Even though my new little "mascot" might look simple and ordinary, the implementation in Illustrator still took more than two hours! - Just because I was very undecided with the hands, the arms and also with details like the hair. But I am positive that I will be able to draw this fella quicker the next time, since I know the correct proportions and the style now. My goal is to learn, how to show different moods or feelings with a cartoon character like this one. - So do not be surprised when my mascot suddenly appears again in this blog!
Adobe Illustrator - Day 13
Back to something completely different: Fictitious characters! As I already said in the very beginning of this blog, I tend to struggle with drawing cartoon figures or animals. Showing gestures in a normal, natural way was always a little difficult to implement (or took me longer than other subjects). So I thought "Why not just create my own little mascot I can always play with to learn it?". I grabbed a sheet of paper, and started to mess around.
Adobe Illustrator - Day 8
You might already recognize that this exercise that should not have taken more than two evenings turned out to be a bigger time-consuming project. But since it helps me very much with getting used to the tools I was able to learn in the last week, I want to give it a shot, creating something a little more interesting. Currently there are three different types of vehicles. - A few more will be added later. As you can see in the image below, I experimented around with shadows, lighting and textures to create a more vivid and sculptural look (left picture). The difference is clearly visible, specially if you focus on the trees and the street barriers which are still untouched. The bridge is in the same condition as yesterday (right picture). Tomorrow I want to apply the new style on the rest of the illustration.
Using the effect of shadows, lighting and patterns (as textures), the illustration looses a little bit of its cartoonish look. The difference is clearly visible if you compare both pictures to each other. However, this process is more time-consuming than I thought in the beginning.
Adobe Illustrator - Day 7
Only a few details were added since yesterday because they took a little longer than expected. - Nevertheless I am still making a noticeable progress. I was able to improve the shading process, which consists of the shapes contour and face. To achieve a fluent passage, you have to remember both of it sometimes, what was the reason for some struggling today. By the way, Illustrator provides a bundle of different patterns you can use for different types of surfaces. I already used one of these presets for the grass, and I will probably use some more of them for the waters, the trees and the streets surface tomorrow. Of course it is possible to create your own pattern, that can be saved and selected again afterwards. But first I had to figure out how to even use these presets correctly regarding the scale, the color and the background.
Some of the shapes already got their basic color, but these colors might change again tomorrow. Everything shall be well-matched, so the illustration can give a self-consistent impression in the end result. To achieve that, there is still some work to do.