Tuto Illustrator : draw a dog

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Introduction

Here is the portrait of a dog that I find cute (photo found on internet) that I intend to reproduce with Adobe Illustrator (CS5).

 The final result after a few hours of work is as follows:

 

As for the drawing of the cat, I use a technique that is based on the Illustrator "Live Trace" tool. I start by vectorizing the photo with the following key options (see green arrows):

•           Preset : color 16 (reduced to 10)
•          Check button : « Ignore White »

The result of tracing is then expanded into 873 paths which are then grouped according to their color (about 10 groups):

After "dusted" the paths, the result is this:

 

Dog’s fur

With the vector path created above, I make the darker parts of the coat (except eyes will be drawn later)

I reproduce them considering these same areas on the original dof’s coat of the photo, which makes me change the color and the surface of these areas. The path is then filled with a background color (RGB = 25, 7, 5 and 4 pixel Gaussian blur) and then "worked" with the "Wrinkle" tool configured with the following options:

Global Brush Dimension:

•          Width : 30 pts
•          Height : 50 pts
•          Angle : 0°
•          Intensity : 50%

Wrinkle Options:

•          Horizontal: 50%
•          Vertical: 50%
•          Complexity : 1

And the result is shown below:

I proceed the same way for the different colors of the dog’s coat:

The coat color above resulted in the following image (RGB color = 79, 48, 40 and Gaussian blur 4 pixels):

Other colors are added using the same technique and the final result is shown below:

Nose

The design of the nose begins by a path of color RGB = 76, 58, 60 and feather 13 pixels:

The muzzle is made with the following paths:

One is a radial gradient of 3 colors (angle = 0 °, pixel aspect ratio: 52.7% and Gaussian blur 4 pixels) as described below:

•          Location 0%, RGB = 33, 17, 18
•          Location 48%, RGB = 33, 17, 18 (Distribution: 66-44%)
•          Location 100%, RGB = 76, 58, 60 (Distribution: 50-50%)

For more information read the post "Notation for color gradients".

The nostrils consist of two paths (color RGB = 13, 2​​, 0, and Gaussian Blur 1.2 pixels):

 

Reflections on the muzzle are made with 4 paths RGB color = 111, 95, 107 and 4 pixels Gaussian blur:

The dark aspects are realized with three paths RGB color = 33, 17, 18 and Gaussian Blur 2.6 pixels:

The muzzle is also enhanced with 4 paths RGB color = 111, 95, 107 and 1.5 pixel Gaussian blur:

The spots on the muzzle are paths of RGB color = 53, 33, 33 and 2 pixel Gaussian blur:

Hair

The whiskers are made of lines with color RGB = 111, 95, 107 (thickness 0.5 to 1 pt.):

The hairs are made with a new Scatter Brush created from a path of color RGB = 208, 139, 94, whose characteristics are the following:

•          Random Size, variation from 85% to 100%,
•          Random Spacing, variation from 12% to 22%,
•          Random Scatter, variation from -16% to +16%
•          Random Rotation: 0°

The main hair coat is made with paths using this new brush by adapting the thickness of the drawn (0.5 to 2 points) as shown below:

Then, the hairs on the paws are performed in the same way:

And the final result is shown below:

Eyes

My usual approach to the drawing of the human eye is described in the post "draw an eye".

But the dog's eye is completely different.

The iris is a radial gradient of 3 colors (pixel aspect ratio = 113%, angle 0°) described below:

•          Location 0%, RGB = 37, 16, 18
•          Location 30%, RGB = 79, 55, 53 (Distribution: 66-34%)
•          Location 100%, RGB = 20, 1, 0 (Distribution: 35-65%)

Internal colors are made with 2 paths:

One of RGB = 129, 107, 111 color with 1.3 pixel Gaussian blur and feather 4 pixels:

The other is a path of color RGB = 79, 55, 53 with 1.3 pixel Gaussian blur and feather 4 pixels:

The light reflection on the eye is a path of RGB color = 219, 215, 229 with 1.5 pixel Gaussian blur and feather 3 pixels:

The eyelid is a radial gradient of 3 colors (pixel aspect ratio: 76.5% angle = -149 ° and feather 5 pixels) as described below:

•          Location 0%, RGB = 81, 62, 69
•          Location 22%, RGB = 135, 108, 113 (Distribution: 52-48%)
•          Location 100%, RGB = 20, 1, 0 (Distribution: 40-60%)

Eyelashes around the eye are paths of RGB color = 148, 118, 124 and feather 2 pixels:

The eye area is highlighted with circles of color RGB = 20, 1, 0 brush "Charcoal - Pencil":

The drawing of the dog is nearly complete and the result at this point is shown below:

Paws

Finally, and without giving here details of paths, the paws are drawn with claws, pads and various shades: