TUTORIAL: Irkens

Welcome to my second tutorial submission, this one having to do with a something that has been requested of me via note by many people, many times: a guide to drawing Irkens. Just like my last tutorial, all image references will be listed amd linked in the "author's comments" section below with each corresponding name for said references in brackets. I also use Paint Shop Pro 8 for all my digital artwork and such.

Now, while some people are under the impression that drawing in the "Invader Zim" style is a science in its own right, I'll have to disagree. When looking at screenshots from the show, you'll notice that the shading is almost always done the same way throughout every single frame; yes, I know that animations are supposed to be consistent in cartoons, but that's not my point. If you step back and take the time to draw lines with your mind along the edges of the shading, you'll see what I'm talking about. Everything in the show, from the characters themselves to the backgrounds to the Massive, is geometric. Draw the style with that mindset activated and you'll find laying down good skeletons will become much easier.

I personally prefer to do my "Invader Zim" artwork completely on the computer, nowadays, but I've been vectoring like a beast for a very long time, so this tutorial will start with some good, old-fashioned paper and pencil doodling before going on to basic CG. As always, my describing habits tend to be a little psychotic.

As is the case with most everything I draw, everything starts with the skull, or head. This gives you an anchoring point for the rest of the skeleton and allows you some time to brainstorm a pose for the character involved, which shall be Zim himself from a 3/4 front angle for the duration of this tutorial. It is vital that you keep your hand steady as you lay down lines, keeping them clean and as geometric as humanly possible. Start the head with a reasonably straight line before curving down slightly to add the bottom/throat area. From there, lightly lay down a line that would correspond to the geometric shading before finishing off the top and the back of the head.

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SIDE NOTE: I can never stress the importance of keeping your skeleton lines as light as possible. Lay them down too hard and not only will they later be hell to erase, but will overkill any shading you do at the end.

The body is fairly simple, especially when dealing with the small Irkens, such as Zim; geometrically, it closely resembles a cone. You can lay down a spine to help coordinate a difficult pose, if you would like to.

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Now for the arms and legs. Length and position is fairly self-determined, very flexible, but they tend to have a more fluid curve than the rest of the skeleton.

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Once the lines are completely laid out, go ahead and move onto the detailing. Add the eyes, mouth, uniform details, and everything else that will turn the skeleton from a simple guideline into a solid character. Irken antennae connect at the slight bend on the top of the skull when upright and flow back somewhat when lowered. Of course, this changes with the perspective, but just remember the geometric theme and all will be well with the world.

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Alright, remember what I said about the style being geometric, well, now is when you should really begin to notice it: as you shade. After erasing all skeleton remnants and darkening any lines that are meant to stay, shade in according to a 3D feel and things will turn out beautifully. Use various intensities of shade to give depth, especially when dealing with the eyes.

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Now that we have our lineart all finished and shaded, scan it onto your computer and open it up in your preferred illustrations program; since I use Paint Shop Pro 8, though, specific instructions from this point onwards would differ amongst other programs, like Photoshop or such.

Create a vector layer and set the opacity somewhere around 50 or 60, this will allow you to see the lineart underneath while you CG.

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Again, since I don't usually even use lineart anymore for my "Invader Zim" artwork, my personal process of CGing is vastly different, and fairly more complicated, than the one I'll be describing here, but this is how it used to be done when I first ventured into the art of vectoring.

Choose the pen tool and set the line color to 64-64-64 (or pure black if you plan on vector coloring) with the fill color set at pure white; the line width should be set to 5. Also make sure to have the pen tool's segment type set to point-to-point.

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The best way I can explain vectoring is that its something like playing connect the dots with your mouse. You click once to create a dot and then click elsewhere to create the next dot, forming a line; you can also hold down the second click and drag the mouse about in order to form a curve, which you will need to do when moving on to the arms and legs and details. Now, the outermost line will always be the thickest, excluding the arms, legs, or antennae. As details become finer and finer, the line width will decrease. Below is and example to help clarify the differentiating line widths.
Blue=5. Red=4. Green=3. Purple=2. Pink=1.

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SIDE NOTE: You might have to kill the visibility of the vector fill to make most of the smaller details possible. Likewise, you might have to kill the visibility of the vector line in order to detail things to a point

Okay, if you haven't yet noticed how vectors work, go ahead and click the little plus sign that formed as soon as you created your first dot and you will see a list of many layers that are all titled NEW SHAPE. If you're an organization freak like I am or you're working on a rather difficult bit of vectoring madness, it helps to quickly name each of them with something you can recognize, as I did. Just right-click on each one, which are better known as sub-layers and select RENAME. You may have also noticed that, when vectoring your lines, the lines will continue on forever until you switch from drawing mode to edit mode and click somewhere on the image; double-click to deselect the sub-layer completely. So, below is the simplest way I can describe how to do so.

[HOW TO SWITCH PEN MODES ]

After a good half hour or so of vectoring, depending on experience and other things it might take you quite a bit longer, it's time to return the vector layer's opacity to 100 and use that shading technique I described in the last tutorial to get a lovely, yet time friendly, result.

Promote the background layer to a raster and move it above the vector layer.

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Set the blend mode to MULTIPLY.

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Go up to the ADJUST tab and go down to ADD/REMOVE NOISE and select EDGE-PRESERVING SMOOTH...

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Set the amount of smoothing to 15 and click OKAY.

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And there it is!~ How to draw an Irken in classic "Invader Zim" style, CG it using the handy vector layer, and apply quick, but effective, shading that makes good use of your scanned lineart.

Now, as a final word of advice, this is meant as a simple tutorial, not an in-depth step-by-step guide to learn how to master vectoring stuff. The only way to master anything is through practice and curiosity; don't be afraid to explore your illustration program on your own and discover everything that it can do. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you understood the meaning behind my rambling instructions. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop a comment and I'll do my best to answer them. Happy doodling!~

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