Cat design in Illustrator - designing ears and belly

If you get familiar with Adobe Illustrator and are passionate about drawing, you will learn in this tutorial how to charmingly design the ears of a cat and give the cat a inviting whitish belly. This guide covers the steps to create the ears with an appealing gradient and perfect adjustment of the belly to breathe more life into your artwork.

Main Insights You will receive practical tips on how to use effective tool techniques to design the cat's ears and adjust the belly accordingly. The use of gradients and other Illustrator tools will help you create an appealing design that makes any cat look charming.

Step-by-Step Guide

Designing the Ears

The first step is to create the inner area of the ears. You start by creating a new layer and renaming it to "Ears." Now select the star tool and create a new triangle in your workspace. You will notice that this triangle immediately receives the same gradient as your base shape, which we will change to adjust the colors according to our vision.

To highlight the inner area of the ears, select a shade of red as a placeholder. Hold down the Shift key while scaling and positioning the triangle so that the distance between the ears is even. This gives you the necessary symmetry to ensure a harmonious design. Check the angle of the corners and make sure they are not too sharp. If they appear sharp, you can round the corners by using the direct selection tool and pulling the anchor points accordingly.

Next, you will apply a gradient to the shape. To do this, select the gradient tool and click on the shape to create a radial gradient. Set vibrant colors on the left side of the gradient. You can apply RGB values of 197 for red, 31 for green, and 111 for blue. The last point will convert to white, completing the use of the gradient.

You also want to design the right side of the ears, so you simply copy the left shape and mirror it. Press Alt while dragging the shape and hold the Shift key to keep it in a line. Then go to Object → Transform → Reflect and place the new shape accordingly.

To give your design even more character, you will draw lines within the ear area. For this, you will create your own brush. Select a rectangle with black fill, then pull a semicircle into the shape of a brush. Go to the Brushes panel, click the plus sign for a new brush, and select the art brush.

Configure your brush's pressure sensitivity. Your stroke weight should vary from 24% to 100% depending on the pressure of your tablet. Save your brush. Now you are ready to set personalized accents by stroking from the thicker to the thinner side of the brush.

That would be it for the ears. I hope you are satisfied with the result! Now let's move on to the next point: the belly of the cat.

Creating the Cat's Belly

For the white belly of your cat, you first need to create a new layer and name it "Belly." Here you draw a shape that you like with the rectangle tool. Initially filled with a white color, you can now adjust the shape to be rounded by using the handles of the anchor points, just as you did with the ears. This way, you create a smooth and rounded shape.

To perfectly adjust the belly shape, you need to make cuts in the shape. To do this, copy the base shape of the cat and place it over the belly shape. Combine the two shapes with the Pathfinder tool and select "Intersect." This way, you keep the desired belly shape and remove everything unnecessary.

Now apply a gradient to the belly shape to give it depth and structure. Again, select the gradient tool and configure a radial gradient. Set the values for the left handle to 0% (White) and for the second handle to 20% (also White). The last one will be set as White as well.

Now adjust the gradient by editing and positioning it with the gradient tool until it harmonizes with the rest of the cat.

The belly already looks much livelier! With this, you have successfully designed the ears and the belly of your cat. If you are satisfied with the overall appearance of the cat, you can add some details to further refine the character.

Summary - Creating Creative Cat Ears and a Beautiful Belly in Illustrator

In this guide, you learned how to design the ears of a cat with a gradient and create an appealing belly. You applied useful techniques to adjust your shapes and harmoniously coordinate both composition and color.