40+ Cartoon Character Illustration Tutorials

• By Aquil Akhter
• April 16th, 2009
• Cartoons, Characters, Illustrations
• 53 Comments

Everybody likes cartoon characters. They make us happy and keep our mind tension-free. We present here beautiful and mind-blowing Cartoon Illustration Tutorials for you. This article contains a mixture of Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials. Some are intermediate level and some are advanced tutorials that include coloring processing, character sketching, pen tool tricks for tracing line art sketches, shapes processing, vector conversions and much more.

We are sure all of the tutorials in this post will be a great help to you. We have made sure to include illustrations that will guide you step by step to easily learn how to create cool and interesting cartoon characters in Illustrator and Photoshop. You will also learn the basic skills required to create your own interesting and attractive characters. We also feature some powerful tips, tricks, tools and other resources that may help you make a variety of cartoon character illustrations.

You may want to take a look at the following related posts:

• 50 Excellent Digital Photography Photoshop Tutorials
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• Adobe Photoshop Tutorials: Best Of

Cartoon Illustration Tutorials

Draw figures in an anime style
Melissa Somerville uses drawing and inking techniques in Photoshop to create an enchanting anime-style fairy.

Color your fantasy figures
Refine your Photoshop tool skills to color your characters and situate them in magical fantasy environments.

How to illustrate a cute Emo kid
In this tutorial, the artist takes you through the process of drawing these cuties. The concept is based on the popularity of Emo, and you are taken through all the steps, from sketch to full-color vector using Illustrator CS3, to pen, paper, scanner and Wacom tablet.

Digital manga illustration
Just as Harajuku Girls mix fashion styles, Joanna Zhou combines several drawing techniques to create a new twist on manga art.

Primitive art man cartoon
This Photoshop tutorial takes you from scan to finished line art composition, step by step. It has great pointers for lighting and coloring your work. If you want to draw your own cartoon, check out this great tutorial.

How to create a killer chainsaw bunny character
This tutorial shows you how to build a Bucket o’ Thought character and add a dynamic background effect. This process can be applied to any sketch you are vectorizing.

Create a vector pirate cartoon character from a hand-drawn sketch
In this tutorial, you will learn how to trace a scanned image in Illustrator using the pen tool and color it. You’ll find it a very valuable tutorial.

How to create a cartoon character with expressive lines
Cartoon-character drawing involves a lot of techniques and styles, whether it is for one-tone characters or colorful multi-layered ones. In this tutorial, you’ll see the necessary steps for creating a multi-colored cartoon character with shading.

Create a super-happy octopus character
With Illustrator, it’s really easy to create fun characters just with simple shapes and the Pathfinder panel. Use these techniques and elements to create whatever character you want!.

How to turn a sketch into a fat cat vector illustration
This tutorial guides you from sketchbook to screen: a “fat cat” doodled with biro and translated into a neat vector caricature. Intermediate knowledge of Adobe Illustrator is recommended.

Draw vector-looking cat illustration using Photoshop
This tutorial aims to put in the clearest light the process of creating this cat image. Step by step, the artist shows the whole process and clarifies every stage with the help of his notes.

Build your character’s back story
Danilo Brandão reveals a simple yet effective way to breathe life into your characters by developing personality and creating their environment.

PAINTING TUTORIAL
This painting tutorial was done using Photoshop and a Wacom Intuos 2 (6×8) tablet.

Create the first page of a fairy-tale storybook, with a hint of kitsch
Once upon a time, there was a tutorial, a tutorial that told of magical and enchanting ways to create fairy-tale pages in Adobe Illustrator. Are you sitting comfortably?

Drunken monkey Photoshop tutorial
In this tutorial, the artist explains step by step how he designed this attractive character. He reviews the entire design process, from first sketches and drafts to final touches with Adobe Photoshop.

Creating vector characters in Illustrator
Characters can add a recognizable element to your work. But how do you go from a sketch to finished product? Peskimo walks you through the process.

How to create a cute bunny vector character
In this Illustrator tutorial, the artist shows you how to create a cute bunny character. This tutorial makes use of simple shapes and gradients that are easy to apply to illustrations of other characters. The great thing is that you don’t have to be an amazing artist to do it!

How to create your own vector cartoon character
Follow this tutorial to create your own vector character, Freddy the Fish.

A lovely cartoon character
In this tutorial, you will learn how to draw shapes with the pen tool, perform a shading trick with the burn and dodge tools and create a perfect lighting effect.

Drawing a character’s face in Illustrator
Creating a cartoon- or human-like caricature in Illustrator is a fun and rewarding project. If you’re pretty good with the pen tool, it doesn’t take very long either. In this tutorial, the artist helps you create an elf.

Drawing cute anime kids

Inking and coloring the comic strip “The Brads”
Follow tips by cartoonist Brad Colbow to create your own comic strip.

Create a cute panda bear face icon
In this easy-to-follow tutorial, the artist shows you how to create a cute panda bear face icon, all from ellipses (well, and one rectangle for the background). The great thing is that you can easily apply these techniques to your other projects.

How to add fur to vector animal illustrations
In this tutorial, you learn how to add fur to a vector animal illustration very professionally.

Digital art tutorial
This is an old tutorial but very worthwhile and interesting.

Making of a Clown
In this tutorial, the artist explains the making of his “Balance Attack” creation. This picture took him about six hours to complete; take your time with it and be patient.

Create a robotic angel using line art and textures
Create a robotic angel using textures and line art in Photoshop.

Creating a character
In this tutorial, the artist teaches you how to create a funny futuristic character. You’ll see the basic principles of drawing, designing and coloring.

Tips And Tricks

From sketch to vector illustration
A very informative tutorial. Follow the steps here to produce high-impact digital creations from hand-drawn sketches.

Re-color artwork using Illustrator’s Live Color

Draw a realistic eye for cartoon character
In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a realistic eye for your cartoon character. The tutorial also explains the theory behind creating eyes and how to match colors for different parts of the eye. Of course, you can choose your own favorite color for your eye.

How to create super-malleable effects with colorful lines
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create these fantastic colorful effects using only Photoshop. They fit in anywhere and can look really awesome.

138 tips for drawing hands

Takumy vector tutorial: eyes
Use Adobe Illustrator CS2 to color CG with no outlines.

7 more things you didn’t know Adobe Illustrator could do

Fun with Illustrator’s lesser-known yet powerful tools

Coloring pencil drawings with Photoshop

Photoshop’s pen tool: The comprehensive guide
The pen tool appears across Adobe’s almost entire product range. Its function and behavior vary depending on the application, but by mastering it, you’ll find you work more quickly and smoothly and with better results. This guide gives you a comprehensive basis for working with the pen tool in Photoshop.

A comprehensive introduction to Photoshop selection techniques
Have you ever had difficulty making selections and thought there was a better way? Here, you’ll review two quick solutions and details of the techniques for making selections.

Cartoon Character Resources

Here at the end, we have listed some of the most fun and beautiful websites to help you create a cartoon character and represent yourself in online profiles and avatars in a very interesting, cartoony way. You can use your avatar for your blog profile, Facebook, Orkut, Hi5, MySpace, Friendster or just for fun. They are very simple to do.

Cartoon Me
Have a photo of yourself or a friend cartooned! Enter your details in the space provided and submit your photo.

Portrait Illustration Maker
Portrait Illustration Maker provides character icons completely free of charge! Use them for your blog or social network service.

Make your own cartoon strip online
Strip Generator is a project that was created to embrace the Internet blogging and strip-creation culture, helping people with no drawing ability (yeah, I’m one of them, too) express their opinion via strips for free.

Simpsonize Me
Turn yourself into a Simpsons character.

South Park Studio
Create your own South Park alter-ego or make one of a family member or friend! When you’re done, save it to your computer and use it on your website or print it out.

Meez
Build and animate your own 3-D avatar. It’s free.

Related posts

You may want to take a look at the following related posts:

• 50 Excellent Digital Photography Photoshop Tutorials
• 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials
• Adobe Illustrator Tutorials: Best Of
• Adobe Photoshop Tutorials: Best Of

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