Spongebob > Cartoon Character created in Illustrator
Final Image :
Spongebob Square Pants is a famous cartoon series and Spongebob character is loved by most of the children. Let us see how to create SpongeBob face using basic tools in Illustrator.
STEP 1 : Create a new layer and name it face. In this layer, draw a square shape using a Rectangle shape tool and draw the face with Fill color set as # FFFF00 (Yellow shade ) and Stroke color set as # 8AA65C (Green shade). The stroke size is 4 pt. This is important as the stroke highlights the face. Once you have the square shape, use the EFFECT MENU > DISTORT AND TRANSFORM > ROUGHEN. Under the options, you will be setting the measurements to get the desired effect. However, the measurements vary according to the size of the shapes created. Under the options, set the size as = 2 % with ' RELATIVE' option selected. The detail is = 5 / inch and the ' Smooth ' option is selected under points.Once the Roughen is done, you will have the crooked effect on edges.
STEP 2 : On the face surface, let us add three circular spots on the cheek. Draw a circle with very small size (SHIFT + draw using ellipse tool to get a perfect circle). Fill the circle shape with # FF0000 (Red color ) and set the stroke color as # BF0000 ( Dark red). The stroke size is 2 pt. Make TWO copies of this using copy and paste option or ALT + Click the shape and drag to get a duplicate copy. Position these near the original in such a way that the 3 red circles are in Triangular form. This is to highlight the cheek area of the face.
STEP 3 : Create a new layer and name it eyes. Now for the eyes, you will have a combination of three circles. Let us do it step by step. Draw a circle (SHIFT + draw using ellipse tool to get a perfect circle). Fill the circle shape with WHITE color and set the stroke color as BLACK. The stroke size is 2 pt. Make another copy of this using copy and paste option or ALT + Click the shape and drag to get a duplicate copy. Position this duplicate copy near the original circle. Now you will have the pair of eyes.
STEP 4 : Draw another circle (SHIFT + draw using ellipse tool to get a perfect circle). Fill the circle shape with # 5C94FF (Blue shade) color and set the stroke color as BLACK. The stroke size is 2 pt. Make another copy of this using copy and paste option or ALT + Click the shape and drag to get a duplicate copy. Position this duplicate copy over the other white circle. This positioning is very important as the positions show the expressions of the eyes. Even moving them slightly will change the expressions.
STEP 5 : Draw another circle using the ellipse tool.Fill the circle shape with BLACK color and set the stroke color as BLACK. The stroke size is 1 pt. Make another copy of this using copy and paste option or ALT + Click the shape and drag to get a duplicate copy. Position these two black circles over the blue circles. Draw a an oval shape now. The size is very small. This is only to add light to the black pupils for highlighting them. Fill the oval shape with WHITE color and set the stroke color as BLACK. The stroke size is 1 pt.
STEP 6 : Now for eye lashes, simply draw a straight line. The lines do not have fill colors so set the stroke color as BLACK and the stroke size as 3 pt. Once you have the line, make two copies of the line ( using ALT + Click the shape and drag ) and rotate the copies using the transform tool. Rotate the copies in such a way that tey are symmetrical to each other . Now you will have three lines contributing one side of eye lashes. Position them over one eye. Select all the three lines ( SHIFT + select lines to select multiple lines at a time) and copy them and paste them. The new set of lines shoud be positioned over the other eye.
STEP 7 : So far you have the face and the eyes with eye lashes. Now for the nose, Use the Pen Tool, click on the area and then click near that point but this time do not take your finger away from the mouse but hold on and drag so that a curve is formed. Next, click near that point. Use the pen tool to form a nose shape. After drawing you can use the Direct Selection Tool to click on a particular point and drag them to change the curves etc. Set the fill color of this nose to # FFFF00 ( Yellow shade ). This is the same color used for the face. We will not have aseperate color for nose so we need to only highlight the nose to blend with the face. Set the stroke color to BLACK ( This is very important.) and the STROKE size to 2 pt.
STEP 8 : Create a new layer and name it >Mouth. Now for the mouth again use the pen tool and click on an area and click again, and then drag a little to get a curve. This drawing using pen tool would be confusing to read. You could understand it better only when you practise using this tool. Now for the tooth, it is going to be a little easy as you will be using the same pen tool but there will not be any curves. Click on an area and click near the point in a vertical direction an click again in the horizontal direction. Continue doing this, to get a tooth shape. Now position this tooth below the mouth but alligned to it. Make another copy ( ALT + Click the shape and drag to get a duplicate copy) and position it near the original tooth.
STEP 9 : Now for the side part fo the face, Create a rectangle.The fill color of the shape is # 8AA65C (Green shade) and the stroke color is # 4F8F33 (Dark green shade). The stroke size is 2 pt. The height of the rectangle is same as the face but the width is of 1 / 4th the size of the face. After drawing it, allign it near the face. Now use the Direct Selection tool and select the corner points and drag them in such a way that one side of the rectangle is shorter than the side attached to the face. Use the WRINKLE tool that is available with Warp tool in the Tools box and scribble on the stroke edges to get the crooked edges. Scribble wherever necessary.
STEP 10 : The final step is to add the pores that you can see on a sponge. This is obtained by simply drawing oval shapes using the Ellipse tool and rotating them using transform tool and resucing the sizes to position then in various locations. Make mulitiple copies of the oval shape using the fastest way by using ALT + Click the shape that needs to be copied and drag. The dragging makes a copy of the original. While dragging itself, you can allign them wherever necessary. The Spongebob face is complete.
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