Illustrating Lady Justitia

May 18, 2008 in Artwork, Tutorials, Vector, Video by Vyoma | 6 comments

Illustrating Vector Art of Lady Justitia

  • Software: Inkscape (or Adobe Illustrator or Corel DRAW)
  • Level: Advanced
  • Subject: Lady Justitia

I got inspired to do this work when Rizky asked how would one do vector art of Lady Justitia.

Lady Justice is a personification of the legal system. She is often depicted as a blindfolded goddess holding a sword and a scale.

Here is a walk-through of my attempt using Inkscape – consisting of a set of images and the screen capture video. You should be able reproduce similar results using other vector editors too.

Concepts

Doing thumbnails and sketches has almost become a regular in my work-flow.

Concept - Rough

After a pretty rough doodling in GIMP, I do a clean sketch in GIMP itself.

Concept - Sketch

Flats

Having a solid base color for each of the parts becomes quite easy later on while adding details. Thus, I take time to create shapes and order them properly in Inkscape. (I import the sketch as a guide for shape construction).

The video is quite long – it is actually a play list of a few of them. You will see how I keep shuffling the order of the sketch, using it as a guide, to create the different shapes.

Details

Lady Justitia - Details - Face

After the flats are done, the details are added as smaller shapes with either solid colors or gradients.

Lady Justitia - Details - Shiny Scales

Detailing the reflective scales is not that different from the study done for Painting A Golden Amulet.

Lady Justitia - Details - Sword

A similar approach is followed for the sword too.

Lady Justitia - Details - Hair

The fine details of the hair, and the strong highlights completes the detailing of the subject.

Final Artwork

Here is the final artwork.

Lady Justitia

Check out the deviantART entry for a larger version.

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If you would like to see me do a vector illustration or a digital painting, you can use the comment form below, or drop me a line.

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  2. rizky’s avatar

    rizky on May 19, 2008 at 4:28 am

    The artwork is amazingly beautiful. Okay, I admit it’s a bit complicated and absolutely for non-beginner. However, thanks for giving us these lessons (and for free ;D). I’ll try these steps you’ve written.
    I didn’t expect you’d write a post to answer my question. I’m really honoured. Especially ‘cos you sent me an e-mail. If you hadn’t sent me the e-mail, I wouldn’t have known you’d done this Lady Justitia project as I’ve forgotten I commented on your website. Keep up the good work and don’t forget to keep them always free. Hehe,,

    PS: by the way, my name is Rizky, not Ricky. It’s okay, though ;D

    Reply

  3. Vyoma’s avatar

    Vyoma on May 19, 2008 at 4:55 am

    Thanks, Rosalin.

    And you are welcome, Rizky. :) The subject is a bit complex – so yes, it is a bit lengthy.

    PS: Fixed your name – sorry about that.

    Reply

  4. Flemming’s avatar

    Flemming on October 24, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    May I use the picture of lady-justitia in a global magazine, two editions (Dec. 2009 and April 2010)?

    Reply

    1. Vyoma’s avatar

      Vyoma on November 2, 2009 at 4:47 am

      Since it is for a publication, you will need to pay licensing fees. Please contact me with more details and I’ll let you know how much and the payment method.

      Reply