Even for graphic designers, creating illustrations is not a routine activity. Flyers, posters, greeting cards, and even web templates, require a certain extent of decorative illustrations to make them pleasing to the eye. Among the varied forms of illustrations, one of the most common are animal illustrations. They are pervasive not only in the web but also in print media. A lot of people love to see animal artwork either in the form of cuddle-some cartoon-like creature, or its mischievous yet funny derivative, 3D monster illustration, or in some cases, the animals’ humongous realistic portrayal in photo manipulations.

Along with the tendency of people admiring some lighthearted designs and artworks involving animals, comes the yearning, and almost natural propensity of artists that produce them on their own. During their childhood, or during their developmental stage most artists and creative individuals, acquire their skills by drawing cartoon characters of animals. At first they draw them by hand, and later on in graphic software programs like Photoshop and Illustrator. As they become engaged in making a living out of their skills, artists have developed time saving techniques on their jobs and one of the things that speeds up the designing process are Photoshop brushes. There are a lot of free brushes around the web, and for animal themed designs, one of the must interesting to have is bird brushes. Another great “must have” brush is animal vectors created by benevolent artists who did not mind sharing their work for free.

If you are an emerging artist or a promising graphic designer who are aiming to develop your skills, we have complied here some of the great tutorials for you to learn. Also, you will find inspirational artworks to serve as standards of the skills that you want to achieve. If you are an advanced artist on the other hand, you can still check them out for some ideas, or if you want more, you can proceed to digital painting tutorials to advance your artistic capabilities further. We hope that you will enjoy this showcase and if you do, share this article to your friends and share with us your thoughts as well.

Animal Vector Illustrations for Inspiration

Sea Turtle by fizzgig

The birds by Olga Vorobieva

dragon fish by fiboy

Fairy cows at Magic field by d-i-a-n-k-a

Mandrila by GELLYFISH

The Usual Suspect by Diana NB

Loving snails – The return by Tooshtoosh

lovebirds by MechanicalPumpkin

Just a Random Bee by KellerAC

Parrot by nancy-kelpie

Cute animals by Gokce Gurellier

Just a random Owl by KellerAC

personage by LimKis

Sameria by ssst

Elephant by Sergeantpepper

Dream by JrDragao

Buffa Buddha by SOUP

Pulpo by raulmas

Sky Lurker by gildeneye

Me on a diet by gagatka27

Egg by overcover

Lion by yo az

Sex and Animals by Andrey Gordeev

Cute Animal Farm Characters by Marianna Markaki

How to Train a Giraffe by Cappippuni

Savage Seed by jfe

Pinch by CharadaBrasileiro

Green cat by 56rjnjd

MONSTERS III & ANIMALS by Adrian Val Delzel

save the planet by chicken1985

Animal Illustration Tutorials for Adobe Illustrator

How to Create a Curious Owl in Illustrator CS4

Create a Cool Vector Panda Character in Illustrator

Design a Cute Hamster Avatar

Create a Cute Vector Reindeer Character in Illustrator

How to Make an Attractive Vector Butterfly

Design an Underwater Clown Fish Tutorial in Illustrator

How to Turn a Sketch into a Fat Cat Vector Illustration

How To Draw a Cute Vector Dog Character in Illustrator

How to Create a Vector Goldfish in Six Steps

Create a Cute Vector Penguin Character in Illustrator

Create a Lady Bug Insect Tutorial Using Adobe Illustrator

How to Create a Cute Bunny Vector Character

Create a Tiger Striped Cat with Illustrator

Create the Face of a Greedy Monkey

How to Create a Cool Monkey Character in Illustrator