Illustrator vector tutorial: Cow Driving

In this new tutorial you will learn how to create a cute cartoon cow driving a car in Adobe Illustrator.
If you love vector character design then this tutorial is right for you. You will learn how to draw a cute cow character driving an equally cute car and this will be a good opportunity for you to improve your Pen Tool drawing skills. You will be guided step by step and at the end, we will complete the illustration with a green landscape. Let’s start!

Tutorial Details
Program: Adobe Illustrator CS6 – CC 2017
Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Difficulty: Beginner-Intermediate

Step 1
Launch Illustrator and open a new document. Type a name for your file and set up the dimensions then select Pixels as Units and RGB as Color Mode. Next, go to Edit > Preferences > General and set the Keyboard Increment to 1 px and while there, also go to Units. These settings will help you throughout the drawing process.

Step 2
We will start with the head of the cow. Take the Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape like in the image below colored with off white. While the shape stays selected, go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow and apply the settings shown in order to obtain the edge shading.
Next, use the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw an ellipse of about 44 x 52 px as the right eye shape. Color it with dark gray R=52, G=52, B=52.

Step 3
Let’s continue to work on the eye. Draw a smaller ellipse in the upper right side of the previous shape; then color it with white and reduce the Opacity to 7%.
To add sparkles, draw a small circle in the upper side and a much smaller one in the bottom left side of the eye. Both circles are filled with white.

Step 4
Select and Group (Control-G) all the shapes that make up the eye; then go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Check Vertical and hit Copy to get an identical copy as the left eye. All you have to do is to move it into place.

Step 5
Take the Pen Tool (P) and draw the shape of a patch like in the image below. Color it with off black.
To add a highlight on the cow’s head, draw a crescent-like shape following the upper left side of the head. Once done, color it with white and reduce the Opacity to 20%.
Step 6
Focus on the right and left corners at the bottom of the head and draw a dark patch on each side.

Step 7
We will continue with the nose. Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape like in the image below and color it with pink. Next, go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow and apply the settings shown in order to get a soft edge shading.

Step 8
Follow the left side of the nose and draw a thin shape as a highlight. Color it with a lighter shade of pink. Switch to the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw a small ellipse in the upper left side of the nose filled with the same pink shade.
To create a shadow, follow the right side of the nose and draw a shape like in the image below using the Pen Tool (P). Color it with off black and reduce the Opacity to 7%.

Step 9
As the nostril, draw an ellipse filled with dark mauve. Next, draw a moon-like shape in its right side using the Pen Tool (P) and color it with a lighter mauve color. Draw another moon-like shape to the left of the previous one and color it with a medium mauve color.

Step 10
Select and Group (Control-G) all the shapes that make up the nostril; then go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Check Vertical and hit Copy to obtain an identical copy as the left nostril. Move it into place.

Step 11
Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape like in the image below as the right horn and then send it behind everything by going to Object > Arrange > Send to Back (Shift-Control-[). Color it with light brown; then go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow and apply the settings shown. This will create edge shading and give some dimension to the horn.
As a detail, draw a stripe through the middle of the horn and color it with a medium brown.

Step 12
Select and Group (Control-G) the two shapes that make up the horn; then go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Check Vertical and hit Copy to obtain the left horn of the cow. Arrange it into place and you are done.

Step 13
We will continue with the ears. Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a droplet-like shape in the right side of the head and then send it in back. Color it with off black like the patches on the head.
Add a highlight on the ear by drawing a small ellipse with the Ellipse Tool (L). Color it with light gray.
Group (Control-G) the two shapes that make up the ear and reflect it vertically as you did earlier. Move the newly obtained left ear into place.

Step 14
Next, use the Pen Tool (P) to draw the shape of the hands and color them with pink. Add a small ellipse filled with a lighter shade of pink on each hand as a highlight.

Step 15
We will continue with the steering wheel. First, draw a half circle using the Pen Tool (P) and then color it with off black. Draw other two similar but much smaller shapes and arrange them next to each other at the bottom.
Continue to draw two tapered and elongated shapes at the top of the wheel as highlight shapes. Color them with gray and reduce the Opacity to 60%.

Step 16
As the hood of the car, draw a rectangle-like shape but rounded at the top and at the bottom. Color it with pink and then apply the Inner Glow effect.
Continue to draw the shapes of the side mirrors and apply the same appearances but we need to adjust the Inner Glow settings since these shapes are much smaller.

Step 17
Focus on the mirrors and draw a small shape at its base as shown in the close-up. Color it with off black and reduce the Opacity to 20% to obtain a shadow. Repeat the same thing for the left mirror.
Still using the Pen Tool (P), draw the shape of the body and make sure to send it behind everything by going to Object > Arrange > Send to Back (Shift-Control-[). Color the cow’s body with dark gray.

Step 18
Focus on the hood of the car and let’s draw the headlights. Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw the first ellipse filled with off white. Switch to the Pen Tool (P) and draw a crescent-like shape at the top of the ellipse filled with gray.
Next, draw a smaller ellipse inside the first one and color it with a darker gray. The final thing to add is a small circle in the upper right side colored with off white.

Step 19
Select and Group (Control-G) all the shapes that make up the headlight and reflect it vertically to obtain the left one. Move it into place.
Now, use the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw a flat ellipse at the top of the hood. Color it with white and reduce the Opacity to about 50%. This will be the highlight.

Step 20
Take the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw three rectangles of different lengths in the front of the car. Color them with gray R=77, G=77, B=77.
The next thing to draw is the windshield using the Pen Tool (P). After you are done, color it with off white and reduce the Opacity to 55% to make is semi-transparent.

Step 21
For the bumper, draw with the Pen Tool (P) a rectangle-like shape, slightly curved and color it with light gray. Draw a similar but thinner shape at the bottom and color it with a darker shade of gray. This will be the shadow.
As a highlight, draw a thin shape with tapered ends at the top of the bumper and color it with off white.

Step 22
Use the Rounded Rectangle Tool to draw the shape of the right tire and color it with dark gray. Now, we need to create a shadow under the bumper so use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape like in the image below in the bottom left side of the tire. Draw another shadow shape in the right side of the hood and then color both of them with dark gray.

Step 23
Select and Group (Control-G) all the shapes that make up the tire and then reflect it vertically to obtain the left tire. Move it into place.
At this point the cute cow and the car are ready and we need to create a shadow underneath. Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw an ellipse with tapered ends at the bottom of the car, between the tires. Color it dark green or dark gray; then set the Blending Mode to Multiply and reduce the Opacity to 20%.

Step 24
Let’s complete the illustration with a beautiful green landscape. First, go to the Layers panel and press the Create New Layer button at the bottom. This will create a new layer for the background that must be under the layer with the cow character.
Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw the first hill shape at the bottom of your artboard and color it with bright green. Draw another hill shape in the right side and color it with a darker shade of green.

Step 25
Draw a third hill shape behind the first two, and color it with a darker green. Continue to draw a shape like in the image below at the bottom of the artboard. Color it with dark green; then set the Blending Mode to Multiply and reduce the Opacity to 10%. This will define a highlight area around the car to make it stand out.

Step 26
You can add more hills and details into the illustration or you can keep the landscape simple. To add shading between the hills, draw two shapes like in the next image and make sure they are under the main front hill in the Layers panel. Color them with dark green; then set the Blending Mode to Multiply and reduce the Opacity to 10%.

Step 27
Let’s add some greenery by drawing a random wavy shape in the bottom left and right corners of the artboard. You can easily do this with the Pencil Tool (N). Color them with dark green.

Step 28
Next, draw two mountain shapes with the Pen Tool (P) and send them behind everything by going to Object > Arrange > Send to Back (Shift-Control-[). Color both of them with blue.

Step 29
We are almost done. Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to draw a rectangle having the same size as your artboard. Color it with the linear gradient shown at a 90 degrees Angle.

Step 30
To complete the sky, draw using the Pencil Tool (N) a few random cloud shapes, as many as you want. Color them with off white and reduce the Opacity to 50%.

Awesome work!
Here is the final image of the cute cartoon cow driving a car. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you learned new things today that you can apply in future projects.