Free character design courses and tutorials

Learn character design from start to finish with these step-by-step tutorials. Pick up tips and tricks to help you create convincing characters in a range of styles.

All Character Design tutorials:

  1. How to Illustrate a Super Cute Monster With Custom Brushes

    How to Illustrate a Super Cute Monster With Custom Brushes

    Tutorial Intermediate

    Learn how to create a super cute vector illustration of a monster. This tutorial focuses on many aspects of drawing characters, lighting techniques, and...

  2. How to Illustrate a Cute Basketball Player With Simple Shapes

    How to Illustrate a Cute Basketball Player With Simple Shapes

    Tutorial Beginner

    Hello everyone! If you have discovered the wonderful program of Adobe Illustrator recently, then this tutorial is good for you. It is very hard to use Pen...

  3. How to Design and Vector a Set of Character Poses for a Video Game

    How to Design and Vector a Set of Character Poses for a Video Game

    Tutorial Advanced

    In this tutorial we will look at how to design a character for a video game, in this case a "beat 'em up". We will work from the very first sketch to the...

  4. Quick Tip: Create a Pixel Portrait with The Live Paint Bucket

    Quick Tip: Create a Pixel Portrait with The Live Paint Bucket

    Tutorial Beginner

    In this Quick Tip, not only will you see my very first video tutorial for Vectortuts+, you will also learn some of my best tips and tricks for creating pixel...

  5. Making of a Warrior Character in Illustrator

    Making of a Warrior Character in Illustrator

    Tutorial Intermediate

    In this tutorial I will show you how I converted my hand drawn image into vector art in Adobe Illustrator. You'll learn how to take exciting character...

  6. Create a Super Happy Octopus Character

    Create a Super Happy Octopus Character

    Tutorial Beginner

    In Illustrator it's really easy to create fun characters with some simple shapes and the Pathfinder panel. In the following tutorial I will explain how to...

  7. Quick Tip: How to Create Vector Mascot Characters Using a Graphic Tablet

    Quick Tip: How to Create Vector Mascot Characters Using a Graphic Tablet

    Tutorial Intermediate

    Today Russian illustrator Victoria Vasilyeva will share the secrets of her Illustration skills with us. She specializes in illustrating children's books,...

  8. How to Create a Stinking Zombie Flesh-Eater in Illustrator

    How to Create a Stinking Zombie Flesh-Eater in Illustrator

    Tutorial Intermediate

    A few times a each month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of Vectortuts+. This tutorial by Nik Holmes was first...

  9. How to Create a Web Site Mascot

    How to Create a Web Site Mascot

    Tutorial Beginner

    A few times a each month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of Vectortuts+. This tutorial by Scott Jackson was first...

  10. How to Color a Cute Character Using Graphic Styles

    How to Color a Cute Character Using Graphic Styles

    Tutorial Intermediate

    Coloring a character sketch can sometimes take much longer than anyone expects. With a few layer tricks and Graphic Styles, I will show you how to create a...

  11. How to Make a Flesh Ripping Zombie Type Treatment

    How to Make a Flesh Ripping Zombie Type Treatment

    Tutorial Beginner

    A few times a each month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of Vectortuts+. This tutorial by Nik Holmes was first...

  12. Quick Tip: Create a Simple Character Face With Vector Shapes

    Quick Tip: Create a Simple Character Face With Vector Shapes

    Tutorial Beginner

    Learn how to create a stylized and simple character face in Adobe Illustrator with Ryan Quintal. It's all the elipse and pen tool in this one, as we're going...