I was recently asked to design an infograph timeline about the history of women’s underwear.
I decided to come up with some very basic cartoon illustrations to accompany the info and give the characters a faceless and cute look, making them almost mannequin like.
I’ve been practicing and refining my drawing and illustration techniques for some years now. I’m quite sure my methods are standard through the industry, but here’s my way of creating a illustration from pencil and paper to Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
1. Equipment:
Personally I find that using the right drawing tools is essential. Firstly I always use a mechanical pencil as having to sharpen a wooden pencil every five minutes is annoying and distracting. I’ve recently started using Rotring pens and pencils which are great to draw with.
I always do my sketches in a good quality notebook. I’ve always been a fan of the classic Moleskin but i’ve switched to the Magma Sketchbooks. They come in different variety’s for different creative professions. Their great quality paper and contain both plain and grid layouts. In the back they contain handy information for reference such as body measurements to help draw people, paper dimensions, typeface information etc.
For my tech I use a 24inch iMac with a trackpad to draw with. Obviously its considered easier to use a tablet but i’ve become so accustomed to using the trackpad i’ve actually become quite good at it.
2. Rough Sketch
I start out with a stickwoman with circles for the joints, head and hips. This allows me to set the characters posture and correct anatomical dimensions. When drawing even the most basic characters its always best to have a reasonable knowledge of the human anatomy and have photo references if needed. I always find it extremely difficult to draw hands so I make sure to have plenty of reference photos handy.
3. Adding Shape And Detail
Once the shape of the character is done. I then start to draw in the details. I start off very rough until i’m happy with the result. You could say its a bit like molding a sculpture.
Once everything is done I then define the outline, erase the rough sketching’s and stickman frame to reveal the finished drawing.
4. Adobe Illustrator
I scan the sketch, open it up in illustrator and begin to draw around my sketch choosing the correct brush and thickness for each line.
Once this is complete I can then (and usually do) change bits that i’m not completely happy with. For instance, I didn’t think that the character was curvy and feminine enough so in increased the size of her bottom and and breast’s. As you can imagine I used a lot of reference images for this part.
5. Adding colour
Once i’m happy with the outlines I then add colour. For this particular illustration I used black and white to fit in with the classic theme i’d designed for the infographic. There’s a number of ways to colour in using Illustrator or Photoshop so I won’t bore you with the details.
Here’s the finished character ready to be placed into the final design.