2D Cartoon Character Illustration

 

Introduction

In this tutorial I want to show you how I created the little alien who is wearing oculus rift at left side. I created this character for the banner above which is I made for the company I am currently working for. I seperated the tutorial to a few steps.

Before The Start

I had to let the audience understand that we are basically working on virtual reality by using Oculus Rift in our products.

Oculus is a very magical tool to amaze people. And it seems like little bit futuristic. Hence, I decided to create aliens who are wearing Oculus Rift and looks amazed by it.

Creating The Body

I strongly recommend you to make some sketch before starting your design. I made a few sketches on paper then I started to draw the body with pen tool in Adobe Illustrator.  In the third step of the picture above I decided the angle of axises of arms and legs, then I drew the legs freely. I am skipping the hands for a while.

 

Creating The Rift

Drawing of Oculus Rift is easy part of this tutorial. I only paid attention to make it more understandable and recognizable. Due to my alien has 6 eyes, he wears 3 goggles’.

Drawing Hands

This step is a little bit advanced. To see this forms of hands, you may need some basic drawing courses. I made a couple quick sketches above. They are not great but always help.

I am giving the shadows and highlights according to the light I imagined before I’ve started. Upper sides are bright and lower sides are darker. It perceived like it is volumed.

Facial Expressions

This is an advanced step too. I collected mouth shapes above which I used on the other characters in the banner to make it clearer. However it is not enough to understand facial expressions. You will need to observe a lot. Even masters still observe.

When the first time I ever wear Oculus Rift basically I felt anxiety, amazement and mind blow. I tried to express this feeling upon that characters. First character above worried, second one is amazed and the last ones mind has blown.

 

Details

Its always good to have some details like volumes, shadows, highlights and reflections in your illustrations. It makes the artwork looks better. And always keep in mind to be consistent when you draw the shadows and highlights. Best way to work on lighting is deciding the imaginary light source before painting the shapes. This will be very helpful.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial, see you soon.