Adobe Illustrator Tutorial for Beginners using Shapes
In this easy to follow Adobe Illustrator Tutorial for Beginners, we will be going through step by step to build our character and practice using ellipses, pen, and the scissor tool. We will be adding flat color using the Live Paint feature, halftone fill effects, and offset paths to complete our easy cartoon character. Looking to Follow Along? Download Brushes, Textures + Tutorial Resources
Building using 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.
Scissor Tool
We will be cutting our shapes by using the scissor tool to control our strokes and where are cartoon brushes will be added.
Halftone
We will be applying basic patterns from the pattern menu to our character above the flat color layer.
Adding on Line Variation using Cartoon Brushes
You will have more control over the placement and width of each of your lines using the Cartoon Brushes. The process will be a combination of using the Brushes to get down the initial thickness and stroke width. The second step will be modifying the placement of the variation using the so we can edit later. This 2-Step Process allows for more control over your Line Variation compared to using your Tablet with Pressure.
Download Brushes
1. The Direct Download will make it very easy to download the zipped brushes file. Simply Extract All of the contents and follow along with the rest of the video.
Open Other Library
2. In your Brushes Panel, Window – Brushes. In the Bottom Left Hand Corner you will see a Brushes Library icon that looks like books. Click on it and scroll down to Other Library. Open Brush Library from folder.
Adding Line Weight
3. Depending on your own Style or preference, I would recommend adding a little more line weight to your artwork. The mistake I see a lot of beginners make is keeping the line weight at 1pt.
Cartoon Brushes
4. We have 17 Brush Libraries in our folder. You can use any one of them during this tutorial. All you have to do is line up the thin edge which will be floating in space. The Thick ends will represent our values which will be merging into other areas and strokes.
ILLUSTRATOR BRUSHES
How to Color in Adobe Illustrator
One of the easiest and fastest ways of filling in your color is through Live Paint. Live Paint is a part of the Shape Builder Tools which builds the shapes in the exact shape you need it. Select All. Go up to Object - Live Paint - Make. If you have a grayed out Make it simply means you didn't have anything selected. I recommend Deselecting by clicking on your artboard before clicking on a Color Swatch. *Remember Everything is still Selected so it will Color the Full Selection if you click on a Color Swatch. Click on the Live Paint Bucket (K) and Click to Dump Color. It will feel like the Paint Bucket in Adobe Photoshop. View Full List of 100 Step by Step Tutorials, Challenges and Tool-Based Workflows in our Adobe Illustrator Active Learning Curriculum.
Most Popular: Adobe Illustrator Tutorials
Adobe Illustrator Resources
200+ Adobe Illustrator Brushes specifically designed for Illustrators and Cartoonists to speed up their workflows. Includes Cartoon Brushes, Jittery Hand, Caffeinated Cartoonist and Hand-Painted Brushes. Follow Along to the Tutorials on the or Use with your Own Artwork. Includes Tutorial Resources for the Website and YouTube. VIEW ILLUSTRATOR BRUSHES
Illustrator Resources include our 200 Brushes, 400 Textures and Tutorial Resources. Many of you are coming from YouTube and are looking for our Illustrator Resource Folder to Follow Along to the Tutorials or use with Your Own Artwork. Includes the Tutorial Resources to Follow Along on the Website and YouTube. VIEW ILLUSTRATOR RESOURCE BUNDLE
Our Active Learning Curriculum on Teachable includes all of our Tool-Based Workflows, Unit Blocks, 100 Full-Length Modules and Illustrator Resources. What we are going to do in our Getting Started Guide is catch you up on how to Download our Illustrator Resources, Select a Tool Based Workflow and Follow Along to our Learning Modules on Teachable*. VIEW ACTIVE LEARNING CURRICULUM