Adobe Illustrator Cartoon Snail Tutorial
By Cory • Nov 12th, 2007 • Category: Illustrations, Tutorials & Tips|
Below is a tutorial I’ve written for a cartoon character created in Adobe Illustrator. Feel free to check out my other tutorials here. Enjoy! I start with placing a scanned pencil sketch in Illustrator. Go to File > Place and choose the sketch file. I usually use 72 dpi grayscale scans. |
 |
|
Next, I use the pen tool to trace over my scan. I like to use a color stroked line because it is easier to see. I also close all my paths, so each piece is an individual complete shape. |
 |
|
I remove the sketch once I’m finished tracing. |
 |
|
After I finish tracing, I eliminate the stroke and fill everything with black. With all my shapes still selected, I use object > offset path and set that to -1 pt. This will copy the shapes only 1 pt smaller. These new shapes I fill with white, so I can see them. |
 |
|
Next, I usually like to thicken up my black line by using the offset path again. I also like to scale the new black shapes to get a little line weight variation. Once I have my line weights correct, I zoom in close to make sure that none of my pieces have moved out of place. |
 |
|
Once my black and white lines look right, I start coloring. I start by filling my white shapes with basic flat colors. |
 |
|
After I’ve picked out the flat colors, I start drawing my shadow shapes with the pen tool. Remember to close the path on those too, so they are complete shapes. |
 |
|
Now, I use the pathfinder tools. Go to Window > Pathfinder to make sure the Pathfinder palette is open. The Pathfinder tools are used to combine or cut up two separate shapes. For this example, I’m going to use the Intersect Shape Areas. |
 |
|
First, I need to duplicate the the orange shell shape. I start by selecting the orange shell shape, then double click on the rotate symbol in the tool bar. This will bring up a dialogue box. I set the degrees to 0 and click COPY. This will create a duplicate orange shell shape in the exact same spot. |
 |
|
Next, I select my shadow shape and go to Object > Arrange > Send to Back. With the shadow shape still selected, I shift click on the orange shell. Now that I have both shapes selected, I go to the pathfinder palette and click on Intersect and then Expand. This creates a new shape where the two shapes intersected. I fill this shape with a slightly darker color to make it look like a shadow. |
|
|
|
I repeat the last step with the yellow body, the eyes and the drop shadow under the shell. |
 |
|
After I finish the shadows, I can also add in highlights if necessary. |
 |
|
I hope this tutorial helps you create some great characters in Illustrator. Illustrator is great for creating cartoons like this, and also when you need to create files for online brochure printing or printed postcards. |
This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2010 Cory Thoman. This post contains advertising links. Please read the About & Policies for more information.
r Cartoon Tutorial - IllustrationInfo is a quite interesting post but quite difficult to understand for me -
I try to write the tutorials in a simple easy to understand manner. Let me know if there is a specific step you don’t understand. -Cory
Pretty useful tutorial
Thanks for writing it
Indeed ..it was a bit difficult to understand every step you wrote….It would have been better if you had written it pointwise (step 1, step 2, step 3….and so on….) and had not used first person singular while instructing. Anyways……good efforts……thanks.
Hi, I like this post and think you explained things well throughout. More please . . . .
Didn’t understand very much actually…
How do you “terminate” the stroke. What does offset path really do?
Not very beginner-friendly.
Thanks anyway.
Jay, you’re probably right. It isn’t necessarily very beginner friendly. I don’t really cover the basics like using the pen tool and switching colors. I may try to add those things in the future, but for now I was focusing on techniques.
In answer to your questions:
How do you terminate the stroke? You can eliminate and change the color of the stroke or fill on the Toolbar. There are two large swatches that overlap near the bottom of the Toolbar. There hard to miss because they are the largest things on the Toolbar. One looks like a square (Fill Color) and the other one looks like a square with the center cut out (Stroke Color). You can change the color or choose no color by using the Swatch palette.
What does the Offset Path do? A path is basically a shape, so you’re either making the shape larger or smaller uniformly. When you use the Offset path it makes a duplicate of the shape that is “x” number pixels larger or smaller than the original shape. I use it in this tutorial to give the illusion of line work, but in actuality it is just a white shape overtop a slightly larger black shape.
I have a question about the shadow shapes. You say to duplicate the original shape, send it to the back, and then use “intersect and then expand” to make a new shape. But you have to move the new shape into an offset position from the original shape, first, right, so that it will make a new shape? Otherwise, if both shapes are in exactly the same position, “intersect and then expand” doesn’t do anything.
Carol,
Let’s see if I can answer this. I’ll use the shell as an example.
You want to duplicate the shell not the shadow shape. Then, you’re using the intersect on the duplicate shell shape and the shadow shape that you drew. The basic point is to trim the excess off of the shadow shape, so it fits the shape of the shell.
I used to not duplicate the shape and just use the divide on the shadow shape and the shell shape. I started using the intersect instead because I like to keep my original shell shape intact. It’s more forgiving with mistakes.
Hopefully, that makes sense.
Hi Cory,
Great tutorial, made perfect sense to me. I’m sure your tips will make some of my future projects that little bit easier. Thanks!
Im a begginer and having trouble finding tutuorials for begginers. I totally dig what Max means. Most tutorials are for people with at least minimal know-how. But please keep in mind that there is people in search of that minimal know-how. Great tutorial and hopefully when I learn the basics this will be very helpful.
KC,
I’ve started a series of tutorials for people starting out with Illustrator. Hopefully, they are a little more helpful.
-Cory
thanks!
Hi there! I love these tutorials. They’ve really helped me so far. I am completely self-taught in AI , and I have only started working in it over the past month or two. It’s a bit slow-coming.
I have a couple questions. I see that you made small triangles at the edge of the shell and under his neck to make a sort of line that comes into the drawing. If that makes sense. How would I make something like that in my drawing? I would like to use this offset method to make varied width lines.
Also, if I wish to do line ’stripes’ on a drawing–for example, the lines on a twisted rope–how would I connect everything so that the paths are closed? Here’s an example:
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-36055960/stock-vector-sea-fishes-and-animals-collection-vector-illustration.html (this is just a sample, it is not created by me)
How would I connect the detail lines on the fish’s fins to the rest of the fish? I would like to make my vectors clean. I’m also not understanding how to create a floating object inside the drawing, like the inner fins on the dolphins in the sample above. I’ve had a very hard time learning how to add details like this.
Thanks in advance, I apologize for all of the questions. I just found this site today.
Oh my goodness I figured it out! Thanks to another tutorial of yours for AI doodling, I found exactly what I was looking for regarding my previous questions. THANK YOU!
http://illustrationinfo.com/?p=183
Glad you found the answer. You might also check out my Beginner’s Series:
http://illustrationinfo.com/?page_id=159
Thanks so much for sharing the info. Cory. This snail tutorial has been really helpful to me!
nice snail tuts … you could give ints on how to get the right colors next time ..
Nice idea! I’ll have to add a color tutorial to my beginner tuts:
http://illustrationinfo.com/?page_id=159
FYI: I usually tweak my colors with the color palette. I personally like the CMYK sliders.
I did have a color tutorial about getting brighter colors:
http://illustrationinfo.com/?p=222
-Cory
thanks for this lesson but even though it is very hard to draw pencil sketch,this is effective…
Cory! Thank-you!
I’m very very new to Illustrator (the first time I used it was yesterday), and if I hadn’t found your tutorials I’d have given up on it completely.
It’ll take a while to get used to grouping rather than using layers, but with your help, I’ll get there…
I don’t find Illustator intuitive at all once I’ve finished with the pen tool. but you have a logical approach which is really easy to follow. You are now my vector guru!
Thanks crayonmonkey! Feel free to check out my beginner’s series too:
http://illustrationinfo.com/?page_id=159
These are great. I think it’s time to make some Youtube vids about this! Seeing it done is 100x easier to understand. (try Camtasia screen recorder…makes crisp videos…not sure if it works on mac though). Anyways , thx.
nice snail tuts … you could give ints on how to get the right colors next time …
I had a difficult time understanding how you added the shadow to the snail’s shell. I’ve been trying to figure out how to shade in Illustrator, and I really wish I could understand how you did the shading. You lost me after you did “Object>Arrange>Send to back” on the copy of the shell. How did you get the shading to fill in that certain area of the shell and not the whole thing? Hope you have time to explain it to me.
Thanks for your other tutorials by the way! I’ve already gone through most of them, and up until this point, they’ve all been clear and easy to understand. Thanks again!
Emily,
Hopefully, I can explain this, so it makes more sense. If you are not familiar with the Pathfinder palette, you may want to play around with that to get a feel for what all the different buttons on it do. Basically, it is used to combine or divide two shapes. Anyway here are the basic steps in more detail for the shadow shape on the shell.
1. Copy Shell and Paste in to place. (In the tutorial I do this using the rotate, but you can also use the Paste in Front from the Edit menu).
2. Send the Shadow shape to the back. (This step isn’t always necessary, but it just assures that the new shape isn’t overlapping another shape).
3. Select the copied shell shape and the shadow shape. (To select multiple shapes, hold down shift and click on the next shape using the Selection Tool from the Toolbar).
4. Click on the intersect from the Pathfinder palette. (Depending on the version of AI, you may need to Expand the shape).
5. Change the color of the shape slightly darker. (You can change color with the color palette).
Hopefully, that explains it a little further. Basically, you used the copy of the shell shape as a cookie cutter to eliminate the excess from the shadow shape using the Pathfinder palette.
Working with Illustrator is a little bit more like sculpture or working with cut paper shapes than drawing, so it takes a while to get it down. If you have any trouble with some of the basic tools, I’d suggest starting with my Beginner’s Series. It moves a little slower, but I try to explain things in a little more detail in that. Here’s the link:
http://illustrationinfo.com/?page_id=159