In today’s tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a Kung Fu Panda Diptych composition in Adobe Illustrator CS5. I’ll be using a variety of tools and tricks along the way, as well as a little bit of magic from creating your own pattern to creating a conical Asian hat. It’s time for some vector kung fu.
Introduction
I’ve never hidden my passion for computer games and possibly one of my favorites would have to be the MMORPG game World of Warcraft. After the success of my first WoW inspired tutorial on creating a Blood Elf inspired portrait, I’ve been on the look out for my next topic to cover. Thankfully the recently announced expansion of Mists of Pandaria has proved to be such inspiration!
I’ll be using two stock images for this tutorial, which you can get from PhotoDune from here and here. So what are you waiting for, let’s get to it!
Step 1
I’m going to modify the stock images slightly, as well as sketch on them the conical Asian hats in Photoshop. First of all I’m going to increase the size of the canvas for each of the images. Do this by going to Image > Canvas Size (Alt + Command + C) and in the pop up options change the width and height to 150% from the bottom middle.
Step 2
After doing a very rough sketch of the placement of the hat on one of the stock images, you can see that the shoulders of the panda would get in the way.
So to alter it, I’m going to use the Filters > Liquify option (Shift + Command + X). If you’ve used the Warp Tool in Illustrator, this is a pretty similar way of modifying a raster image.
I’m going to enlarge the Brush Size to 270 and then push the shoulders in. As well as doing this to the shoulder, I’m going to exaggerate the black spot on the eye. These are a defining characteristic of the panda look, so I want to emphasis this feature.
Then I’m going to repeat this same element for the other stock image.
Step 3
Now continue sketching on the modified stock images to where the hats will be placed. Keeping in mind where the ears are. I’m wanting to exaggerate the appearance and size of the hats, but I also don’t want them looking as if the ears should be visible.
Step 4
Now in Illustrator, I’m going to File > Place the stock images into their own New Documents and set up the layers as shown below. The “BG” layer will contain a white fill Rectangle which covers the canvas set to Opacity 50%.
Step 5
Now we’ll begin drawing the base shapes for the pandas. The head is going to be made from modifying an Ellipse (L) by adding points with the Pen Tool (P), and then use the Direct Selection Tool (V) to alter the points.
