This post is about turning a hand drawn sketch into a vector image, though you could just as well use a photo. The software I will be using is Inkscape, a free, open source vector graphics application which you can get from inkscape.org; however the principles should apply to pretty much any vector graphics application you might prefer.
If you prefer to watch this in video format, I got you covered!
The source file for this tutorial can be found at here: Source file.
The finished file, which you can use for reference, is: SVG file.
Once you have the sketch open Inkscape, lock the layer with the sketch and create a new layer to work in. We will be hiding the sketch layer later, so we don’t want to be drawing in it.
With the new layer selected, use the bezier curve tool to draw the outline of the bunny. Just click to place a node, then hold the left mouse button down and drag to adjust the curve.
Don’t worry too much about getting an exact outline, you can go back and tweak it later. Of course if something looks really off, you can always ctrl-z to undo back to the previous node.
Once you close the curve, you should get an outline. We want to turn this into a silhouette, so change the fill color to solid black and set the stroke color to none. We still need to be able to see the sketch under this for now, so let’s temporarily make this translucent by dropping the opacity for the layer down low.
Next, lock the layer we were working on and add a new layer where we will draw in the white area on the bunny. This time we’re only vaguely following the outline and only drawing around the areas that would be getting a lot of light – in a very stylized way of course. Other than that, it’s exactly the same as the black outline we just did. This time, set the fill to white.
If you need to make any adjustments to the curves, you can use he node editing tool. The control points move the curve around, while the two handles attached to these points to alter the curve.
You can also add control points by selecting two adjacent points and clicking add node at the top of the window, or remove excess control points.
Once it looks decent, it’s time to color in the bunny’s head and ears. Exact same procedure.
Ok, layer locked, and it’s time to start adding some details. Before that, drop the opacity of this layer to make it translucent – easier than setting the transparency for each individual component. The translucency allows you to see the sketch under your drawing.
This step is fairly quick, as we’re just drawing lines, and pressing enter or right clicking to end the curve without closing the path.
Add a sublayer for the stitches, as this will allow you to select and modify them in one go.
Use the stroke style to thicken up these lines, and make their ends round.
Moving on, add a nose, and some color to the belly and ears. Same as before, new layer and bezier tool.
Next up, the eyes. Use the ellipse tool to get the overall shape of the buttons. By holding down shift, we can draw the ellipse around a point.
Using the bezier tool, add a little patch here. Lower the alpha so that the patch shades the underlying color. repeat on the other eye, and add more little ellipses to simulate button holes. Use CTRL-D to duplicate them, then move them in place. For the stitches, you guessed it, bezier tool.
With the eyes done, group each eye separately by selecting the components and pressing CTRL-G. This lets you select and move them around in one unit, rather than having to move every single component. The reason we’re doing this is to find a good position for them, because eye position can make the difference between creepy, funny, and stuff. Just move them around till it looks ok to you.
As a final step, let’s add some shading. To add shading, I just draw shapes where I want the shading to go, turn alpha pretty low, and pick a color. You can also readjust the position of the shape as you prefer.
Ok, that’s it for this post – I hope you found it useful, and if you know someone who might enjoy this please share the video with them! If you have any questions or ideas, please drop me a comment below or on my facebook page!
Thank you for reading, and see you around!