Create a Personalized Avatar in Canva

For this project we are going to use Canva to quickly and easily create a personalized avatar that you can use as your profile pic on any social channel, shop front or forum.

I'll be using one of my character graphics and adding a pair of eye glasses all on a nice colorful background.

STEP 1:

To begin, let's login to Canva and setup a blank canvas. Because we're creating this to use as a profile pic I'm going with a 4x4" canvas which will size nicely for any site I want to use it on as my profile avatar.

Once logged in, from the home page click the purple button in top right corner "Create a design". In the pop up box at the bottom choose "Custom size". Then just enter the desired dimensions and click "Create new design".

STEP 2:

You will now be in Canva's editor with a blank document. I know I don't want a white canvas in the end, so I'm going to begin by adding a solid background.

Because of the way Canva works though, I'm not going to use the background tool, instead I'm going to use the elements tool and add a color square shape as my backdrop. This is just personal preference because I find it easier to work with.

From the far left side bar click "Elements" and click on the square shape. A solid square should now be in the middle of your blank canvas.

Using the toggle nodes, resize the square so it covers the entire canvas. To change the color click on the color swatch icon in the menu bar above your canvas. This will open a new side panel where you can select as precise a color as you want.

I'm going to use my brand colors and enter a HEX code in the top search box.

STEP 3:

We now want to upload our first graphic, so look to the left hand side bar again and click "Uploads".

Click the purple button "Upload media" and choose the graphic you want to use for your avatar from wherever you've saved in on your computer.

Do the same for all other elements you want to add. In this example I'll just be adding eye glasses.

NOTE: Add the graphics in the order you need them, going from bottom layers to top layers, but if you need to change the order, click on the element you want to move forward or backward and from the menu bar above the canvas click "Position". Then use whichever option you require. (see above)

To add a graphic to the blank canvas just single click on the first graphic from the panel, I'll add the character girl first, and it will be placed in the center of the canvas.

Use the toggle nodes to resize the graphic as desired. I want my girl a bit larger and I'll re-position her at the bottom. I've left enough margin to be able to select my background shape though in case I want to change it.

Looking good so far! Let's do the same and add the glasses, just re-size and position to fit as desired.

That's all I'm going to add. Just quick and simple. To save it, let's download what we've created.

STEP 4:

From the top right hand corner click on the "Share" button. Choose the download option further down the pop up box. We're using the free version of Canva so not all of the save options will be available. That's ok though, we want the high quality PNG so just click the purple "Download" button and the image will be saved in your downloads folder.

While we're still here, I'm going to quickly make some alternate versions by changing up the background color. Just click on the background square and go back into the color palette menu to pick a new color option. Then repeat the download to save.

And that's it! Personalized avatar created.