Illustration

Drawing Tutorial: Using Basic Shapes in Children’s Illustration

Jimena S. Sarquiz shares tips for creating characters in Procreate using basic shapes

When it comes to producing artwork that demonstrates creativity and imagination, it’s certain that the artist will have developed formulas to make their processes easier. In illustration, basic shapes–circles, squares, triangles, among many others–play an important role when it comes to determining the key elements that make up a character or a scene.

Illustrator Jimena S. Sarquiz–creator of monitosbonitos (@monitosbonitos)–has worked on illustration projects with Editorial Norma, Edebé, Santillana, Macmillan Education, Cambridge University Press, and Editorial Televisa.

Today, she shares tips for getting your proportions right, as well as how to take basic shapes and turn them into characters. Discover more in the video below:

4 steps for transforming basic shapes into characters, using Procreate

1. Prepare your workspace

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Select a new project and add a grid in Settings > Canvas. Then, in Edit, change the size, opacity, or color of the grid to your liking. As Jimena demonstrates, using a grid can make it easier to mark out your drawing.

2. Remember some basic rules

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There are some simple tricks you can use for drawing characters regarding proportions. For example: a body should be equivalent in size to seven heads stacked one on top of the other. To duplicate a circle, swipe your finger across the screen to the right, open the menu, and choose the option to reproduce the shape.

The first “head” (in other words, the first circle) will be the actual head. The following three can be the torso and the hips; the last three, the legs.

3. Break the rules

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According to Jimena, it’s good to learn these basic rules of proportion just so that you can break them and let your imagination soar. A shorter or fatter character, for example, might not obey the “classic” shapes. Try changing the sizes of the three parts–head, torso and legs–and you’ll see how your character will be completely transformed.

4. Try different geometric shapes or be inspired by nature

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Have a go at transforming circles, squares, triangles and other geometric shapes into body parts or use them as inspiration for your character. You can also take inspiration from nature–certain fruits, perhaps a peanut, or whatever your imagination conjures up. You’ll see how doing this prompts new, unexpected ideas.

An upside-down bell could become a body builder’s thorax or a fat older man’s body. Or perhaps it could a skinny woman’s hair or a dog’s face. Experimenting has no limits.

Did you enjoy these tips? Remember that you can learn to tell stories and channel emotion through illustration in Jimena S. Sarquiz’s course, Creating Characters for Children's Stories with Procreate.

You may also like:

Illustration Techniques for Children’s Books, a course by Estelí Meza
Creation of an Illustrated Foldable Book, a course by Roger Ycaza
Introduction to Picturebook Creation, a course by Ricardo López Iglesias

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