August is a very special month in the Hindu calendar. People are celebrating the annual festival dedicated to the birth of the Hindu deity Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu. This holiday is called Krishna Janmashtami.
Let’s make a contribution to this wonderful holiday and create a congratulations card! We’ll be depicting young stylized Lord Krishna in a trendy flat style, using basic geometric shapes and modifying them with the help of Live Corners, the Pathfinder panel, and other handy tools of Adobe Illustrator.
Even if you have nothing to do with this
holiday, don’t pass it by—try it! By the end of this tutorial you will not only learn to
work with basic shapes, but you will also be able to create any kind of flat human character, applying the techniques that we’ve discovered! Go check out
these lovely Krishna illustrations on Envato Market, get inspired, and let’s
start right away—this is going to be fun!
1. Create the Head
Step 1
We’ll start by making a New Document of 450 x 450 px, working on a square Artboard.
Arm yourself with the Rectangle Tool (M) and let’s start forming the head from a 60 x 65 px rectangle. Fill the
shape with a gentle blue color.
Select the top left anchor point with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and hit Enter to open the Move window. Set the
Horizontal position to 5 px,
moving the point to the right. Repeat the same for the opposite point, setting
the Horizontal value to -5 px, and moving the point to the left.
Step 2
Keeping the shape selected, go to Object > Path > Add Anchor Points, adding an extra point to each side of the rectangle.
Select the bottom left and right anchor
points with the Direct Selection Tool
(A) and use the Move function to
move the point 10 px up. This way we
block out the face, forming a chin.
Step 3
Use the Direct Selection Tool (A) and the Live Corners feature to make the selected points rounded. You can
either set the desired Corner Radius
value in the control panel on top or just pull the circle markers up with the Direct Selection Tool (A).
Step 4
Now we’ll form a simple nose. Take the Ellipse Tool (L), hold down Shift, and make an even circle of 10 x 10 px size, filling it with blue color, slightly darker than the face.
Select the top anchor point, head to the
control panel on top, and Convert
selected anchor point to corner. Drag the point up, making a drop-like
shape.
Step 5
Next we’re going to form the eyes. Make a 10 x 10 px circle with dark-blue Stroke. Head to the Stroke panel and set the Weight to 1.5 pt, and set Cap and Corner
to the middle positions.
Grab the Scissors Tool (C) and click the side anchor points to split the
shape apart. Delete the top half the circle, forming a closed eyelid.
Step 6
Place the nose and the eye on the face.
Hold Alt-Shift and drag the
eye shape to the right to form a second eye. And let’s use the same shape and squash it a
bit to make a smiling mouth.
Use the Rounded Rectangle Tool to make a rounded shape of 10 x 20 px size for the ear. Remember
that you can adjust the Corner Radius
in the control panel on top. Send the
ear to Back (Shift-Control-[) and
attach it to the head. Don’t forget to make a copy for the second ear.
Step 7
Let’s create the curly hairdo. Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to make a 26 x 31 px shape in the middle of the
forehead. Add two smaller ellipses on both sides of it. Continue adding ellipses
moving along the left side of the face, placing them beneath the head (Shift-Control-[).
Select the circles
and double-click the Reflect Tool (O). Select
the Vertical Axis and click the Copy button, creating a mirrored copy
for the opposite side of the head. Switch the color of all the shapes to dark brown.
Step 8
Let’s decorate the head with a golden
accessory. Use the Rectangle Tool (M)
to make a row of rectangles. In order to make the shapes stick to each other, go to
the Align panel, select Align to Key Object and use the Horizontal Distribute Space function
with 0 px value. That means that
there will be no gap between the objects.
Select all the top anchor points with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and use the Live Corners feature to make them
rounded. Fill the elements with bright-yellow color and finish up by adding red
rounded rectangles on top to make the crown look more detailed.
Step 9
Let’s make the hair above the forehead a
bit more detailed as well. Copy the middle circle and Paste in Front (Control-C > Control-F). Make it smaller while holding Alt-Shift. Set the Fill color to none and the Stroke color to light brown with 1 pt Weight.
Add more circles
of the same type, making the hair look curly.
Step 10
Let’s create a peacock’s feather to
decorate the head. Copy the nose and
scale it up to about 25 x 35 px. Fill
the shape with green color. Copy the
shape and Paste in Front (Control-C >
Control-F). Make the copy a bit smaller and fill it with orange color. Make
two more smaller copies inside, changing the colors to sky blue and dark blue.
Step 11
Attach the feather to the head, rotating it
45 degrees and placing it beneath
the crown (Control-[).
Finish up with the head by adding a golden
decorative element above the forehead, using the Rounded Rectangle Tool.
And that’s it for the head! Now we can move
on to the body!
2. Render the Body
Step 1
Let’s start forming the body from a 70 x 80 px rectangle. Connect the body
and the head with a smaller, darker rectangle, depicting a neck.
Select both top anchor points of the body
shape and use the Live Corners
feature to make rounded shoulders, setting the Corner Radius to 30 px
in the control panel on top.
Step 2
Make a couple of rectangles of the same
width as the body shape (that is 70 px)
and place them at the bottom of the body. You can Align both shapes to the center, using the Align panel. Just select the body together with the stripes and
click the body once again to make it a Key
Object. Use Horizontal Align
Center and you’re done!
Step 3
Let’s add some neck accessories here. Make
a 35 x 30 px yellow rectangle and
place a smaller one on top of it, as shown in the picture below. Select both
shapes and use the Minus Front function
of Pathfinder to cut out the
inner shape.
Use the Live Corners feature to make the bottom part of the necklace rounded.
Step 4
Now let’s get rid of the unneeded part.
Select both the body shape and the accessory, take the Shape Builder Tool (Shift-M), hold Alt and click to delete the top piece.
Step 5
Add minor details to the accessories and to
the body.
Step 6
Now let’s create the stylized legs!
Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to make two narrow yellow shapes of 90 x 12 px and 72 x 12 px. Place them one above the other, as shown below, and
connect them with a vertical shape of 12
px width. Use the vertical shape as a Key
Object to align the horizontal
shapes to the left side of the Key Object, as well as to the top and bottom sides.
Step 7
Unite all three shapes in the Pathfinder, and delete any unneeded anchor
points that may have appeared on the sides of the shape after uniting. Make the left
side of the shape rounded, using the Live
Corners feature, forming a bent ankle.
Step 8
Now we’re going to add a foot. Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to make a group of
shapes of the same blue color as the body. Make a bigger rectangle for the foot
and three smaller rectangles for the stylized cartoon toes. Select the top
right anchor point of the foot shape and make the corner smooth and rounded,
forming the heel. Make the tips of the toes rounded as well and stick the
shapes to each other.
Step 9
Finish up with the leg by connecting the
foot and the leg using a small blue shape for the ankle. Add narrow orange and
red shapes to the leg, forming the decorative elements of the pants.
Step 10
Group
(Control-G) all the elements of the leg together
and attach the group to the body. Double-click
the Reflect Tool (O) and create a
mirrored copy for the second leg.
Step 11
Now let’s create the arm, using a similar
technique. Make a narrow 10 x 40 px
blue rectangle. Copy it twice, rotate the copies, and place them as shown in the
screenshot below, varying the sizes a bit. The Align panel will help you to Align
all the shapes to the bottom.
Attach the copies to each other and Unite them in Pathfinder.
Step 12
Select the two inner anchor points and pull
the Live Corners marker to make the
inner part of the arm rounded. Do the same for the bottom points on the outer side of the shape, forming a stylized bent elbow.
Step 13
Now let’s form the hand, with cartoon
fingers in the mudra position. Start by making a 23 x 23 px even circle of blue color. And make another smaller circle
on top. Select both shapes and use the Minus
Front function to cut out the inner part.
Step 14
Let’s create the fingers. Use the Line Segment Tool (\) and hold Shift to make a vertical line across
the ring. Align the line to the Horizontal Center of the ring, using it
as a Key Object. Keeping both shapes
selected, Divide them, splitting the
ring apart.
Now we can use the Live Corners to make the tips of the shape rounded by pulling away
the circle markers, indicated in the image below.
Step 15
Create three more fingers from the rounded
rectangles. Attach the arm to the body and make a second one, using the Reflect Tool (O).
If you wish to add more details, feel free
to decorate the arms with bracelets, using the Rectangle Tool (M) to make the stripes and the Shape Builder Tool (Shift-M) to delete the unneeded pieces.
Well done—our Krishna character is ready! Group (Control-G) all the elements and
let’s move on to the background.
3. Create a Simple Background and Add Text to the Janmashtami Postcard
Step 1
First of all, let’s make a 450 x 450 px square of peach color. Send it to Back (Shift-Control-[), beneath the character. Duplicate (Control-C > Control-F) the
square and squash it, making a narrower shape in the bottom of the Artboard. Fill
the shape with light-yellow color.
Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to make a group of circles of the same
light-yellow color, varying their sizes and thus forming a fluffy cloud.
Add a few squashed darker ellipses above
the cloud, forming a shadow from Krishna, making him float in the air.
Step 2
Add another set of circles for the second
cloud, making it darker and placing it between the background and the first
cloud.
Finish up with the clouds by adding a third row of circles, making the
composition look balanced.
Step 3
We have a blank space in the bottom of our
card. Let’s use it to add a congratulation message!
I’m using the Sophia free script to make our text
look playful and hand-written. We can add a smaller context line below,
using any straight sans-serif font from our collection.
When you’re happy with the result, go to File > Save for Web and set a desired size of the Artboard. This will allow you to export your postcard in raster format without the unneeded pieces outside the Artboard.
Congratulations! Our Krishna Janmashtami
Card Is Finished!
Great job! We’ve successfully
finished this tutorial and the ended up with a lovely congratulation card that
we can send to our nearest and dearest if they are celebrating too!
The techniques described in this tutorial
are very flexible and useful. I hope they will help you to create more flat
characters of different types! Play with the colors, and change the position of the
body parts, the hairdo, clothes, and accessories. In this way, you can make
as many new unique characters as you can probably think of. Have fun!
{excerpt}
Read More