Creating Characters

This morning, we focused on creating a simple, appealing character using a tutorial on Adobe Illustrator.

The main tools we used were Pen, Intersect, Gradient, Ellipse and Paintbrush.

On a simple A4 page, we created the colourful snail, using shading, transparency and a gradient effect to make it a recognisable character.

This is William, a sea-faring snail.

My end result isn't perfect, as I feel the outline of the body could be smoother and more rounded, but I am very pleased with the progress I made.

The tutorial was created by Iaroslav Lazunov on 'Vector Tuts' (click here to be taken to the tutorial)

This tutorial has given me new ideas about the ways in which I can publish the book I intend to make. It has inspired different approaches to characters and has honed my illustrator skills.