A_P_TPC_Vol11_2015_

LEARN THE STEPS, TRICKS AND TIPS FOR CREATING

A CARTOONLIKE CHARACTER ILLUSTRATION

DESIGN A CARTOON

CREATURE

T

he drawing and creation of mythological

creatures provides endless ideas creative

possibilities. Every civilisation has myths

and old tales about such creatures, from

warlocks and dragons to the Loch Ness monster,

and studying their origin will have you delving into

the culture in question. The Hydra in our illustration

is definitely not an accurate historical depiction, but

rather a cartoon incarnation of the Greek myth.

Cartoons can be silly and vibrant, and Photoshop’s

toolset is immeasurably useful for the job of an

illustrator. Photoshop will help you bring out the best

colours in an image and is particularly useful in the

THE HYDRA’S BASE

LET’S LAY DOWN THE WOODWORK FOR THE PAINTING

creation of the utterly fantastical. Its clean,

well-organised and easy to understand interface is

ideal for both large and small scale projects.

In this tutorial, we’ll go through the steps needed

to bring a monstrosity to life. Going through the

process of an illustration from a chicken-scratch

compositional sketch to end-result, we will cover

areas such as masking layers, Photoshop filters,

tools, and plenty of painting tips.

Before we start, Google mythological creatures to

inspire yourself and come back when you have

thought of something fun to design. And don’t forget

to compile a page of photo references for yourself!

01

CREATE A ROUGH SKETCH

To start off, let’s boot up Photoshop and

create a new canvas. Go to Layer>New Layer to

start a first rough draft. Keep in mind that this

stage isn’t about the details, it’s about getting a

sense of the composition and personality of our

characters across. It’s important to commit to

the idea at this stage!

02

FIND A PERSPECTIVE

Now before we jump into refining our

Hydra’s sketch, let’s get a sense of our dungeon’s

perspective. On the draft, go to Layer>Opacity and

turn it down a notch so that we can see what we’re

doing. This stage is important because we do not

want our dragon floating about at a wonky angle.

03

START TO REFINE THE LINES

Now we have the rough draft sorted, we

can tackle getting crisper, more final lines. Once

again, go to Layer>Opacity and lower the opacity on

both the dungeon and Hydra draft layers. Now create

a brand-new layer for our good lines and take a hard

round brush. Carefully trace over your original draft,

making clean lines. Add more detail!

FROM SKETCH TO

FINAL PIECE

WORK IN

PROGRESS

Progress 1: Start rough

Progress 2: Refine shadows

Progress 3: Colouring the beast

PIPER THIBODEAU

http://www.piperthibodeau.com

@Piper_Thibodeau

OUR EXPERT

Piper Thibodeau is a 22-year-old

character designer from Canada. She

currently works as a freelancer for

companies such as DreamWorks TV,

Nickelodeon and Penguin Books/

Random House.

DESIGN A CARTOON CREATURE