drawing question

[tuilorraine]

The octopus below, was drawn in illustrator, before saving it as this gif. See the little pink circle on the tentacles near the bottom?
How do I make one of the tentacles appear to go behind the other?  Is there a way? Sorry for such a newbie question.

[Jacob Bugge]

tuilorraine,

You should be able to adapt using the Live Paint Group to remove the unwanted bits.

How to create and work with Live Paint groups in Illustrator

[thepatje · Accepted solution]

Hi tuilorraine

What Jacob said is correct. Remove the black border, ad straight line where you want shadows and fill those shadows using the Live Paint Bucket tool. Illustrator will recognise those lines and you're able to move them even after there are used. Finalise your artwork with a small stroke applied the group and some little circles on the skin.

[tuilorraine]

Thank-you Jacob and thepatje. I will try that today.

thepatje, what you have drawn is beautiful. I envy your skills so much and hope one day to emulate them. My drawing has a long way to go before it is complete. I'm intending to give it eyes, its two missing arms, many suckers, maybe the siphon, quite a lot of interesting texture and colour. Will probably take it into photoshop for final touching up before it is ready to be the cover of my book.

The octopus will be holding a huge and beautiful pearl which I have created in photoshop.and is already finished. I'm hoping that by the time I finish, my octopus will hardly be recognisable as it is now, a simple little cartoon drawing.  This will all be a long slow project for someone at my level of skill. However once through it all, I will know a lot more.
There are some beautiful ready-drawn octopodes available on Adobe and elsewhere but I want mine to be unique and drawn-to-purpose for my book.Trouble is I'm more of an author more than an artist.

[Jacob Bugge]

For my part you are welcome, tuilorraine.

The way you have drawn the sexapus is basically plane, all arms beside one another so the two missing arms will be very difficult to fit in, and redrawing may be better, and faster than trying to adapt/adjust/edit.

You might also consider the more realistic approach with some of the arms appearing behind the others (and the head/body), and thiose at the sides partially behind others, which would also call for a redrawing.

But more than anything, it may be worth considering how much detail and realism is appropriate; this also depends on the nature of the book it is to appear in/on, and it should match the pearl, of course. You may even consider the (possible) option of keeping it as a sexapus (just think of the number of fingers (in addition to the thumb) in cartoons where you have three instead of four, the same proportion as six to eight).

[tuilorraine]

Great ideas. So far its a kind of combination of these. I've drawn in two more as separate paths that sweep into partial view from behind. But as you suggest, I will probably try a few different approaches before deciding what works. May even try drawing each arm as a separate path. Everything I try will help me learn.