Creative lighting techniques

Bright lights will always draw a crowd, and not just people looking for a good time. Adding atmospheric lighting effects to your illustrations will attract the attention your clients are after.

You may already be familiar with Illustrator's Inner and Outer Glow effects, but the application offers a wealth of techniques and tools for brightening up any artwork.

In this tutorial I'll demonstrate five techniques that you can use to enhance the ambience of your night-time cityscapes by creating beams of light, glows, shines, video screens and neon signage. Of course, my advice can be adapted to light up other scenes, objects, typography or graphics. But as always, be careful not to go overboard!

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