Adobe Illustrator Tutorial using Shapes

Adobe Illustrator Tutorial using Shapes, Brushes, and Halftone Effects.

In this easy to follow tutorial we will be going through our anchor point guide to build our cartoon character using shapes. I have been getting a lot of requests for more tutorials on building characters using shapes.

Building with Shapes

Shapes are a great way of building your characters especially as you gain experience with blend, warp, shape builder, and pathfinder to create unique shapes.

Adding Brushes

We will be adding our cartoon brushes to add line variation to our line width. These brushes are located in our resource folder and our easy to install as a new brush library.

Halftone Effects

We will be adding on an effect using the gradient tool and the color halftone pixelate effect. We will be also walking you through the live trace panel.

Using Shapes in Adobe Illustrator

Using Resource Folder

1. Place the anchor point guide into NEW illustrator document and scale to fit the 5″x 5″ artboard. In your layers menu select Template Layer. Create a New layer ABOVE IT for inking.

Using Shapes

2. Trace the image using the shape tool. There should be no fill when using the pen tool. Use scissor tool to cut off any extra lines or edges. Remember to have cut (2X) before deleting the discarded portion.

Custom Brushes

3. Add OUR custom brushes library to create variation in your lines. Expand the lines and use the eraser tool to erase overlapping or unwanted lines. Unite brushes in pathfinder panel.

Using Live Paint

4. Select All – Object- Live Paint. Fill in flat colors wIth our color palette or find others on https://color.adobe.com/ Object – Expand live paint. Ungroup (3X) or until you can select individual shapes.