Adventure Time-Inspired Caricatures
I had a lot of fun with these two illustrations, based on two co-workers and influenced by an overdose of 10 seasons of Adventure Time. It doesn't take much to inspire me to create, just the right impetus.
Adventure Time uses a lot of flat colors, and simplistic, abstract shapes. They use lighter colors to represent lit sides of the forms, and darker colors to represent shaded sides, which gives the characters and objects some dimension. The art style -- with minimalistic, wiener-limbed characters and primitive-looking, detailed backgrounds -- has an original, iconic, and instantly recognizable look. I had to work within the parameters of the style so the viewer would recognize the style I drew the illustration in.
I started off with Post-It© drawings of the two gentlemen I had in mind. I had just watched the first guy's prog-rock trio, Flock of Walri, in concert at a local venue. The band members all wear matching pink flamingo shirts.
Post-It© Drawing
I photographed the drawing with my phone and Blue-Toothed it to my computer. I realized my co-worker plays right-handed, so I had to horizontally flip the picture.
I opened the drawing in Adobe Illustrator and traced the outlines with the Pen Tool. I selected the outlines and used Pathfinder / Add to Shape Area to combine all the outlines into one shape. Then I manipulated the nodes to finish off the shapes.
I struggled to get the three-tone shading on the dreadlocks right. I used dark, medium, and light shades of gray. I kept the light source in front of the face, which helped me place the highlights and shadows.
The black outline of the dreads took the most time. I set the Keyboard Increment to something very small, like .001 inches (Preferences / General / Keyboard Increment) so I could move the nodes in small increments with the Arrow Keys.
I used shapes with Transparency for the blue shadows on the shirt so the lines and flamingos showed through.
Making the illustration look Adventure Time style proved the hard part.
Adobe Illustrator CS2
Pink Flamingo
Post-It© Drawing
It took me a while to get the forms and shading of the cliffs to look how I wanted, using just four colors and a handful of flat, abstract shapes. I found the right kind of off-kilter balance the show masters so well only after a lot of node poking.
The background: I wanted a warm desert background, so I made the sky yellow and the other objects with colors tinged with yellow. I used less contrast between colors, and no dark colors, to create atmospheric perspective and make objects appear further in the distance.
The foreground: the figure and guitar have darker colors, some black, and more contrast between colors. I used cooler complementary blues and greens to separate the foreground from the warm background. The complimentary colors, contrast, and darks help the objects in the foreground look closer to the viewer.
I used a right-hand light source, with the sun out of the scene to the right. The objects have shadowed areas on the left side, and cast shadows fall onto objects behind lit objects. A hint of blue behind the cliffs represents reflected light.
I had to do some thinking and reworking to make the cracks in the desert ground look right. I made the crack in the foreground bigger, and the other two smaller as they recede in the distance, giving the impression of depth and perspective. The middle crack sits closer to the rear crack instead of exactly in between the top and bottom cracks, adding to the illusion.
I muffed the clouds in the illustration below, which I didn't realize until after I posted it. Adventure Time has rounded clouds. The clouds below look more like flat Chuck Jones-style clouds.
Adobe Illustrator CS2
Peavey Cirrus
