Beginner Adobe Illustrator Cartoon Inking Tutorial
This Adobe Illustrator Tutorial will be a part of our Resource and Beginner Guides to help assist you in creating a workflow for your own artwork. LEARNING TARGET (1): Select a Primary Building Tool that best matches your own artwork or is the easiest to use (Pen, Pencil, or Shape Tools). LEARNING TARGET (2): If you are new, pay attention to the order and sequence of events that I apply to my artwork. I will be adding Brushes to my Line Work before doing Expanded Editing. LEARNING TARGET (Adv): Use Shape Builder for fast Editing. Prep your initial paths to go long.
"BUILDING" ARTBOARD: I will recommend a (1080px by 1080px, 300PPI, RGB) as your Initial Artboard Size. The Initial Artboard Size can be changed at any point without ruining your own artwork. Use the Properties Panel to Scale Artwork and Artboards. LEARNING TARGET (1): Create a "Building Template" that includes Artboard Size, Resource Type, and Template Layers. LEARNING TARGET (2): Pick a "Building" Artboard Size you can use for your own Artwork and Social Media Postings. → ARTBOARD SIZE FINDER
FILE - PLACE: File -Place in your own Drawing, Sketch, or Traced Stock Photo. I recommend starting from a Clean Line Drawing or a simple Traced Stock Photo for your artwork and designs.
SCALE TO FIT: You can modify the size of the artwork using the Bounding Box or Scale Tool. Scale to Fit Artbaord. Align the your Artwork to the center of the Artbaord using the Align Panel.
TEMPLATE LAYER: In the Layers Panel, drop down in the menu for Template (50%) or double click on the layer for properties (Dim 10-30%). Lock Layer. Create a New Layer above for Building.
GENERAL PREFERENCES: All of our initial preferences are designed to gain more control over what you are clicking on. The more you can zoom in and see your anchors and handles the better. You can adjust the size of your Anchors and Handles under Selection and Anchor Display. Under your General Settings, make sure that Disable Auto Add/Delete is Selected.
SELECTION TOOLS: The Direct Selection Tool can grab and adjust the Anchors, Handles, and Paths. It is worth having your Smart Guides Path Labels Turned On so you know what the tool is selecting before dragging. The Selection Tool will move and select objects. I like using the Bounding Box for my Transform Tools, Turn On under View. I recommend this for Quick Scaling.
PRIMARY BUILDING: I will use Shapes, Pencil, and Pen Tools in Adobe Illustrator as my Primary Building Tools. Notice I have simplified my drawings and sketches to make this step feel like tracing.
VARIATION + EDITING: I will apply Brush Libraries for my Line Variation. Notice I am using Expanded Editing Tools to clean up my Paths before moving on to the Coloring Step.
ADVANCED COLORING: I will use Live Paint and the Live Paint Bucket to create my Basic Fills. Notice I have duplicated out the Flat Color Layer for Highlights, Shadows, Gradients, and Effects.
PRIMARY BUILDING: As I create my artwork, notice I am aligning the Building Tools to the Shapes and Lines within my Sketch or Drawing. Many of you will be using Shape, Pencil, and Pen Tools as your Primary Building Tools. ACTION STEP: Align the Building Tools (Ellipse, Pen, and Curvature Tools) to the Design Elements (Shapes, Lines, and Curves) in your own drawing or sketch. PEN TOOL WORKFLOW / SHAPE BASED WORKFLOW / PENCIL TOOL WORKFLOW
DOWNLOAD BRUSHES: Many of you are jumping over from YouTube looking to download our Adobe Illustrator Brush Libraries. Once you have downloaded and extracted the folders, Brushes are ready to be used in Adobe Illustrator. Start with our Resource Guides to understand how to download, save, and open Brush Libraries in Adobe Illustrator. Download Cartoon, Comic Strip, and Vintage mascot Brush Libraries. → CARTOON BRUSHES / COMIC BRUSHES / MASCOT BRUSHES
CARTOON BRUSHES: Cartoon Brushes are my go-to for Professional Logos, Cartoons, Mascots, and Branding. Use Cartoon Illustrator Brushes with the Pen, Pencil, or Paint Brush Tools to Apply different Line Variation to your Vector Artwork. Download Cartoon, Cartoon 2, and Original Cartoon Brush Libraries.
COMIC STRIP BRUSHES: Hand Painted + Comic Strip Brushes to get a lived in feel back into your Vector Art. Comic Strips and Hand Painted are painted based on some of my favorite artists and cartoonists. These brushes are designed to look ready for the Sunday Paper. Download Comic Strip, Hand-Painted, Paintbrush, and Fine Liner Brush Libraries.
MASCOT BRUSHES: Jittery Hand, Caffeinated Cartoonist + Rough Ink Brushes to Mimic Paper Bleed and Caffeine. Designed to be a little less stiff with your vector art. Use these Brush Libraries to get more of a distressed look or ink bleed back in your own Vector Artwork. Download Caffeinated Cartoonist, Rough Ink, and Jittery Hand Brush Libraries.
SAVE BRUSHES: Open All of the Brushes Libraries in Adobe Illustrator. (File - Open). Have your Brushes Panel Open. Under Window - Brushes. In the Brushes Menu, select "Save Brush Library." The Default Save Location is "User Defined." Repeat this step for each Brush Library.
OPEN BRUSHES: Under Window - Select Brushes. In the Brushes Menu, drop down to Open Brush Library. Hover over it and select "Other Library." A Normal Open Dialogue Box will appear to select any Brush Library to use in Illustrator. Almost all Tutorials use this method.
COLOR SWATCHES: Use Color Swatches from your Library or save them from Adobe Color as an .ASE File. Open Swatch Library from the “Other Library” Option. Most Color Themes will use Hues as the Base Color. We will be using Live Paint to create our Basic Fills or Flat Color Layer.
LIVE PAINT: Coloring will be extremely easy using Live Paint Bucket. The goal of Live Paint is to create Shapes that we can color using Fills. Once you have completed the Live Paint Group, it is important to Expand and Upgroup. We will leverage these shapes for our Values and Gradients.
KNIFE TOOL: After using Live Paint, Expand and Ungroup. Use a Duplicated Flat Color Layer for your Value Layers. The Knife Tool will cut Shapes. I recommend cutting out all of the shapes first before deleting them. You can use this technique for Highlights, Shadows, or Cast Shadows.
COLOR SWATCHES + THEMES: Download or Save Color Swatches (Adobe Color) for your own artwork and designs. I recommend gathering and organizing resources within the same project folder (Stock Photos / Sketches / Thumbnails / Color Swatches).
SAVE OR DOWNLOAD SWATCHES. You can save Color Themes for your own artwork and designs. If you have CC, click add to Library. You can also download Color Swatches as an .ASE File to open through "Other Library" in the Swatches Panel Menu.
NEW: START HERE
PENCIL TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Tablet Workflow using Pencil Tool and Live Paint Bucket. Understand the Building, Variation, and Advanced Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PENCIL TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Tablet Workflow using the Pencil Tool and Cartoon Brushes. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Comic Strip Brushes and Live Paint. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Workflow using Pen Tool Shapes, Halftones, and Knife Tool. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Value Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Live Paint Bucket. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Shapes and Cartoon Brushes. Understand Building, Applying, and Editing Brush Libraries. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
SHAPE TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Shape Tool Workflow using Fills and Brushes. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Cartoon Brushes. Understand Building, Applying, and Editing Brush Libraries. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Live Paint and Knife Tool. Understand the Building, Live Paint, and Advanced Value Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Live Paint and Knife Tool. Understand the Building, Variation, and Advanced Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Live Paint and Knife Tool. Understand the Building, Variation, and Advanced Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Advanced Pen Tool Workflow using Pen Tool, Blend, and Live Paint. Understand Building, Variation, Editing, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
