Ahoy, mateys! In this tutorial we will
learn how to draw a stylized flat portrait of a funny captain, using
basic shapes, warp effects and some custom brushes and textures. Get ready and
hoist the sails!
1. Form the Captain’s Head
Step 1
Start by taking the Rounded Rectangle Tool in Adobe Illustrator, click it once on the Artboard to reveal the
pop-up menu, and set the Corner Radius
to 5 px. Form an even square by
holding down the Shift button, and fill
it with linear gradient from pale yellow in the bottom to darker pink on top,
imitating a skin tone.
Step 2
Let’s start forming a nose by adding
another rounded rectangle and applying a linear gradient from light pink to
white. Switch the Blending Mode to Multiply in the Transparency panel, thus darkening the nose and making it blend
nicely with the face. Move the nose closer to the left side of the
face shape, making the head of our character turned to the side a bit, like the three-quarter view used in portraits.
Step 3
Add another rectangle perpendicular to the
nose bridge, and add two tiny dark brown squares for the nostrils.
Step 4
Now let’s render the tip of the nose! Add
another pinkish rectangle and move it closer to the left, partially covering the
left nostril. Copy the nose tip and Paste it in Front twice (Control-C
> Control-F > Control-F). Move the upper copy up and to the right a bit by
pressing the up and right arrow keys a few times.
Select both the moved shape and the
one below it and use the Minus Front
function of the Pathfinder panel to
cut off the unwanted parts, leaving only a thin stroke. Apply the same gradient
in Multiply Blending Mode as we have
on the bridge of the nose. For this purpose, just select the created thin
stroke, take the Eyedropper Tool (I), and pick the color gradient from the nose bridge, thus forming a gentle
shadow on the tip of the nose and making it more prominent.
Step 5
Time to add some highlights! Put a couple
of rectangles above the nose bridge and the nose tip, filling them with linear
gradient from brown to black. Switch the Blending
Mode to Screen, creating a warm
overtone.
Step 6
Let’s add a pair of cartoon eyes and fill
them with gradient from grey to white. Add two more rectangles in Multiply Blending Mode behind the eyes
to deepen the eye-sockets.
We need to fix the overlapping parts of the
nose bridge and the shadows around the eyes. For this purpose, select all three
shapes and take the Shape Builder Tool
(Shift-M). Now you can click and drag the mouse over the parts you want
to unite. Let’s unite those parts of the eye shadows which are hidden behind
the nose bridge.
Step 7
Add a couple of thick eyebrows, filling
them with linear gradient from light brown at the upper edge to darker brown at the bottom. Rotate one of the brows a bit, creating a friendly look on the captain’s
face.
Step 8
Form a simple ear by making a small rounded
rectangle, filled with skin tone color. Select the Eraser Tool (Shift-E), hold down the Alt key, click your left mouse button and drag the mouse over the left part of the ear. You will see a white rectangle
covering the shape. Release the mouse button in order to delete the unneeded part.
Duplicate the ear shape, reducing the size of the copy slightly and making it
darker to form the inner part of the ear.
Create a bigger rounded rectangle
and Send it to Back (Shift-Control-[),
behind all other objects. Fill the newly created shape with the same brown
gradient as on the eyebrows, forming a thick beard.
Step 9
Let’s continue styling the sailor’s beard
by adding another rounded rectangle perpendicular to the basic beard shape. Keeping
it selected, go to Object > Path >
Add Anchor Points. Select the lower point in the middle of the bottom part
of the rectangle with the Direct
Selection Tool (A) and Convert
selected anchor point to smooth by clicking the Convert button in the control panel above.
Finally, drag the modified point down a bit, creating a nice curve.
Step 10
Find the spot where the bottom part of the
beard intersects the basic beard shape and add another anchor point with the Add Anchor Point Tool (+). Select one
of the anchor handles with the Direct
Selection Tool (A) and, holding down the
Shift key, rotate the handles perpendicular to their initial position.
Adjust the length of the anchor handles to make a nice flowing line.
Step 11
Select both beard parts and Unite them in Pathfinder. Duplicate the beard twice and move the upper copy up
and to the right, as we did with the nose tip. Use the Minus Front function
to cut off the unwanted parts.
Fill the created part with the linear
gradient from light brown to white, and switch it to Multiply Blending Mode, forming a shadow in the bottom part of
the beard.
Step 12
Let’s make our captain more brutal by
styling a bushy moustache! Start by adding a small rounded rectangle on the
left part of his face and place it behind the nose (Control-[). Duplicate the created shape and drag the copy down and
to the right. Press Control-D once
to repeat the last action, creating another copy.
Select all three parts of the moustache and use the Reflect
Tool (O) to create a mirrored copy, forming the second half of the
moustache on the other side of the face. Add a tiny pink rectangle for the
lower lip of the character.
2. Create the Captain’s Hat & Clothes
Step 1
We’ll begin with the character’s forage
cap. First of all, let’s form the cap peak. Take the Polygon Tool and set the Sides
quantity to 3 in order to make a
triangle. Squash the shape and Convert its
upper anchor point to smooth. Select
the anchor point in the bottom part of the shape and move it up with the up arrow key. Place the cap peak above
the captain’s forehead and make it more three-dimensional by adding a gentle
highlight in Screen Blending Mode.
Step 2
Make a narrow rounded rectangle filled with
linear gradient from dark blue to lighter blue. Go to Effect > Warp > Arc and set the Horizontal Bend value to 22%
to make the shape slightly arched. Object
> Expand the shape and place it under the cap peak, thus creating a
decorative cap edging.
Step 3
Add a golden button with the help of the Ellipse Tool (L) by placing one even
circle inside the other and filling both of them with linear gradient from dark orange
to bright yellow. Move on and start
forming the top of the cap by making a light greyish-blue rectangle with the Rectangle Tool (M).
Step 4
Transform the shape by moving its upper
right anchor point down, making a sharp angle on the upper left side. Create
a similar shape to form the second half of the forage hat. Darken the colors
of the cap and add a simple anchor emblem to the front part, making the cap
more detailed. You can find out how to make a simple anchor silhouette in my Seamless Anchor Pattern in Adobe Illustrator tutorial.
Step 5
Add an upside-down triangle for the chest,
filling it with skin tone, and form a neck-piece made up of two triangles. Fill
them with linear gradient from dark blue to light blue on top, adding dimension
to the shoulders. Put a couple of white stripes on both sides of the
neck-piece.
Step 6
Add a wide ellipse to shape the body of our captain,
making him broad-shouldered and manly.
3. Make a Smoking Pipe & Stylized Smoke
Step 1
Start forming the upper part of the pipe by
creating a squashed ellipse and filling it with dark brown linear gradient.
Create the inner part of the pipe by placing a smaller, darker squashed
ellipse inside the first one.
Step 2
Render the bottom part of the pipe by
adding a dark brown rounded rectangle and erasing its upper half with the Eraser Tool (Shift-E) as we did with
the captain’s ear. Make a copy of that part and move it to the right in order
to create a highlight with the help of the Minus
Front function of Pathfinder and
Screen Blending Mode.
Move the highlight from the edge closer to
the center and make a couple of strokes with the Eraser Tool (Shift-E), crossing the highlight.
Step 3
Form the mouthpiece of our pipe by making a
narrow rounded rectangle. Go to Effect
> Warp > Arc and set the Vertical
Bend value to 8%, making the
rectangle much wider from the left side. Object
> Expand Appearance of the shape and apply the Arc effect once again, but this time set
the Horizontal Bend value to 57% to make the shape smooth and
arched. Don’t forget to Expand the
object in order to apply the effect completely.
Step 4
Place the mouthpiece between the captain’s
moustache and his lower lip and combine both parts of the smoking pipe, adding a
golden overtone to make the pipe look polished.
Step 5
Let’s move on and render a stylized square
tobacco smoke, which comes out from the pipe. First of all, form a group of
rectangles of various sizes, overlapping each other and moving up and to the
right from the captain’s figure. Now let’s move the squares a bit, aligning
them towards each other. Select the bottom two squares and head to the Align panel. Set Align to Key Object and select the Horizontal Align Left function, to align both squares to the left
side.
Step 6
Align other squares to each other by the
left or right side if needed. When you’re satisfied with the result, select all
the squares and Unite them in Pathfinder, forming a single object.
Step 7
Let’s make the shape smoother. Go to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners and set the Radius value to 7 px.
Step 8
Fill the smoke with greyish-blue color.
Duplicate the shape twice and form a narrow stroke for the shadow with the help
of the Minus Front function of Pathfinder.
Step 9
Apply a linear gradient to the created
stroke, making it darker than the basic smoke shape. Select the shadow shape
and take the Knife Tool (you can
find it in the same folding menu as the Eraser
Tool). Move the Knife across the
shadow, making diagonal cuts at the corners. This way we create a nice shiny effect,
something like a mirrored glass.
Step 10
Although we’re creating a flat-style image, it
shouldn’t look too flat. We need to separate the objects from each other,
adding more space and dimension. Simple shadows can help us a lot! Start from
the smoking pipe by duplicating it and Uniting
all the shapes of the created copy in Pathfinder,
thus making a pipe silhouette.
Move the created object down a bit and fill
it with linear gradient from brown to white, switching to Multiply Blending Mode and making a gentle shadow on the captain’s
lower lip and beard.
Move on and put a shadow under the
character’s moustache and nose, and also under the peak of his cap. Feel free to add more
shadows where needed—under the ear or over his chest.
4. Form a Decorative Rope Frame With the
Pattern Brush
Step 1
Let’s give our artwork a completed look
by placing the captain into a thematic frame. Firstly, we need to make a
stylized rope for our future brush. Start by making a small rounded rectangle
with a bigger corner radius, so that it looks almost like an ellipse. Use the Rotate Tool (R) and set the Angle value to -30º.
Select the shape and, holding down the Alt and Shift keys simultaneously, click and drag the shape to the right,
creating a copy. Make sure you have the Smart Guides turned on (View > Smart Guides), so that the
shapes snap to each other, making your workflow easier. Press Control-D to repeat the last action,
creating another copy of the rope element.
Step 2
Make the side elements darker to alternate
the colors of the entire rope. Now we need to make a bounding frame, which
defines the repeating element, helping us to create a seamless brush
stroke. Take the Rectangle Tool (M),
set the Fill and Stroke colors to none, and form a
square, crossing the middle parts of both side elements. Move the square behind all other elements (Shift-Control-[).
The Smart Guides will help you to be more
precise, marking the center of the shapes and showing their intersection. Add a few minor details such as
highlights and shadows to the rope, making it more detailed.
Step 3
Select all the created elements together with
the bounding frame and drag them to the Brushes
panel. Select the Pattern Brush and leave all options as default in the pop-up Options window.
Step 4
Let’s see our brush in action! Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and create an even
circle around our captain. Duplicate the circle and, keeping both the circle
and the captain selected, click the right mouse button and Make Clipping Mask, thus making the unneeded parts invisible.
Select the second circle and apply the rope pattern brush that we’ve created.
You can also take the smoke out of the Clipping
Mask and place it on the very top (Shift-Control-]),
making it pop out.
Step 5
Let’s add a simple paper ribbon to balance
the composition. Form a rectangle in the bottom part of our frame and fill it
with a sandy yellow color. Add two smaller rectangles of darker yellow on both sides of the ribbon.
Step 6
Create a darker triangle between the edges
of the upper and lower shapes, thus forming a fold. Select the side shapes, go to Object > Path > Add Anchor Points
and drag the side anchor points that we’ve added closer to the center,
making the shapes look like tiny flags.
Step 7
Group all parts of the ribbon (Control-G)
and go to Effect > Warp > Arc, setting
the Horizontal Bend value to 20%.
Step 8
Let’s Object
> Expand our ribbon and add a few notches to make the paper look old and shabby. For this purpose, add three anchor points with the Add Anchor Point Tool (+), select the middle point with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and Convert it to corner. Drag the converted point down, creating a triangular notch
on the ribbon.
Step 9
Put some more notches here and there and
move on to the background behind the captain. Let’s add some depth to our image by
placing a dark blue gradient shape behind the captain (double-click on the captain or right-click and Isolate Selected
Clipping Mask in order to edit the objects inside the mask). Speckle some
tiny circles above the dark background, depicting a night sky. Add another
rectangle behind the captain, making it a bit darker than the sky in order to form the ocean surface. Go to Effect > Distort & Transform >
Zig Zag and set the Size value
to 6 px and the Ridges per segment to 5.
Make the points Smooth, thus
creating an ocean wave.
Step 10
Add several thin stripes for the waves and
apply the same Zig Zag effect,
creating smooth curves.
Step 11
Let’s fill the empty space of our ribbon
with some text. Make up a phrase and choose an appropriate font to fit in the
composition. I’ve used the Amatic Bold free font, which you can get from Font Squirrel.
Object > Expand your text,
turning it into a vector object, and apply the Arc
effect with 15% Horizontal Bend
value. Switch the text color to darker
brown in order to fit our image color palette.
If you notice that some parts of the text
are crossing the empty space, just delete the unneeded parts with the help
of the Shape Builder Tool (Shift-M)
by clicking them while holding down the Alt button.
Step 12
Glorious! Now we have only some minor
details left to add to give our artwork a more interesting and completed look.
First
of all, let’s Copy the captain’s
beard and Paste it in Front (Control-C > Control-F). Open
the Swatch Libraries menu in the Swatches panel, go to Patterns > Basic Graphics > Basic
Graphics_Textures and find the
Hatching texture. Apply it to the beard copy, imitating separate hairs. Use
the Scale tool (S) to reduce the
size of the texture elements by setting the Uniform Scale value to 70%
and ticking the Transform Patterns
checkbox. You can switch the textured shape to Multiply Blending Mode and reduce its Opacity in the Transparency
panel to make it more true-to-life.
Step 13
Finally, let’s add a soft noise effect to
our picture, making it more grained and textured. Start by placing a square of
a size of our artwork on top of all other objects. Fill it with light
greyish-yellow color and switch to Multiply
Blending Mode. Then go to Effect
> Effect Gallery > Texture > Grain. Set the Intensity to about 72
and the Contrast to 53 and select the Sprinkles Grain Type. This way you get a nice gentle grain
effect.
Land Ahead! We’ve Finally Reached It!
Great job, mateys! We’ve successfully created a funny stylized captain’s portrait, using only basic shapes and effects. I hope you’ve discovered some new shores and destinations for your creativity and will use the described tips and tricks in your future artworks. Good luck!
{excerpt}
Read More