How to Draw a Cute Pirate

Character in Photoshop
By Mochtar Faqih May 5, 2014
2700
19

Photoshop is not only powerful on image editing or photo manipulations,

but also very useful to produce image creations. Even from scratch, pure
from your imaginations. We can take character design for example. When
you design a character, you put your imaginations on your canvas. You
can do it although you start from a blank canvas, and this tutorial will help
you to see the process.

What youll be creating

On this tutorial, you can draw a pirate character using Photoshop from
blank page without any additional resources or stock images. Youll use
shape layers, understand the highlight and shadow, paint using Brush Tool
manually, it just need your patience. Use Adobe Photoshop CS3 or higher,
lets jump in!

Step 1

Create a new document. Then pick Rounded Rectangle Tool (U), set its
radius to 40 px and its color to #ebbda1. Draw a rounded rectangle, this
will be the face of the pirate. Holding down the shift key while creating
rectangle constrains the rectangle to a square.

Step 2
Then pick Pen Tool (P) and check the Auto Add/Delete option on the
option bar. Go back to the rounded rectangle youve made and click on the
center of its bottom side to add anchor point. While Pen Tool still active,
hold the Cmd/Ctrl key to change it to Direct Selection Tool temporarily.
Drag the new anchor point downward.

Step 3
Release the Cmd/Ctrl and delete two anchor points near to it. The Pen
Tool will be automatically converted to Delete Anchor Point Tool when
you stick it on the anchor point.

Step 4
To create ears, use Ellipse Tool (U). Hold down Shift key while drawing
ellipse in order to be in one layer with the face. Then rotate and duplicate
it.

Step 5
Use Rectangle Tool (U) and set the color setting to #a42335 then draw a
rectangle for Headband.

Step 6
Add anchor point on the center of its bottom side and move it down.

Step 7
With Pen Tool (P) draw the dangling part of the headband, place it behind
the faces layer.

Step 8
Using Ellipse Tool (U) create a white ellipse for the iris of left eye and
black one for the pupil on the center. Group them and name it Left Eye.

Step 9
Draw black circle and small rectangle on the right side of the face to create
eyess cover.

Step 10
Then create mouth with white color.

Step 11
Add layer style for the left eye. First, add Drop Shadow with 120 degrees
Angle, 1 px Distance and Size. Then add Inner Shadow with same Angle
and Distance, but give 5 px for the Size. And use Brush Tool (B) to create
a highlight on a new layer above the pupil, with white color and soft round
brush tip shape.

Step 12
Also add layer style for the mouth. On Inner Shadow option, set the Choke
to 30%. And for Outer Glow, use #5e0000 color.

Step 13
Create a horizontal longish ellipse as shown on the image below. Then
drag both of the center anchor points downward. After that, draw a vertical
longish ellipse. You can see the following image for reference.

Step 14
Draw an ellipse again for the mustache. Add two anchor poits on the top
side and drag the anchor point on the center of top side downward.

Step 15
Then use Pen Tool (P) to draw shape of the hair. You can just draw right
side and then copy it by dragging, hold Opt/Alt and drag using Path
Selection Tool (A) to duplicate, then press Cmd/Ctrl + T and Right
Click > Flip Horizontal. Then you need to group them all and name it
Head.

Step 16
For the front part of the hat, draw this shape with black color.

Step 17
And this back part, draw and place it behind the front part.

Step 18
Draw the hem with #b47b02 color.

Step 19
Make a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl +Shift + N) in front of front part and fill it
with black. Create clipping mask (Cmd + Opt + G / Ctrl + Alt + G)
and give filter, click menu Filter > Sketch > Chalk & Charcoal, and use the
following setting.

Step 20
Do the same way for the back part of the hat. Then group them and name it
Hat.

Step 21
Use Ellipse Tool (U) to create white circle, and place it behind face.

Step 22
To create the legs you must draw them manually using Pen Tool (P). Draw
the left or right first then Opt/Alt + Drag using Path Selection Tool (A)
to duplicate it. When dragging, you have to hold down the Shift key to
constrain your movement to perfect vertical.

Step 23
Next, create your jacket shape using Pen Tool (P). This will need more
than one path in a layer. When youve finished the first path, you have to
hold down Shift key while drawing the other path in order to be in one
layer. Use #361b0c for its color.

Step 24
Make a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + N) in front of the jacket shape. Fill
it with #7a7a7a and create clipping mask. Then go to Filter > Sketch >
Note Paper. Set the Image Balance to 25, Graininess to 10 and Relief to 11
then click OK. Set the blending mode to Overlay.

Step 25
Draw these white parts of cuff, an extra layer of fabric at the lower edge of
the sleeve.

Step 26
And black parts.

Step 42
For the hat, add its highlight area on the front part. Use #2a2a2a and
#555555 color. Remember to set your brush to Soft Round.

Step 43

Do the same way for the back part.

Step 44
And for its hem, add #b47b02 on a clipping masked layer. Use multiply
blending mode for its shadow and screen for its highlight.

Step 45
Next for the belt, use #a42335. Also use multiply blending mode for its
shadow and screen for its highlight.

Step 46
For the white shirt, you just need to add shadow. Use #d8d8d8, #b3b3b3
and #818181 with multiply blending mode.

Step 47
Then start to paint indentation on the jacket. Use #361b0c, for its shadow
use multiply blending, and for its highlight use screen blending. See image
below for reference.

Step 48
Add shadows for the white part of cuff.

Step 49
And add highlights for the black part.

Step 50
For the hand, paint the shadow using #ebbda1, #d69e7b and c27545 with
multiply blending. Then paint its highlight using #ebbda1 with screen
blending.

Step 51
Next go to the legs, add only the highlight using #2a2a2a and #555555
with screen blending.

Step 52

Double click on the Background layer to turn it into plain layer. Set
foreground color to #4e606e and background color to white. Then go to
menu Filter > Render > Clouds. To make the clouds background sharper,
hold Opt/Alt when you access the menu filter. And you have to hold
your left click while you hold opt/Alt.
Just like this, hold your Opt/Alt key, then put your cursor onto menu
Filter, then click and hold, move to Render > Cloud, release your click.
Your clouds result will be sharper.

Step 53

Add layer style for this clouds background, that is Gradient Overlay. Enter
following settings shown on image below.

Step 54
Paint the shadows under the pirate on new layer behind legs. Note that
there are two shadows here. First, the thinner shadow, it is wider and
softer. And the second one is the thicker shadow, it is closer to the legs.
Paint them all with soft black.

Step 55
Go to the uppermost layer, then create a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + N)
above it. Set the background and foreground color to default black and
white by pressing D. Then add clouds using menu filter like before.
Filter > Render > Clouds.

Step 56
Set its blending mode to Screen then reduce its opacity layer to 75%.
Add layer mask by clicking layer mask icon on layer palette. And then use
Brush Tool (B) with soft round brush, 0% hardness and black color to
mask the upper parts of the image.

Final Results