The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of the most popular fairy-tale novels for children, which is also loved by millions of adults for its fantastic, magical atmosphere. In this tutorial we’ll be creating a colorful portrait of Cowardly Lion, using a stock photo to create a realistic, outlined look. We’ll be adding some grungy and lighting effects, creating a stylish thematic poster with the Cowardly Lion. Let’s start!
1. Create Line Art From a Stock Photo
Step 1
For our tutorial, we’ll be using this photo of a lion from Pixabay.com.
File > Place the photo in your
Adobe Illustrator document and position it so that the lion’s head is in the
center of your Artboard. I’ve set the Artboard size to 700 x 800 px. You can change the Artboard size anytime with the help
of the Artboard Tool (Shift-O).
Double-click the layer containing the lion
photo in the Layers panel and check the Dim
Images to box, turning our reference image into a semi-transparent
template.
Create a New Layer on top of the sketch layer for the outline.
Step 2
Let’s start from the eye of the lion. We’ll
be using the Blob Brush Tool (Shift-B).
You can actually use the Paintbrush Tool
(B) as it is more versatile and easy to edit, because it allows you to draw separate paths and then adjust each path, using the Direct
Selection Tool (A). However, the Blob
Brush Tool (Shift-B) is closer to real-life drawing, as if you were
using a marker. The drawback of this tool is that you’re drawing with
shapes, which are harder to edit. However, they look more natural, so it’s up to
you to decide which tool to pick.
You can see the settings of my Blob Brush Tool (Shift-B) in the
screenshot below. I’m using a digital tablet, so I enable the Pressure feature next to the Size slider.
We start outlining the eye, changing the
width of the lines by varying the pressure. Press harder on your tablet to get
a thicker line and use a very light pressure to get a thin line. You can also
change the size of the brush, using the [
and ] keys.
Step 3
Add more details, adding small, thin strokes
around the eye for the fur. Follow the direction of the lion’s hair by looking
at the photo.
Step 4
Move to the nose and mouth of our lion. Note that we’re outlining only the left part of the face, because later we’ll
make a mirrored copy, creating a symmetrical portrait.
Don’t worry if the lines overlap at this step, because we'll
fix that as well.
Step 5
Use curved strokes to add a bearded part
under the mouth.
Step 6
Let’s move to the ears of our lion. The ear's outline looks more rough and wavy, so let’s change the Fidelity of our Blob Brush
Tool (Shift-B), moving the slider closer to Accurate on the left side. Now we can make even more natural
strokes with minor details.
Step 7
Draw out the lion’s mane around the face
(only from the left side of the head). Then select all the created lines, Group (Control-G) them and double-click the Reflect
Tool (O) to open the Reflect
options window. Flip the image over the Vertical
Axis and use the Copy button to
create the right side of the lion’s head.
Use the reference photo to place the outlined
copy in the proper position, moving the right eye to the same place as in
the photo. You will notice that some other parts (the mouth and nose) may overlap with the left half of the outlined image,
but don’t worry about that.
Step 8
Select the copy of the outlines on the right side and double-click it to Isolate
Selected Group. Select the nose lines and move them to the right, placing
the nose in the proper position. Do the same for the mouth and the beard.
Step 9
Adjust the position of the mane on the
right side of the image. Redraw some parts of the mane in order to make the image
more versatile and not completely symmetrical.
Step 10
Let’s rotate the lion’s brows upside-down
to make him look more cowardly. In order to increase this effect, let’s also
add a small arched line at the outer edges of the eyes.
Step 11
Use the Guides to locate the center of the
lion’s face and to position the elements symmetrically. Press Control-R to show the Rulers. Click on the left side Ruler and drag the Guide to your Artboard, placing it in the middle of the lion’s
face. Add minor details to the nose, defining its center.
Step 12
If you zoom in, you may find some of the
lines overlap. Let’s see how we can get rid of the unwanted pieces outside the lines. Select two overlapping lines and take the Shape Builder Tool (Shift-M). Hover the mouse cursor over the
unwanted piece and click it while holding Alt
to delete it.
Step 13
Use the Delete Anchor Point Tool (-) to delete the unneeded anchor points
and the Direct Selection Tool (A) to
move the points around, making the shapes fit each other.
2. Color the Created Outlines
Let’s enliven our image by adding colors! Firstly,
we will build a basic color scheme with flat colors, creating the overall look
of our lion. Then we’ll add more accents and use gradients for shadows and
overtones, making the image more realistic.
Step 1
Create a New Layer under the outline layer. Place the reference image of the
lion next to the Artboard and use the Eyedropper
Tool (I) to pick the basic light-beige color from the photo.
Take the Pencil Tool (N) and start filling the upper part of the mane with
color. You don’t need to make the hair line repeat exactly the same form as the outlines
that we’ve created previously. Just make the shapes fit each other. Move along
the edge of the mane, adding colored spots, but leaving the center of the lion's face blank for now.
You can see the settings of my Pencil Tool (N) in the screenshot
below.
Step 2
When you've made enough beige shapes around
the face, select them and Unite in
the Pathfinder panel, creating a
merged shape with an empty space in the center.
Step 3
Draw a light-beige shape for the center of
the face and Send it to Back
(Control-Shift-[), placing it beneath the mane. Pick a light-brown color
from the reference photo and add darker accents to the portrait, drawing brown
hair shapes along the cheekbones, on the forehead and on the ears.
Step 4
Move to the bottom part of the face,
filling the inner part of the nose and mouth with dark-brown color and placing lighter greyish-pink shapes on top, adding depth to the elements.
Step 5
Now let’s enliven the eyes! We’re still
using the Pencil Tool (N) here. Create
a dark-brown base in the shape of an eye. Add a thin, light-grey, wavy shape along
the lower eyelid, making it look moist.
Draw a circle for the iris. And let’s
make it more true to life by applying a radial gradient with a bright-orange center
and a light-yellow edge.
We can also add depth to the eye by placing
a semi-transparent shadow under the upper eyelid. Draw a slightly arched shape
at the top part of the eye and fill it with a vertical linear gradient from dark brown
on top to white at the bottom. Switch to Multiply
Blending Mode in the Transparency
panel, thus making the white part of the gradient transparent and turning
the shape into a subtle shadow.
Step 6
Finish up with the eye by adding a few
glossy highlights, filling them with horizontal linear gradients from
light yellow to black. Switch to Screen
Blending Mode to turn the black parts transparent, making the eyes vivid
and shiny.
Step 7
Let’s make the portrait more three-dimensional and textured by
adding highlights around the eyes and nose of our lion. Make the edges
of the highlights rough, depicting separate hairs of the fur, and use the same
yellow-black linear gradients and Screen
Blending Mode to make the shapes semi-transparent.
Let's add more depth to the
portrait by changing the flat base colors of the mane to subtle gradients of the same shades, making the bottom part of the head darker than the top part.
Step 8
Let’s make the colors more vivid by increasing the saturation. Make the colors of the mane and the central part
of the face brighter by making them more yellowish. And add more orange tints to the ears and around the
cheekbones.
I’ve decided to delete the black outlines of the mane along the edges of the portrait, thus adding more air to the image and making
it less “noisy”.
Step 9
Let’s adjust the outlines a bit more,
making them fit the color palette of our lion. Select the black outlines that we have on the top layer. Unite the
selected outlines in the Pathfinder
and right-click to open a context menu. Choose Make Compound Path (or press Control-8),
combining all the separate pieces of the outlines into one single object.
Finally, apply a linear gradient to the outlines from
dark-purple in the center to dark-orange at the edge.
This is how our lion looks at this step.
Step 10
Let’s make the lion look proud and stately by adding
volume to his mane, making it bigger and furrier. Grab the Pencil Tool (N) and draw another hairy shape around the head. Send it to Back (Control-Shift-[), placing it beneath the head, and fill
it with bright radial gradient from yellow in the center to deep-orange at the
edge, making it darker than the basic color of the mane and thus emphasizing
the face.
Step 11
And draw another layer of hair beneath the
previous one, making the mane more detailed. Fill it with lighter radial
gradient to separate the hair shapes from each other, adding dimension to our
image.
3. Work on the Background and Add Details
Let’s form a simple background and add some
intricate details to our portrait, turning it into a poster dedicated to The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Step 1
First of all, make a New Layer and use the Rectangle
Tool (M) to make a rectangle the same size as our Artboard (in our case it is 700 x 800 px). Fill the shape with radial
gradient from light-beige in the center to darker-beige at the edges, thus
creating the effect of a subtle vignette.
Step 2
Let’s add some details, which are closely
connected to the Wizard of Oz story. Remember the Courage Medal that the
Cowardly Lion received from the Wizard of Oz?
We won’t be depicting the medal itself;
however, it will help us to get inspired and to use some of its elements for
our poster, such as the red stripes and the blue ribbon.
Take the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a narrow vertical stripe the height of
our Artboard. Hold Alt-Shift and drag the stripe to the right, creating a copy.
Press Control-D several times, creating more copies.
Finally, select all the stripes and Group (Control-G) them. Apply a radial gradient to our group of stripes, from
bright-red in the center to dark-red at the edges, making the stripes look
shiny and smooth.
Step 3
Copy the bottom hair shape of the lion’s mane and Paste it in Back (Control-C
> Control-B). Make the copy a bit larger and switch its color to a
radial gradient from dark-red in the center to white at the edges. Apply Multiply Blending Mode, turning the shape into a subtle shadow in order to make the head stand out
against the background.
This is how the overall composition looks
at this step.
Step 4
Now let’s add some spots and splatter to
our poster, creating a grungy, retro effect. There are two ways to do
it. The first and easier way is using the built-in Adobe Illustrator artistic
brushes, which you can find in the Brushes
Library of your Brushes panel
(click the Brushes Libraries Menu icon
and go to Artistic > Artistic_Ink or
Artistic_Watercolor).
You can check out Part 3, Step 2 and onwards of the Design a CD Cover in Low-Polygonal Grungy Style in Adobe Illustrator tutorial to see how to apply such brushes to your image, creating the desired effect.
The second way is more time-consuming, but
at the same time, it is much more creative and interesting. So if you want to put more spirit into your image, let’s work with a traditional medium a bit.
Use ink, watercolors, gouache or
whatever you like to create splashes and splatter on paper. I use black ink and
a common brush to make a lot of small, textured spots by making the ink drip on
the paper from the tip of the brush. You can also use a toothbrush to get a nice
splatter effect.
Scan your image or use your phone to make a
photo, but make sure that you have enough light, so that the background is more
or less clean, without any shadow.
Open your image in Adobe Photoshop and press Control-L
to open the Levels options window
(or go to Image > Adjustments >
Levels). And from here, let’s try to give our image as much contrast as possible by pulling the left black slider to the right, making the dark parts of the
image darker. And pull the right white slider to the left, lightening the white
areas even more.
That’s how it looks now: we have solid
black spots on a pure-white background.
Step 5
Save your image as JPEG and File > Place it in Adobe
Illustrator. Now we have the Image Trace
function available in the top control panel.
Select the High
Fidelity Photo preset from the drop-down Image Trace list and then, after the image is traced, click the Image Trace Panel button, which
appeared in the control panel on top.
Here, in the Image Trace option panel, move the Paths and Corners
sliders to 100% to get as much detail as possible. As for the Colors slider, let's set the colors
value to 1, because we have only one color: black. Set the Noise value to 1 px as well.
Leave all other settings as default and Expand the image from the top control
panel, turning the traced result into vector shapes.
Step 6
Create a New Layer between layers, containing the background and the lion’s
head. And start adding the grungy spots that we’ve just created.
Step 7
Fill some of the spots with linear
gradients from orange to white and from red to white, and switch to Multiply Blending Mode, making the
spots semi-transparent.
Fill other shapes with dark-burgundy color, applying
Screen mode, thus creating light, faded
spots above the background.
Step 8
Create another New Layer, this time placing it on top of the lion’s head. Add more
splashes above the face and around the head, filling the shapes with
semi-transparent gradients in Multiply
mode.
Place two round spots above the eyes of the lion and fill them with
radial gradients from white in the center to orange at the edges. Apply Multiply Blending Mode, making the
centers of the spots transparent.
Step 9
Now let’s render a bright ribbon in the
bottom of our poster. Start by making a narrow stripe with the help of the Rectangle Tool (M) and fill it with
horizontal linear gradient from dark-lilac at the edges to vivid-blue in the center.
Take the Pen Tool (P) and
form a small dark triangle at the bottom left part of the ribbon. The Smart Guides (View > Smart Guides)
are really helpful at this step, when you need to position the objects one to another and to
make them fit each other.
Add a smaller rectangle beneath the shapes,
forming a fold of the ribbon.
Step 10
Select both the small triangle and the
fold, and use the Reflect Tool (O)
to flip the elements over the Vertical
Axis. Press the Copy button and
move the created copy to the opposite side of the ribbon.
Step 11
Now let’s add a title to our ribbon. Use
an intricate font with serifs, for example Trajan Pro 3 or a free font
Playfair Display, and type COURAGE. Object > Expand
Appearance, turning the text into a set of separate vector letters.
And let’s make the letters golden by
applying a complex vertical linear gradient, made of six colors, from
dark-brown at the edges to light-yellow and orange in the middle.
Make the title more three-dimensional by going to
Object > Path > Offset Path
and applying a 2 px Offset value.
Fill the created shape with a vertical linear gradient from beige at the edges
to light-yellow (almost white) in the center.
Step 12
Place the title above the ribbon and add
another Offset shape with 2 px Offset value. Fill the shape with
dark-blue color and switch to Multiply
Blending Mode, creating a shadow beneath the letters and making them stand
out more against the ribbon.
Let’s make our ribbon slightly bent. Select
both the ribbon and the title and Group (Control-G) them. Go to Effect > Warp > Arc. Move the
slider to the left, setting the Horizontal
Bend value to -20%, making the
ribbon arched.
Step 13
Object > Expand the ribbon and place it in the bottom part of our
poster, making the composition look complete. Add a subtle shadow beneath the
ribbon in the same way as we did for the lion’s head, by placing the copy of
the ribbon beneath the basic shape, filling it with red-white linear gradient
and switching it to Multiply Blending
Mode.
Brave as a Blizzard
Great job! We’ve finished our Cowardly
Lion’s portrait, and so he gained his courage!
I hope you’ve got inspired while
following this tutorial and discovered some new coloring and texturing techniques, which will be
helpful for your designs and artwork!
You can go even further and add more shiny details
to the poster by placing some colorful decorative sparks here and there. Check
out Part 4, Steps 3 and 4 of the tutorial How to Create a Winter Candle Lantern in Adobe Illustrator to find out how to create those glowing sparks and make them more colorful!
Have fun, and stay tuned for more!