Whimsical Rooster Illustration in Procreate: Fun Character Art

1. Intro: Hi, I'm Kimber Shook and I'm a digital artist and teacher here on Skillshare. In this class, we're going to create a whimsical rooster digital illustration in Procreate. I'll be using my iPad, the Procreate app, and Apple Pencil. If you ever wanted your artwork to feel more fun, expressive, and full of personality, this class is for you. Whimsical art is all about exaggeration, playful shapes, bold colors, and letting go of realism. I'll walk you through exactly how to do that in Procreate. Together, we'll explore what makes an illustration feel truly whimsical. How to design a rooster using simple exaggerated shapes, how to add personality through pose, expression and linework. This class is perfect for beginners or anyone who wants to loosen up their style and you don't need to be great at drawing animals or anything about roosters to follow along. By the end of this class, you'll have your own whimsical rooster illustration and a better understanding of how to apply whimsical style to any character or animal you create in the future. This class, I'll be using some of my Rustic Farmhouse Brushes that I created and is available here on Skillshare. But there's no worry. You don't need to purchase the brush set. I've supplied some paper texture as well as background grunge stamps that you can use in place of what I'm using from my Rustic Farmhouse Brushes set. I'll also suggest several Procreate install brushes that you can use in place of the Rustic Farmhouse brush set. Grab your iPad. Open the Procreate app and let's get started. 2. Class Project: For the class project, I would love to see the steps you create from sketch to finish under the project section of this class. You'll find it here on the Skillshare web browser rather than the Skillshare app. In the next lesson, we'll go over some free resources that I supply for this class. 3. Free Resources : Be sure to download the color palettes as well as the appropriate brush set that I provide for this class. Within the brush set, you'll find three background grunge stamps that you can use for the background, as well as three paper textures. You'll be able to use these when creating your whimsical Rooster illustration. I've also included a variety of color palettes that you can choose from. I'll be using the whimsical rooster color palette. I've also included a whimsical color palette that has three limited color schemes that you can choose from like dusty sage, muted mustard, rose blush, warm top, creamy linen, soft espresso. There's also golden yolk, warm cream, coral comb, soft sky blue, barn brown, and charcoal ink. Or you can choose teal splash, poppy red, sunny lemon, lavender plum, midnight Navy, or inky black. Since whimsical charm can be bold, bright, or pesto, I want to encourage you to use your own color palette as well. In the next lesson, we're going to discuss some whimsical characteristics that you can consider for your rooster illustration. 4. Whimsical Characteristics : What makes an illustration whimsical? Whimsy is about playfulness, over perfection. It feels imaginative and charming, like something magical right out of a storybook. Some core feelings of whimsical art could include light hearted, expressive, imaginative, slightly exaggerated or unrealistic. Joyful or humorous. Whimsical art doesn't try to be correct. It tries to be delightful. Here's some things you might want to consider when you're creating your whimsical art. Focus on exaggerated and playful shapes like rounded soft shapes, oversized or undersized body parts, uneven or asymmetrical forms. Just simple silhouettes that read quickly. Some examples could be an oversized fluffy chest for your rooster, tiny skinny legs, large swoopy tail feathers, a big head with a small beak or even an extra curly comb at the top of its head. You can also think about an expressive personality, draw some clear emotion or an attitude, maybe a slight tilt to the head or raised eyebrows shapes. Think proud and sassy or sleepy and confused, overconfident farm boss, shy but colorful. Consider if your rooster had a voice, what would it sound like? You want to draw to match that personality. Consider simplified details, minimal feather detailing, pattern shapes instead of realism, suggestive textures. For whimsical, color palette can play an important role. Whimsical color is emotional, not realistic. So you can consider bright or pastel palettes, unexpected color combinations, maybe limited with just three to six colors. High contrast for charm. Also, for whimsical, you want to consider loose, imperfect linework. A slight wobble in your stroke, a varying line weight, a hand drawn feel, lines that taper naturally. These are some great characteristics. Another thing you might want to consider when braiding your whimsical art is playful texture. Texture adds warmth and charm. You can consider grainy shading, soft paper texture, even chalky or crayon effects. And visible brushstrokes. And last but not least, whimsical illustrations feel like a moment from a story. So it can suggest a narrative has context or even minimal, feels alive. So with a rooster drawing, you could consider a rooster sunrise or singing loudly on a fence or guarding a coop like a knight. In the next lesson, we'll go over a canvas setup. 5. Canvas Setup: So you want to open your Procer app, tap the plus symbol top right, and tap this plus here. Here's where you're going to choose your Canvas size. I'm going to use 3,600 pixels by 3,600 pixels. I'm going to stick with the 300 DPI. This gives me a maximum of 140 layers, which is plenty to use. First off, let's start with a sketching pencil. I'll be using the scratchy sketch. With Procreate brushes, you should be able to find a great sketching brush. Either from pens or the pencils, maybe something in the charcoals. There's also a sketching brush set that you can choose something from that category like this one here, six B. In the next lesson, we'll sketch out our rooster using simple shapes. 6. Sketch: Before we start sketching, you can grab your own reference copy if you need one for your rooster, or you can take a look at this image here that I downloaded from Unsplash. Here are some key characteristics of a rooster that you can choose to use in your illustration. We have the comb at the top of the head, we have the wattle, or I like to call beard. You have eyes, a beak, it's chest, wings, tail feathers, Neck feathers, legs, toes, and spurs. And since this is a whimsical drawing, just remember some key features, rounded soft shapes, oversized or undersized body parts, uneven or asymmetrical forms, like an oversized fluffy chest, tiny skinny legs, large swoopy tail feathers, a big head with a small beak, maybe even an extra curly comb. I want to start off with some loose shapes. Maybe something like a kidney bean, don't worry, it doesn't have to be perfect right now this phase. We're going to adjust it later. If you want to just boost this up a little bit, you can go to the wand, liquefy and just push out and adjust the shape as needed. Again, since this is a sketching phase, this does not have to be perfect by any means. I'm just trying to get a loose enough shape. I just want to adjust this and give myself more room for the rest of the features. So I'm just doing a kind of like a half egg shape for the comb. Let's add a rounded triangle for the beak. We're gonna do a little egg drop. Let's give another large egg shape for its feathers. I just want to adjust this just a little bit more. We're just going to add some tiny rectangles here for its legs, and I'm going to do a rounded triangle. Looks like a candy corn shape for its feet. I'm just going to extend this down here for the rest of its legs. So there's pretty much the shape of the rooster. So I just want to tap this, rename it sketch, and I'm going to change that to multiply and lower the opacity so this way I can do a more refined sketch. I just want to bring that layer down. And here, I'm just going to go over and add a little bit more details to this sketch. So for its comb, I just want to give it some little petal like shape there. Maybe move the head up a little bit. I do like the beak. I'm just going to round it out and extend it just a little bit. I'll whiten that beard up. Going to go down and swoop and add some neck feathers, just to give it a little bit more whimsical flair. Maybe I'll add a little I'll add a little eyelid there. And all I'm doing is just perfecting my sketchwor but still keeping it loose and imperfect. If that makes sense. We're going to add some toes here. Because this is a digital illustration with a whimsical flare, we're not going to focus on realistic characteristics as much as we are some key characteristics that make it recognizable as a rooster. If you want to add some spurs to the back of its legs, you can do that cause roosters are known for its spurs. Just want to finish this foot up. Let's add a wing. I didn't add that in my shapes previously, but we do want to add a wing. Now we're going to work on feathers for its tail feathers. It doesn't have to be perfect, some swoops. Maybe something like that. I'm just going to go back and fix this one up a little bit. That's a little too skinny. I think that looks pretty good. So I'm gonna turn the original sketch layer off. So this way, I can clean this layer up, fix it where I feel like it needs just a little bit more I just wanted to share a tip here. Silhouette testing is when we fill our sketch with solid black to see if the shape is strong and readable. I duplicated my sketch layer and filled it with black, turning off all the sketch lines just to see the shape. If I can tell this is a rooster instantly, we're good. By doing this right after sketching, it helps you catch awkward proportions. It shows if shapes overlap too much. It forces you to simplify, it strengthens exaggeration, and it prevents over detailing too early. Silhouette testing helps us focus on the big shape before we get distracted by the details. Just a reminder, now would be a great time to upload your sketch under the project section of this class. In the next lesson, we'll perfect our sketch and create some linework. 7. Linework : So now we're going to work on linework. And here's where you can choose whether you want it to be a little bit rough of a linework, some tapered linework. You can choose smooth. The liner brush here has a nice tapered end. Maybe even a sketching brush again or if you want to go to the inking that gives you some texture. That gives you a lot of texture. Syrup is a good one. Does give it a smooth edge, but it also gives it a tapered edge. So I'm going to take this sketch layer, low the opacity, go to change the blend mode to multiply, and I'm going to add another layer and just move this sketch layer above everything. And I'm just going to rename this sketch. So I'm going to rename this linework. It's also appropriate installed brushes in the calligraphy section. Script is a great one to use as well. I'm going to loosely line over my previous sketch. And it's okay if it's a little wonky. I am going to bump this up just to tad just to give it a little bit more smoother lines. If you swipe the brush to the left, you can duplicate this so that way you can keep the original settings of the original brush, tap this and it should go into the brush studio, go to stabilization and just bump up the streamline and the stabilization. This gives you just a little bit more control, and that may be a little bit too much. Let's go back and just bump the stabilization down. That looks pretty good. This is to your own liking. Choose however it feels natural for you. I tend to be a little bit more shaky. And I just wanted to smooth it out, even though I want this also to look like a hand drawn illustration. So if you want a little bit more of a rounded curve, you can hold it and touch the screen, and I'll give you that nice clean arc. I'm just gonna take some time here to draw over my sketch. So I'm just erasing the overlap. If you tap and hold the eraser, the brush will change to your current brush. Again, I just want to emphasize this does not have to be perfect. I just wanted to clean this up. And here, I just want to make my toes a little bit more rounded. Sometimes the shape doesn't come together until you get to this linework phase. At least I've discovered that. And again, I'm just finishing up my linework, still trying to keep my lines loose. Sometimes when you rotate the screen to draw, it also gives you a better advantage of drawing some of those curved lines. You want a nice clean arc, you can hold. Sometimes when you can't get the shape going in one specific direction, sometimes if you go in the opposite direction, sometimes it all comes together. So this is all about seeing what strategy works best for you when you're drawing your illustration. So I'm going to turn off these sketch lighters, group them, and I'm going to move them to the bottom. We no longer need them right now. And I just want to take a moment here to just erase some of these overlapping lines. I also want to make sure all my lines are connected because we're going to use the color drop feature, and we'll discuss that in the next lesson. Um, just double checking my linework. All right. Gonna add a layer and move that down below my linework. In the next lesson, we'll add some color by using the color drop feature in Procreate. 8. Color Drop: I just want to use this light color here for the background, and I'm just going to pull that color down and just fill it the entire image. Let's start with this orange or again, you can choose your own colors. I want to tap linework and tap that to reference. And you want to make sure you're not on the same layer as your linework. Choose another layer, pull down, and you want to just adjust that threshold to where it fills in the shape, but not the entire image. Well, that looks pretty good. I'm going to tap continue filling. I want to tap that wing. Let's grab another color. Whoops. You don't want to do that either. I'm going to add a layer. Now we can pull this color down and we'll just adjust the threshold, tap, continue, fill, and tap the areas that you want to be filled with this red. Or, again, the color of your choosing. Gonna add another layer, and let's go to this brown and I'm going to pull that down for the tail feathers. And we're going to add another layer and I'm going to go for this lighter orange, and I'm going to use that for the beak, continue filling, and tap the feet. So just like that, the coloring is done. So color drop is a great, easy and quick method to fill your illustration. So I want to do some groundwork here, so I want to add a layer above the background fill. And before I do anything, I need to turn the reference layer off on the linework. Go back to that layer, and I want to choose his brown, and we can use the Procreate installed brush from creative and we want to use the Kingfisher. I'm just going to add some texture for the groundwork underneath his feet like this. This is just give him some grounding, so he's not floating in the air. And next lesson, we'll add some whimsical charm by adding some swirls to your illustration. 9. Add Swirls: So let's add a layer, and I'm going to use this orange here. We're gonna go back to inking and we're going to use Baskerville, and we're just going to do some swirls in different colors. I'm just going to lower that down to about 25%. So if you need to adjust your brush again, just to give it a more smoother, but still imperfect swirl, you can head back to the previous lesson to adjust your brush setting, if need be. I'm just taking some time to add these swirls. This just gives it a little bit more character and whimsical flare. So, again, you can add whatever pattern shape you want here. I like it. So let's go to another layer, and we're gonna change the color to this red. And I'm just gonna add some swoops here for its neck feathers. And for its wing. Es So here you can just play around to see what method or what looks right for you. I kind of like that. You can also add some more swoops to its chest. And I just want to clean this up so it doesn't extend past the image. I think it's beard needs some more definition. So I want to add a layer, change the blend mode to multiply. I'm going to grab this red. I'm just going to do a line down. Just to give it more dimension unless it's a flat shape. Go to the bottom and I'm just going to add some texture to the background. By holding your finger down, you can pull that color from the back. I want to change the background to multiply, and I'm going to go back to my rustic farmhouse brush set and choose a background grunge stamp. But you can choose one of the grunge background stamps that I supply for this class. Tap it and it just gives it some more texture. Now I want to go to the top, add a layer and I'm going to change my color to mid range gray. I'm going to change this to multiply, and I'm going to use one of my paper textures from this same appriate brush set. But I've also supplied several paper choices that you can use for this class. I just want to lower the opacity down. Now I want to choose a orange here and I'm going to go with another paper texture because I love the speckled look and I'm just going to change that to linear burn and I'm going to lower that down. With the paper texture brushes that I supply, you may need to adjust your colors, your opacity scale, or your blend mode. If you want to take a look here, this is what I used exactly using the paper texture and gonge stamps, and this is what I have the settings at just so you can see that you can still achieve a similar look without purchasing this brush set. I just want to lower that down just a little bit more. Okay, we're going to add a layer and we're going to move on to the next lesson. In the next lesson, we're going to start adding texture. 10. Texture: In this lesson, we're going to add texture, my favorite part of illustrating. Texture makes digital art feel less digital. I'm just going to move that added layer down below my paper texture and under my linework. I'm going to be using the haystack brush, but you can use the polygon in appropriate supplied brush set. I want to change my blemo to screen. This is just gonna give me some nice contrast, as well as some great texture. It also lightens it up. And it kind of provides that depth, without making it realistic. Texture works best on large flat areas. And I'm going to add the lighter texture here to the wing. I'm going to add a layer. I want to turn off those swirls for right now. So I'm just going to find them here. I'm going to group them. And turn them off. Now I'm going to go back to my layer and add some more of this haystack texture. The harder you press, the bolder and brighter the color is. I might change that to add just to add a little bit more brightness, and I'm just going to clean this up so it doesn't extend past the wing. Just because it's a different blend mode, it'll stick out more. Now I'm going to go to the head. You can take your time and play around with the blend modes. If this is too bright for you, you can change it to screen so that way it doesn't add as much brightness. I just want to clean this up so it doesn't go past the neck feathers. See how much of a difference that makes. Gonna add a layer, change the blend mode to screen, and I'm going to go for this brown, and I'm going to do the same with adding texture to the tail feathers. I'm not trying to go with realism. I just want to go with fun, whimsical, but also adding some really cool texture to this illustration. I don't want to overpower the illustration. As you can see in the bottom right, I'm doing a similar texture, but I'm using the polygon, so you can see you can still achieve this same overall appearance. So I want to add a layer, choose this red, and I'm going to go over its comb. Maybe some hero on its beard. I'm gonna go for this light orange, and I can use the same layer, and I'm just going to lower that down just so I can do the beak here and the feet. I I want to grab these layers and group them together. Add a layer. We're going to add more texture. I'm going to be using the blotchy brush. Or you can use appropriate supplied brush. I have one mentioned on the screen. Change my color to brown. I want to change my blend mode to multiply. I just want to add some shadows and some more depth along the edges of this linework. So I'm going to go around the tail feathers like this. And you see, it just adds a nice shadow. I like adding texture, shadows and highlights. So I'm going to grab the red, and I'm going to do the same thing around the back leg here and underneath its belly. Underneath the neck feathers. Underneath the wing on its beard and above its head in the comb separating each petal like part of the comb. I'm going to grab the darker orange. And I'm going to go around the neck feathers like this. This is just subtle. Just a tip. If everything is shaded, nothing stands out. Maybe on the wing here, add some more depth. In the next lesson, we're going to add visible brushstrokes with shadows to give it a lot more depth and whimsical flare. 11. Visual Brushstrokes with Shadows : And so I'm going to add a layer, change the blend mode to multiply. And I want to use my distress brush in the Rustic Farmhouse brush set, but you can use the copperhead brush that's installed in Procreate. And I'm just going to tap the areas, do some maybe crisscross, some Xs, do some more tapping. And this just adds a lot more texture. And using the multiply blend mode, it just makes it more of a deeper darker tone than the original base color. I'm going to grab the red and go over the body of this rooster in the same fashion, doing some taps, some crisscross. It doesn't have to be perfect. All I'm doing is adding some variants in my texture. I can even use this color on the tail feathers because it's still dark because it's in multiply mode. It's not going to stick out as much as a full fledged bright red wood. So again, just tapping here and there. I'm going to go back, add a layer and I'm going to change this to screen. In the next lesson, we're going to add visible brushstrokes again, but with highlights to give it some contrast and charm. 12. Visual Brushstrokes with Highlights: Using the same method as I had done previously, we'll move on. Here I'm adding textures with highlights because this isn't a screen mode. The texture is going to be more highlighted, more vibrant, brighter. This way, it contrasts with the background as well as the multiplied mode. You can see several different variants with this using the same method, taps, crisscross. I noticed I did not do the multiply mode there, so I will go. Let's go back and using the same brush, I just want to add some more shadow texture to this area. I'm going to go back to that screen layer, and I want to use the brown and I'm going to use this for the tail feathers. I do want to make sure I use the brown because it gives the highlights more of an orange look again topping. So swipes here and there. Again, I'm not focusing on perfection. Just want to add some depth. I'm going to grab the orange, I'm going to do the same thing for the wing. You can go ahead and use the same layer. It doesn't matter this way it saves you some layers. I'm going to finish up here with the head and the neck feathers. Then I do want to grab the lighter color for the beak and the feet. Just going to lower that down. Maybe do some across like that for the legs. I love how this looks. I want to add some more highlights. I'm going to go with the lighter color here. I'm going to use the cotton stem brush from the Rustic Farmhouse brush set. But you can use Procreate supply brush on the screen. I want to add a layer. I'm going to change that to add. And all I'm going to do is do some highlighting here on the edges like this. Again, sometimes it helps if you go a different direction when you're drawing or when you rotate your image. It just seems to go a little bit smoother. I'm gonna do the neck feathers, just adding just a tad more contrast. Same with the wing. The back end, and the tail feathers. Maybe even the toes. And there you go. So let's go back and add our swirls. I want to move this group up to the top but below the linework. This way, it's above all that texture. In the next lesson, we'll discuss color checking your whimsical rooster art. 13. Color Check: In this lesson, I just want to show you how I do the color check, and this is just to make sure that there is enough contrast. So I want to add a layer to the very top and I'm going to change the blimoe to color. Now I'm going to grab a mid range gray, and I'm just going to pull that down. And if this visually looks appealing when it's all gray, that's when I know I did a pretty good job. You can double check if your layers need adjusted by turning them on and off, and you can really see the difference. And you can just turn that layer off and there you go. Whimsical Rooster. In the next lesson, I want to give you a thank you and express my gratitude for watching this class. 14. Thank You: You did it. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart in watching this class, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did in creating it. If you enjoy this class, make sure you leave a review. It helps other students find in this class as well. Just to recap, we discussed some whimsical characteristics that you can add into your own digital illustrations. We sketched out a rooster using some loose shapes. We refined that sketch and added some linework. We used the color drop feature in Procreate, added some whimsical swirls, added a bunch of texture, as well as some visual brushstrokes that we emphasize with some shadows and highlights. Also give you a brief overview of the color check method that you can use if you choose to use your own color palettes. We also use a bunch of Procreate installed brushes that you can use in your next digital illustration. We also use some of my favorite brushes from my Rustic Farmhouse brush set here on Skillshare. I'll leave a link to that the About page of this class. In case you want to check that out further, if you'd like to continue practicing this whimsical charm method, I've included a link to a coloring page with a rooster sitting on a fence. You can find this link on the About page of this class. Don't forget to add your finished illustration to the projects and resource section of this class. I can't wait to see what you've done. Thank you again for watching this class. Don't forget to hit that follow button. So you didn't get notified of my next class. I can't wait to see you next time.