I need some help when it comes to giving my characters arms

[gatlinv51409754]

Due to my limited knowledge with Illustrator, most of the characters I've made have been just a view from the front. One thing that I've been struggling with is connecting the arms to the rest of the body. This is more what I mean...

I can merge the arm and torso, but this makes me unable to have the arms in front. I can put something over the stroke, but this only works on solid colors. One of my characters I'm working on I have been modifying his appearance. However, I applied the inner glow effect to his jacket to make to look better, and he's holding his hands in front of his chest.

Is it possible to merge a part of the shape? If I can, I can just merge the shoulder to the torso.

[ScooterD76]

A few tricks- One, use seperate layers or groups for the different appendages. Also, seperate your fills from your lines, I.E. copy the character shape from above, and set it to fill with no stroke, then paste in place and set this shape to strokes with no fills ( or draw new lines with no fill) this way, you can end your lines before the shoulders without losing the fill.

Are you planning on animating these characters? Then the setup gets a bit more complicated. Ive been doing this for years and still learning new things!

Hope this helps!

[gatlinv51409754]

The thing is though is that I'm not certain if I can do that with the inner glow effect on the edges. Though I do very much appreciate your help, this is most likely not the solution I'm looking for

Also, not planning on animating yet.

[Monika Gause]

Is there anything else than the inner glow? I mean, please tell us everything from the beginning.

You're using inner glow for shading, right?

You will maybe just need to use a different approach for shading.

[gatlinv51409754]

I do also make use of the multiply and screen transparency options. Maybe I should just use that instead and use the blend tool on it?

[Monika Gause]

You may need to create extra lines for strokes.

You may need to create extra objects in order to create shading

And please show us your artwork so we can advise better.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi Gatlin,

Apart from the suggestions shared by Monika and Scott, here is a useful tutorial which might help you: How to draw Simple flat design characters (office employees) in Adobe illustrator - Characters 01 - ...

Please feel free to update the discussion if you need further assistance with it.

Regards,

Srishti