Summer Feeling : Artwork Progress

Thought it would be cool to show ya'll how i came up with my latest design which is displayed in this thread in the EnglishSabla :

.:Summer Feeling

So here it goes :

Step 1 :

I wanted an image of someone with sunglasses so this is probably the most suitable one I found , not this is only a little smaller than the original size , so I had to maximize the picture to fit an A4 sized working space.



Step 2 :

using Adobe illustrator's pen tool I traced the shadows and black parts of the image , and felt that I needed to edit a few things to make it look more attractive , so I added a mustache , and I made his hair look spiky.. and this is what I came up with. the lines around him is just a brush stroke.



step 3 :

after that I transfered the image to adobe photoshop to start working on the background , and since I wanted it to look summery I added what seemed to me first as a sun and added a gradient fill to the vector of the guy..and this is what i came up with at first.



step 4 :

The whole thing looked way to simple and plain to me.. so i decided to move that sun above , add more circles , and colors to the background and to the guy and found blue appropriate for the whole 'summer vibe' going on , added my typical curved design and this is what i fainally settled with after an hour and 15 minutes.



Hope ya'll enjoyed it. :")