Don Blob - Character Illustration

• Software: Inkscape (or other vector graphics programs)
• Level: Advanced
• Subject: Don Blob

This would be a multipart tutorial on designing a monster character and illustrating it in Inkscape. The same technique can be applied using other programs like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.

Concept

Sketch the rough idea in GIMP (or other raster software, or in a sketch book and scan it). Make use of the layers, so that you can easily remove those unwanted lines as needed and keep refining.

Once the lineart is finalized, rough rendering of the volume and shape is done by taking a pressure sensitive brush and going over the artwork in a separate layer. You do not need to spend too much time on this stage.

Now we move further in the workflow into Inkscape.

Blockout

Use the Bezier curve tool ( [Shift] + [F6] ) to mark out the basic shape of the character, and then use the Edit Path tool ( [F2] ) to shape it.

Fill it up with a dark tone of the base hue.

Again going along just the inner edge with the Bezier Path tool, I create a set of shapes that mark out the different areas of the character. To make it convinient to manage it, this set of shapes is combined to form a single shape using Union operation. After that, it is filled with a mid-tone of the base hue and stroke is switched off.

Basic Shade

Make a copy of the first shape, and mark out the area of the deep shadow, and perform intersection on them. Apply a gradient.

Move all the created shapes below the imported image, and check to see if you have missed any features.

I had missed the facial features. Now would be the right time to ensure that you have all the important features illustrated. After that, subtract these shapes from the second shape, to punch through and make the features visible and outlines.

After you have all the features, bring up the shadow gradient layer, and adjust its outline on the inner side to contour the shape of the character. Don Blob is quite a plump character and that is accenuated using the shadow shape.

Rendering

Send all the new shapes behind the imported concept sketch and mark out shapes of the highlight area. Be generous and mark out quite a large area.

After that, choose a highlight hue (color). Since I am aiming for a cartoonish/stylized artwork, I go for a greenish highlight. After the fill color has been applied, change the opacity of these shapes to 25%.

Continue marking out more shapes to define the volume and shape, and applying the same color to it with opacity turned down to 25%.

The extreme highlight may need to have its opacity turned up, almost to 50%.

Depending on how much detail you want, adjust how many layers or iterations you go about to define the volume of the body.

I will stop at this point and continue - but that would be the next part. So, stay tuned by subscribing to KalaaLog Feeds or subcribe by email.