Cartoon Character Logo

This is a more advanced tutorial, teaching you how to make your own cartoon character using photoshop from scratch. note, this is advanced and all pictures have been scaled down by at least 50%

1. So, we start off with a background, i used 650px x 750px. if we fill the background white to start.

2. On a new layer (called red base) grab the circular marquee tool and draw a an oval - fill this any colour you like, i chose a dark red.

3. With the paintbrush tool set with a 0% hardness and about a 100px size, set your foreground to a slightly darker colour. just go around the outside of the circle to make it look a little 3D

5. On a new layer (named highlight one), hold CTRL and click the thumbnail of the layer with the circle onit. This should add marching ants around it. Then, click Selection > contract - and contract it by about 7 px. now, fill it white.

6. With the marquee tool, delete a selection at the bottom making it a little curved.

7. Hold CTRL and click back on the thumbnail (on the layers palate) named "red base". Now, click Filter > Blur > Guassian blur - and give a setting of 2.0

8. Now repeat this process 2 times more

9. Duplicate this layer, and set the blending options to overlay. (On the layer 'highlight one' , you might want to make it a fraction smaller for the layer above to show through.)

10. Now go back onto your layer named "red base" and make a new layer, called "eyes white" With your marquee tool, fill 2 circles white in a position where they will look like eyes. (now, the same way as we added a slight inner shadow on the 'red base' layer, do the same to this one)

11. Now, inside make some black circles that will be the pupils, again with the circular marquee tool.

12. You can add a highlight, basically the same way as we made the layer "highlight one" without the blur. Then, 2 more white circles on the top.

14. Make a new layer and name it "Beak base" Make a more flattened oval this time and fill it a bright yellow.

15. hold CTRL and click the thumbnail of this layer. Now, grab the paintbrush tool again and just paint a line across (only a fraction darker than your previous yellow colour) This will give it the 3D look later. (you could add a little curve underneath to give it a smile)

16. Make a new layer, named "Beak highlight" If you CTRL + click the thumbnail of the layer "beak" you will once again have marching ants. Click Selection > Modify > Contact - 7px and fill it white.

17. With your circular marquee tool, erase a big circle at the bottom

18. Hold CTRL and click back on the thumbnail (on the layers palate) named "beak base". Now, click Filter > Blur > Guassian blur - and give a setting of 2.0

19. Now repeat this process 2 times more

20. Duplicate this layer, and set the blending options to overlay. (On the layer 'beak highlight', you might want to make it a fraction smaller for the layer above to show through.)

21. You can create a body basically using the same technique as you did for the head.

22. If you merge the 2 beak layers, you can duplicate the layer and scale it down to make a foot.

23. Basically that's all there is to it! i added wings, the same way as i did the head.. the base layer, then the highlight, blur it and duplicate it before finally setting it to overlay. Then, you can merge these and make them into ears.

24. And basically that is all! Obviously i added my photoshop skills and turned it into a wallpaper adding clouds and a background.