Draw funny animals in Photoshop

For the lesson from additional materials we will need:

1. Platypus
2. The guinea pig
3. Scottish Haggis
4. Zebra finch
5. Font: Futura Handwritten

Additional Information:

1. TheHaggis.com
2. Wikipedia — Haggis
3. Wikipedia — The Platypus
4. Wikipedia — Steropodon

Document creation

This infographic is created, first of all, for printing, so you should adjust the document accordingly. The document format should be A3. Go to the menu File – New (File – New) or Ctrl + N:

1. Width – 297 mm
2. Height – 420 mm
3. Resolution – 350 dpi (standard value for printing)

Color mode set to CMYK. If you do not plan to print your work, then choose the RGB mode. I also chose a resolution of 350 dpi. Usually use 300 dpi, but it is better to take a little more.

A bit of history

Haggis is a fictional creature living in Scotland. They say that it is from them that the national Scottish dish haggis is made.

Clever and clever, this land-marsupial has never been able to breed in captivity. Once every three years they lay their eggs in mountain holes. There were cases when the female could not find a partner and collected golf balls to bury in the hole. Haggis size is average between domestic cat and guinea pig.

There are two types of haggis: left-handed and right-handed. The name is associated with their paws, which are shorter on one side than on the other. This keeps their body upright and helps to move through the hills (haggis are very susceptible to motion sickness). Lefties walk counterclockwise in the hills, and right-handers move clockwise. Teoritechki crossing of species is possible, however, physical barriers arise in the form of the impossibility of movement of left-handers in a clockwise direction, and right-handers – against. This is another reason why it is impossible to grow haggis in captivity. Haggis has a common ancestor with a platypus.

Approximately 110 million years ago, the progenitor of all haggies and platypuses, the steropodon (also known as haggipus), wandered through the central part of Pangea. This creature lived in the time of the dinosaurs and the first birds. It is believed that some mutations arose in the progeny of the progenitor, which is why the first haggis lost their ability to swim and grew thick hair, like in guinea pigs.

When Pangea split into parts, the haggis migrated to the northern hemisphere, and the platypus remained in Australia.

Haggipuses were extremely capricious, but modern haggis have lost this quality. Due to the friendly attitude towards the person, it is very easy to catch them, as a result, the number of wild haggis has decreased. At first, the hunters were sorry to catch such sweet and harmless creatures, but the hagissa is an extremely exquisite dish, so that they could not deny themselves such pleasure.

Haggis have quite a few enemies. One of them are mosquitoes. It is almost impossible to find evidence of haggis at Loch Ness. They say that the Loch Ness monster eats them as soon as they get close to the water.

Haggis love heather buds and blueberries. Those who live near the farm or garden plots love to gnaw on the host’s vegetables: turnips, potatoes. The haggis have a beak, like a zebra horn, with which they eat thick branches of heather.

As a tribute to the haggis, on Robert Burns’s birthday (a national holiday in Scotland) the table is set with products that love haggis (naturally edible for humans).

Haggis skin has been used for centuries to create yarn for tapestries. Sometimes this yarn was used to make tartan. It is noteworthy that the purple fur is considered the most valuable.

The key features of haggis described above will be used to create info graphics illustrating the way of life of these creatures.

1. Grandparent: Steropodon Galmani (Haggipus)
2. Appearance: front paws shorter than the rest, thick purple-green wool, short, strong beak, like a zebra hornet, with which they collect blueberries and heather
3. The enemies: mosquitoes and nessie
4. The size: Something between guinea pig and domestic cat
5. Poison: shortbread
6. Food: blueberries, heather, turnips and potatoes

Creating sketches

In this tutorial I will use a standard hard brush. To quickly bring up the brush panel, press F5.

Step 1: Family Tree

On the new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) we make a sketch of a family tree – haggipus and the platypus. Each animal must be on a separate layer. If you accidentally draw on the wrong layer, activate Lasso (L) (Lasso) and select the element. Then cut it (C), create a new layer and press Ctrl + Shift + V to paste the cut element.

Step 2: Appearance

Instead of making full-fledged drawings of two kinds of haggis (right-handed and left-handed), we will draw them schematically. In this illustration, we see haggis moving across hills.

Step 3: Predators

Most animals hunt for someone, so we must show who hunts haggis. We will depict the Scottish nests and, of course, Nessie. This is just the author’s interpretation of the world famous monster, because no one has ever seen him (apparently, he is very secretive!). Hicks are very similar to mosquitoes as, in principle, to other small midges. Please note that the scale of the predator is not real. In fact, the nests are like fluttering points, and that’s what we’ll look like with them. Do not forget that Nessie and the midges must be on different layers.

Step 4: Dimensions

What is the size of haggis? This is best shown in comparison with well-known animals. For this we will draw a guinea pig and a cat. Occasionally, haggies are bigger than cats. For clarity, we drew a guinea pig, a cat and an oval, symbolizing haggis. Later we will define its perspective and draw something more interesting than the oval.

Step 5: Poison

Mix of flour and oil is poisonous for haggis, haggis can suffer from terrible meteorism from shortbread. They do not know how to fart, so the air that has accumulated inside can just explode.

Shortbread biscuits are of different types, but we will draw it in the form of an ordinary brick. Also add a more than recognizable poison symbol – a skull with crossed bones. Do not forget that your viewers must correctly interpret the symbols in the infographics.

Step 6: Food

The haggis love blueberries, and the blueberry season is very short, the haggis are very voracious. Most of their diet is heather and, if available in sufficient quantities, turnip and potatoes. It will be boring to place all the food separately, so we will make a small pile out of it.

Placement of elements

Having created all the necessary sketches, we can do their proper placement. The easiest way is to move layers using the Move Tool (V) tool. To transform an element, use the free transformation, which is activated by the key combination Ctrl + T. In addition, all elements can be expanded using the commands in the Image – Image rotation menu.

In the first version of the location lacked some key information. In addition, predators should be evident, so I made them a little more.

Color palette

In infographics you should try to stick with a small amount of colors. I chose three primary colors: purple, orange, and green. In addition, I added shades so that the illustration does not look flat.

Purple: inflorescences of heather, haggis wool, blueberries, potatoes, mountains, turnips
Green: vegetation, Nessie, haggis beak
Orange: biscuit, cat, guinea pig, wool on haggis cheeks

Draw food

Step 1

Each type of food is filled with color on a separate layer. To quickly create a new layer, press Ctrl + Shift + N.

Step 2

We take a light shade and fill them with areas that are more illuminated. Then light-purple paint over the base of the turnip, and a dark shade draw the top. After that, fill the leaves with green. Try to do with fewer details so as not to overload the image.

Step 3

Fill the blueberries with a blue color and a lighter shade, paint the highlights to make them rounded.

Step 4

We take a bright shade of blue and add glare on the berries.

Step 5

On a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) with a brush with opacity and pressing 60% draw heather flowers in the form of dots. Change of pressure will allow to get a more interesting result.

Step 6

We continue to draw heather.

Step 7

On the new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) under the heather flowers with dark green draw leaves.

Step 8

To make the heather look more lush, copy (Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + V) a layer with colors. Then press Ctrl + T and reduce the copy by about 33%.

Step 9

Reduce the opacity of the copy of the color layer to about 50%.

Here is the final result.

Draw a guinea pig and a cat

Step 1

Select the orange color and draw the base of the animals. Orange will go well with the purple color of haggis, which we will draw later.

Step 2

Dark shadow draw shadows.

Step 3

Now select the brown color and draw the outline on the cat. Do not forget that we do not need excessive detailing!

Step 4

Next, draw spots and shadows on the guinea pig.

Step 5

We draw the outline and small spots on the guinea pig with the same brown tint with which we drew the cat.

Step 6

Use the Smudge Tool (Finger) to smear the edges of the pig to create wool.

Step 7

We draw a little disheveled wool and mustache. We get the final result.

We draw a family tree

Step 1

First paint the base.

Step 2

Light shade draw in places where the light falls. Did Haggipus look like a reptile or did I mess up something with flowers? In my old dusty haggis reference book, it is written that haggips were purple with orange fur on their cheeks. Fortunately, in Photoshop it will not be difficult to repaint the drawing.

Step 3

To do this, we create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) in the Color blending mode. Click the right button on the layer and select the Clipping Mask. Paint over haggipus desired color. Then merge this layer with the previous green. We continue to draw hairs using the Smudge Tool (Finger). Do not forget about the platypus and add details.

We draw Nessie and the nasal

Step 1

Paint over the base.

Step 2

Add light areas and using dots create a smooth transition from dark to light. To quickly use the pipette, hold down Alt while working with a brush.

Step 3

We continue to draw the transition and add some bright green dots. In the center of each fin draw a line and add a couple of points to add texture.

Step 4

In blue we draw waves. Eyes and smile draw in black.

Step 5

Add a light purple spot on the nasal, in black we draw wings, legs and eyes. We get the final result.

We draw haggis

Step 1

Draw the base. The haggis have dark purple paws, purple wool, a green beak, orange cheeks, and a purple feather on the head, which is called the “Feather”. But it is only in males, which they attract females.

Step 2

With a dark shade we draw shadows under the beak and on the belly. We draw individual hairs of light purple to show density. On the cheeks draw orange and yellow colors.

Mountain

In the illustration with the mountain, we show how two types of haggis move. Purple color draw a mountain. The base of the mountain is spotted to create a smooth transition. Haggisov draw as simplified as possible. Use the dark blue color.

Inscriptions and comments

For labels use Horizontal type tool (T) (Horizontal text), Futura Handwritten font (or other handwritten font), color – dark purple. At the very top we write “The Haggis: A Simple Guide”.

Step 1

Place the text in the center. The size of the inscription “The Haggis” is changed to 98 pt. The inscription “A simple Guide” is moved to the line below, the size is 50 pt. Leading (spacing between letters) should be equal to 70 pt. The values ​​may be different, depending on the font and your preferences.

Step 2

We write Latin names of animals, some facts and notes. The title (Relative Size) must be darker and larger to get attention.

Step 3

We will slightly modify the illustration of the mountain. We draw arrows indicating the direction of movement of the haggis, and write inscriptions.

Final touches

Step 1

I slightly corrected the arrangement of the elements of the composition so that they do not interfere with each other. For convenience, each element that consists of several layers can be added to a separate group (Ctrl + G), and then move the group using Move Tool (V) (Move).

Step 2

We draw yellow arrows to draw attention to important places of illustration.

Step 3

Double click on the arrow layer to bring up the window Layer style (Layer style). Apply layer style Drop shadow (Shadow) in blend modeMultiply (Multiplication) and choose the blue color for the shadow.

To apply these settings to another arrow, right-click on the layer with Drop shadow (Shadow) and choose Copy Layer Style (Copy layer style), then right-click on the layer on which you want to copy the shadow, and select Paste Layer Style (Paste layer style).

Download the archive with materials for the lesson