Creating cartoon icons in Adobe Illustrator CS3 and CS4 is a great way to produce your own art, which you can then upload to social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. They can express whatever image or avatar you deem fit to represent you and your interests. Rather than using stock images that are filled with avatars used by countless others on the Web, creating cartoon icons offers a more distinctive representation online.
- Switch to Outline mode. This allows you to see your sketch as you draw. Create vector paths using the pen tool. Finish completing your basic vector shapes.
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Step 2
Use the Preview mode. This allows you to see how your artwork looks with everything filled in and enables you to assess any overlapping line work.
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Step 3
Create flat color by using a Global Swatch to make certain that all the shapes are using the same color. Duplicate your art with multiple art boards so that you can make changes to different aspects of your icon for any reason, which can range from certain parts of your figure being out of proportion to a desire to try different color swatches. You can create multiple art boards by double-clicking the Art Board tool. Select the art board that you would like to duplicate and alt-click as many times as you want. This will create as many art boards you need.
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Step 4
Save a copy of the line art layer for backup. Select all the shapes to erase unwanted portions of your line art.
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Step 5
Export your artwork to a .png file or a .jpeg file and upload it to a social networking site.