Help on designing this illustration

[gobit]

Hello guys,

I'm sharing a part of the design my former freelance illustrator have created in the attachment. I'm trying to replicate the design by myself but I can't really reverse engineer the actions to achieve the (almost) same design. What do you think? Did he use a specific font or created the letter from scratch drawing it by hand?

I would be grateful if you could give me some ideas.

Thanks in advance.

 

[scotty]

From the example it seems to be done in a vector app like Ai to me.

Hard to tell from one letter but...

If I were to do it I'd start with either a font and convert it to paths before using the path tools to add nodes and pull it around a bit and add cracks.
Alternatively, I'd use the font as a guide and draw over it.
From there you can use these paths to create the 3D appearance and build the detail, add a drop shadow.
From there you can select the text, unify it with the pathfinder and use the Offset Path function to create those outlines that the text sits on.