Main page – click to enlarge

Results page – click to enlarge

If you would like to know how was the process of creating the design and the monkey character – keep reading;).

First – we figure out the phrase “it’s not a monkey business” together with the client.
That give us a idea who the character might be – a monkey.
Since we wanted the design to be funny – our choice was the chimp (as in my humble opinion – those are the funniest monkey of all kind;).

We thought it’ll suite (and make the chip even more funny) if he’ll wear a “salesman uniform” – that is blue shirt and tie.

Than we’ve added the colors and shading

The client was given the draft – he liked it and we proceed with the design itself.

Since the whole idea was build around the monkey character – it felt good to have a banana in the logo

If you would like to check it live – please visit TradingVans.co.uk

It’s for garden irrigation (and well digging) company from Poznan name Irriplan.
People from Irriplan were extremaly open-minded and they left me huge creative freedom.
I’m very happy with the result of the work – the whole layout was build upon “ground layers” concept and funny, cartoon graphics.

Site layout (click to see bigger version)

Zoom-in of the header illustration

You can visit the site at systemy-nawadniania.com

Click to see some more

click the image to see larger version

The website is divided into three major parts – aimed for children, teenagers and adults.
Each design demanded a little different approach, yet all of them had to be in the same style.
(this was a little challenging, but that’s how we like it;)

Wellsiniki main layout (click to enlarge)

Wellsinki children layout (click to enlarge)

Wellsinki teen layout (click to enlarge)

Wellsinki adulst layout (click to enlarge)

We’ve also created a logo for the Wellsinki website.
It depicts a squirrel – since it’s a very common animal in Helsinki.

Wellsinki.fi logo

For children part of the website we’ve created a cartoon mascot – Wellu.
Wellu is both teaching the children and playing with the at the same time – he has got a role of “older brother” for younger site users.

Wellu character

You can use this work in both private and commercial projects.

Download files (.fla + .ai – illustrator file was exported from Flash – let me know if it’s ok).

The set comes as .fla and .ai file.
You can download it here.

This artwork is released under “do whatever you want with it” licence.
It’s free to use it in personal or commercial projects.
It would be nice if you could let us know in the comments when you’ll put it into good use – but that’s not needed.

First we start with a sketch – in our example I’ve made a very nice bear – his name is Teodore.

So – we scan Teddys’ sketch and import it to Flash (you can also make it with any other vector editor – like Illustrator or Inkscape).

You can see that Teddy is actually made from many simple shapes. We’ll create each element individually – let’s start with eyes.

Each eyeball is made from three circles. You need one black circle for base and two white circles for reflexes.
You can add radiant gradient fill to the base to make it look nicer.

Than we move to eyebrows. Make it simple rectangles first – than you can round its shape a little

Let’s move to the ears.
As you can see the ear is also build with two simple elipses. You can use radial gradient fill to make the shape of the ear more clear.

We can also flip one ear – to give a little character to the Teddy.
(just cut a part of the ear, paste it to layer above, change it’s color to something bright, and place it mirrored at the ear).

We can move to face and body now – both head and torso of the Teddy are build with simple elipses.

We use two elipses for the bear’s face.

To make the nose simply put straight vertical line in the middle of the elipse (tip: make the line a Movie Clip, select both the line and elipse – and use align option). Than finish the nose with two bent lines.

Torso is made with two elpises (Do you understand why this post is titled “Create cartoon with simple shapes”, right?). Elipses are filled with radial gradient to make it look more realistic.

Finally we move to the legs.
Outer shape is a elipse (again). To make the inner shape we need to use Pen tool. (here’s the link to tutorial how to use the pen). We fill the shapes with radial gradients.

That’s all – our Teddy bear is completed:).

Feel free to download and check the .fla file here.

You can use this to any work you would like (commercial or non-commercial). If you use it please drop a comment about it.

Ben Caldwell (check his official site btw.) is great and very experienced cartoon designer. He share his knowledge in two tutorial-type books called “Action Cartooning” and “Fantasy Cartooning”.

There are descirbed examples of great cartoon sketches, the whole design process is shown step by step.

You can also find some design tips, commonly made mistakes – and a lot of more.

Those two books helped me a lot in my work – check them yourself, you won’t regret it.