Dragonfly Drawings
(Sketching + Vector)

Dragonfly drawings are quite fun to create! This little cartoon character is the perfect subject for a fun, but more challenging drawing lesson!

You probably won't have any trouble sketching this cute character. After all, the illustration is made from basic shapes and no particular areas are hard to duplicate. The real challenge will be to create realistic shadows match with precise gradient effects to come up with a nice result.

Step 1

First, sketch the character using a simple piece of paper. As you can see, I made a rough sketch that doesn't include much details. Even the wings on the right side are hard to see!

Step 2

Then, import your illustration in a vector application and add a few outlines. No need to create solid shapes for now. I like to use outlines that are thick and made with irregular width.

Step 3

Next, I like to create plain shapes and place them behind the outlines added previously. Why do I create two separate shapes for the outline and the plain colors? Simply because I will need to add a few shadows between these two elements later in the drawing tutorial.

Step 4

All modern vector software have a gradient tool that you can use to create basic shadows. Only a few seconds and the result is already spectacular! Make sure that the top of each shape is filled with a darker tone of color. 

Step 5

Now let's add new shapes to create even darker shadows. Indeed, some areas are partially hidden by other parts of the character (or are simply not exposed to the light source) and therefore you must add new shadows to create these effects.

Step 6

Use the transparency tool available in your application to hide the top part of all shapes created in the previous step. We want to end up with subtle shadows that are realistic and not too distracting.

Step 7

Once again, we need to create new shapes to illustrate a new effect. But this time, we want to add reflection on our dragonfly drawings. All these new shapes must be colored in white and don't forget to make these elements slightly smaller than the original ones.

Step 8

Once again, select the transparency tool to partially hide the white shapes. However, you must hide the bottom part if you want this effect to be successful.

Step 9

Finally, I like to color each outline with a color similar to the shape it is associated with. For example, the outline of the head was colored with a darker tone of green. I feel like the result is more interesting and professional by doing so.

I hope you had fun creating dragonfly drawings and don't hesitate to practice as often as needed!

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