Let’s face it, those minion characters from Despicable Me were pretty darned cute. In today’s tutorial, we will use Photoshop and Illustrator to create a cute minion character. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Jeans Texture
• Iris

Step 1 – Illustrator

Create an 800x600px document in Illustrator (Cmd/Ctrl + N).

Step 2

Begin to draw the body. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool then as you drag the cursor, repeatedly press the up arrow key to change the radius of the corners until you get some like the image below.

Step 3

Now copy the body (Cmd/Ctrl + C) and paste it in the same position (Cmd/Ctrl + F), move the original body away for now. With the Rectangle Tool (M) draw a rectangle like the image below, then in the Pathfinder panel press the Minus Front button to obtain the first part of the shape.

For the second one, draw another rectangle and on the Menu Bar select Effect > Warp > Bulge. Set Horizontal and Bend to -11%, leave the rest to 0, click Ok button to confirm. Select the rectangle and in the Menu Bar let’s click on Object > Expand Appearance.

Now dispose the first and the second part like image below, select them and in Pathfinder Panel click on Unite button. To make the shape more rounded use the Direct Selection Tool (A), then try to move the anchor point and handles.

Step 4

With the Rectangle Tool (M) draw a square (hold down Shift while dragging). Then use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select the two bottom points and press the Convert Button in the Option Bar. Adjust the handles until you get a result like the image below. (You don’t need to do those shapes exactly as I do, because the aim of this tutorial is to create a pack of different minions, so follow my guidelines but try to customize your minion too).

Step 5

For the shoulder strap let’s draw another rectangle. Then in the Menu Bar select Effect > Warp > Arc set Vertical; Bend to 11% and Vertical Distortion to 20%. Remember to Expand Appearance like before or when you will try to rotate or transform this object the effect will be re-applied with some unwanted results.
With the Direct Selection Tool (A) round a little the top left corner.

Let’s add a circle with the Ellipse Tool (L) and dispose it like the image below. Then duplicate the shoulder strap and right click on the copy, select Transform > Reflect set the mode to Vertical and click Ok button.

Step 6

Now let’s draw the arm. Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape like below. Then duplicate and reflect it.

Step 7

To draw the hand we have to use the Pen Tool (P). Let’s draw something like the image below. When you’re done, duplicate and reflect vertically the hand. This time you wont need to Expand Appearance because there’s no effect applied to the path. Instead, if you select, by mistake, in the Menu Bar Object > Expand you will expand the stroke and the fill (if some) of the path, getting a totally different result, so pay attention.

Step 8

Do the same for the shoe. Draw it with the Pen Tool (P). Create the curved line and then place it on the shoe. So, as usual, duplicate and reflect. If wanted, you can adjust the copied shoe as shown. (editor：admin)