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How to Illustrate a LeBron James Cartoon Character
Wardell Brown on Apr 24th 2009 with 45 comments
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Hello fellow vector artists, I am a cartoonist/illustrator who specialized in retro stylevector cartoons. You can find more of my work and books at my web site. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how I use Adobe Illustrator to create vector cartoons.
Introduction
I am a freelance independentcartoonist specializing in vector based retro cartoons and character designs for magazines, skateboard deck designs, and packaging designs. I have a somewhat complicated process because I don’t usestrokes or brushes on most of my shapes. I prefer to have shapes sit on top of other shapes so that I can easily vary the line weights.
Final Image Preview
Below is the final image we will be workingtowards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month. You can view the large version here.

SketchI start by scanning in the hand drawn sketch. I scan my images at 300 dpi and use levels to clean up the images. I usually sketch with Sanford Terra Cotta col-erase color pencils and tighten up thesketch with blue lead mechanical pencils.

Step 1
I start by importing the scanned image into a 7" by 8" CYMK Illustrator file. I color in CYMK because all my images are designed to be printed.Step 2
I set the layer with the drawing to Template in the Layer Options palette. I then dim the image somewhere between 30 to 45%.

Step 3
After zooming in I Use the Pen Tool to trace a silhouetteof each element of the figure. I set the Pen Tool to No Fill and a stroke of .25 pt. I usually work from background to foreground with my elements.

Step 4
Here I have traced the outline of the...