Little Box Of Ideas

In my recent jaunts on the interwebs, I have come across some great vector freebies. I have handpicked a few that are free for personal and commercial use (with some requiring mere credits). In this little roundup today, I am listing 50+ awesome free vector illustrator patterns, seamless and otherwise. These are perfect for the

Earlier this year, I started a self project. I called it Project 365 Vector Characters. Even as a child, I was always doodling wacky creatures and animals in my sketch pad. I would give them names and assign funny attributes to them. After discovering the joy that is Illustrator a couple of years ago, it

A few months ago I refreshed my Twitter Background. I had been toying with the idea of doing a simple but striking mixed-media illustration for the background. When it was done, I received countless nice emails praising the design and many more wanting to know how I had achieved that effect. This cursory tutorial is

   Days 108-114 Character Names – Tunka, Tri, Sqa, Cica, Ulgi, Krunkle, Pinkston Froth I said I wasn’t doing storylines for these set of 100 characters. But boy, does my mind have a mind of its own. When I was doing this roundup, I couldn’t help my brain from concocting tall tales to place around

   Days 101-107 Character Names – Rami, Trippo, Gaff, Ludwig, Vaclu, Ampra, Tuski 100 characters later, I decided to change things for the next 100 characters. I will be now doing weekly roundups. I will still be designing one character everyday but only rounding them up at the end of the week. The characters still

   Day 100 – Neb Neb is a power star. He can spin and generate the energy of a 100 suns. He is one of the million odd star sprites living in a closed star shaped nebulae off “Buzzno”. And then there were 100! Gosh, what a thrill ride these 100 days have been, went

   Day 99 – Cronie Cronie runs the hattery at “Tremorne”. He has an unusual gift. He can take off his orange hat, flex his arms, crouch down and say “HUH” and off pops an unusual hat from the top of his head. Tremornians love his wacky creations and adore him for dressing up their

   Day 98 – Stinga Stinga is an alien jellyfish floating through outer space. He has lost his charge and can’t crackle and snap like lightning, the way he used to. He is on a quest to get his sting back and is hunting for “Buzzno”, the only planet in the universe that has any

   Day 97 – Bab Bab is a baby. He has always been a baby wearing grown up clothes. He never grows up and he can’t talk. He likes to hug people though, but they always run away from him. I think there is an almost grotesque quality to this vector character and it really

March was a busy month in my Vector Character land. I had at least 5 days where I was totally stumped and had to sit for half an hour to collect my thoughts. I wonder if the inspiration gets harder to come by as the days progress. I find creating the vector characters quite a

   Day 96 – Fifi Fifi is the prettiest ballerina in the robot town of “Tip”. She practices everyday from morning to night. Her dream is to be as light as a feather and not make any clankity sounds when she goes up and down on her big clunky, metal toes. Time Taken : 30

   Day 95 – Ringer Remember Boothman?? Ringer is the master calling device, the only one he trusts to be there for him and his Boothmen. Ringer looks lazy and half asleep, but don’t be fooled by his looks. It is part of his deception strategy. He can dial any number faster than lightning and

   Day 94 – Peddler Blink Peddler Blink is Riko’s latest finds. On one of her recent adventures with her pet tree Bark, Riko found a unique transportation device that went as fast as it blinked. It also changed colors from red to green when it started moving. She was so happy to have found

   Day 93 – Prong Prong is the oldest and the naughtiest expression sprite of all. He is forever upto some godforsaken mischief. On one of his mischief missions, he broke a huge fork and stuck the prongs on his head after painting them red. That is how he got his name. He is a

   Day 92 – Black Shade Black Shade has to work very hard to glow at night. His black, polka dot riddled body doesn’t reflect much light and that is not a very good thing for a lamp shade. When he scrunches his eyes shut tight and concentrates real hard, his nose glows a bright