ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS: HOW TO DRAW A CARTOON LION

Hey! Today we are going to draw a lion. And Katerina, a regular reader of the Notes of the Microstock Illustrator blog,
will help us with this . It is her guest lesson on Adobe Illustrator that you see on this page, for which we would like to
thank Katya very much.

More illustrator tutorials can be found here: Adobe Illustrator Tutorials . If you have any questions about the lesson, you
can ask them in the comments. You can also take an online consultation on Adobe Illustrator via Skype if you have any
difficulties with self-study.

By Kate Vogel
Level: Beginner
Adobe Illustrator Version: Any

All pictures in the tutorial are clickable. If something looks too small, then click on the picture and it will open in full
screen. Links in the names of tools and commands lead to articles of the course "Learn Adobe Illustrator in 30 days!" for
the very beginners. There you can get more detailed information if you have any difficulties with this tool. So let's go!

First, let's draw the head. Create a circle with the Ellipse Tool (L) . Then draw a smaller circle, select the bottom point
with the Direct Selection Tool and drag it down a little. This will be the ear of our future lion.
Create a brown ellipse inside the ear. Then make a copy of these shapes to get the second ear. Use the hotkeys Crtl +
C and Crtl + V for this . To flip the copy to the other side use the Reflect Tool (O).

Then all the yellow parts of the head can be combined into one shape. To do this, select them and in the Pathfinder
panel, click the first Unite button .
We draw a mane. To do this, make a large brown circle. Send it to Back (Ctrl + Shift + [).

Then draw dark brown triangles on the mane along the entire circle. This can be done with the Pen Tool . Then copy the
mane circle (Crtl + C) and paste it in the same place (Crtl + F), send it to the front (Ctrl + Shift +]). Select the copy of the
mane and all the triangles, go to the Pathfinder panel , press the Crop button - the triangles will be cropped as we need
them.
We draw the face of our lion: a white area with black dots (where a mustache grows from a real lion). To do this, you can
use the Pen Tool or the Pencil Tool .

We draw a nose: a black triangle, on top we put a highlight - an ellipse with a black and white gradient .
We draw an eye. To do this, make a white circle. Next, you need to copy this circle and paste it in the same place (Crtl +
C, Crtl + F). Paint over the top circle with yellow, and raise its lowest point to the middle of the eye.

Now draw the pupil - a black circle. Add highlights on top of the pupil. We get the second eye by copying the first.
I suggest drawing the body with the Pen Tool . Although it may be more convenient for someone to make it from an
ellipse by moving the points of the shape.

The hind paw is also drawn with the Pen Tool . Darker colored finger molds are located on top.
To trim off excess parts, use the Pathfinder panel as in the previous steps.

We copy the hind paw, now there are two of them - the required number :)
In the same way we make the front paws.
The last detail is the tail. Draw it with the Pen Tool .

Cut the triangles on the tail brush using the Pathfinder by analogy with the mane.
The lion's shadow can be made from gray ellipses.
That's all, our lion is ready!

The only other thing that can be added to the tutorial is that the trimming of the shapes that was done through the
PathFinder can be done with the ShapeBuilder tool (Shift + M). If you have a not very old version of Illustrator, then most
likely this tool is already there. It is enough to select several shapes that need to be cut. Then take ShapeBuilder (Shift +
M) and hold down the Alt button and click on the parts you want to delete.