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TUTORIALS
06 FEBRUARY 2012
37 COMMENTS
use as many basic shapes as possible to achieve that quirky style of illustration, then
bring the character to life with a palette of cold colours. Despite the use of basic shapes
this tutorial includes a good spread of intermediate to advanced tools and techniques.
The Yeti character well be creating is made up of basic shapes to maintain that simple
illustration feel. The plump round shapes all help create a friendly and loveable
character while the high shoulders and wide stance give him a slow and lazy
personality.
any vector element on. Place the sketch (included in the members source file
download) into an Illustrator document and use a large oval to outline the main body
shape. Intersect the lower half of the oval with a temporary rectangle and use it to clip
away the excess with the Subtract button from the Pathfinder palette.
Match up basic shapes to flesh out the overall appearance of the character. Toggle on
Smart Guides (CMD+U) to make aligning elements super easy. Here Im using two
rounded rectangles for each leg, then a smaller circle aligned in the center which will be
Pathfinder palette, then use the Direct Selection tool to delete out the upper points from
the rectangles and lower point of the circle to leave two open paths.
Select one end of the open path and join it to fill the gap. Repeat this on the opposite
Draw a large circle to match the profile of the arms. Drag the lowermost point upwards
press CMD+Shift+] to send it to the top, then use this shape as a tool with the
Pathfinder to Subtract this shape from the arms. Right click and select Ungroup to split
hand. Merge the circles together, then make a duplicate of the arm shape. Make sure
the arm is positioned at the top of the stack (CMD+Shift+]), then use it to clip away the
overlap.
Make a duplicate of the hand shape, send it to the top, select both the temporary hand
shape and the body shape, then hit the Subtract button from the Pathfinder tool to clip
away the overlap between the hand and the main body.
Draw three circles aligned side by side and align them to the foot area. Select the three
circles and hit CMD+8 to create a Compound Path then make a duplicate of the main
body shape and use the Pathfinder to Intersect the circles to create a set of toes.
Draw a circle as a base of the facial outline, then use the Direct Selection tool to
manipulate its shape by dragging the top and bottom points into place.
Use a black filled circle with a smaller white circle to create a simple eye, then hold ALT
Next, give the shape a Warp with the Envelope Distort feature (Object > Envelope
Distort > Make with Warp). Use the Arc option and adjust the amount to bend the
shape.
Reset the shape back into an editable object by going to Object > Expand. Select both
The outline of the shape still has lots of unnecessary points, so use the Simplify option
from the Path menu to reduce to number of points while maintaining the same overall
shape.
Position this random shape onto the face to represent the mouth, then draw three white
circles as teeth. Merge the teeth into a single shape, make a duplicate of the mouth
shape, send it to the top then use the Intersect option from the Pathfinder to clip them to
size.
Repeat the process, but this time using a red circle to represent the tongue.
The overall structure of the character is complete, but yetis are generally quite furry.
Draw a circle elsewhere on the artboard and drag out the right most point with the Direct
Selection tool. Add this to the Brush palette as a new brush and select the Art Brush
option. In the options make sure the direction of the brush is correct, then change the
and arm. Dont worry about the inner areas of the shapes, just pay attention to the new
to Object > Expand Appearance to convert the strokes into solid shapes.
Copy and Paste the series of strokes then go to Object > Transform > Reflect to mirror
them on the opposite side. Add a random colour fill to make it easy to see any overlaps,
send the arms to the bottom of the stack so they dont overlap the body.
Select the body shape along with all the remaining brush strokes and merge them
together. Replace the fill and stroke and adjust the stacking order so the facial features
strokes around the face should be directed inwards as opposed to outwards like the
Expand and blend the facial outline stroke together but this time use the Subtract option
from the Pathfinder to clip out the outline from the facial outline shape. Increase the size
out all the points along the lower edge to leave a single line.
The character linework is now complete and is ready for an injection of colour to bring
him to life.
Replace the white fills with a subtle blue/grey, then add a 3pt blue/grey stroke. Align the
Open the Appearance palette and select the Add New Stroke option to the body and
arm shapes.
Adjust this fill to a light blue with the settings of 11pt in size aligned to the inside. Add
the same fill to the facial outline, but aligned to the outside.
Tone down the impact of the eyes/mouth fills by making them a 90% black then add a
Draw a background for the Yeti and fill it with a complementing gradient to finish off the
character design.
Add a simple radial gradient fill to a circle then squash it into a flat oval.
Position these shapes underneath the Yetis feet to add a touch of shading to help
This leaves our cool vector Yeti character complete! Group together all the shapes that
make up the figure so its ready for use as a mascot for your product or website.