Final Image Preview
The image below is what we’ll be working towards.
Step 1
These comic book images recreated a printing process using what became known as
Ben-day dots.
Equally spaced and sized dots in the four printing colors were layered
to produce other shades. In any case, the effect was best put to use
with limited colors so we’re going to put together a palette of only
seven swatches plus black and white.
Drag the following colors (here shown in hex-values) from the color panel into the Swatches panel.
- #FCE354 – Hair
- #E27D89 – Lips
- #E04359 – Tongue
- #2489ED – Eyes
- #FF8048 – Blouse
- #000000 – Black
- #FFFFFF – White
Double-click on the swatches once in the Swatches panel and name them accordingly.
Step 2
We need to complete our palette by adding the two
Ben-day dots
patterns. These will fill the background and the skin. Illustrator
offers hundreds of patterns, but building your own gives you huge
freedom. These simple dots are a perfect way to learn.
Begin by
selecting both View > Show Grid and View > Snap to Grid from the
top menu. These options will make it easier to be precise when creating
our patterns.
Step 3
Using
the Ellipse Tool, draw five perfect circles of equal sizes. Then
position them on your grid, as shown below (with the Snap to Grid turned
on you should manage this with your eyes closed!)
Step 4
These
dots form the basis for our pattern, but to ensure that they tessellate
(tile) properly, we need to define the edges of what will become the
swatch.
Draw a square following the darker line of the grid,
intersecting the center of your four outer circles. Ensure the square
has no fill color and no stroke color, then right-click it, and send it
to the back of your tile objects.
Illustrator will recognize this
object as the area to be repeated, anything which falls outside (such as
three quarters of each of the outer circles) will not be included in
the pattern.
Step 5
Select
your transparent square, copy, and then paste it in place (Edit >
Copy, Edit > Paste in Front). Give this copy a color of #4EACF9 and
then color the dots #ABE0F4. Duplicate the whole thing, color it
#F2C8BF, and color the dots #D3A09B. Select the objects of each one and
group them (Object > Group), making two separate groups.
Note:
These colors don’t represent true CMYK printing values, but create a
nice effect so we’ll just put that down to artistic license.
Step 6
Before
we add these two groups of objects to the Swatches panel, we’ll scale
them a little. Select them both and choose Objects > Transform >
Scale from the top menu. Give them a uniform value of 15% and click OK.
Step 7
Just
as you dragged colors, you can now drag each of the tile groups into
the Swatches panel instantly turning them into pattern swatches. Double
click each one and assign them names of ‘Background’ and ‘Skin’. I’ll
let you work out which one’s which.
Go to View in the top menu, turn off Snap to Grid, and select Hide Grid to return to the original drawing settings.
Step 8
Anything
can be drawn to emulate Lichtenstein’s comic book style, though
typically his were scenes of domesticity and consumerism. An image of a
surprised woman could represent a troubled business woman or shocked
mother. So, I chose
this image from dreamstime.com.
Step 9
Open your image in Illustrator, lock the layer it’s on, then make a new layer on which to begin your drawing.
Step 10
Using
the Pen Tool, draw basic areas to form the colored parts of the
drawing. While doing this, you may find it easier to draw shapes with
just a brightly colored stroke to avoid hiding parts of the photo while
you’re using them. You probably have your own preferred method of
working here.
Use smooth rounded lines and don’t be afraid to
exaggerate certain features: like the mouth, wavy hair, wide surprised
eyes. We’re creating a comic image here after all.
Step 11
See
how the mouth is built from just four simple shapes. The teeth are
absurdly rounded as is the tongue, but it gives us the effect we want.
Step 12
Using
the swatches, fill each of the main shapes you’ve drawn. The labels
given to the swatches should make this a simple task; just select the
object you wish to fill, and click on your swatch. She looks kind of
funny so far, but we’ll keep working on it.
Step 13
We
need a brush to give us the black marker pen strokes which define our
images features. Draw an Ellipse on your artboard. Then using the Direct
Selection Tool, reduce the handle size on either end. This gives you a
pointy ellipse which we’ll use as a brush.
Step 14
Drag
your form into the Brushes panel. In the dialogue that appears select
New Art Brush and click OK. In the following Art Brush Options dialogue
give this brush a name if you wish and click OK. The Illustrator default
values are fine for our needs here.
Step 15
We
now have a layer for our image and a layer for our filled objects. Make
the objects layer invisible and create a third one, which we’ll be
drawing our black strokes with.
Step 16
Using
the Pen Tool draw a series of curves for each of the elements of our
subject’s face. Once drawn, keep the vector selected and choose your
custom brush from the Brushes panel. In the Stroke panel change the
weight of each line depending on the emphasis needed (for example, the
eyelid is a little heavier than the line under the eye, and the eyebrow
is heavier still).
It doesn’t take a great amount of detail to
create what looks like a convincing eye. It does, however, take a bit of
practice. You can get away with making certain aspects larger, more
pronounced – such as the eyebrow here, but be careful not to make it too
Mickey Mouse.
As you can see, I also lowered the eye
slightly to improve the overall look of the face. These decisions are
entirely up to your artistic discretion.
Step 17
I’d
exaggerated the shape of the mouth so much that tracing the photo was
no longer appropriate. Make a copy of the mouth and paste it onto your
Strokes layer. In the same way as you did around the eyes, draw a series
of curved vectors using the Pen Tool, and alter the line to your custom
made brush. Just five strokes around the mouth will be enough to make
it stand out.
Step 18
Again with her nose, you’ll need only a couple of strokes to finish it off, as too many lines will add years to her.
Step 19
Continue
to outline your objects, some with a normal stroke, some with your
custom brush, until you’re satisfied with the result. Make your Objects
layer visible and see how it all looks together.
Now you may have
to start to alter the order in which objects and strokes are organized;
send some strokes back and some objects forward depending on how it
looks. Don’t worry too much about keeping things in the correct layers
either.
Step 20
Build
some extra hair strands out of solid shapes and black strokes to finish
layering her hair. Place them on top of the whole drawing so far.
Step 21
Select
everything you’ve drawn except for the blue background rectangle, make a
copy (Edit > Copy) and paste in place (Edit > Paste in Front).
Select the Combine tool in the Pathfinder panel to join it all together
and then click Expand.
Step 22
Give
this object a nice heavy stroke and align the stroke to the outside of
the vector, see image below. This gives our character a solid outline.
Step 23
Build
a caption bubble out of a series of ellipses by combining them together
with the Pathfinder tool. Give your main bubble a heavier stroke than
the smaller ones. Also, use a hand-written style font for the caption.
I’ve used Tekton Pro, a font from Adobe, but you can use your discretion
as to the font that fits your illustration best.
Group the
caption objects (Object > Group) and place them somewhere on your
drawing, even overlapping the edges, and the character.
Step 24
To
finish the comic book look, you’ll need to tidy the image up. Select
everything (assuming your photo layer is still locked) and group
together (Edit > Group). Draw a rectangle where you wish the edges of
the illustration to be and then copy it to the clipboard (Edit >
Copy).
Select the group of objects and your new rectangle and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make.
Now
paste your copied rectangle back onto the artboard (Edit > Paste in
Front) and give it a heavy black stroke of uniform thickness. You have
now masked your drawing and given it a comic book style frame.
Conclusion
You’ve
completed your Lichtenstein style illustration! In doing so, I hope
you’ve become familiar with making your own patterns and have
brushed up on your vector drawing skills too. The final image is below.
Appendix
Scaling
patterns is an issue which needs to be mentioned before we wrap up. By
scaling an object filled with a pattern you’ll by default increase the
surface area of the object, but the pattern will remain at the same
scale (in our case, we’d get more dots).
By going to Illustrator
> Preferences > General you can change this should you wish to.
You can turn on Transform Pattern Tiles, as shown below. You’ll now
proportionally scale your pattern whenever you scale your object.
Alternatively,
you could go to Object > Expand and turn your pattern into
individual vectors, though in doing so you’d be sacrificing the
flexibility Illustrator’s patterns offer you.
