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Cartoon Bulldog Character Sketch

by George Coghill Pro Oct 22, 2010
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8 Responses

  1. Pro Img_6023-small-blue-bg George Coghill

    Working final sketch for a bulldog cartoon character.

    over 1 year ago

  2. A-2 Adam Grason

    Yes!

    over 1 year ago

  3. 80x80_icon Brad Colbow

    The sketch looks very close to vector (darkness and thickness of lines, etc.) Have you ever tried just live tracing a sketch like this and cleaning up the edges?

    over 1 year ago

  4. Pro Img_6023-small-blue-bg George Coghill

    Live trace ends up with too many points, and I like to fine-tune the line art in vector — so minimal, well-placed points are important for me.

    My "lines" in vector are actually closed paths (shapes), and I try to keep the points to just 4 or so for each shape so they flow into each other naturally, letting the vector curves do their thing.

    I usually work the sketch to as close as vector as possible so I am doing very little creating at the vector stage.

    over 1 year ago

  5. Pro Img_6023-small-blue-bg George Coghill

    Also, I've tried Live trace and then cleanup with the smooth tool, but it takes far more time than just creating paths manually.

    over 1 year ago

  6. Greg-1-2012-sq Greg Newman

    Really nice George. I see where Brad's coming from. Your lines are nice and clean. But I also see the less=more factor. Look forward to seeing this finished.

    over 1 year ago

  7. Pro Img_6023-small-blue-bg George Coghill

    Thanks Greg! Yeah I wish I could use the method Brad suggested, but I'm so particular about my vectors it just bugs me to have all those extra points on my paths.

    I'll post a rebound comparing the two, might explain my idiosyncrasies better :)

    over 1 year ago

  8. Img_6023-small-blue-bg

    Shot_1288126712_teaser Live Trace vs. Hand-Cr... Hopefully this gives an idea of the difference in line quality between using Adobe Illustrator's "Live Trace" feature (left) vs. creating vectors by hand (ri... October 26, 2010

    Rebound

    Live Trace vs. Hand-Created Vector Art

    by George Coghill

    Hopefully this gives an idea of the difference in line quality between using Adobe Illustrator's "Live Trace" feature (left) vs. creating vectors by hand (right).

    Note that each "line" in the hand created version is actually an individual vector shape (closed path) with a black fill & no stroke, and typically comprised of just four anchor points — think of it as a really distorted circle!

    By constructing the shapes by hand, I also have the ability to go in and fine-tune the individual "lines", making the tapers and thicknesses just how I want them.

    In contrast, the Live Trace result is one giant compound path (a big vector shape with holes punched out of it), which results in having to tweak endlessly to fine-tune anything. The other downside is lots of unnecessary anchor points that don't flow into each other fluidly.

    I like to make my smooth anchor points do the work for me!

    over 1 year ago

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