Squid Game Guard in Chibi Style, Step by Step
This tutorial draws one of the pink-suited guards from Squid Game as a chibi character in Adobe Illustrator: big head, small body, comic-style line work. It assumes you know the basics of the Pen Tool. The workflow is the useful part and transfers to any character: sketch, base shapes, lines, shadows, details, then highlights. The video was sponsored by Envato Elements.
What you will use
- A quick sketch (done in Photoshop with a tablet) placed as a locked reference
- Ellipse and Pen tools, Direct Selection, Pathfinder Unite
- Separate layers: shapes, shadows, lines, details, light, background
- Stroke profiles (variable width) for comic-style lines
- Offset Path, Expand Appearance, blending modes, a pattern swatch
Step 1: Sketch the character style
Make a rough sketch first to settle the proportions. Chibi means a very large head and a small body, so the head was enlarged after the first pass. The sketch is only a reference; it is not traced.
Step 2: Base shapes
Place the sketch in Illustrator and lock it (Ctrl+2). Start the head from an oval and reshape it with the Direct Selection Tool. Press S while dragging a handle to move both handles together. Add the hood as Pen Tool shapes, sending the back part behind, and draw the neck area in a darker tone. Rotate the head to match the sketch. Draw the body and legs as very simple shapes.
Step 3: Wrinkles with Pathfinder
To get the creased look of the suit, draw random small bumps around the body shape and unite everything with Pathfinder. Do the same for the arms and trousers, closing any open paths first. Add the belt, buckle, loops, cuffs, gloves (basic shape first, fingers later) and boots with a sole shape behind. Bring the head to the front and delete the reference.
Step 4: Comic line work
On a new Lines layer, draw fold lines with the Pen Tool where the suit would crease, based on the outer shape. Same-width lines look artificial, so select them and pick a stroke profile from the Properties panel: the one that is thick in the middle and thin at both ends for the main folds, and the profile that is thick at one end for the smaller detail lines. Redraw the belt loops as continuous lines so they stop looking mechanical.
Step 5: Shadows
Add a Shadows layer between shapes and lines. Redraw shapes under the fold lines and fill them with darker pinks. Do the same for the trousers and inside the hood. Think about how the cloth folds and let the shadow follow it.
Step 6: Details
On a Details layer draw the zip line down the front following the wrinkles, plus straps. Expand these strokes to shapes, colour them blue, paste a copy in front, apply Effect > Path > Offset Path (about 4 px) to the copy, colour it brown and send it back, so each strap has a border. Repeat the copy-offset idea for the belt and buckle. Add pockets on the body and trousers using the same lines, shadows and shapes routine, and draw a zipper pull.
Step 7: Background and face
Add a dark teal rectangle on a bottom layer. The mask is the face: thicken the face lines, colour them blue, and add shadows cast by the hood on both sides, each built from two shapes (a darker one and a lighter, larger one) so the head reads as a sphere. Round the corners of the extra shadow shapes.
Step 8: Highlights and reflections
Decide where the light comes from, then on a Light layer draw highlight shapes over the wrinkles exactly as you did for shadows, but in lighter pink and light blue. Lower the opacity of highlights on the side away from the light. Add thin reflection lines on the mask (white, about 25 percent opacity, with a stroke profile) and shorter, thinner lines where the light is strongest.
Step 9: Screen pixels and the symbol
The mask is a screen, so make a small dot pattern (Object > Pattern > Make, name it pixels, widen the spacing) and fill a copy of the face shape with it, set to Screen at 25 percent. Draw the square symbol with the Pen Tool following the curve of the face, remove the centre with Pathfinder, set it to Screen at about 50 percent, then paste an outline copy on top with a stroke profile. Cut the outline at the corners with the Scissors Tool so each segment gets its own taper. Move the symbol under the shadows and darken a couple of shadow areas to finish.
Conclusion
The character is simple shapes plus a disciplined layer order: shapes, shadows, lines, details, light. Variable-width stroke profiles are what turn plain paths into comic ink, and the two-shape shadow trick is what makes the head look round. The same steps work for the circle and triangle guards; only the symbol changes.
Links from the video
- Envato Elements (video sponsor): https://bit.ly/30Whw17
