PixelPerfect #134: Wrap Cindy Crawford in Lace!

Bert gives us an update on his Times Square piece and focuses on some sexy lace on Cindy Crawford's shoulders made from scratch!

Create geometric shapes in lace using Adobe Illustrator
Before we add lace to the curves of Cindy Crawford's body, we want to build the shapes of the lace in Illustrator. You can use a photo of existing fabric to trace a few of the patterns. Bert builds these from scratch by first turning on the guides and draw a couple circles with no fill, then blend to replicate more circles. Create segments by drawing a vertical line, then rotating the angle by 20 degrees. Hit Ctrl D to replicate the rotation in future copies of the line until you have a shape that looks like a spider web. Repeat the process for the rounded parts of the pattern that sit on the outer edge.

Import the shapes to Photoshop
We now bring our completed shapes into a new file Photoshop. The new file should have a gradient that is similar to Cindy's shoulder skin tone. Then, paste in the copied shape from Illustrator. Make sure the shape looks like a bunch of white, twisted threads by using these brush settings: 5 pixel diameter with a white foreground, Shape Dynamics turned off, and increased spacing so that the knots look like they're just touching. Go back to your path, and then stroke the path with the brush. Now the shape looks like a doily. Add a slight drop shadow and a small inner bevel with a soft edge to add some depth.

Warp the shape
Contour the lace to the shape of the shoulder by using Warp. In a larger example, Bert stitched all his shapes together first before wrapping Cindy's shoulders.

Coming up in a future episode:
Learn how to create Cindy Crawford's beautiful, elaborate, wavy hair!