Designing Your Own Online Avatar

Designs dekeConstructed is a new series that breaks down the creation of cool designs so you can build them on your own. This installment is for everyone who needs an online avatar—that tiny image that has to communicate a thousand words about who you are in less than a square inch. Start by taking a photo of yourself facing forward—the traditional passport style. From there Deke McClelland takes you through the steps to transforming your photo into a cartoon avatar with Illustrator: tracing your features, refining and exaggerating the strokes, adding color and shading, and using gradients and patterns to fill in details like hair.

Plus, learn some tricks for infusing your drawing with an extra bit of personality and exporting your final image in the best format for social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Topics include:
Preparing a photographic tracing template
Tracing eyes and other features with the Ellipse and Pen tools
Roughing in hair and other complex features
Reshaping paths to enhance their accuracy
Establishing variety with stroke attributes
Coloring the avatar
Shading a face with gradients
Adding expression and personality
Saving a universally compatible PNG file