so I don’t lose my lines.

Now we’ll trace the little veins/arteries/i don’t know, with a much thicker brush with round edges. Make sure to make the overlap the the border of your first shape.

Now we’ll go through the process of blocking out the rest of your shapes. If you like, you can make the cava’s, aorta, veins, and arteries connect and end in different ways where they won’t show up in the final piece, but for my purposes, I was only concerned with the parts that would show up at the end. This step is really just more tracing.

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