Inspiration and Research
Start with inspiration. Identify what you want your mascot to accomplish. Get students involved. A mascot unites, represents values, brings life to programs, represents sports teams.
Envision brands’ mascots as students and staff. Explore classroom antics, clubs, sports.
Research the school’s values, history, mission for concept development. Gather colors, mascot, other information to inform the design.
Drawing Your Mascot
Sketching and Refinement
Sketch the Idea: Begin by sketching your mascot idea on a small scale. Start with basic shapes and lines, and try to visualize the overall shape and form of your mascot.
Refine the Sketch: Refine your sketch by adding more details and defining the features of your mascot. Pay attention to proportions, facial expressions, and any unique characteristics that make your mascot stand out.
Coloring and Line Work
Add Color: Decide on a color scheme that complements your mascot’s design and personality. The face is the most important part of a mascot, so we need to pay attention to it!
Line Work: Using varied line work can give the image more presence and definition.
Client Collaboration
Clients tend to have their own vision and will direct you to develop the character to suit their business. Sketch out at least three rough concepts of the mascot drawing for the client to review.
Learning Resources
New Tutorial: Learn How To Create a Mascot – Have Fun! via @tutsplus
This is an intermediate Illustrator tutorial level where you can learn how to create a vector student character mascot from a sketch in Adobe Illustrator.