Tutorials by ThinkClick

Step 1:

First off we will create the basic shape for the head of our character, Select the Ellipse tool and drag out an oval shape roughly similar to a head, with a white fill and a 1pt black stroke. Drag out another smaller ellipse with the same settings and position as pictured slightly angled. Make sure the second ellipse is brought to the front (right click > arrange> bring to front).

Step 2:

Select both ellipses with the selection tool (default V) and open your pathfinder window, if you can't find it look under the window tab. Click 'minus front' as shown in the picture, you should now have one compound shape, the pathfinder tool is your friend, play about with it as much as possible as it makes your work-flow much easier.

Step 3:

we need to tweak the head to make it look more... head like. Under the pen tool Select 'add anchor points'. Click on the path of the head at the bottom right then select the direct selection tool and begin tweaking the various points by moving them and adjusting the points handles until you have something resembling the image in step 4.

Step 4:

Select your head and choose a suitable flesh tone for the fill and save it as a new swatch to use in future (its always a good idea to keep swatches of any colours you make yourself). Now we will make the eyes. Drag out a circle using the ellipse tool, hold shift while you do so to constrain the proportions and produce a perfect circle, fill it with white and stroke it 1pt black. Hold down the alt key and with the selection tool drag a copy of the first circle, scale it down and fill it with an eye colour, this is the iris, position centrally on the white of the eye, repeat again for the pupil, fill with black. Just fiddle about with the sizes until you are happy. To make the reflections on the iris use the pencil tool, set it to white fill, no stroke and draw a couple of blobs either side of the pupil on the iris. Now select all of the eye, right click and group it. This will make it a lot easier to move about later. Make a copy of the eye and position them both on the head.

Step 5:

Lets draw a nose and an ear, use the pen tool to draw out a very simple nose shape and do the same for the ear, fill with the same swatch we saved for the flesh colour. To make the nose stand out give it some depth by adding a drop shadow. Select the nose and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Click preview and adjust the offset of the drop shadow until its only visible on the left hand side of the nose, lower the opacity of the shadow to something similar in the picture.

Step 6:

Teeth and tongue time! Using the pen tool click once without dragging to create a sharp edge just under the top lip line, then add another point beyond the mouth to the right, pull out the handle and create a nice curve following the lip line, fill with white and stroke black 1pt (this should be your default setting). Now the rest of the shape doesn't really matter as we will hide the teeth behind the face so just complete the shape any way you like (so long as none is showing beyond the face), once completed right click on the object with the selection tool and send to back (right click > arrange > send to back), repeat the process for the bottom set but increase the size of the teeth (refer to the image of the next step). Create a tongue shape with the pen tool and fill tongue red! Again send to back and position it as a tongue would be positioned...

Step 7:

Lets add a bit of highlighting to the face, select the ellipse tool and create an oval shape about the size of one of the eyes. Angle it slightly and position it roughly where the characters cheek bone would be, now with the ellipse selected go to the gradient palate and set it to a radial gradient, set the left side to white and the right side to our flesh colour swatch. Copy the ellipse and add highlighting wherever you think its needed, I've just gone for the cheekbone and chin (normally where bones are prominent), then select them all and add a feather to help blend them in more (Effect > Stylize > Feather) preview the effect and fiddle with the settings until you are happy.

Step 8:

The hair, use the pen tool to create a hairline, make sure your first point lines up with the stroke of the head then create a series of flicks. To get the sharp corners simply click on the anchor point you wish to become a corner with the pen tool (which should display the convert anchor point symbol, a kind of V shape underneath the pen symbol), this converts it to a corner with no bezier curve. Fill with any hair colour you like, I've gone for brown. And there you have it, a cute little mascot!