Photoshop Tutorial: Dark Teddy Bear Illustration

Perhaps I'm a little odd, but I can't think of anything cuter than teddy bears that are all dark and ... well, kinda gothic. Granted, this is coming from someone who obsessively collects Bad Taste Bears just because they're so wrong. What can I say.

This guide will walk you through the creation of a dark or "gothic" teddy bear illustration in just a few steps using Photoshop. To follow the guide to-the-letter, you'll need Photoshop CS or CS2 - but you can achieve the same look with any version of Photoshop or graphic editors with the same tools ... you just might have to look around for where those tools are located.

What are we aiming for? A dark "gothic" little teddy bear with a classic graphic look - and we don't want to spend hours trying to achieve it. Simple.

Illustrating a Dark Teddy

One: First, we need some kind of reference to use. If you're exceptionally good with a graphics tablet (and have one, besides) you can probably skip a reference picture - the rest of us will want one, though. The best kind of reference picture (besides being copyright free so you can use it legally!) will have some pretty clear lines, a teddy posed in a way that you like, and preferrably some patches and stuff to work with. I'll be using this little bear I found at SXC - http://www.sxc.hu/photo/502469. Whatever image you choose, save it to your computer and open it up in Photoshop to get moving right along.

Two: Now, we need to prepare our colors and our canvas.

The canvas is easy - if the image you saved is at least 400 x 400 pixels in size or so, you're fine. If it's smaller or larger than that, you'll want to adjust the image size by clicking "Image" and choosing "Image Size". Just make sure that when you type in a new size, your box labeled "Constrain Proportions" is ticked - this way, your image won't get all distorted out of shape. Do this even if you need to go up a couple hundred pixels - we don't care if the original image gets pixellated, we won't be displaying it anyways. We're just using it as a reference. Finally, make sure your image is in RGB mode by clicking "Image", choosing "Mode", and clicking "RGB".