With more than twenty years of experience as a graphic designer and illustrator, I really enjoy sharing what I’ve learned over the years. I hope you find this Character Illustration Tutorial helpful in some way.

Check back often for new tutorials. If you have a suggestion for a subject, please send it my way and I’ll be happy to consider it for a future tutorial.

Several people have asked me how I create my “keyline free” character illustrations; what’s my process? So I decided to do this tutorial showing the steps I take to create this style of illustration. I hope it’s helpful.

FYI, at the time of creating this tutorial, I’m working in Adobe Illustrator CS3 running on a Mac – OS version 10.5.2. I use a 6’x8’ Wacom tablet to do all of the illustration work that’s done on the computer.

Getting Started

The first step in the process is to draw a sketch. Some artists prefer to draw their sketches on the computer in a drawing program. I prefer to draw my in pencil – the old fashioned way.

You probably noticed right away that there are some differences between the initial sketch and the final illustration. That’s what’s so great about working on the computer. You can change your mind and do all sorts of little tweaks along the way.

Once I feel like I will be able to use the sketch as a drawing template, I scan the sketch at 150 pixels per inch and save it as a Grayscale TIFF.

Setting Up Your Illustrator File

Create a New Document in Illustrator. I prefer working in CMYK color mode, but you can work in RGB if you prefer.

Place the TIFF of the sketch in Illustrator using File/Place. I usually name the layer Sketch, then select the layer and choose Template from the Layer palette drop-down menu. This slightly lightens the appearance and locks the layer to avoid accidentally selecting the sketch image while you’re working.

Drawing the Shapes

I approach the actual drawing of the shapes and building of the character somewhat like painting a picture. I start with the hind-most objects, (those furthest in the background), and build forward.

Depending on the complexity of the illustration, I will often draw the body parts on separate layers to help keep things organized. This also makes it easier to hide the objects I’m not working on at the moment so those paths aren’t getting in the way.

I set the pen tool to no fill color and a red stroke of .5 pt. Try to use as few anchor points as possible. This will make your curves much more smooth, and less likely to have unwanted bumps or flat spots.

A good rule of thumb for knowing how long to drag the handle bars on a section of a curved path is the “one third” rule. The general idea here is that the handlebars will each be about one third the distance of the length of the curve. As you can see, this can vary depending on the shape of the curve, but you’ll be surprised how often one third is exactly what you need.

It’s really important to discipline yourself to complete as much of the illustration as possible using the red outlines before adding any fill colors. It is tempting to want to start adding fills before you have drawn all the basic shapes, but this can really slow you down.

On this particular illustration, I knew right from the beginning that the angle of the elephant was wrong. He looks like he’s about to fall forward and do a face plant. This is OK because I know it will be faster to trace the sketch as it is, then I can rotate the character as needed to get the right balance, proportions and so forth.

You may have noticed what appear to be some odd straight edges here and there throughout the shapes. These are areas where part of the shape is covered by another shape. It doesn’t really make any sense to try and match up the curves in these situations, so the fastest most efficient approach is to just make straight sections of path.

Painting and Shading

Choosing a color pallet is somewhat of a random process for me. On this illustration, I knew I wanted mostly primary colors and the grays for the elephant, so I went ahead and created the colors I wanted from scratch. Sometimes I’ll grab them from something I’ve done before, and almost always tweak them a bit along the way.

My process for using gradient fills is similar. Some I create in advance, others I create as I’m filling the objects. I use a lot of gradients, but the transitions in value are fairly subtle. Too much contrast in gradient values can tend to make this type of image look “cheap”.

When I first add the fill colors and gradients to the illustration (Before) it still looks kind of strange. I’m not worried about position or direction of gradients at this point. I just want to get the fills in there so I can stand back and look at the thing and think about light source and where I need to add any additional shapes for shadows or highlights.

This is an exciting point in the process for me. I can see a glimpse of the finished product. Unlike the actual drawing of the shapes, this part can not be rushed. I have to take frequent brakes, and come back for a fresh perspective. Sometimes this is the point where I will close the file until the next day so I can give the details the attention they need.

This also allows the opportunity for an epiphany. For example, in this case it struck me the next day to add the flag which I feel is almost what makes this illustration. It also adds a lot of value as “stock art” in that the user can add text to the flag.

Some objects require a fair amount of fussing to get the shading just right. The torso of the elephant required a radial gradient utilizing three different shades of gray.

After filling the shape with the gradient fill colors I wanted, I selected the Gradient tool from the tool palette, and clicked where I wanted the center of the radial gradient to appear, then dragged the mouse where I wanted the gradient fill to end. When the mouse is released the image updates to show the new position of the gradient in the object.

This method is applied to pretty much every object that contains a gradient fill. It’s also necessary often times to adjust the sliders on the Gradient palette to apply the shading to the desired area of the object.

The final touches for me are usually things like subtle shading on the face and around the eyes. The shadows under the ears and under the blanket on his back are little things, but those are the things that make the difference between a so-so illustration and one that jumps off the page.

Don’t be too hasty to send your work off. Take the time to go away and “sneak up on it” one last time before you call it finished.If there are any details you feel like I left out, or if you’d just like me to expound on a certain part of the process, please feel free to drop me a line. I’m more than happy to consider all input.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Jim

Special thanks to Mordy Golding for mentioning this article on his blog. Thanks Mordy!