Global Creator: Lydia Ortiz.

Lydia Ortiz is a designer and illustrator based in East Bay, California. Her style has a touch of nostalgia with a blend of the surreal. Lydia incorporates vibrant colors with playful, figurative imagery into her art. See how Lydia uses the Image Trace tool in Illustrator to turn a photo of marbled paint into a crisp, marbled vector.

Get to know Lydia.

Welcome to Lydia’s studio.

Vectorize a photo.

To create psychedelic vectors in Illustrator, Lydia begins her process with analog marbling. She takes a photo of her marble work, places it in her artboard, selects it, then chooses Object > Image Trace > Make to vectorize it.

She then chooses Window > Image Trace to access options that let her finesse her vectors.

Tip: You can apply this same technique to any image — from logo sketches to photographic portraits.

Free marbled vectors.

Try out Lydia’s technique by downloading the practice file at the top of this page. You’ll also get a set of her vectors to experiment with.

“I’m highly influenced by my childhood in the Philippines. It was filled with nature, animals, and frequent trips to the witch doctor.”

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