Vegetable Characters

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By: Sumana Dey Bhardra

This vegetable drawing tutorial will guide you in the process of designing cabbage, broccoli and
turnip characters using Illustrator. You will learn my unique techniques of drawing realistic
vegetables with cartoonish touch to it. This tutorial will be interesting and fun especially for
beginners who are interested in character and vegetables drawing. After this tutorial, it will
become easier for you to draw various kinds of vegetables and master the art of illustration.

Drawing the Broccoli

1. Open your Illustrator program and create a new document. Set Size: Custom, Units: Pixels,
Width: 800, Height: 800 and Color Mode: RGB.

2. Open a reference image of Broccoli drawing from file directory then go to layer property
and lock the layer to prevent unnecessary movement of the drawing.

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3. Take a new layer and start drawing the basic shape of Broccoli using Pen tool (P) Pencil
tool (N) and Ellipse tool (L) as shown in the image below.

Image: A Image: B Image: C

4. Keep eye, mouth and nose drawing in a separate layer. Now, the final drawing should
come out like Image C.

5. Now, select one of the Broccoli’s leaves and go to Swatches palette

(Window>Swatches) and apply the radial gradient effect to the leaf. In the gradient
effect window, select the gradient slider ‘A’ and go the point ‘C’ in the color window. Click
on the small arrow mark and change the color mode to RGB from the drop down menu. Do
the same for the gradient slider ‘B’.

6. Then apply the given gradient color percentage in the color window.

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7. Draw a rough shape, as shown in the image below to create texture for Broccoli, using
Pencil tool (N).

8. Then apply the given gradient on it.

9. It will look like Image B after applying the gradient.

10. Draw some shapes like Image A using Pencil tool (N) and apply given gradient to create
highlights, which gives the Broccoli a nice texture.

11. Use the same method for other leaves to create similar effect.

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12. Apply the given gradient for the body of Broccoli and adjust the shade from dark to light
according to the image below using Gradient tool.

13. Then apply the given gradient to the hands and legs.

14. Draw a shape like shown in the Image A below, using Pencil tool (N). Duplicate the
body and change the body color red to show the selected area in the image B.

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15. You will now apply intersect shape areas to remove the unwanted areas. Select both
the draw-line and body (red one), then go to the pathfinder window and apply
intersect shape areas and then click on Expand button. After that you will get result
like Image B.

16. Apply a gradient on that area to make it as shadow.

17. Create the same efffect for the rest of the body.

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18. Now toggle on the eye mouth nose layer and apply the given gradient on Eye, which is
shown in the picture.

19. Apply a gradient for the nose.

20. Now apply given gradient for the mouth and adjust the gradient with gradient tool.

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21. Apply the given gradient to finish the teeth.

22. Draw highlights for eyes, cheeks, lip, hands and legs using Pen tool (P) as shown in the
image B, apply given gradient to them and adjust the Opacity.

23. Here’s the final image of the Broccoli.

Drawing the Cabbage

24. Open your reference image of a cabbage drawing from file directory. Go to layer property
and lock the layer to prevent unnecessary movement of the drawing.

25. Create a new layer and start drawing the basic shape of cabbage using Pen tool (p) as
shown in the image below.
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 Image: A Image: B

26. Keep eye, nose and mouth drawing in a separate layer. Now, drawing will come out like
image ‘B’.

27. Draw veins of the cabbage using pencil Tool (N) which will look like the below image.

28. Complete the drawing of the cabbage as shown in the image below right. Select whole
cabbage and change the stroke color to black.

29. Complete the drawing of cabbage as shown in the image below right. Select whole
cabbage and change the stroke color to black.

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30. Now go to Swatches palette (Window>Swatches) and apply the gradient effect to
the cabbage leaf. In the gradient effect window, keep the gradient type to Radial and
select the gradient slider ‘A’ and go to the point ‘C’ in the color window. Click on the small
arrow mark and change the color mode to RGB from the drop down menu. Do the same for
the gradient slider ‘B’.

31. Select gradient slider >‘A’ and change RGB color value (R: 212, G:222, B:153) in color
window >‘B’. Select gradient slider >‘C’ and change RGB color value (R:96, G:156; B:0)
from color window>‘D’.

32. Select another leaf of cabbage and use Eyedropper tool (I) to apply the same gradient
color on it .

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33. Then adjust the gradient according to the Image 2, 3, 4 using Gradient tool (G).

34. Fill other leaves with similar gradient color.

35. Your image should look something like below.

36. Now color the veins of the leaves according to the image below. Apply first the gradient
from Swatches palette and then manually enter the RGB value in Color palette as we did
earlier.

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37. Your cabbage should look like this.

38. Now draw the dark portion of cabbage. Draw shapes like the image shown below and place
it on the leaf where it belongs, then apply gradient on it with the RGB value for ‘A’ (R: 157;
G:189; B: 31), and ‘B’ (R: 1; G: 3; B: 0).

39. Apply Blur, go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur and type Radius 39 in the dialog box
and press ok.

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40. Draw shape as shown in picture below using pencil tool (N)

41. Apply a gradient on it.

42. Fill hand and leg with gradiant color.

43. Now toggle visibility on and fill the eye, mouth and nose layer according to the image
below.

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44. Apply colors on mouth and teeth.

45. Now here’s the final cabbage with a big smile.

Drawing the Turnip

46. Open reference image of Turnip drawing from file directory then go to layer property and
lock the layer to prevent unnecessary movement of the drawing.

47. Take a new layer and start drawing the basic shape of Turnip using Pen tool (p) as shown
in the image below.

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 Image: A Image: B Image: C
48. Drawing will come out like image C.

49. Now go to Swatches palette (Window>Swatches) and apply the gradient effect to the
turnip body. In the gradient effect window, keep the gradient type to Radial and select
the gradient slider ‘A’ and go the point ‘C’ in the color window. Click on the small arrow
mark and change the color mode to RGB from the drop down menu. Do the same for the
gradient slider ‘B’.

50. Then apply the given gradient on it

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51. Use same process to apply gradient color to Turnip leaves.

52. Apply the given gradient on it

53. Color all the leaves.

54. Select eye, nose and mouth and group (Ctrl+ G) them.

55. Go to the layer property and toggle off the visibility for the layer (Eye, nose and mouth).

56. Duplicate (Ctrl+C) the body and paste (Ctrl+F) it in same place.

57. I have changed the body color green to show how eraser works.

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58. Double click on the Eraser tool, Eraser Tool option dialog box will appear. Now
type 20 in the roundness field to vertically decrese the eraser size, and press ok.

59. Start erasing the body as shown in the picture below.

60. Now start erasing to create texture for the turnip body. You can change the size and shape
of the body. You can also rotate the angle of it.

61. Then apply the given gradient on it.

62. Select Turnip body and apply the given gradient on it.

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63. Duplicate (Ctrl+C) the body and paste (Ctrl+F) it in same place for 3 times then erase
duplicated layers to get the similar effect.

64. Now you should have something like Image C.

65. Now toggle on the eye, nose and mouth layer and apply given gradient.

66. Apply the below gradient for the eye.

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67. Apply a gradient on nose.

68. Apply a gradient on the mouth.

69. Continue applying gradient on mouth.

70. Use gradient on teeth.

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71. Apply highlight on eye, nose and lips and adjust the opacity according to the image.

72. Apply dark gradient to hands, legs and lower body.

73. Here is the final Turnip.

If this tutorial has helped you, a comment on this tutorial would be highly appreciated.
Thanks for your support!

Visit www.vectordiary.com for more illustrator premium tutorials!

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