The Creature From Wacom Lagoon! W/ Sketchbook Pro 5 & Wacom

I thought I would make a simple easy to follow instructable on drawing a creepy - yet adorable creatrure for Halloween on Sketchbook Pro 5 with my trusty Wacom intuos3. This will be simple and easy to see in each step. I make mistakes just like everyone else in the world. I decided not to detail them but I will mention them in the steps. After all this is for fun, right? It's creepy! It's cute! I wouldn't touch it. You can make this and let your family be frightened by it's fearsome pointy teeth (and adorable smile)!! Let's begin!

Step 1: It's All Simple Shapes!

Step 1. Basics for your creature.
 Open Sketchbook Pro and get your tool bars open and ready.You can use the menu at the top to get tool bars on your screen. I start off with simple shapes. A circle and some lines crisscrossing around it like it was a ball.

Step 2. Make the ball transparent.
Using your layers tool bar, slide down the bar to make the object in that layer lighter. This will make it easier for you to see lines on your other layers.

Step 3. New layer time!
Create a new layer on top of circle layer. This will be our new drawing layer. The circle layer can be locked now by holding the layer on he toolbar and selecting the layer with the lock on it. This just prevents you from accidentally drawing on the wrong layer. It keeps you from having to do a lot of erasing or re-drawing. If you lock it, you will have to unlock it several times throughout and lock it back. Now select your new layer you just created for your drawing.

Step 4. Circles on top of circles.
  It's really hard to draw a perfect circle on a wacom tablet. So I use the circle tool on the toolbar to make it easier. The orignal circle I drew was just a sketch to see how big I want it. So it can be messy, but this one needs to be neater.On the new layer I draw a circles until I get one close to the same size. I use my scale & move option in the magnifying tool to adjust size and align it.

Step 5. It needs a mouth.
I realize I need to add something to give my creature a start of a face. I went back to my original circle and added a mouth shape to give me a feel for where the eyes should go. I then go back to the drawing layer to start working on top of this framework.

Step 2: Let's Start Giving Our Drawing Character!

Step 6. Mouth, check!
On the drawing layer use the pencil tool to draw over the framework. Make sure to adjust your pencil to what you want to use for the rest of the outline. Since you want all the lines to match in size and hardness.

Step 7. It's a meat-eater!
I use the zoom tool to make all the teeth inside the mouth. Do them a small section at a time. It's hard to keep consistency for a long stretch.

Step 8. Let it see!
I go back to the framework layer and add my eyes. Now, I could have sketched all the face first (and I usually do) but, I wanted you to make sure each step is like you want it. If you focus on one feature at a time, it's easier to keep it simple without worrying about everything at once. This also gets you use to switching and creating in layers.
  Go back to your drawing layer and go over the eyes to add them to the character.

Step 3: It's All in the Details, No, Really It Is.

Step 8. This is where you chose your creature features!
 You will see, down in the pics that I add a bunch of details on your framework layer again. I go as far to show what order I drew them in. Look at the simple shapes that I use. Light gestures and with cartoony features for all this creatures details.There isn't anything that is realistic in this at all. Use your undo button if something doesn't look right. You can press it several times if you need to go back further.

Step 9. It's all coming together now.
First, create a new layer. This will be our details layer. You will have to go back on the drawing layer to erase after working on your details. So now on your new layer, use the pencil tool to go over your framework for your details. Hide your framework layer by using the layer tool with the eye on it. This will allow you to see your progress on your final drawing.

Step 10. Let's erase a little bit.
Ok, go to your drawing layer and zoom in on the areas that need some erasing. As you see at the legs, fins on top the lines are under my details. To correct this, I will use the eraser tool (not the soft eraser) to get these off. After you get everything cleaned up, you can merge the details and drawing layers together.

Step 4: Now Let's Make It Live.

Step 10. Color time!
This is going to be messy! No, you don't need a smock. You will need your IMAGINATION!!!! Start with a new layer, this will be our creatures color. Keep the layer on top at the start and go CrAzY! I started with the airbrush tool and I adjusted the size and flow to HUGE! This covers everything. See my pic below for what a mess I made. After I had added the colors I needed, I dragged the drawing layer up to the top see what it looked like. I decided that it needed more color after this. I selected the color layer again and added the dark green color on top of the other green. I zoomed in on the mouth and added the pink. You can see the final outcome and I'm happy with it.

Step 11. Clean it up!
Go through and look at your creature and decide which areas needed to have color removed. I made a mess so I cleaned up all around the creature and inside his eyes, mouth, etc.. Use the erase tool when doing this and make sure you are on the color layer while doing this. If not, don't worry you have a undo button to fix it.

Step 5: This Is the Creature of Wacom Lagoon!

Step 12. Be proud of your creature!
Stop and admire your creature. This thing that did not exist before, now lives because of you. Congrats! You have made it past the hard parts. Go find someone and give them High-five! Tell them you created life (in a sense). Then proceed to next step.

Step 13. Give it a home.
I added a background to mine the same way I added color to the monster. I added a new layer, used the airbrush tool to start. I then went back and forth over the screen to give it that watery look. I took the eraser tool again and made the bubbles in the water right above the creature. I then went to the color layer for the creature and adjusted the eraser to 50% and made bubbles on the creature also.

Step 14. Little touch-ups.
After all this I decided to add some black spots along the sides of the creature. I add my name to the bottom corner and date it.


I hope you enjoy my instructable about our little fishy friend. I will be entering this into the Draw and Paint it! contest! So if you like it please vote for me. Have a Happy Halloween! Thank you!