Hello, everybody. In today's video, I'm going to
show you guys how you can cartoon yourself in Procreate for your social media. Let's get it!
So go ahead, open up your Procreate. And we're going to add a new art board by pressing the "+"
sign in the top right-hand corner. And I'm just going to choose 11 x 8.5 for the
art board size. Next, we're going to add the image that we're going to illustrate. So go ahead and go
to the wrench tool, go to "add" and "insert a photo." Navigate to your photo... I'm going to use this
one. And since this is going to be a profile pic, I'm just going to focus on illustrating the
face only to start. We're going to add a new layer on top of our background layer. And I'm
just going to rename this layer "outlines."
Then I'm going to go choose my brush. My go-to
brush is usually the "script" brush. And then I'm going to use the color black for these outlines.
So let's lower the opacity of our background layer so we can see better and let's start outlining.
So what I'm doing is I'm just tracing along the general outline of each facial feature. So go
ahead and draw your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your nose... and y'all know how the rest of the
song goes. But yeah, just stay true to the shape of each facial feature. For example, you'll notice
that my nostrils are not perfect circles. So don't draw them that way. I'm only saying that because when
it comes to drawing faces, if you have a single line out of place, it'll throw off the entire
drawing. But also, to completely contradict myself, this is supposed to be a cartoon.
So, you know, just make up things as you go. All right. So we're done outlining, and this is
what it looks like without the background layer. Yeah, it looks kind of like a hot mess right now...
But I promise it'll start to look better once we start to add color. Before I add color, I'm
going to quickly pull up a reference image. So go to the wrench canvas, and then just turn on
the reference toggle. You'll see a new window pop up. Just press "image" and then "import image."
And then navigate to your same photo again. This reference photo will really come in handy to,
you know... reference? And it'll also be useful to eye drop different colors. Alright, guys,
we're going to build this color from the top to the bottom. So every time I add a new layer,
I'm going to add it above the background layer... You know, for the most part.
So I already drew the pupil on the "outline" layer. So now, as
you can see, I'm drawing the colored iris. I almost forgot we need to add little sparkle
in our eye. So I'm going to add it on top of the outline layer, choose white, and then just draw
a couple of dots in the eye. As you can see, it really brings the illustration to life. Alright,
back to what I said before... Each time we add a new layer, we're going to add it above the background
layer. So I'm going to start by drawing the shadow of the white part of the eye. Then I'm going to
add a new layer on top of the background layer so I can fill in the base color of the eye. We're
going to use this same process through most of the drawing. Starting with the shadow layer,
and then following it with the base color. I'm going to go into more detail with
this coloring technique very shortly.
But the reason I really liked starting with
the shadows is because it allows you to see through to the reference image the entire time
without having to turn off different layers, which is really useful. You feel me? Alright. So
adding shadows to the skin can be really tricky. So I'm going to break it down for you. So first
let's grab a nice base skin color and just draw it off to the side. So you can reference it.
Next, go over to the color panel and choose a color. That's a couple notches darker. And this
is going to be our "shadow color number one." Then we're going to grab one more shadow color.
Go over to the color panel and grab a color a couple of notches darker. And this is going
to be our "shadow shade number two." We're going to choose a couple highlights as well.
So just do the same process. But this time we're going to do colors that are a couple of
notches lighter. There you go. This is our color palette for this skin. So you all know
by now that I like to do the shadows first, so let's create a new layer above the background
layer, and then we're going to choose our darkest shadow color. So as you can see, there's a few
different colors of shadows on my face, but we're just going to focus on the darkest areas. So
you'll definitely have shadows under the chin, maybe a little bit on your cheek. You can also
draw in some fine lines and you'll probably have some darker shadows under your nose and your ears
as well. All right, moving on. So add a new layer above your background layer, and we're going
to start filling in "shadow color number one."
So this is going to be the last shadow color
we use. So just go ahead and fill in all the rest of the areas where you see shadows. So for
me, there's definitely a lot of shadows in the nose area, as well as the cheek area. It can also
be really useful to look at your reference image and just fill in any areas that look a
little darker in the image. Alright, so we're done adding the shadows. Next
we're going to move on to the highlights. So I'm going to select the lightest highlight
color, "highlight number two," add a new layer above our background and just fill in a few key areas
like the tip of the nose and under the cheek. Then we're going to add a new layer for our last
highlight color, "highlight number one." And we're just going to fill that in and all the rest of
the areas that look like they are highlighted.
And at this point I realized that I accidentally
got rid of some of my shadows. So I'm just adding that in right now. And lastly, to finally finish
off this skin, we're going to fill in the base color, which is just the rest of the face. So at
this point, your skin should be looking nice and toned. Which leaves the last thing, the hair. So
right here, I'm just adding in a few more details to that outline layer. I'm just kind of winging it
here. My hair is a very curly, so I'm just adding in a few squiggly wigglies for some extra detail.
So I'm going to color the hair the same way that I colored this skin. I'm going to use a base color
or shadow color and a highlight color. So starting with the shadow color, I noticed that most of
the shadows were kind of framing my face.
And then I'm also filling in some shadows
underneath our line work. Just to kind of add some dimension after the shadow work. You guessed
it. We're adding some highlights. I focused most of the highlights on the outer edge of my hair.
And lastly, we're going to add in the base color that's right. I just fill in all the rest of the
background color of the hair. And there you go. You're all tooned up! The last thing we're
going to do is just choose a background color. I thought that a bright orange would look
kind of fun. And then I really wanted this illustration to pop. So I decided to add a
white stroke around the entire illustration. And just like that we're done. So let's just save this
out. Go to the wrench, press "share", and then "JPEG". And I want this to go to my photo library.
So I pressed "save image" and here it is guys. Looking good with your cartoon
self! So all you have to do now is just upload this to your profile picture and
your done! Thanks for watching! Peace out.
