SpongeBob SquarePants in 15 steps

-By Serge Birault

Here's a little walktrough my last picture of SpongeBob SquarePants. Yes, I know,  I'm to old for that. But I thought it was a good exercice for my students in Paris. As they don't have very good drawing skills, we just put some colors on picture I found on the internet. The goal of the exercice was to create good volumes with very cartoon shapes. We used Photoshop.

Step 1 : Here's the coloring for kids we use for the exercice. I don't own any right on this picture.

Step 2 : I choosed my ambient light. The sketch is on a multiply layer on the top.

Step 3 : I choosed the direct lights.

Step 4 : I did a solid swath of yellow. I choosed this yellow accordingly with the background color.

Step 5 : With the soft round brush and a very low opacity, I painted the darkest parts and the shadows. I decreased the opacity of the layer of the sketch.

Step 6 : I tried to find my middle tones. I added a little bit of red.

Step 7 : I started the eyes and the teeth on another layer. I don't use white but a very bright blue/green. I used the background color on the side of SpongeBob.

Step 8 : I did the eyes and the pupils and I tried to fix the contrast and the colors.

Step 9 : I used the eraser to define the edges. On another layer, I painted a hole and I duplicated it several times, changing the size each time.

Step 10 : I made him a little bit more reflective. I started the shirt.

Step 11 : The hands and the shorts.

Step 12 : I did the shoes first step. I added the retro light and a bit of shadow on the floor.

Step 13 : I painted the reflection on the floor. SpongeBob is finished.

Step 14 : Jellyfish first step. I created a lot of layers for the transparency and the reflections.

Step 15 : Last step : I added the tentacles.

It was a quite difficult exercice for my students. Working without any references wasn't easy for them. By the way, I was pretty happy of their pictures. Next year, we will try Patrick Star or Gary :)