How To Create A Character Illustration In Procreate - Beginner Level

1. Introduction : Hi everyone. Today we'll be learning category this character from start to finish in Procreate. I've been learning how to create, to create clothing and shading. Learning how to create features such as eyes, cheeks, lips, but also learning how to add shadows to some of our features. I really hope this course is useful for you all and you learn a lot. Please follow me for more videos on procreate. 2. Thinking About Different Head Shapes : What we first want to think about is the shape of our character and the shape of our character's face. So cartoons can have looked at different head shapes. And what we first want to do is just have a look at the different types of head shapes. For example, you can have a classic circle. We can have a sort of long being shaped head. It can have a side with being shaped head. It can have a sweet potato shaped head. Can have k square shape if we wanted to as well. Sort of curved head shape. And what you just wanted to Festival is just play around with the different types of shapes. So the first exercise will be to create lots of different types of shapes, which you think will work well for a cartoon phase. 3. Looking At Facial Features & How We Can Create Different Characters: We next want to do is look at the different types of features for our cartoon characters. I'm just going to unhide 15 layers. So here I've got lots of different types of eyes, eyebrows, nose is a mouse for cartoon characters. And you can see you can really choose any sort of design and any sort of style that you like. If for example, I wanted to choose just a simple kind of, I, I could choose this one. If I want to choose a sort of cheeky grin, I could shoot this mouth shape. If I just wanted a funny sort of nerves, I could choose this one and just some bushy eyebrows. Let's take an hour access to this image file where you'll have all different types of eyes, eyebrows, noses, and mouths. And you can villages choose whichever one that you liked. What we next want to do is take these eyes, mouth, browse, and nose is, and we want to go back into a head shape. And what we want to do is for each of these head shapes, we want to try a different style of eyes, a different style of nodes, different style of Mao, and a different style of eyebrow. So for our first head shape, you can just choose a really simple I. And it doesn't have to be perfect because we're just sketching for now. If I my funny-looking news and just a set of lips. For my second shape. He wants evil looking eyes. A funny-looking news and a half green. And I'm going to give him some bushy eyebrows. Look a bit more like a villain. And over my desk, give some simple eyebrows here. Next, shade and do some googly eyes. Maybe flatness. And what you're going to do is take your head shape and add different sets of eyes, noses, mouth and eyebrows. And you want to start clean your two different characters. So now I've got lots of different characters who all look a bit different, a different features. 4. Creating An Initial Character Sketch : And what you want to do is you want to have a look and see which of these characters who you like. And if you're not happy with any of these characters, you don't have to keep any of them. You can start from scratch. Well, I'm going to do is I'm going to select this cell up here. And I'm just going to change it around a little bit. So what you want to do is you're going to click on your select tool and you want to go into freehand. Just highlight this and press Copy. And you can see here, we've just got a layer with just our face that you've chosen. Just going to leave it to the side here. And what I want to do is create a new layer. Because I want to change this a little bit. What I might do is I want to click on my inking and go into studio pen and change it to black. Put the brush size down to quite low. And I want to create a sort of oval-shaped head for my character. And I just want some simple circle eyes. And this is just a sketch. So you still have to be perfect. And I want to do some eyelashes on top. And I want a long sort of news and just some pouty lips. And then I'm going to do some iPads on top. Just going to delete my original layer. And this is the layer. There we go. So this is just our sketch for our character phase. 5. Creating A Skin Colour Palette: We next want to do is start adding some color and start adding the shapes I want to do is add a new layer. And I want to choose a color for my character. I'm just going to go into these color terms here. And I'm just going to pick a few colors. And what you first want to do is you want to click the color of your character. So I'm going to choose this sort of creamy beige color. And I'm just going to create a circle here. Just fill it in. And then what I want to do is just move along slightly and create and add a few more shades of the same color. Turn, but a bit darker. So they're going to be using these colors for venerate shading in just going to keep. And then we're going to rename this layer as color skin. This is our color palette for our skin turned. 6. Drawing Character Head, Features & Adding Shading To Face: And what I'm going to do is create a new layer. And then I want to start working on my character. One x one to two is just my first initial sketch layer to the side. And I want to click a new layer, and I want to click on my first initial skin shade. I'm going to create a sort of oval-shaped head for my character and just fill it in. An exponent to do is create a new layer. And I want to add my eyes now. So I want to go for so of chocolaty brown color. So we've got our two eyes now, what we need to do is create another layer, hand create some eyelashes and eyelashes lines for the lashes here. Then we want to create another layer and we want to draw our eyebrows. Now, where we're next going to do is create our nose shape. And I'm just going to keep it clean and simple. And we're just going to create my nose shape here. So here we've got our cartoon face shape. So I'm just going to get rid of my sketch layer for now. Just hide it here. And I'm just going to group all of these together. Just move a little bit. Make it a bit thicker stuff. Hosea. But we next want to do is we want to add some shading to our face shape. So what I want to do is click the New Layer and I want to add some shading to the nose. So I'm going to just click on one of these darker shading pilots that we've got here. Kinda just going to add shading around the nose. It doesn't matter if you're not perfect with it. Because we're just going to color in to make the transparency lighter capacity and put it as 33 percent. Because you've just got to have shading on the nerves. And I want to do the same thing for under the eyebrows. To click on a new layer, go back into my color. So I'm going to choose a second shading color here. Under the IFRS. I just want to switch a thick shade. They can. I just want to go into capacity and reduce it down to 33 percent E7. And I just want to add some shading again to undermine eyelashes. So again, you want to click on the shading colors. Just zoom in a tiny bit. And you want to just sort of shape and color in here to do the same for this side. Cutter in CML counterparts, the T and just reducer. Reduce it down to 27. The next one to do is add some shading to the face shape. So I'm going to click on my head shape. And just above that click on a new layer. And I want to go and press clipping mask. This way when you shade, it will only shade on the head shape and you won't go outside the image. So I want to click on my next color palette here. So the second one appear. When you want to do is I'm going to add some shading from the hairline to turn here. We can see here, assume because we've put the clipping mask gone outside of the lines. So if we just create a shading and just fill this in, and you can use color shading here. And again, I just want to go into the layer and just choose hip slightly. Also want to add some shading to the edge of the face as well. So I can click on a new layer, go into my head shape just above, we can see automatically the clipping mask is applied to the new layer. And I just want to go into my shading. Again. The second one, I just want to do some shading on the outside face and onto to it turned onto the chin as well. And again, I just want to go into my layer and just make it slightly less opaque. There we've got our shading for our quarantine character. When X1 to do is add some rosy cheeks to my character. So I'm going to go into my layers and adding new layer. And I want to click on a sort of light pink shade. And I want to choose create circles on either side of the news. And so to fill these in, then you want to click on capacity and just reduces slightly as well. Next one to do is create your lips again at any layer and go into a dark red color. I'm just going to draw an outline. I'm going to do is choose a light red and just fill this in. Slightly tongue here. So we've created all of our features now. 7. Creating A Hair Colour Palette: Our next one to work on the hair for our character. So with hey, it's quite difficult because you want to add different layers and lots of different colors for your hair. What we want to do is click on a new layer. I'm just going to hide the color palette skin for now. And what I'm going to do is choose some colors for my hair. So I want my character to have a sort of red tone TE. So I'm going to choose this orange slash red color for the main part of the head. I'm just going to draw my color palette. And then I just want to choose some darker colors. I come back with two data, three colors. I put vacuum for the hair. 8. Thinking About Hairstyles: It's what you want to do is click on a new layer. I'll click on sketching and go into my pencil. And I just want to roughly sketch some hair shapes. To repay. You've got lots of different options. You can really do whatever you want repaired it can run through a few examples. So if for example, we wanted to just leave the hair is just it's just down. Just do a suit us P50 type of hair. At some create a sort of head is called ponytail. So again, just to come down and you can just tap head, comes down. You can have shown here if you wanted nice insured. 9. Creating A Sketch For Our Hair: So what I want to do for my character is I want to draw a button for my character. So I'm just going to do a rough sketch of this fast this side plotting to come down here. And just wanted to go behind here and get to drawing is afterwards. Just want to create a rough shape here. And I want to add is tough shape. 10. Drawing Our Character Hair & Adding Textures: So now that we've got a sketch down payment to click on a new layer. And I'm going to click on this first orange shade.gov. And I want to go into my inking and go into my studio pen. Then you just want to get some clean shapes here. Just draw, you sketch. And you just have to fill in your layer. And I just want to get rid of that sketch layer of Antony, our first base layer down. And the next one to two is create a new layer. And we're going to click on our second color up here. And we want to press on clipping mask again. What we want to do is just create some hair strands to I like to do is just go over the edge. Just like to follow along. And it doesn't matter if it looks a bit messy now. You just want to get thin. And because you've kind of created this trend toward all of these lines, you can see these trends in now. Like here, I've just filled in the strand and just fill it some of these trends with my darker color. So we've got our second dark shade in now is create another layer. And I'm going to click on our dark shade now. Just go around and drawing some lines. And again, it doesn't really matter if it looks messy now because it will start to come together additive colors. And again, what you're going to do is just go in and just fill in some of these lines. Is a as in, spin these trends in. So here we've got her character with our character's hair. And you can see the different strands and lots of different textures. 11. Drawing Ears & Neck & Arranging Layers: We're next going to do is I'm going to create the ears. Now. I'm going to choose my character's skin color. And tiny is on the side. And I want to click on a new layer and go back into my skin color palettes and just choose my darker color. Come into a new layer. Some details here. I can just lower the transparency, this as well. Now we've got our character, which is all the features. We next want to do is create our characters neck. Can I'm going to click on the first shade in my skin color palette. I'm going to do is just go and just draw a new unit can be any shape. It can be why? It can be narrow. It's really up to you. I'm just going to create a switch or a rectangle shape. We're just going to show this in. And I want to put this layer underneath my face shape layer. You can see here just goes straight underneath. If you sometimes think is made her a bit wide tonight here in committed provide free form. And you can just make it a bit thinner. I'm going to do is just above my neck layer. I want to create a new layer clipping mask. And I can just go into my shading color. Just add some shading to the neck. And again, just like pasty, bit lighter. So we finished with our character's face and neck. Now, what we want to do is group all of our features together to group these, what you can do is you just want to leave it to the right each layer. So I'm going to leave out my color palette layers to everything else. To the top, you can press Group. And I'm just going to call this face features. And I can just layer, click these, just call this one color. And I can just get rid of my sketch layer now. Risk and to hide color palettes for now. 12. Drawing Clothes, Adding Shading & Drawing Hands: So what I'm going to do is go into my face and features. And what it can do is just make it smaller, just so I can add some clothing. And I want to sketch a jumper. It's what I like to do is I find to include in quite difficult and quite tricky. So I like to do is just find a picture of the item of clothing that I want to draw. And then I just like to insert it into Procreate. It's just want to go to Add, insert a photo. And of course this jumper filter here, which I want to use as a source of reference. Click on a new layer. You want to just do a rough sketch. So I'm going to start off to the next section. Yes. And I'm just drawn in quick, sort of rough sketch, the jumper shape. Once I've created my sketch, I'm going to click on a new layer, and I want to start drawing my jumper. So I'm going to choose a color and I'm going to choose mustard color for my jumper. And what I'm going to do is just go over and I'm going to go back into inking, change it to studio pen. I wanted to just go over this jumper shape and just start creating some sharp lines. We want to do is start petting the details. So onto click on a.com, mustard color. And I'm going to just start adding details to their flipping on the arms. Some ribbon, because we're moving on this pairs and add some to the colors. Will we next want to do is add a new layer. Just the parts you can see we've got sort of creases like here. We want to start adding these lines in 3-node. We have some darkness appear. Can you cut some darkness in this area? Just increasing this area here. I'm going to just add some shadow in this area section as well. So we want to do with this here is V1 to come into our brush tool. Just went source of much of a is 70 is dark shadow areas don't look so permanent. Capacity just reduces by a here. I next want to do is create a new layer. And I want to add some CA, you've got sort of why switch of shutters. I wanted to start adding shadows to go into my white color. Shadow areas. Meet. Might put onto their own pace section. And in this sort of area here, close, cross, feel like again, what you want to do is go into your smudging tool. You just want to smudge edges. It's not as harsh. I just want to turn these white shutters, turn light switches, mustard color. I just want to chat capacity down here. The next one, tuba Kahn, historian gamma, arms and hands tied to click on my skin color. For this, I'm like the picture, but I just wanted to go behind character set. We can just draw a quick graph. Launch position underneath the jumper. And it can diffuse on to make her be narrow. And then I want to click on a new layer and press clipping mask and go into my color palettes again and choose this shade. Just here. K is a bit darker shade in adjacent capacity down the line. Click on the layer again. Click on my skin colored fast one. And with this one, because it's sort of a full length sleeve. Hs want tiny paved the way, just wanting to other hands. And just want to click on a new layer. Coming into this dark shade. Just at the details for hands. I can just turn transparency done. Then we've got our champion now, misconduct. Get rid of this reference image that I have. So you've got a character waving her jumper. And I'm just going to group these together and just rename this as chunk for the trousers and risk. And to keep it very, very simple, destroy a pair of jeans. My character, I'm going to choose this blue color and just start to ring. So fled shapes. And we wanted to just make sure curved SP here. And then just fill this in, put this underneath my jumper layer. I'm just going to go into my eraser. Just make this slightly more, slightly more trade. And again, you want to add some sort of shading, click on a new layer, go into a darker blue. And primarily where you guess which is in the area at the bottom here, the ankles. And get some here. And culture has 10 to positive down. And I'm going to click on a new layer and choose a slightly lighter blue. And just had some My to shading in these areas here. Really is just about you kinda thinking the light hit, Enter hit. So here in this area up here, like with the hip because the jump publicly covering a slightly. So we wouldn't put any suitable light shade in there. But want to primarily focusing on the buttons. And again, just tend to pass it down. Just get your blending tool is blend the edges. I'm just going to blend this dark crease his shadow facilitate coherence of these half. So we've got our trousers now. Misconduct group this layer. The next thing I want to work on his shoes. You choose brown color. I'm going to be drawing, which is kinda keep it appear for heel underneath the trousers. And I'm just going to add a new layer. Choose a bit darker shadow. Just filter, catch, press clipping mask. Just want to talk a shutter, just put some have purchased this town. And new layer, choose a sort of lighter brown capacity townsfolk. Who I might do is just group these layers together and flatten entrepreneurs flattened. And I can just copy this layer. And if I paste it and flip it horizontally and say, Hey, we've got our character and high jumper, the trousers and the shear. 13. Adding Final Touches: And to add some last finishing touches here, and click. And I'm going to zoom in, and I'm just going to add some earrings. My character. Put the brush size down. Just want a switch with hearing kale. Same layer, just go for a yellow. Just to sort of bring up. I want to add a new layer. And I want to choose a blue. And I want to add to a head band here. I just want to add a sort of small end-to-end. We can do is just go into background, is changed the color hub hackers to pink.