Character Design using Adobe Illustrator.

This lesson has two first's. A new instructor has stepped up to the mic: Mike MacNerland, AND this is CartoonSmart's first lesson with Adobe Illustrator (more to follow, I'm sure).

Here's the official "sales page" write up which will describe the lesson better than my rambling blog-speak....

This tutorial teaches character design using sweeping curves, unique angles, minimal shapes, and highly stylized, sometimes abstract forms. Cartoons like the Jetsons, and Flinstones are reference points for what this popular modern style grew out of. Ffor example look at the swooping continous line of Wilma Flinstone's hair, Fred and Barney's simple no-necked egg-shaped bodies, or the background art of the Jetson's signature curvilinear universe. A modern reference for this style would be shows like Dexter's Lab or Power Puff Girls that minimalized the classic Hannah Barbera look to the extreme. One major benefit of this simplified design style is that animation can be done much quicker than a more complicated realistic character. Guest instructor Mike Macnerland was brought into teach this lesson because of his background in the animation / illustration industry and his portfolio of character designs embody this re-invention of that classic 1960's cartoon look. The tutorial covers sketching characters for 30 minutes (with paper and pencil or on the computer with a Wacom), then tracing over his designs in Adobe Illustrator. This portion of the tutorial covers some of the basics of drawing with vector art in Illustrator. Mike also shares some personal tips to developing a career as a professional artist.

The total course time is 4 hours. Quicktime or Real Player will play the tutorial movies.


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