Adobe Illustrator Cartoon Tutorial with a Wacom Tablet

Below is a tutorial I’ve written for a cartoon character created in Adobe Ilustrator using a Wacom Tablet. This is an alternative method from my other cartoon tutorial in Adobe Illustrator. I bought a Wacom Tablet a while ago, but was never really sold on it. I guess I’m just used to drawing with the mouse.

As usual, I always start with a sketch placed in Illustrator.

Next, I want to set my brush that I’m going to use. I open the brush palette. Go to Window > Brushes to open it. When your palette is open, double click on one of the brush styles along the top.

A dialogue box will pop up. I picked these settings, but feel free to play around with the settings to see what kind of different lines they give you.

Next, I select the Brush Tool from the tool bar, select a stroke color, select my brush from the brush palette and start drawing with the stylus. I like to pick a bright color, so it is easier to see my line while working.

After my lines are drawn, I usually clean them up any lines that overlap or have gaps. I do this by selecting the Direct Select Tool (open arrow) from the tool bar and moving the anchor points of the lines.

Next, I want to turn my lines into shapes. To do this I’m going to use Flatten Transparency. Go to Object > Flatten Transparency.

A dialogue box will appear. Set the Raster/Vector Balance to 100 and click OK. This turns your strokes into shapes.

You’ll want to group your new lines together for easier selection later or you can use the Pathfinder Palette to make them one shape.

Next, I use the Ellipse Tool to draw in all the circles. I like to use the Ellipse Tool instead of drawing the circles with the stylus because the circles are symmetrical.

You’ll notice that a few of the circles are outside the lines. You can your the Knife Tool (located behind the Scissors on the tool bar) to cut off the excess. It works basically like its name suggest. You draw where you want to cut and it splits the shape into two pieces. Delete the piece you don’t need.

Once all my shapes are correct, I change all my lines to black and eliminate my sketch.

Now, it’s time to color. You can color the circles by adding a fill or by using the Offset Path (Object > Path > Offset Path) to create a smaller shape.

For the lines drawn with the stylus, you’ll need to trace around the lines.

Finally, I add in my shadows and highlights. See the snail cartoon tutorial for how to do that.

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