Character illustration: Get that WOW Effect !

1. Class introduction: Character illustration is my passion. Making my character drawings Bob, and come to life is my superpower. Welcome to my class. I'm on the amor, a character artist and illustrator. Drawing is amazing. I know that we all want to learn it, but how to turn this drawing into? This is something else. It's all about using the magic of digital painting to take your flat illustrations to a whole other level. In this fallen short class, I will teach you all the time. I use every day in my work to public that. We'll start with a sketch and you can use any sketch you want, or you can simply download mine and start applying right away. I'll show you how to make the color blocking with Adobe Illustrator and then how to export that in a tricky way to make it easy for you to start digital painting with Adobe Photoshop all the way till we get to the final result. I hope you enjoyed this class and hope you add new scale to your skill set. So let's jump into the first lesson. 2. Class Project : Welcome to the class. So before we start our first lesson, I will first tell you more about the class project. The class project is really easy. You can use any sketch you want or you can simply head to the resources section below the class and download my sketch to start applying right away and follow along with me. After you finish your drawing, you just head to the project section below the class and create a new project. Upload your drawing and you can leave any question you want and it'll be more than happy to answer you. And then you can easily publish this with me and with your fellow students in the class. And of course, you can start any discussion to ask or share your thoughts or suggestions with mean. So now let's head to the first lesson. 3. Color Blocking : So for the first lesson in this class, we will start by color blocking our sketch in Adobe Illustrator. This is the sketch. You can just drag it here in the new file in Adobe Illustrator like this. And then this is my color palette that we'll be coloring with. Now let's take the opacity a little bit down for this catch and head to the Object menu lock and then lock selection. Or you can hit Control or Command plus two on the keyboard. Now let's get this layers panel like this. And as you can see, we have one layer here for the sketch and the colors. We will create a new layer and take it below that. And here in Adobe Illustrator, you can use many tools to draw the pencil tool like this, just by adding new points each time. It's very easy to draw or you can just draw like this. You make one anchor point and then drag it to make some curves. And so it's also so easy and handy. Another tool is this brush tool. It's also nice to draw freely in Adobe Illustrator, but I prefer the pencil. When you double-click on the pencil, you will find these settings and that's my settings if you just want to make it like this. Now you can just hit N or choose the pencil tool from the toolbox. Let's start drawing. Just like you're drawing with your pencil on the paper. It's very easy. You just follow the sketch lines that you have. Here is you can see I'm drawing with the black color. I like this method to block my masses first. Like the face, the hair, the eyes. And so just like that, you simply draw on the sketch. And if you found any part that needs improvement, you simply hit a on the keyboard and your deselect any anchor points you want, and you can edit it. It's very easy. As you can notice with the settings I showed you before. For the pencil, you can easily draw and redraw over the path to modify it like this. It's very easy. Alright, and now let's draw this. It's really fun and simple process. You just follow your sketch with a pencil tool. You hit a to modify any anchor points that needs improvement. Just like this. Just keep it simple guys. It's really fun and simple. If you're familiar with my classes, I always say this, art shouldn't be that hard and we shouldn't follow every simple technique. And so I just keep it very simple as if I'm drawing freely on a paper. So I just like to do it like this. I know some people like to draw on Adobe Illustrator, the pen tool, and it's the most famous tool on Adobe Illustrator. But for me, I just like to keep it very simple. Alright, and now for this part, just like this, you can simply start modifying this as I showed you before. And it's very easy. Let's just switch this stroke to be a fill layer from here. Alright. Now that I finished blocking my masses, now let's select each one and just choose the color from our color palette here. It's a really nice step. And now for the eyes will choose the white color. Of course. I will use this color for the hair just like this. And also this one. As you noticed, I just sent this to the back. And now for the year, to send the layer to the back, you can simply select it and hit Control or Command square bracket, the left square bracket on the keyboard. I show you this later. Now for the nose, I simply edit the path. Now for the eye, I will draw with the draw inside mode and with the pencil tool, I can simply draw the pupil with the black color. And for the other, I will also hit the draw inside mode and draw the other pupil. Just like that. I really like the radio, right? Let's continue. Now for this line, let's just draw it like this and swap the field with a stroke from here. And for the other eye. Alright. Now let's draw this line two. And let's keep going. Now I will just unlock my sketch like this, and I don't need this anymore, so we can simply delete that later. Alright, now, I can see that I need another color. Flexible guys. You can simply change the color palette as you go. Let's continue. Alright, I will choose this for the skin. Let's let the neck, the face, and the year. And choose this color. Alright. Now we will choose this hair and right-click arrange, send to the back to send it to the back. Now I will select these three lines like this and take the stroke a little bit up. Just like that and make it rounded from here. Alright. Now let's modify the iPad little bit. Alright. Just like that. Alright, let's change the color for this and maybe make this a little bit lighter. Alright, let's draw inside the neck like little black shadow like this below the face. That's really nice. Alright. Now let's continue. A little bit of color modification like this. Yeah, now it's better. All right, let's continue. Now let's select this. Let's let the mouth draw inside. And we will choose this light color like this. And we will make some line in the ear. Just like that. As you can see, our character is pretty flat, but it's still nice. Hope you're following along with me right now and hope everything is going well with you before we hit to the next lesson. And just modifying some lines here. All right, make sure to modify anything that needs updates here. Adobe Illustrator before we head to Photoshop to start painting, it's much easier here. Now modify the nose a little bit. And maybe this too, right? Right. Some colors update. And that's it. Now I can say that we finished this drawing and now let's head to the second lesson and move to the exporting part. 4. Exporting your Drawing : Now for the second lesson, let's export this drawing that we made. Let's take this layer panel and drag it here. These are all the layers that we've done so far, but they are in one layer, as you can see, they are grouped in the layer two. Let's now head to this and select their leasing layer option. And you will find that everything is released into separate layers. We will simply drag it outside of the layer to group, just like this. And layer two is now empty, so we can simply delete this. And you can see that everything is now on a separate layer. Let's try to File Export. Export As, and this pop-up will appear. Make sure to choose that 300 PBI for the resolution and leave everything else as is. And this will simply export our file into layers, separate layers to use in Photoshop. This is the file that we just exported from Adobe Illustrator. I will now open a new document. And it will also be a 300 DPI. Just like this. And I will simply drag all my layers that we just exported from Illustrator to this new document to start working on the digital painting part, I'll hit Control or Command T. And from here, we will simply take it a little bit down in percentage, just like this, right? This will take a moment. And I believe that everything is ready now for us to start. As you can see, all the layers are crisp and clean and this is what I really love about Adobe Illustrator. And block in the colors there before painting in Photoshop. Now let's take this light purple color for the background. Just like that. And let's hit to the best part, which is the digital painting part. In the next lesson. 5. Digital Painting : Now for the best part and the last lesson, let's start drawing here. Let's first choose the face and create a new layer and hit Alt between the two layers to be masked in it. And you can choose some reddish color to start making some effects for the face. As you can notice, this drawing is really flat as we just finished it in Adobe Illustrator. And we know that drawing in the district are just leaves everything flat. And that's what we are going to change completely now in Photoshop. As you can see, I'm just adding some blush here and blush there and more life to the character. Just like that. Alright. Now let's head to the ear, create a new layer, masks inside. And let's make it multiply. And we will choose something reddish like this. And we just took the ear layer below the face. And I just start drawing something reddish inside the ear like this. Alright, now for the hair. And again the same technique, New Layer Mask, and it will start working in that. That's a multiply layer for some shadows here and there. Adding lights and shadows for a flat illustration simply adds depth right away for your character. And that's really the fun part. Alright, that's an overlay layer. So you will find me here repeating the same techniques. You will simply choose the layer, the flat layer that we just did or drone in Adobe Illustrator, create a new layer inside of it, masked inside it. And then it will be multiply if it's a shadow layer or the Tobii overlay, if it's a lighting layer. Now as you can see, I just created a new layer. And with the L2, I will just draw some shapes like this below the hair and to the side of the face, give it a dark color. Multiply and just delete a little bit. And the same for the neck. We will simply create just a random shape like this. Make it also multiply, take the opacity down, and we simply give it a little bit touch of the eraser. Just say that I feel that I want to change the color for this talk that she's wearing or right? Maybe something like this. Now let's take the background a bit lighter. Alright. Now let's create another layer masked in this and also with the L2, Let's create some random lines like this and give it a dark color also with the multiply and with the eraser with a soft brush, we will just delete a little bit to this. As you can see, it's also added some depth to this part. Alright, another multiply layer, and we will create these lines. These tribes simply gives depth to any clothes you have in your illustration. Now I will create an overlay layer mask inside desktop. Just take that and I will give it this part, this rim light. And we will create another layer like this, also in the overlay blending mode with a light color and delete a little bit of this. Now this top is a little bit, looks like 3D, right? You can notice this. Now let's add some shadow here. Below the mouth and maybe below the nose like this. Above the eyes. As you can see, just added something here. Alright, let's continue. Alright, I'll choose some yellow color here in an overlay layer inside the face. And I had just start making some lighting here and there. Just a hint of something like this. And maybe choose something like this magenta color here above the eyes. Now for the pupil, I'll just choose it like this. And that's in one group. So I will just selected head W and select the pupil like this and take this line below the eye. Now let's get back to the pupil part and hit W to select and create another layer and choose some color in the overlay blending mode. For this new layer. Something like this. I'll just give some light circles like this inside the eye. And it's up to you. You can add a lighter color or you can just leave it. Black eye if you want. It's still nice. I will create some little white dot here for the lighting, and we will do the same for the other pupil. Also an overlay light color with this brush, just like that, and also the little white dot. For the mouth. I'll simply use this magenta color and we'll make an overlay layer inside the mouth and just give it a little bit of a touch of lighting. Alright, Let's now head to the eye and select the white part of the eye and just give it a soft brush like this. Some shadows inside the eye as it looks so flat before. I think now it's much better. Alright, let's move on from here. All right. Now for the hair, Let's just give it a little bit of shadows. As you can notice for this character, I intended to make the lighting coming from above to the right. So the left part is mainly, is the part in the shadow. And now I'm creating an overlay layer inside, masked inside the hair, just like this. And you can choose any color you want. Now for the ear, we will create an overlay layer here to make just a touch of lighting like that. And we'll delete little bit of this shadow layer inside. And maybe some kind of this orange color here. Alright? And some touches of orange here and there. I really like it. It started to be not flat anymore and it started to pop. That's more from here. We will create a new layer and to be a divide blending mode and give it this touch. I really liked this simple touch that I make with the divide blending mode. Now we will create another overlay layer here, masked in the face. And I'll give it just a light color like that. Kind of defined the face a little bit and give you this 3D look. Alright, maybe just a touch, a hint of lighting here in the hair. Okay, and let's create another random multiply layer with this dark purple and take the opacity down. That added more depths to the face. It's not flat anymore. Hope you're following along with me now. If you found anything that's not clear or difficult or anything, just don't hesitate to lead your question below the class. And I'll be more than happy to answer your questions. Alright. Let's make a little bit. Dark spot here in the eye, in a multiply layer above the eyes. Or right? Just like that. Much better. Alright, let's move from here. Some touches, lighting. And also here. As you can see now, I'm deleting a little bit to the eye. I just felt it needs a little bit to be sharp. Not that rounded. I like it that way. Okay. Maybe delete this just a little bit. Right? I feel that a character needs something as Southern know what it is for. Let's continue from here. I just made light circle here in the eyes. It looks nice. I like it. Alright, let's change the color for this shadow in the neck to make it little bit purplish. I'd like it now it needs something. Alright. Let's continue. Just add in some shadows here and there. And also some lighting. Some vivid lights here in the hair. You just keep trying and experimenting, withdrawing. Don't get stuck with one color or one direction. You simply keep changing all along the way. Right? I feel I need to make something. Let's create a new layer or right, with the L. Let's make something like that. Yeah. Let's make it better. Try it. Maybe some dark color here, like a black. Alright, let's erase a little bit here. Right? And maybe white down there. Yeah, I really like this. Very nice. Yeah, this this thing just gave it something like it's, I know glasses. You know, that cyborg touch. It's nice. I like it. All right, just keep erasing from here. This part also needs some editing. Alright, let's just rotate this. Let's keep going. All right. Let's take this down. Erase a little bit from here. This, this part needs to be just like that. Maybe erase it from here and the black area from here as well. Just create this and let's keep going. All right. I love it. I'm adding here a new layer of vivid Light and making this blue rim, if you can see. Right, that's now just draw this white line doesn't have to be perfect. Let's delete it from here. Just like that. Right? Maybe we need another layer. Touch of glass here and there. Let's see what we can do. Right? Just delete some of the white color here. Let's choose this cyan color and give it a touch like that right above the eyes. Wow, I just love this. Let's change the blending mode to find something cool. I love that one. Yeah, over days, always amazing and the lighting. Let's keep going. Now. Let's just give it a touch in the background. That will help define the shape better. Some light yellow, some white. And we're done, guys. We're done. Hope you will really like this class. I hope you enjoyed it. Hope you're following along with me. I just can't wait to see how you guys are going to cover your sketch or my sketch with your way and with the techniques you'll learn today, just feel free to make your character and upload it in the project section below the class. And of course you can leave your question in the discussion board below, and I'll be more than happy to answer all your questions. Don't forget to check my channel for more classes about character illustration and also Procreate classes. And you really like it if you follow me on my social media links for more sketches, time-lapse videos, new illustrations and more. Also, don't hesitate to share your artwork on Instagram and tag me to be, to be able to see it and share it in my stories and even in the post, I'll be so glad to share it. That was omnia amor with you. See you in the next classes. Have a good day.