Basic Cartoon Character Series: Sam
Recently I was asked by someone to help with a cartoon character. "Hmmmm", says me..."I've not done those too much". Well this series of tutorials for cartoon characters is a result of teaching myself to create cartoon characters and I thought I'd share that learning with you. Have fun with them!
Most characters I've created I've created with vector shapes to make them easy. 'Ol Sam up there is created with basic vector shapes in Paint Shop Pro. I've tried to stop and do lots of screen shots so it's easy to follow along and you'll have your own Sam soon.
This tutorial and the tutorials in this series are going to assume you have some familiarity with the tools and where they are located in Paint Shop Pro as well as some knowledge of how to use them.
Sam is created with ellipses and triangles as you can probably tell.
The first step is to open a blank 400 X 400 image in Paint Shop Pro. Then you need to set up one gradient to use for skin tones. As you can see I used two peachy colored shades. Experiment to see what you like. Each shape is created with a black outline and then the appropriate fill color whether it be a gradient fill for the skin or a solid for the other parts.
Now that we've got that under control, let's get started. First thing to do is create a new vector layer. You can do that by right clicking on the background layer and choosing it from the pop up menu or you can go to the Layers menu and do it.
Next draw a circle with the shapes tool, with a black outline and your fleshy gradient for the fill. Make sure you have the box checked to create as a vector.
I always try to name my layers by what is on them and I'll do that throughout this tutorial so when you see the screen shots you'll have a better idea of what's happening.
Again, create a new vector layer and name it Chin. Draw a vector circle on it and place it similar to below.
Now you'll need to switch to the Eraser tool and making sure you have the Chin layer selected, erase the black line going through the junction of the two circles so your image now appears similar to below.
We now need a guide layer and you can create a rastor layer for this. All we're going to use this for is lining up our features and objects. You want this guide layer to have two red lines that center on the first circle you created similar to below.
Next you need a gradient fill for your eye balls. What I used is below.
Now create a new vector layer and draw an eye ball somewhat like below.
Copy that layer when you're done either by going to the Edit menu and clicking copy or holding down the Ctrl C keys. From the Edit menu, Paste as a New Layer. It will automatically be pasted as vector. The eye ball won't be in the correct place so you'll need to place it similar to below.
Next we'll use our flesh gradient to create the nose but first we want to shift it a little bit. The settings I used are shown in the screen shot below.
Create a new vector layer and draw an oval and place it similar to below.
Now, just as we did with the line through our first two circles, use the Eraser brush to remove the black line in between the eyes.
Create a new vector layer and choose a gradient you'd like to use for the mouth. Draw an oval on the new layer as shown below.
Now, once you have your oval created you need to get into Node edit mode. You can do that by right clicking on the oval and choosing Node Edit. You'll see four handles on the oval. With your mouse drag the top node down. That drag the left and right nodes up at angles to create a smile.
When you get your mouth done turn off the guides layer and the background layer. We're going to clear up our layer palette so it doesn't get out of control. Once you have those two layers turned off (see the screen shot above - turn off a layer by clicking on the eye glasses. You should see a red x when it's off.) Go to the Layers menu>Merge>Merge Visible. Don't chosse to merge all the layers. Make sure you choose Merge Visible.
Next our guy needs some ears. Create a new vector layer and draw an oval similar to below.
Now in the layer palette drag that new layer you just drew on under the layer named Merged. Making sure that the First ear layer is highlighted in the layer palette, copy it and then paste it as a new layer. The Second ear layer will automatically be on the level it should be. Then place your ears where they need to be.
Go ahead and turn off the background layer and the guides layer and Merge Visible again.
Using the Magic wand tool click anywhere on the layer your head is on. Go to the Selections menu>Invert.
Using the Spray paint can tool, with the opacity set way down and a color you'd like to use for blush, lightly touch around the cheeks, chin and ears as shown below.
Time to make his hat and brim. Create a new vector layer and choose a hat color. Always remember to leave the black outline on your shapes.
Draw an oval as shown below. Then, adjust it if necessary to get the correct brim shape.
Create a new vector layer and draw another oval similar to below to make the cap portion of the hat.
At this point you should have something that looks similar to below.
Hide the guides, background and merged layer and merge only the layers the hat parts are on.
Create a new layer and name it hair.
For the hair we'll use the Spray can tool. I have my color set to black and the tool options set as reflected below.
Making sure that your hair layer is selected go ahead and spray some hair on Sam.
Once your hair is the way you want it, hide the guides and background layer and Merge visible. I think we're about done with Sam's head now.
Now we're going to switch to the triangle shape and a solid color fill. Turn on your guide layer and create a new vector layer. Draw a triangle and place it similar to below.
Now just for fun I added a bib to Sam's shirt by creating another layer, drawing a triangle, flipped it and placed it as below. You can flip a layer by going to the Image menu and choosing flip.
Let's get him some pants. Create a new vector layer and draw a triangle of a different color than his shirt. You'll have to flip the triangle and you'll want to place it as below. One of the characteristics of cartoon characters that I noticed while learning was that their upper torso is much longer/taller than their lower torso.
Time to give Sam some shoes. Create a new vector layer and draw a solid black oval. Get into Node edit mode and drag the left most node to the right to flatten that side of the oval a bit.
We're moving right along here and almost done. You may have notices that Sam doesn't have any arms yet. Let's get him some.
Create a new vector layer and using the triangle shape and the same color you used for the upper torso create a triangle. On the layer palette drag the arms layer below the merged layer so your image looks similar to below.
Let's turn on our guides layer and see how we're stacking Sam up.
Everything's looking pretty good there so let's get started on his hands. In the next succession of screen shots you'll need a new vector layer for each oval drawn.
Turn off all the oval layers you just created except for the very bottom one. This is the finger oval. Convert this layer to rastor from the Layers menu and using the line tool, draw three lines as shown below.
Magnify the image using the magnifier glass tool. Then using the Smudge brush, (looks like hand with a white glove on it on the toolbar and be sure the tool options palette shows smudge as the tool you are using), smudge from outside of the black outlines into the image to get the effect as shown below.
Turn on the palm layer and using the clone tool, clone over the black line to get the effect shown below. (The clone brush looks like two brushes side by side on the tool palette. To use the clone brush you must right click on the image where to want to pick up color from and then left click to replace color.)
Turn on the base of the thumb layer and do the same thing as you did with the palm to get an image something like below.
Turn on on the thumb layer and again repeat the cloning process to get something similar to the image below.
De-magnify your image and your finished hand should look similar to the screen shot below. Merge all the hand part layers.
Drag the hand over and place it near the end of the arm. Using the deformation tool rotate it to a position that looks good to you.
Making sure the hand layer is selected in the layer palette, copy and paste as a new layer. From the Image menu choose Mirror. Place the hand where you want it. You can adjust it using the deformation tool to make it a little different than the first hand in the way it is pointing. You should now have an image similar to below.
Now it's time for a little touch up and to add some character to our character. I didn't particularly like how blurry the ends of his fingers where so I magnified his hands and used the smudge tool at a small side to push the pixels around a little more to clear up some of the blurriness. As you can see in the image below I also added buttons and a bow tie. The bow tie is made of two triangles and a circle. The buttons of course are just plain circles.
I got the spray can out again with my blush color and just touched his hands a little to give them some more color.
And there he is. Our finished Sam. That seemed quite involved but actually turned out to be quite easy I thought.
I wasn't exactly sure what Sam does for a living for the longest time. It just hit me. He's the nice man who crosses our children at the cross walks keeping them safe from motorists. Have fun creating your own Sam and stay tuned for the next character in the series.
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