Draw A Fabulous Flamingo! Fundamentals of Procreate Illustration

1. Welcome! :D: Hi, my name is Christine and I am a visual artist and creator. After finishing a bachelor's and master's degree in fine art, I have learned a lot of painting and illustration techniques that greatly expanded my desire of exploring many art skills. I have always enjoyed drawing and painting. My favorite subjects from when I was a child were animals and people, and I can say I am still very passionate about these two. Since 2018, I've been working in art restoration while also developing a strong passion for teaching both online and in person. You will not find in this course strict rules or feel overwhelmed by copious amounts of information because I don't think they are important in the learning process. This course is structured to be very enjoyable and easy to understand. You will have a fun time creating this beautiful flamingo illustration while learning core drawing skills. You will find in this course playful guidance and suggestions to make your process feel more fluent. This course we'll show you how to create illustrations based on what inspires you. You will learn how to find the right references and how to build an artwork that is both eye-catching and beautiful. You will dance with curves. You will play with different lines and shapes in order to create a gorgeous flamingo. You will understand what to look for when creating an illustration inspired by nature and how to build your artworks based on some very interesting line principles. You will explore the many ways in which you can transform lines in very organic and pleasing shapes. All you need for this course is the iPad, the Apple pencil, and the Procreate app. Now let's have some relaxing time creating this flamingo. 2. Shapes Breakdown and Background : In this step, you will get the grade the first elements of the illustration. For our subject, this photo is great and very descriptive. There are some key elements on which we will focus. The first one is the horizon line, or in this case the water level, which will help us give a beautiful sense of space for our illustration. The next subject is the sense of depth and perspective that will be given with the help of the color gradients. The next key element that interests us is the ripples from the water that are showing that our flamingo is part of the environment and it actually lives in it. These ripples will accentuate as well the perspective of this artwork. The next element that will help us create a beautiful and organic environment for our flamingo are the vines that will beautifully fall from the top of the illustration. These natural elements will enhance the beautiful look of the illustration and we'll also sustain the organic look of the environment. After the background of this artwork will be complete, we will focus on the main shapes of our subject. The main shape is the body. The second shape is the head, and the third main shape is the neck. You will learn how to harmonize these shapes by using cursive and organic lines and then you will transform these shapes by giving them a sense of volume. Next you will get to create more complex shapes like the beak and the face of the flamingo, and then you will continue with its gracious and elegant legs. After completing the main shapes, you will dive into a more creative and organic chapter, learning to play with curves and elegant shapes that will greatly enhance the complexity of your illustration. Of course, framing your subject is as important as any other feature of your artwork. So you will understand as well, how to look at your subject and beautifully capture the elements that fascinate you. To start illustrating your subject, in this case, the beautiful flamingo, you will first need to set your Canvas dimensions in your procreate app. So let's go to the plus button from the top right corner and create a 4,000 by 5,000 pixels Canvas. This will give you nine layers to organize your artwork. Let's press the "Create" button, and now the canvas is created. To illustrate this flamingo, the color palette needed will be found on the resource page. The color palette is called flamingo, and it is very simple. On the right, you will have two nuances to create the background elements. On the left side, you will have four beautiful pink nuances for the flamingo. By using a limited color palette, you will keep your illustration clean and very easy to read and understand. Now for the brushes, you will need the two brushes found on the resource page, the inking almond brush and the textured Quibi brush. The almond brush is used for drawing the shapes, and the textured brush is used to give volume to the shapes. So as you can see, there are very few things you need to create your flamingo or any other subject that inspires you. Now you will start the illustration by setting the color of the background. In this case, the subject of our illustration will stand out with the help of a beautiful complimentary color. So let's go to the layers and select the background. Now let's choose from the color palette, this saturated turquoise from the bottom right side. Of course, there are many ways through which you can make your subjects stand out. Another popular way of creating contrast is through value contrast. So if you want your subject to stand out, you will want to make it slightly brighter than the background. But for the moment, let's concentrate on the color contrast. Now, you will start to create the main elements of the background. This will be very simple. All you need to do first is to create a gradient over the color of the background. For the gradient, you will want to use the textured Quibi brush. Let's pick the brush, and now let's grab from the color palette the lighter nuance of turquoise. You can lower the size of the brush and the opacity if you want to have more control over the result. Now let's make the Canvas a bit smaller so it can be easier to create these textures. Now starting from the top of the Canvas, you will use horizontal moves to go down till the middle of the Canvas with these textures. you will want to apply more of this color on the top so you can create a sense of atmosphere in your illustration. As you can see, you can easily avoid that dull look by adding just a little bit of color variety, but don't go overboard with details. Now for the bottom of the canvas, you will accentuate the feeling of depth by continuing the gradient with a darker new ones. So let's go to the color palette and pick the dark color from the right side. Now let's make sure the opacity is slow so you can have more control over the gradient obtained. The pressure applied to the pen dictates a lot the look of the textured. So make sure you press lightly on your pen if you want to obtain a clean gradient. Do not go over the lighter nuance of turquoise from the top. Keep that dark gradient lower on the Canvas, then light one to have a senior atmosphere. As you can see, working with transparencies, you have succeeded to obtain a turquoise gradient, even though the color from the bottom was almost black. Now it is time to create just a little bit of light and dark contrast. So you will go to the brushes and pick the almond brush. With the almond brush and the light new ones of turquoise from the color palette, you will want to indicate the horizon line. This is very important when wanting to create a sense of perspective for your composition. Now you will see how easy it is to create this sense of perspective. For this illustration, as you will see, the horizon line is very easy to be described. So let's go to the layers and add one more layer on top of the other one. Make sure the opacity of the brush is at maximum, and now let us draw a horizon line on the bottom of the Canvas across the top middle of the dark gradient. After you've reached the right side of the canvas, hold the pencil down to make the line straight. This line will signal the water level for this illustration, because our flamingo usually leaves around shallow waters and easy way to signal this is by keeping the horizon line below the middle of the Canvas. Now let's grab the color from the corner and drag it on the bottom side of the line. Now, as you can see, there has been created the very beautiful mass of water that creates a fantastic contrast with the bottom side of the sky. Now you have successfully added a very important element for your composition, and that is called weight. Weight is a key element and an incredibly important subject when creating an illustration, no matter if it's inspired by nature or as a result of your imagination. Of course, there are many more ways through which you can add weight to your artwork, but this is the easiest and the most expressive way. Now that the base color of the water is created, you'll want to make it seem a little more integrated into the atmosphere and make it seem deeper. So let's go to the color palette and grab the beautiful turquoise. Going to the brushes as far the sky, you will use the textured Quibi brush to add a gradient on the bottom side of the Canvas. As you will see later, this will be useful to create some delicate ripples over the water surface. So as for the sky, you will create these textures using horizontal motions, adding more layers on the bottom. In no time, a beautiful and vivid turquoise will appear on the bottom, as you can see, using a low opacity when making this gradient makes the process much more smooth and more enjoyable. Look at the difference between the two colors. The turquoise color appears much more light because it's applied over a lighter color. Let's make sure the bottom of the canvas is nicely covered by this turquoise, and now this step is finished. As you can see, by using three colors and one line, you can successfully create a nature inspired background that has a beautiful and immersive sense of atmosphere and presents a horizon line that adds weight and balance to your composition. Of course, keep in mind that the color nuances you choose for your background have to be harmonized with your subject, whether you choose to do this with the help of color contrast or value contrast. 3. Transforming Lines into Organic Shapes: In this very simple step, you will learn how to transform straight lines into complex and organic lines. This step will be very easy and will require very few actions. But it will change a lot the look of your illustration. Nothing too complicated, just a couple of simple lines. For the lines, you'll need a straight brush. Let's go to the brushes and make sure the Almond brush is selected. Now, to create a little bit of contrast with the top side of the canvas, which is lighter in color, let's go to the color palette and choose the darker color from the right. Now, for this illustration, let's place a couple of vertical lines on the top right side of the Canvas. You will make these lines of different lengths going down from the top of the Canvas. These lines will create a sense of gravity to your illustration in a very discreet way, some beautiful vines hanging from the top. In a very short time, you will discover how easy it is to transform such edgy and spiky lines into much more pleasing and organic lines. Of course, you don't have to make these lines straight, but it is a very good creative exercise. As you can see, there are just some simple parallel lines descending from the top. Now, let's ask ourselves, why do these lines look so unnatural? This is mainly because of the sharp ends. A good way through which you can transform them, is to add a curve to the end of the line. Now the line look much more organic and relaxed. That little swirl from the end makes it look like it's evolving into something else. As you can see, the environment is very easy to make, and the spiral doesn't need to be too complex or exact to completely change the way those lines look. Let's move a little more to the right side and create some more lines. This time trying to make them the other way around starting from the bottom. Now you have less control over the vertical look of the lines. It looks a little bit crooked. Let's try once more, this time holding the pencil down. It seems like the Procreate app loves to correct these lines to make them nice and straight. Let's play along and make these spirals like before. Starting with the vertical line from the top of the Canvas, let's hold it down. Now, let's add a beautiful loose spiral. Now you will take a step back and see, how can these lines being proved? It looks like the shape of the line looks pretty well like this. A very easy way to make them look more organic is to add some leaf shapes over them. Let's get closer and create two curves meeting in a pointy end. Drawing them at 45-degree angle will create a little bit of dynamicity to your illustration. More shapes placed at 45 degrees, more dynamic look. Let's fill the two shapes of the leaves with this dark color. Now, let's move over the lines from the corner, and add some more leaves. You can add as many leaves as you want, but keep in mind to not overcrowd the corner so the focus can remain on the subject of your illustration. These leaves are very easy to do, as you can see. Just a couple of shapes inspired by nature can totally change the look of your illustration. Plus, it's very fun to make them. Now it looks like we can fit one more beautifully spiral line on the left side to create a beautiful ratio for the shapes. Adding a small shape next to the big shape can make a huge difference. You can take your time and experiment with different vine lengths and leaf shapes, and try to observe what changes they bring to the look of your environment. Now that the drawing of the vines is done, it is time to integrate them a bit more into the background atmosphere, because their shapes seem a bit too harsh against the soft turquoise color of the background. Let's firstly go to the color palette and grab the turquoise color from the middle, and from the brushes you will grab the texture of Kiwi brush. In no time, your vines will be embraced by the beautiful marine atmosphere. For doing that, you will want to go to the layers and pressing on the layer of the water and the vines, you will want to Alpha Lock the layer. This will allow you to freely add textures only on the vines. Now let's add some more of these beautiful textures. If you want, you can decrease the opacity of the brush to create some more contrasting textures over the leaves. These are up to you. You can make them as colored as you want, but as you can see, just a hint of this turquoise color make those organic shapes seem from the same story. With this, you have successfully created the background for your illustration. The level of details added to this point is everyone's choice. But now you know, you can add very simple elements to indicate a sense of gravity. You can easily transform harsh shapes into organic shapes by adding curves or organic elements such as leaves. You can effortlessly integrate any decorative elements into your background by borrowing and bringing the colors from the background over the shapes. Now let's move to the next step, and add a very important detail. 4. Organic Shapes as Environmental Elements: In this step, you will understand the importance of environmental elements. In this case, we are talking about ripples. As you can see, these ripples signal movement in the water and they are a great focal point, so we can use this to our advantage. As you can see, these ripples are concentric and they surround one single focus point. They get bigger and longer as they go further from the focus point. Of course, if we would've looked at the water from the top, these ripples would've been perfectly round, forming a uniform pattern. But because in our illustration, we have perspective, the ripples will seem like they describe an oval shape. It is very important to observe how these ripples are so you can describe them correctly. Now that the background is almost finished, it's time to add just a couple more details over the bottom of the canvas. This step will be very easy and will take no time. You will begin adding these details by firstly making sure we are on the layer of the water. Now let's make sure the light nuance of turquoise is selected and the Almond brush as well. This exercise is another great example of organic shapes. Another great way of creating an organic look for your illustration is by using curves. These curves are actually concentric circles viewed from an angle, and this is the reason why they look like some ovals. When creating these curves, keep in mind to not describe a full oval shape and make these curves wider as they reach the sides of the canvas. These ripples, as you've may guessed, will host in the middle of them the leg of the flamingo, so you can see them as a link between the flamingo and the environment. You can do this in many ways. Another example may be this monkey from the past class that is holding the branch or this giraffe that is eating some leaves that are found on the sides of the canvas. Try to find one or more elements that create a link between your subject and the environment. Getting back to the delicate ripples, make sure you make them smaller and less obvious as you reach the sides of the canvas. As well, you can add some wondering ripples that are placed at 45 degrees indicating to the bottom corners of the canvas. With this, you have successfully finished the background and the middle ground of the illustration. Now let's move to the next step and start creating the main shapes of your flamingo. 5. Building the Main Shapes: In this step, you will get to create the two main shapes of your flamingo and you will learn how to read the shapes to organize your composition using their help. It is very easy to identify them. We have a big, beautiful oval shape in the middle, and on the left side we have one smaller shape on the top. If you want your subject to have the full attention of your illustration, it's important to place it in the center of your frame. After that, you can add a dynamic sense by playing with the second shape, placing it in a diagonal direction. Now that you know that the main shapes of your flamingo are two beautiful ovals of different sizes, let's place them into our illustration. First, let's select the second nuance of pink from the left side of the color palette. This will be great for the main shapes because it will make them easier to stand out. Now for creating the contour of the shapes, you will use the Armen brush to have a clean and consistent outline. Let's make sure the size of the brush is a bit lower to have a beautiful contour. Very important, make sure the flow is at 100 percent so the shape can appear as a solid mass of color. Now before creating the shape, let's go to the layers and add one more layer on top of the last one. This will place the flamingo in front of the background. Now let's move to the middle of the illustration, right on the top of the ripples and trace a beautiful old shape displaced horizontally. As you can see, you don't have to make it perfect from the beginning because now after holding the pencil down and making the shape appear smoother, you can press the edit button from the top to be able to adjust it. Now let's use the circles from the sides of the oval to place it better, trying to make the dots be aligned in the middle of the illustration. Take your time to find the right position. Of course, if you want, you can make your flamingo look like it had a ton of shrimp lately. You can make the oval a bit taller by dragging the points from the top or the bottom outside the shape. With that, the contour of the shape is done. Now you can drag the color from the top right corner and feel the oval shape. Now the shape of the body is complete. If you want to make further adjustments, this is a good moment to use the move tool on the uniform if you want to relocate the shape. You can write the body a little bit more to the right side just a hint to avoid making the illustration seem too symmetrical. With this, the body of the flamingo is done. Let's now create the flamingo head. For that, you will have to go to the layers. Having the layer of the body selected, drag it to the left and press the duplicate button. Now you have two beautiful ovals, one on top of the other. So you will have to move one of them. Let's use the move tool on the uniform and drag the oval shape of the head on the top side of the body. Let's move it to the top left corner and now let's make it much smaller, almost a quarter than the body. Now you can use the green button to tilt to the front the head shape. Let's make the head even smaller to make the flamingo look much more natural. With this, you have successfully placed the two main shapes of your flamingo, the head on the top-left side, and the shape of the body in the center. Now you know how easy it is to find the right size for the shape of your subject and simplify the shape. You can now explore many other subjects to find out in what shapes they fit better. Maybe some fit better in squares or rectangles or even triangles. Take your time to observe your subject and find the beautiful shapes in which it fits. 6. Transform Main Shapes into Complex Shapes: In this, you will move further in grading the shape of the flamingo by giving shape to its gracious and elegant neck. The neck will link the shape of the body with the one of the head, and will have a reversed S shape. As you can see, the line of the neck graciously twists so the flamingo have a relaxed position. When drawing the neck, keep in mind that the bottom segment is a bit bigger, and the curve is more expanded while the top segment is tighter and visibly shorter. Another thing you will notice is that on the top and the bottom, the neck has a soft transition with the head and the body, while in the inside part, the neck creates acute angles with a two shapes. Now, let's create the neck. The first thing you will need to do to create the shape of the neck is to go to the color palette and choose the next nuance of pink, the lighter one. This will help you make a difference between the shapes. Now, let's go to the Layers and create a new one on top of the others. After this, with the almond brush, you are ready to draw the contour of the neck. To better understand the shape of the neck, let's place on the right side of the head two lines, one on the bottom and one on the top. Now, let's go to the big shape of the body and add two more marks. This time, on the left side. By linking these marks, you will be able to create in a much easier way the shape of the neck. Make sure you link the line from the top of the head with the line from the top of the body. After that, you will link the other two, following the first line with a parallel one. Let's get closer and create the right side of the neck, living with the white curve from the top of the head and then changing the direction of the curve. Now, let's go back to the top and leaving from the right side of the head, create a parallel line with the first one reaching the bottom of the beak shape. After this, before filling the shape, you have to make sure that two ends of the neck are closed over the ovals. Now, let's fill the shape of the neck with the same beautiful color. Now, as you can see, the neck doesn't have a very aesthetic look, but that is no problem for us because we can now play with its shape. Let's firstly grab the eraser and get rid of the marker from the bottom. Now, let's get to the top of the neck to make sure the angle from underneath is nicely pronounce, so it may seem like the neck connects with the head. Now, we can move lower on the neck to make sure the two sides of the neck are as parallel as possible. Of course, you may notice now that the neck is thicker on the bottom. This is very good because you will want to make the shapes seem like they are flowing harmoniously. The next thing you will want to do is to play a little more with the shape of the neck, so it may seem a bit more elegant and balanced on the bottom side. Let's now use the Move tool, set on warp to bring the top side of the neck a bit more to the back. Now, let's do the same for the bottom-left side of the neck, dragging it to the outside. You don't have to exaggerate the shape too much, but make sure it is slightly thicker on the bottom. Let's bring a little bit more to the right, the top side of the neck, being careful not to detach its shape from the head, getting closer and making sure the shape is not too exaggerated or seems to stretch. As you can see, the shape of the neck forms with the chin of the bird uptight angle. On the top side, it appears a smooth line. This is a very good aspect to create delicate transitions between the shapes. Now, the same thing happens on the bottom side of the neck, but reversed like in a mirror, having a tight corner on the top of the shape and the smooth transition underneath it. Now that the outline of the neck is finished and you are pleased with its shape, you can now go to the Layers and drag the layer of the neck underneath the two layers of the oval shapes. Now, the ends of the neck are not visible anymore and the shapes look much cleaner. Now, it's time to create some organic lines on the contour of the neck, so let's use the almond brush and the color from before to create on the bottom-left side of the neck a couple of small ovals following the curve of the neck. This is another very easy way to create an organic look to your natural looking shapes. These feathers will make your flamingo see much more fluffy and exotic. Now, let's move over the second curve on the top-right side of the neck and create a couple more of these features. As you may notice, these add a little bit to the thickness of the neck as well and make the next seem like it's of a bird. Now, you have successfully created the neck shape of this flamingo, and you have learned how to play with the shape to make it look more expressive. This can be done in multiple ways depending on the subject, but make sure you add these details right after you are satisfied with the shape. Now, let's get to the next step and create the face and the beak of the flamingo. 7. Creating Personality: In this step, you will get to create the face of the flamingo. You will learn how easy it is to create expressive lines to give personality to your character. Look at this beautiful and interesting flamingo. It has such a unique beak. Let's try to break it down in simple shapes. The first thing you can notice is the obtuse angle from the top and the white curve from the bottom. These two are very important to give its personality. Now, another detail is the beak opening, which is another obtuse angle, slightly closer to the top side. Let's not forget to place the nostril of the flamingo on top of the beak entrance over the lighter side. Looking at the color of the beak, there are several things to consider when creating it. The black part of the beak ends before the angle of its changes and the bottom side of the beak has considerably more dark color because the top side of it has fewer degrees than the bottom side. Another thing to keep in mind is that the beak has lighter color than the head and on the top and the bottom, has different nuances. On the top is lighter and on the bottom is darker or more pigmented. The last thing about the beak is how it blends with the head shape. Make sure you create a beautiful curve for the forehead and another beautiful oval shape for the cheek, leaving between them a round space for the eye. Now let's get into the step and created the beak. Let's first of all go to the layers and create a new layer on top of the other ones, a very important detail. Now let's choose from the color palette, the lightest nuance of pink. After this, let's go to the brushes to make sure the almond brush is ready. After all these things are done, let's get closer to the left side of the flamingo's face and start creating the beak. Let's begin by creating the contour of the forehead and then create a round counter where the eye will be later placed. After this is done, you can go back on top of the forehead and continue with a line in the front of the head, slowly descending to the middle of the neck. Now you will close the shape of the beak on the bottom of the head, creating a beautiful cone like contour. Take your time. If you want to make any adjustments to the shape and erase the possible mistakes. Let's get closer to make sure the shape of the beak closes on the face so you can safely fill the shape of it with color. Now let's take the eraser and make sure the shape of the beak continuous with the one of the head. Now let's move to the top of the head and erase some of the line of the forehead. It may seem like the line is going behind the head. Now let's zoom out and fill the shape of the beak with color. It seems in the case of these beak, the bottom line can be adjusted so it may seem a bit more smooth and cursive. Now let's get closer to the face and adjust the contour of the face so you can make sure it has a nice and round cheek. Take your time to create any more adjustments that you feel like. If there are curves that don't appear smooth, this is the time to correct them. Now it is time to give a sense of volume to this peak. As for any shape, this can be done by adding shadow and light on the bottom and the top side of it. Let's go to the layers. Having the layer of the big selected, let's press on the layer and alpha lock it so you can have a beautiful control over the shadow you are making. After this, let's go to the brushes and select the beautiful Kiwi brush. Now let's go to the color palette and pick the darker nuance of pink. You can decrease a bit of the size and the opacity. Now let's start applying these textures underneath the beak, leaving just the little bit of this texture to touch the bottom side of the beak. You don't want to make this shadow too intense because the beak doesn't have too much volume underneath it. Now let's go to the layers and alpha lock the layer of the head. Now you will go to the color palette and pick the lighter nuance of pink. As you can see, this way, the beak and the head are exchanging some color and this way, they seem to have a connection. Now, let's lower the flow of the brush and start applying some of this paint on the top side of the head shape, keeping the perch of color round and beautiful to make the head seemed like a sphere. With this, the shape of the head is finished. Now, let's see how we can suggest the features of this beautiful flamingo. For the features, you will need a contrasting color. The darker color from the corner will be perfect to create them. Before creating the features, you will want to bring together the beak and the face. Let's go to the layers and merge down the layer of the beak. As you noticed, the beak opens like a V-shape, not as usual bird beak. You can accentuate this feature if you want. Now let's leave from underneath the eye with a small curve that turns and meets the first line. Now let's play a little bit with the plasticity of this line. Let's get closer to the point where the two lines meet and accentuate the end of the second line. Let's add a little bit more on the top as well. Now let's move to the corner of the mouth and create a beautiful twist just to give the flamingo a little smile in the corner of the mouth. Now, let's not forget another small but very important feature of this flamingo, and that is the nostril. Now it is time for the most emblematic feature of the flamingo, the tip of the beak. Let's get closer and create on each side of the line, two curves going to the sides. Trying to make them a bit unaligned so they seem a bit more organic. As you can see, because of the textures from underneath the color, there are some different nuances, but that's perfectly okay. Let's get closer and check for any little mistakes, making sure that all the lines are nice and smooth. Now that we know we can improve the details, let's get closer to the little oval opening from the face and draw a beautiful lead for this flamingo with just a couple of eyelashes. With this, the features of the flamingo are done. Let's get into the next step and continue down the flamingo with some gorgeous details. 8. Give Volume to Plane Shapes: For this step, you will want to keep in mind that the neck has volume. Because of that, you will have to identify the three nuances of pink. As you can see on the right side of the neck, the color appears darker while on the left side is lighter. Make sure to keep these nuances apart with the help of the neck color. In this step, you will create the details from the neck and it will be very easy and fun. You will get to integrate and blend the three shapes of the flamingo, the head, the neck, and the body. Let's get closer to the top of the neck, and now let's undo the Alpha lock of the head because it is not needed anymore. Now let's select the layer of the neck. This is the perfect moment to check if there can be made any more adjustments over the counter of the neck. Let's go to the color palette to grab the pink nuance of the neck. In this case, it looks like the flamingo needs a tiny bit more support. Let's make the neck just a tiny bit thicker underneath the head. Let's now go to the top and make sure the shape of the head nicely continues with the outside line of the neck, and let's make this feather nicely integrated. Looking over the neck and everything seems nice except for the bottom line of the neck, that it seems to disrupt the flow of the line. Let's get closer and expand a bit more the wideness of the neck base. Now it looks so much better. Look how beautifully those shapes blend together. This will be definitely a very elegant and handsome flamingo. Now that you've made sure you are pleased with the look of the next shape, this is the time to integrate the neck and blend the three shapes. For that, let's grab from the color palette the lightest pink. Of course, to create a sense of volume for the neck, you will pick the textured kiwi brush. After this, let's make sure the layer of the neck is Alpha locked, so you can freely add the textures without worrying about them getting outside the next shape. Now let's start with just a couple of simple passes on the left side of the neck, where the neck is long and it has no twists. Let's zoom out and place just a little bit of this textured light pink over the bottom of the neck as well, on its left side, so those beautiful feathers can be more visible over the beautiful turquoise from the background. Now that you are all warmed up and the neck got a little bit of light, let's pick from the color palette the gorgeous pink that was used for the body and the head, and move over the right side of the neck on the opposite side of the light. Let's start with the bottom of the neck and see how this texture blend the two shapes, how smoothly this transition can be done. It seems like a little bit of courage would be very useful. Let's increase the flow of the brush and try to blend and fade that line from the chest, getting the textures almost fill the entire surface. As you can see, these pink helps the shape get some volume. Now let's go to the top of the neck, and as for the bottom of the neck, you will want to get rid of the difference in color from where the shapes meet. As you can see, this helps a lot to bind the two shapes. Let's zoom out and let's decrease a bit of the opacity and increase the size to create a uniform and nice shadow on the bottom of the neck, creating a gorgeous gradient between the two nuances of pink, the one of the neck and the one of the body. Now let's move up and sprinkle a little bit of this textures along the length of the neck, making sure you don't spread it too much across it. Slowly moving to the top, you can accentuate the textured shadow on the top side of the neck, making sure you focus on slowly fading the color difference between the two shapes. Getting closer, let's lower the size and make the shadow a little more consistent and uniform, linking it with the rest of the shadow that goes behind the neck. Let's check lower, how the textured shadow looks. It seems like it needs to be a little more accentuated on the bottom. Not very much, just so those features from the bottom of the neck are not so obvious anymore. Look at the beautiful shape the neck has now. It looks much more suggestive and round. Now is the time for you to make sure you are pleased with how the textures are looking, making sure that transitions from between the colors are smooth and delicate. Now it is time for some small details, so let's go to the color palette and grab the lightest nuance of pink. With this light pink and the almond brush, you will get to add small details over the neck of the flamingo. These micro details, even though are not so obvious, add a beautiful and delicate sense of complexity. Let's get closer to the left side of the neck and add just a couple of short curves to suggest some small and delicate feathers. here and there, a couple of curves that go along the shape of the neck, trying to make them may be of different sizes. With this, you have finished the neck of the flamingo. You've learned how to successfully create a sense of volume over different kinds of shapes, and how to use light and dark color tones to improve the volume of the shapes you are creating. You have also learned how to smoothly create transitions between shapes through the coercivity of lines and borrowing colors. Now let's move to the next step and create his legs. 9. Give Plasticity to Lines: Now let's look at some flamingo legs. Look at the grace of those shapes. How the flexed leg beautifully balances with the neck shape. The two shapes can actually be seen like a whole one that beautifully twists around the vertical standing leg. The next things that are noticeable about the legs are the joints and the very delicate textures from the legs that look like some light-colored rings. Now that you are familiarized with the look of these very long and elegant, thin flamingo legs, let's create them. For that, you will have to go to the Layers and create a new layer on top of the one of the water so the legs can be on top of the water and underneath the flamingo. Now from the color palette, you will want to pick the most saturated nuance of pink. From the brushes, let's grab the elegant almond brush. Now as for the vines, this there will be very easy and fun. Let's begin by adding a vertical line underneath the flamingo, leaving from the middle of the ripples and going up in the back of the flamingo. Let's hold the pencil down until this line becomes smaller than nice, and now let's drop it just right there. Now continuing the end of the neck, Let's live with a long line directed to the back of the flamingo, reaching the length of its back. Now let's leave from the left side of the vertical line and link the line with the last one forming the letter P. These are the main shapes of the legs. Now it's time for some details, so let's start with the lower side of the leg and continue with a line parallel with the main leg going down. Now let's create a beautiful triangle with the small side facing down. After this, we can fill this beautiful triangle and add one more small finger on the right side of the triangle. You can now grab the eraser and get rid of small lines that are outside the shape. This looks just fine for the leg shapes. Now let's go to the brushes and grab the almond brush used previously. Now you will want to go over the intersection of the flexed leg and create a round shape outside the sharp angle to signal a round and beautiful joint for the long leg. Now let's go below the diagonal side of the leg and create on the vertical leg, another round joint. Then you will want to smooth those edges of the circle and spread it along the leg. Now as before, let's make the top side of the legs a bit wider so it looks like the flamingo has a bit of stability. You don't have to make them too wide, but make sure those parts are at least as wide as the knees of the flamingo. Let's go over the rest of the flamingo legs and make sure there are no sharp angles that don't look natural. After you are pleased with how the two legs of the flamingo look, it is time for some wonderful details. For these details, you will use a beautiful and contrasting color so these details can be more visible. You will go to the color palette and grab the lightest nuance of pink. Now let's bring down the size of the almond brush and then you will create some curves across the legs, like some rings so the legs look like they have volume and some gorgeous spirals over the knees. Let's start with the most exciting part, the knee spirals. Let's start with the one from below, lowering the size of the brush so the spiral can be longer. Now that the two beautiful spirals are done, let's look for a couple of places to put those curves across the legs. Let's start from the top of this leg, carving them down and now let us get lower on the leg and add three more beautiful lines. Let's make sure the vertical leg gets a couple of these lines. You don't have to make too many and you can change the distance from between them as well if you feel like it. With these beautiful and simple curves, you have finished another gorgeous element of your flamboyant flamingo. In this step, you've learned how important it is to look for strong directions and positions to give a sense of movement to your artwork and how easy it is to suggest those key features of your subject. You've also made some contrasting and gorgeous decorations that not only enhance the look of your illustration, but also help to describe volumes and shapes. Now let's get into the next step and create some gorgeous and fluffy feathers. 10. Complex Shapes for Building the First Wing: Look at this beautiful flamingos, how their feathers gorgeously match the shape of their body. As you can see, the feathers orderly follow the big shape of the wing. Another detail you will notice is the small tail from the end of the body, which can be easily simplified by the main shape. The wing as well follows the same shape of the body, but it's placed a little bit on the top, so its shape can be very easy to read. Now, do not be overwhelmed by the number of feathers these birds display. These can be easily break down into just a couple of small groups. The first group is placed on the left side of the wing, and it's formed by a couple of small and short feathers. The next group it's in the middle and is formed by longer and wider feathers, and the last one is on the right right of the wing. This group of feathers can vary in shape and direction. When creating the details of the feathers, you will want to create across the shape a long line. On each side of the feather, you will create smaller lines placed at 45 degree angle. Now you are ready to create the first wing with this beautiful feathers. Keep in mind to follow one single direction when drawing the contour of the feathers. Now that you know that the next detail you will create is the first wing, let's make some preparations. The first thing is to go to the layers and select the layer of the party. After this, let's go to the color palette and grab the second pink from the left side, the one used previously to create the body shape. Now using the ombre brush, you will want to transform the oval shape of the body into one that is slightly more organic and interesting. Let's go closer to the back of the flamingo and let's continue the line of the bottom with a small curve that goes up and get a bit more horizontally. After this, let's get closer and moving to the top of the back, you will create a white curve that connects with the end of the last one. This definitely changes a lot the way the back of your flamingo looks. If you want, you can make it a bit longer and turn downside. Now that our shape is a bit more gracious, you are ready to create the first wing. This will be effortless. You will have to go to the layers and dragging the layer of the body to the left side, you will press the duplicate button. Now, as you can see, a new layer was created and you will have to select it. Once it's selected, let's use the move tool on uniform to drag the layer of the wing to the top of the body. Now let's make it a bit smaller and going to the color palette, you will select the second lightest nuance of pink and you will drop it inside the shape. Now, after you have successfully colored the wing, it's time for some small adjustments. Let's firstly tilt the wing to the front so you can add to it a slightly more dynamic look, and make it stand differently than the body. After this, let's use the warp tool to squish a little bit the shape of the wing, so it may appear a bit longer than the body. Drag it to the front as well, so it may cover a tiny bit more of the chest. After you are satisfied with the shape of your wing, you can unselect the move tool. Now, it's time to create those fantastic and elegant feathers. You will place these feathers on the top side of the wing and make them of different sizes. Let's start with a group of three small feathers on the left side of the wing, starting with the first feather, continuing the shape of the wing upward, and now let's fill its shape. Taking a small distance from the first, let's create a bigger feather on this right side, and now a slightly bigger one going to the right. Keep these small feathers nice and grouped. Now taking a bit of distance from the first group, you will add the second group of three feathers considerably longer than the first. Let's start with a beautiful and long curvy feather and fill its shape. This will be the biggest feather from the group. Now let's create one more, just a tiny bit thinner and very close to the first shape, and then you can fill the shape of this one as well. Now let's create the last one following a diagonal direction. As you can see, the two groups of feathers are clearly different, but because they follow one single diagonal direction, they smoothly collaborate to describe the elegant shape they follow. Now let's get closer to the end of the wing and add two more feathers, this time directing their tips upward, so they seem a bit more playful, like the air blows them in another direction. Now we can once more fill the shape of these two feathers. Of course, you can get closer now to the tip of the wing and make that end of the wing once more, giving it a beautiful organic twist at the end. With this, the beautiful shape of the wing and its feathers is done. This was a slightly more challenging step, but I'm sure you had a lot of fun shaping your gorgeous feathers. Now, as you've made guess, after finishing the shape, it is time to give up tiny bit of volume to the wing. For that you will want to go to the layers and Alpha Lock the layer of the wing. Of course, you will need a different brush for this. Let's go and grab the kiwi brush used previously for the textures. Now from the color palette, you will pick the lightest nuance of pink, the almost white pink. Now let's get a bit closer and make sure the opacity and the size of the brush are at a medium level. Now having a little bit of patients, of course, you will go around the delicate feathers using circular motions very delicately placing this light pink on the top of them. You can go over the middle of the wings as well, but try to keep the light part on the top side to keep a clean and nice volume for your wing. Even if it doesn't look like a big difference, this line nuance of the pink will make the wings seem much more delicate and decorative. Now as previously then you will use a darker nuance of pink, then nuance use the color of the body, and increasing the flow of the brush you will play some of this texture color on the bottom of the wing. Not getting too much inside the shape, but making sure the light wing is not sharp and disruptive. Take your time to make these textures and fade the line of the wing. After this then, you are ready to create some beautiful lines with ombre brush to make those feathers look like some real feathers. Let us get closer to them with the ombre brush and now starting from the inside part of the wing, you will create a middle line across the feathers. Let's start with the first line of across big feather from the middle, making the line a tiny bit wider at the end, and now let's add some diagonal lines directed upwards going to the edges of the feather. Let's now go to the bottom and start a new feather, just like before adding as many sidelines as you want but just a couple of them are enough to create that delicate feathery look, and just like this in no time the first group of feathers is done. Let's move to the left and add across these small feathers some beautiful lines starting from inside the wing shape and then adding those sidelines. Even though this exercise may seem redundant or boring, it is a very important one to practice your skills. As you can see, these lines follow the same direction. They are not different from each other, but the beautiful effect they made is worth the time and attention. In no time the second bundle of feathers is done, and look at how beautiful they describe the shape in which the wing is directed. Now you can move to the last two feathers from the end of the wing. Of course, following the direction of the feather, let's trace the line from the middle and one or two lines on the sides. Now of course, we cannot forget about the middle of the wing, which needs a little bit of attention as well. Let's get closer and following the direction of the wing and using wide lines, we can suggest some feathers that are described by the middle line and the lines from the sides. There is no need to counter the feathers. You can change the way the curves are bent as long they are somehow following the same flow. Let's add one more line, getting closer to the bottom of the wing and adding small little lines on the sides. With this, the first wing of your flamingo is done. Look at those delicate and beautifully flowing feathers. You've learned once more that the secret of developing beautiful illustrations is to give a sense of volume to your subject by adding shadow and light. Of co0-urse, you've once more used the oval shape of the body to create one more element and learned how to organize complex shapes like feathers into very orderly but dynamic shapes. You've also learned how to draw fine details and create dance and decorative elements with just a couple of lines that follow similar directions. Now let's go into the next step and create the second wing. 11. Creating the Second Wing: Now that you have finished the first wing, in no time, you will create the second one. For that, let's go to the layers and having the layer of the first wing selected, you will want to drag it to the left side and press the Duplicate button. Now you have two beautiful layers with the same wing. After this, you will want to put the second wing in the back of the flamingo. Let's drag this layer underneath the layer of the neck, just on the top of the legs. Now you can use the Move tool on the Uniform to drag the layer of the wing on top of the first so it can be visible. Now let's use the Warp tool to play a little bit with the shape of the feathers that are visible so they look a little bit more different than the first ones. Try to not distort them too much so they don't seem deformed. Move them to the left or to the right until they become visible. Don't worry if they become together with the feathers from the front, a big mess of light pink feathers, because in the next step, you will get to create some darker feathers in between the two wings. Now that you are satisfied with the look and the position of the second wing, let us go into the last beautiful step and make this flamingo look extra feathery and gorgeous. 12. Body Feathers for Contrast and Fine Details: Now, for the last step, you will make the body of the flamingo stand out and have a gorgeous contour. For that, you'll want to go to the layers, and having selected the wing from the top of the body, you will press with two fingers on the layer to decrease the opacity of the layer. This will be very helpful to create those feathers from the back, but still have evidence of where the front ones are. After you have successfully made this layer transparent, you can go back to the layers and select the layer of the body. Now you can get closer, and having the beautiful pink of the body selected as well as the elegant almond brush, you will start to create as before, a couple of feather shapes that come outside the body shape. Make sure these feathers reach the top of the front feathers so they can be visible as well. You can make them of different sizes and adjust them to seem thinner or wider. It doesn't really matter as long as you create these feathers in-between the light-colored ones. After the first group of three feathers is done, let's move around and look for another great place for the next ones. It seems one more small feather in-between the two wings would be just great. Now, let's approach the bottom of the flamingo and create in-between the last two light feathers from the front two more delicate feathers that are very gently visible in the back of the other ones. Now, to have just a little more space for one more little feather, let's make the tip of the tail just a tiny bit longer so it can stick out more clearly, and as for the wing to have a beautiful and organic look. Now, let's add one more gorgeous little feather, such beautiful and elegant shapes. But it seems like the bottom of the flamingo would definitely benefit from having a couple of tiny feathers to make the whole shape look extra fluffy and much more interesting. Let's get closer to the bottom of the tail and following a descending direction, let's add two more small feathers, even three to make the tip of the tail seem even more organic. Zooming out it seems like we can mask a little bit that intersection from between the shape of the neck and the body. Let's get closer and create two more long little feathers going down following the shape of the body. Let's fill the two shapes and add one more beautiful feather, just a tiny one. It looks like this flamingo is getting very beautiful with these feathers. Let's go to the top-left side and create over the light feathers of the back wing a couple more feathers, making them smaller so they don't cover the ones from the back. With this, it seems like the contour of the feathers is done and our flamingo is ready for some final touch-ups. Let's go to the layers and I'll follow the layer of the body. To give some beautiful volumes to this shape, let's grab the darkest nuance of pink from the color palette and the kiwi brush from the brushes. Now, as you may know, this color will be used on the bottom side of the shape to express volume. Let's get closer to the bottom of the shape, and lowering the size of the brush, you will lightly spread this beautifully colored texture on the edge of the shape, not covering to much of it, just following its round contour. Take your time to make this shadow very beautifully faded. Now, it is time for some highlights as well. Let's grab from the color palette the lighter nuance of pink. Using circular motions, you will hover over the top side of the shape and the feathers as well, making the color just a tiny bit more calm and less contrasting with other feathers. Now, as for the feathers of the wings, it is time for some delicate feather textures. Let's go to the color palette and pick the second lightest nuance of pink, and from the brushes, the almond brush. Then starting with the feathers from the bottom, let's draw across the shape a beautiful line that gets a little bit thicker as it approaches the end of the feather, and then let's not forget of those sidelines placed at 45-degree. This is a very good exercise to have because it teaches how important it is to have order in your lines so you can have a beautiful and elegant finish for your illustration. Let's move over the bundle of feathers from the top and draw that middle line and those little lines from the sides. This is such a relaxing process. After you have finished creating the feather patterns and all the feathers are beautifully integrated into the whole look, your flamingo is ready to take flight. Let's just go to the layers and once more, selecting the layer of the wing, let's increase back to maximum the opacity of the front wing. With this, you have successfully finished your beautiful flamingo. Congratulations on your illustration and thank you so much for taking this course. If you enjoyed it and you find the information useful, make sure you leave a review, and of course, share with the rest of us you're gorgeous artwork. Thank you once more and see you in the next one.