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Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Ben Eblen’s

The Field Guide - Vol 1


Companion to “ Illustrating a Stylized Character
- 7 hour real-tim walkthrough”
Available now on my

Sold to
@ben_eblen_design 1
johnnyzilevu.47@gmail.com
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide Icon Meanings

Tid bit Software Agnostic


Session Map
THE SUBJECT 4 THE SKETCH 17
WHAT’S INCLUDED? 5 Being loose, playful and experimental
What you’ll get with this session Simplification

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN 7 SKETCH CLEAN UP 20

What I’m hoping you’ll get out of this sketch note Getting clearer with the forms and my thinking

session... Anatomy stylisations

Anatomy Resources
THE TOOLS 8

What I used for this session. BLACK AND WHITE SET UP 24

Values, values, values


BRUSHES 9 A note on clipping masks

I honestly don’t use many at all Separating materials into different layers

Photoshop
RENDERING 28
Procreate
The illusion of light
SAILING THE SEVEN SEAS? 11 Utilising planes

Aquired this field guide through non...traditional Wire-framing to understand

means? Adding form with the multiply layer mode

What’s meant to go with this field guide? Rendering Resources

VIDEO WALK-THROUGH GUIDE 12 COLOUR 35

Key points to jump to in the walk-through 14 Having fun with hues and layer modes

Layer modes

THE REFERENCE 15 Colour variation

The first key step Layer Mode Stacking

Inspirations for this illustration

2
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

DETAILS 41

Finishing touches and over-painting

Shape clean up

WHAT NOW? 48

Come join me on my artistic journey where I’m


sharing my learnings

Where you can find me

Let me know what you think

Are you a content creator?

3
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

THE SUBJECT
Original Post Original Sketch Note
Here’s the link to original Insta- And here’s the link to the original
gram post Instagram sketch note

Reference image
Here’s a link to the reference
image on Pinterest

The Subject 4
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

WHAT’S INCLUDED?
What you’ll get with this session

The .PSD file


Allowing you to dig into the file, get nitty
gritty and deconstruct my process yourself

Full real time recording walk through


Follow me as I go through and re-draw this
character from sketch to final render all
while explaining my thoughts and process
as I go.

Real time screen recording of original


I recorded this session, so you can skip
around at your leisure to see in real time
how I did certain things.

Ben Eblen’s

The Field Guide - Vol 1


Companion to “ Illustrating a Stylized Character
- 7 hour real-tim walkthrough”
Available now on my

This 40 + page Field Guide


I love to learn from video, and I find books
and written materials just as useful. So I
thought I’d put together this companion
manual that references tips, techniques and
ideas mentioned in the walkthrough video.

@ben_eblen_design

What’s included? 5
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

3d Model Images to study from


Although I didn’t use these models my-
self to illustrate this character, these are
useful to study from and understand what
I’m thinking about as you build your under-
standing of 3D shapes

What’s included? 6
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN


What I’m hoping you’ll get out of this sketch note session...

The Process
A deeper understanding of my
thought process while making this
particular painting.

Actionable techniques I use


Tips, tricks and techniques, in con-
text of the illustration we’re focusing
on.

Resources I recommend
Resources I recommend to dive
deeper into particular topics.

What you’ll learn 7


Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

You don’t need these exact tools

THE TOOLS These are just the tools I happened to use.


Most everything I talk about/demonstrate
What I used for this session. you can achieve with standard digital paint-
ing software and a tablet or iPad

Pinterest Pure Ref


Reference gathering and free desktop reference
saving app

Adobe Photoshop CC
2022
I used this in the walk
through, but any standard XP Pen 15.9 pro
digital art software will do.
Pen Tablet

Apple iMac 27” Late 2015


Ancient Desktop computer

The Tools 8
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

BRUSHES
I honestly don’t use many at all

Photoshop

Max Grecke’s Brush Pack Ahmed Aldoori’s Brush pack

What I used A great substitute + is free!

Chalk 60 shading Hard Elliptical


For...shading for line-work & shading

Chalk 60 Lineart Soft round


For...Lineart For smooth transitions

Airbrush soft round 100 Oil 3


For smooth transitions For Shading

Brushes 9
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Procreate

Calligraphy / Chalk Inking / Studio Pen


For more sketchy line-work Cleaner line-work

Airbrushing / Soft Brush Smudge Nice

For smooth transitions General Shading - Free on Sam


Neilson’s Website

Brushes 10
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

SAILING THE SEVEN SEAS?


Aquired this field guide through non...traditional means?

It’s ok, I get it, it’s to be expected really... But if you do find this useful and you or
hence this page. your artist mates are a bit strapped for
cash, feel free to pass it on to someone
But please keep in mind that this is a that you think might find some of this
companion to a much more in-depth info valuable, you have my blessing.
7+ hour walk-through with me narrating
and not designed to be a standalone Who am I kidding, you’ve probably already
piece of content. done that you cheeky bugger.

What’s meant to go with this field guide?

N 7+ hour walk-through video broken up into digestible


chapters

N This 40+ page Field Guide (PDF) probably with updates

N Original Character Illustration .PSD file

N The Walk-through .PSD file

N Procreate techniques video that maps to the ones shown


in the walk through using Photoshop

N The full original recording video (no voice-over)

N Experimental bonus 3D modeled anatomy study images

Available now on my

Sailing the Seven Seas? 11


Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

VIDEO WALK-THROUGH GUIDE


Key points to jump to in the walk-through

Pt 1 The Sketch Pt 4 Value demo and skin block in

1:12 - Thinking about the 2D shapes 01:40 - Add gray background to judge
2:20 - ‘Smoothing’ in Photoshop values better
4:17 - Do Thumbnails if needed 1:15 - Multiply layer example
6:18 - Slow Down and simplify 2:40 - Thinking about the light source
10:05 - Introducing ‘Thinking in 3D’ and sphere demo
14:30 - Blocking in shadows with multiply
Pt 2 Line-work Clean Up 15:43 - Using masks with clipping masks
16:38 - Block in shadows of the face
1:00 - Line-work brush’s and free alter-
21:13 - Adding lighter values
natives
2:00 - What I’m thinking about when doing
Pt 5 Skin Colour
line-work (Look at others styles)
3:00 - Overlapping shapes 00:00 - Using ‘color’ layer mode to add
7:40 - Line-work demo colour to skin
24:00 - Hand simplification 01:45 - Adjusting the skin layer colour
33:00 - 3D model demo (Shoe stylization) 03:50 - building up colour variations and
41:00 - Knee example layer stacking
08:30 - Multiply layer mode for colour
variation
Pt 3 Local Colour Block In
13:25 - Alpha locking layers
00:30 - Clipping mask shape 14:20 - Refining the rendering by painting
00:40 - What is a clipping mask? on a ‘normal’ layer above the stacked
2:10 - What are we using clipping masks ‘colour’ layers
for? 33:15 - using ‘levels’ to do big changes
3:30 - Block out different ‘local’ values to values
35:30 - Explanation and recap of colour
process

Video Walk-through Guide 12


Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Pt 6 Face Render Pt 9 Merging layers and rendering

I’m pretty quiet in this one, I’m using the 00:45 - Adjusting line-work colour
same principles from previous videos 2:15 - Merging everything
and just going to render town. So throw 02:40 - Multiply layer example
on a podcast or some music and watch 03:20 - Merging skin detail onto body
03:30 - Cleaning up and simplify shapes
Pt 7 Hoodie and overalls rendering
01:30 - Adjusting local colour of hoodie
Pt 10 Details and rim lights
02:00 - Adding shadows to hoodie
05:30 - Adding colour and rendering 00:00 - Colour dodge layer mode
hoodie 02:30 - Using the ‘Screen’ layer mode to
21:30 - Overalls shadows add rim-lights
24:30 - Refining the overalls values 20:25 - Final thoughts
32:09 - Using ‘screen’ layer mode to light-
en values

Pt 8 Sneakers, speakers, watch, cap,


letters, hardware and hair

00:00 - Shoes values


03:00 - Adding colour to shoes
15:10 - Speaker values
17:00 - Adding colour to speakers
28:00 - Cap value and colour
32:00 - Hair value and colour
33:00 - Overalls hardware colour
39:33 - Watch colour
41:15 - Hoodie lettering colour

Video Walk-through Guide 13


Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

LET’S BEGIN...

Let’s begin... 14
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

I’m not just looking at the photo

THE REFERENCE
reference, I’m taking inspiration
from other’s styles as well.

The first key step

Almost every successful study session I


have starts with reference, and this one
was no different.

I had one main photo reference for the


pose, and a bunch of other style refer-
ences for…well...the style!

I’ll take a few moments to just look at


the reference, before hopping straight
into drawing. Analysing the shapes and
trying to think about how the piece will
come together.

I love trying to break down how others


use their shape languages and try to
incorporate that into my work, and you
should definitely do the same!

Different Materials
The thing that got me interested about
this reference in the first place was the
pose, clothing and the introduction of a
‘prop’ (the speaker) I could play around
with.

The Reference 15
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Inspirations for this illustration

Adley Haywood Sebastien Vereille


@ a_haywoodphoto Artstation

@a_haywoodphoto

adleyhaywood.com

Adley Haywood

Reference Photo

Max Grecke Chloe Veillard


@maxgrecke @badmiaou

/maxgrecke
Artstation

Steph Euphoria
Viktor Titov
Artstation
@titovviktor

The Reference 16
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Initial Rough In

THE SKETCH This was the first sketch, I guess you


could call this the ‘gesture’. It’s super
Being loose, playful and loose, but gives the overall ‘vibe’ of
experimental where I’m thinking of going with it.

Using the reference, I’ll begin to sketch


out big, broad, simple shapes. I’ll try not
to get too stuck into the details at this
stage as it can easily start to stiffen up
the pose.

Multiple Passes
I’ll reduce the opacity of the initial sketch
and begin to clean up my thinking, which
in turn cleans up the shapes.

Simple 2D shapes first


At first I’m thinking in the form of 2D
shapes, but as I start to flesh out the
idea, I’ll slowly start blocking in 3D forms.

The Sketch 17
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Find opportunities to show dimension


As I start to refine the sketch, I’ll look for
opportunities to show form, for example, the
creases in hoodie at the elbow are both an
indication of how a hoodie would fold, but
also it’s a sneaky way to show contour lines
and describe the 3D form.

Understanding is freedom! This is why you see a


I’m not copying the reference, I’m trying to lot of artists preach the
understand the forms so I can break them good word about cubes,
down, simplify them, then build them back cylinder and spheres!
up. Because I have an understanding of the You can draw almost
3D shapes, it gives me freedom to push anything with them!
and pull them however I like.

The Sketch 18
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Simplification
This is where style reference comes in
When it comes to simplification, I’m think- SUPER handy. Take a look at how other
ing about how to ‘iron out’ the details of artists solve different problems and
the reference. E.g. if there’s a crease, or test it out for yourself!
a bump in the reference, I’ll think about
how to simplify it, while still having it make
sense in the 3D world.

“Iron out” the details


See how there’s a bunch of creases
on his hoodie? I try and simplify those
creases to a few while still keeping the
3D form in tact. I’m trying to ‘Iron-out’
the details.

The Sketch 19
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

SKETCH CLEAN I’ll often lower the opacity of the original


rough sketch and add clean up layers on
UP top.

Getting clearer with the forms


and my thinking

This is the point where I’ll take my time and


clean up both the lines and my thinking
around certain shapes the pose.

Sketch Clean up 20
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

While I’m cleaning up the line work,


I like to add some line-variation
using thick and thin lines

I’ll also sometimes add a


small drop shadow where
it makes sense based on
the light source.
I often like to add darker lines
where there would be shadows,
or where object, cross over one
another.

It really depends on how much you want


to clean up the line work. The cleaner the
line work, the more options you have for
rendering down the track.

Sketch Clean up 21
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Stylised Shapes

Anatomy stylisations Being a stylised character, I wanted to


give the anatomy some stylisation as
In this particular study, I wanted to pay well. So I pushed the shapes a little
attention to the underlying anatomy of the bit
character, now this definitely isn’t neces-
sary, but it was fun and I love combining
multiple disciplines (character stylisation
and anatomy ) into one study session.

3D Shapes < Anatomy


Knowing every bone or muscle is less
important than being able to break down
complex forms in 3D space (in my opinion)

Once you can create any 3D form at will,


you can then better understand and study
the more detailed bones and muscles and
have them read correctly
Sketch Clean up 22
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Anatomy Resources Hunting for the answers


I like to tackle anatomy study like I’m trying
In the future, I’d love to release my own
to find the answers to a question like. “How
anatomy course but for now here are does the elbow joint hinge?”.
some great resources I recommend and
that I use when studying anatomy. That way, I have something clear to ‘hunt’
for and understand.

Human Anatomy for


Artists Proko
Elliot Goldfinger YouTube Channel

Figure Drawing Design Complete Anatomy


and Invention 3D Software
Michael Hampton

Figure Drawing for


@diluc
Artists: Making
Diego Lucia
Every Mark Count

Steve Huston

Sketch Clean up 23
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

BLACK AND
WHITE SET UP
Values, values, values

When starting the Black and White to


colour process I’ll often fill in the line work
with a gray clipping mask so as to save
time rendering and keeping in the lines.

Black and white set up 24


Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

A note on clipping masks Two separate layers, one on top


of another
Clipping masks are a life saver when it
comes to this type of colouring process.
essentially what a clipping mask allows
you to do is ‘colour’ inside the lines of a
particular layer you choose

The rectangle has been turned


into a ‘clipping mask’ and is now
‘inside’ the circle

You can stack as many clipping


masks as you want on top of one
another

Super handy when


using our local colour
selections as the
base layer!

Black and white set up 25


Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Once I have that flat clipping


mask I’ll start to add the local val-
Local Values ue of each material (skin, jeans,
Each material has it’s own local shoes etc)
value. Take a look a photo’s of things
in real life, turn them black and white
and see how different materials
are overall lighter/darker than one
another.

These values almost always


change as I begin to add more
shadows and lights, this is just a
base to go off of.

Black and white set up 26


Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Separating materials into


different layers
For a more organized rendering expe-
rience, I like to separate every material
into their own layer. These selections will
come in handy later on when you want to
add colour as well.

Black and white set up 27


Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

RENDERING
The illusion of light

Now, with these base values, we have


a great base to start adding values.

A great place to start is by first thinking


about where I’d like the light source to
be or what type of environment I’d like
him to be in.

Studio Lighting
I landed on a more ‘studio’ style
lighting set up, with the key light a
little up and off center to show some
nice specular highlights on the face.

Rendering 28
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Utilising planes Lambert (diffuse) Reflection

Planes help me understand and break Lambert reflectance is the property


that defines an ideal “matte” or diffusely
down complex forms so I can better man-
reflecting surface.
age rendering the illusion of light.

An although I don’t always draw out these


planes, I’m most definitely thinking about
them.

Using the planes angle to


judge brightness
I’ll start with imagining the surface
as a perfectly matte material and
using the principle of ‘the more par-
allel the light source is to the plane,
the brighter that plane will be.

One material property at a time


Only after I’m happy with the matte version
I’ll worry about highlights and other mate-
rial properties. This compartmentalization
works great for this process.

Rendering 29
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Wire-framing to understand
From the watch and shoes to the nose
and eyebrow crease, every object, form
and bump should be considered using
the same light logic.

When in doubt wire-frame it out!


Don’t be afraid to use a wire-frame to
better understand the forms. This will
help a lot as you’re trying to understand
how the light is hitting it.

Rendering 30
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Adding form with the multiply


layer mode
You can either just paint the gray scale
values onto the local colour directly (or
on a layer above it) – alternatively you
can use the ‘multiply’ layer mode to add Most digital art software will have a
your darker values or even do a combi- ‘multiply’ layer mode.
nation of both ‘normal’ and ‘Multiply’ on
separate layers.

Multiply = Darker
I use ‘Multiply’ for adding darker values, as
that’s what it does to the colour.

Multiply only adds darker values, so you’ll


have to use other layer modes on top (or
below) on a separate layer to add your lights
and highlights.

Use as touch up layer


The multiply layer is also great for coming
over the top of a bunch of layers and adding
in more darker values/shadows.

Rendering 31
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

The basic lighting set up


Although the illustration is more stylized,
this is basically what I’m thinking about
lighting wise

Note that the intensity of the light is not


super bright but it still casts shadows. This
is where reference comes in handy to study
the lighting set up that appeals to you.
Rendering 32
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Specular Highlights
After the diffuse lighting is feeling
right, I’ll then start to experiment
with the specular reflections, partic-
ularly on the face as the clothes are
pretty ‘matte’.

Specular reflection as mirrors


Specular reflections are a reflec-
tion of the light source, I try and
think about the surface in planes
(coming up) and as if each ‘plane’
as a mirror and ask myself, would
this reflect the light?

Occlusion Shadows
I’ll also start to think about the
occlusion shadows (where the light
finds it hard to reach), particularly in
creases, or where two objects meet.

Leaving my self value room for later


I’m making sure not to go ‘full value’ especially
with the lights with this initial black and white
pass, to give me room to explore as I add co-
lour down the track.

Rendering 33
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Rendering Resources
Here are a few resources I’ve found super
useful to dive deeper into rendering and
understanding how light works.

How to Render: Izzy Medrano


The Fundamentals Particularly these
of Light, Shadow videos below...
and Reflectivity
Scott Robertson

Marco Bucci
Particularly these
videos below... Sam Neilson
Fundamentals of
lighting course on
Shoolism

Rendering 34
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

COLOUR
I’ll begin blocking in some colour with the…wait
for it ‘Color’ layer mode. This layer mode ads a
hue to the gray scale below but doesn’t affect
Having fun with hues and layer the values which is handy to start with.
modes

Now the colour exploration begins!

I’ll use a few key layer modes to give


me a good colour foundation, knowing
eventually that I’ll merge all the layers
down to one and I’ll just be straight up
painting on that one layer.

There’s no real rule of thumb I use for how


long or how detailed I’ll get using multiple
layers before merging them down.

It’s often times a gut feel, or I’ll decide


to merge when it begins to get annoying
trying to find the correct layers to change.

‘Color’ layer mode


Note how the color mode
doesn’t do anything to the
values, but it also just puts a
wash of the same hue on top.
This isn’t a magic layer mode
and a lot of work still needs to
be done!

Colour 35
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Lasso Tool
The best way I’ve found utilise the
color layer mode on a character is
to select each different material
and give it a base colour like the
skin here.

Don’t be afraid to adjust the base


colour using the hue, saturation and
lightness adjustments in your soft-
ware of choice

Utilise the separate material layers


we made earlier to make quick selec-
tions of different materials.

Colour 36
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

These ‘color’ layer modes give me a


great base to begin exploring!

Getting ahead of myself


Sometimes, if I get a little ahead of myself (like
I did with this one) I wont do all of these flats up
front. I might start with the skin, then experi-
ment with pushing the skin values and colour
variation (coming up) and then come back to
the other materials later.

Flexibility is the name of the


game
One big benefit of working with
layers at this early stage, it gives you
a lot of flexibility to experiment later
on.

Colour 37
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Layer modes
Now that we have some colour to play
with, exploring more layer modes are a
great way to speed up the painting pro-
cess. I could theoretically get the same Normal
results using a normal layer and straight
up painting on one layer, but stacking
multiple layers with different layer modes
on top of one another gives me a bunch
of freedom to experiment.

The main layer modes I used in this one


are ‘color’, ‘multiply’, ‘screen’ and a touch
of ‘color dodge’ (shout out to Ross Draws) Color layer mode

#f55757

Colour dodge layer mode Multiply layer mode Screen layer mode

Colour 38
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Variety helps create interest


Colour variation
See how the skin isn’t just one ‘skin’ colour.
I’ll also try to add in some colour varia- A lot of these variations can be determined
tion to these colours using a new layer, by the light source and the the skin pig-

or manipulating a current ‘Color’ layer– mentation.

particularly on the skin to give it a little


more life. Note the more orange hue’s in
the middle of the face, I took notes from
the reference.

Colour variation base


Don’t be afraid to vary the colour on any
particular layer regardless of the layer
mode. There’s a lot of experimentation that
I’ll do to achieve the look I want.

+ a bunch more layers

Layer Mode: Color

Layer Mode: Multiply

Layer Stacking
Don’t be afraid to stack multiple layers
with different layer modes to get the result
you’re after. Here you can see the gradual
layering of different colour modes (col-
Layer Mode: Color
or, multiple, screen) then to the eventual
merged ‘normal’ layer where I just paint.

Colour 39
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Layer Mode Stacking Added darker shadow with multiply

Same layer, but changed to ‘color’

A slightly brighter highlight and rim


Colour variations on normal mode lights with screen

Colour 40
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Layer merging for easier clean up

DETAILS I’ll usually make a copy of all the current lay-


ers I have up until this point, then merge it
Finishing touches and over- down into one layer, I find it easier to make
painting certain changes on the one layer.

I’ll start to get picky with my shapes, and


this is usually the time that I’ll merge all
my layers down into one so I can more
easily manipulate the shapes.
Once the layer is merged down, I’ll usu-
ally just paint directly on top of it or on a
single layer above.

Rim Light
Rim lights tend to help ‘pop’ the character
out from the background. Here I’ve used a
blue and purple light source using a new
layer set to ‘screen’.

These are still light sources,


so make sure you’re keeping
the planes of the object and
how they interact with the
light sources. Details 41
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Materials Matter
Note how Matte the jumper material
appears vs how shiny the lettering on
the hoodie appears. I try to take note
of that and think about the materials
in isolation.

+ =

Matte Hoodie Material Shiny Letters


- No specular highlight - Super clear specular highlight
- Subtle value transitions
- Very saturated colour even in the
- Because it’s white, it’ll pick up the
light
colour from surrounding materials/light
.

Colouring the line work


This can really add a nice look to the Use reference when unsure
piece instead of just a normal black/
If a material is confusing, or is
dark gray line work.
unclear in your reference, go
grab some different, more clear
reference and try to observe
the key characteristics of it.

Details 42
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Cleaning up the outside edge

Shape clean up This is often a good start, keeping the


outside edge clean, depending on the
As I begin to near the end of the session, styler gives it a much more appealing
I’ll begin to clean up the shapes, first finish

trying to spot the areas that look the


most ‘unfinished’ or ‘rough’. Often times
squinting my eyes and seeing what stands
out is a good place to start.

It’s also completely up to you if you want


to paint over the line-work or not. Here
I left a little of the line-work in but painted
over the rest.

Lasso to the rescue


I’ll use the lasso tool to select shapes
and paint within them to achieve a more
clean finish.

Leaving the details for the focal point


This whole piece is’nt a super dooper rendered
one, but you’ll see here that I’ve been pretty
loose with the shapes on the speaker. But be-
cause it’s not the main focus of the illustration,
I’m not too concerned

Details 43
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Details 44
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Details 45
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Details 46
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

Details 47
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide

WHAT NOW?
Come join me on my artistic
journey where I’m sharing my
learnings

Where you can find me

@ben_eblen_design

beneblen.com
Youtube
Twitter

Tik Tok

More tutorials/resources

Let me know what you think Are you a content creator?


Share your favourite tip on Instagram or Did you enjoy this course and want to
Twitter and make sure to tag me, I’d love spread the word to your audience? Reach
to hear your thoughts and see your work! out and we can sort out a referral code.

Copyright © 2022 Ben Eblen. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
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uses permitted by copyright law.

What now? 48

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