How to Draw a Drop in Illustrator TUTORIAL

If you've ever wanted to make a quick digital drawing in Illustrator but had no idea where to begin, this guide is for you! You'll acquire how to set up up your workspace in Illustrator, how to use the pen tool to depict (even if you "can't" draw), and how to harness the power of keyboard shortcuts.

All of this was washed on a Mac, in Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 version 19.two.i. If you're on a dissimilar machine or using a different version, your screen might not look the aforementioned, but that's okay.

Setting up

For this case, I'll exist drawing a strawberry. I'm going to utilise a background epitome to trace over to make it easier. You lot can describe freehand if you want, or trace over an image yourself: do what feels right.

I opened this paradigm in Illustrator, but earlier I start tracing, I desire to ready a few things up. For drawing, I like to see a few specific panels on the right. I utilise Stroke, Artboards, Color, and Pathfinder. Add these past going to the Window option in the acme left and selecting each one (Window > Stroke, Window > Artboards, etc).

In the Artboards panel, go to the Layers tab. You should run into 1 layer: either the image you're tracing over, or a blank layer. If you're tracing over something, lock that layer and create a new one, for tracing.

Y'all lock a layer by clicking on the second column (where the lock is now). You lot create a new layer by clicking on the Post-It notation icon next to the Trash icon. Locking a layer means we won't accidentally move it around or mess it up.

Drawing

Okay, at present we're set to describe! Nosotros'll be using the Pen Tool to create a simple path. You can actuate it by either hitting P on your keyboard, or clicking on the pen icon on the left.

The Pen Tool works past adding anchor points and joining them together with segments: the whole thing is called a path. And then you can click everywhere you want an anchor point, kind of like a Connect-The-Dots game. Add ballast points wherever there's a bend, and attempt to keep them to a minimum. This will make your path much smoother and easier to manage. We can add and remove ballast points later, so don't worry well-nigh getting information technology perfect. Here's what my path looks like subsequently adding a few anchor points:

If y'all desire a very angular cartoon, you might be done! I'd similar my strawberry to look more than natural, so I'k going to brand some changes to the anchor points.

Before I exercise that though, I like to edit the path to show but the outline. This makes it easier to trace. I make the fill transparent and the outline dark (on the left side) and increase the stroke weight in the Stroke panel on the right.

The big white square in the foreground is the fill color. I'chiliad going to click on the picayune foursquare icon with a cherry line to brand information technology transparent. The blackness-outlined foursquare in the background is the outline color, and I'one thousand happy with blackness, so I won't change the color.

Alter the stroke weight to whatever works for y'all.

If you made those changes, your cartoon will now be a black outline instead of a white shape.

Finessing

Let's make this drawing curvier. I'm going to use the Lasso Tool (Q on your keyboard, or an icon of a cursor and lasso on the left menu) to draw around the anchor points. This volition permit me to select them all apace, rather than selecting them i at a time.

One tricky thing to note: if you Lasso the unabridged path, it'll select the segments too as the anchor points, which we don't want. And then Lasso around all but one of the ballast points, then it only selects anchor points. It's an Illustrator oddity! We'll come back to that lone anchor point later.

Once yous've selected your anchor points, y'all should see the Ballast Point menu at the height:

If you don't meet this, then the unabridged path (including segments) is selected, or nada is. You can too select ballast points manually by hitting A on your keyboard (A for Direct Selection Tool) and shift-clicking each anchor point. If you take a lot of anchor points, I recommend using the Lasso Tool instead.

On this console, we're going to select the second Catechumen option, the one with the curved line. This will give each ballast point 2 handles that create a curve instead of a spike. I have this:

Notice that spike at the bottom? That was the one anchor point I hadn't selected when I used the Lasso Tool. Now I tin can select information technology manually (hitting A on the keyboard for the Direct Selection Tool, and clicking on it), and converting it to match the rest of the points. Now I take a nice blob:

To make this blob even nicer, I'm going to edit the anchor points using their handles, to get the curves I desire. If you don't see the handle points, make sure you're using the Straight Option Tool (A) and y'all've clicked on the path.

Click on an anchor point. Yous tin can select either of its handles and move it around to change the curve. The handles practise effect each other, so if you want to simply motility i handle and go out the other even so, pick-click the handle you want to motion and it'll move solo. This is helpful for creating sharp edges and curves.

If y'all want to go rid of an anchor point, hit P for Pen Tool and hover over the anchor bespeak you lot want to remove. Your cursor volition have a little minus sign next to it. If you want to add an anchor point, hitting P and hover over the part of the path you want to add together a betoken to: this time, your cursor will have a piddling plus sign by it instead.

All this finessing can take a while, so take your time and enjoy the meditative ride.

From Paths to Shapes

Once you're happy with your path, yous can make full it with color again. Select the path and look for the color swatches on the left menu:

Double-click the large white square to become a color bill of fare. You can as well remove the outline by clicking on the black-outlined square then making information technology transparent (clicking the square icon with the red line).

Amazing!

I'm going to repeat each pace, from making a new layer to finessing the path, to make the green leaves. I've hidden the red blob layer by toggling the visibility, so I tin can merely focus on the leaves. Hither's what it looks like at present:

Add as many shapes and paths as you demand. Next we're going to look into cutting out shapes from other shapes.

Cutting-outs

I want my strawberry drawing to have some seeds, only I desire them to be transparent. I'm going to draw some tiny blobs over the crimson hulk, and then cut them out.

Equally usual, I used the Pen Tool to describe a shape, and so selected the anchor points to curve it out. I like how this seed looks, then I'yard merely going to copy and paste it.

Earlier I tin cut out these shapes from the red blob, I have to "aggrandize" them. I select every seed, then go to Object > Expand in the top left corner. It won't await like it did much in this case, simply if you take a line for instance, information technology'll change the line from a path to an actual shape. You lot'll run into the anchor points wait dissimilar, only otherwise nothing changes.

Next, I toggle the visibility of the red hulk again so I can select it and all the seeds. And then I become to the Pathfinder panel on the right. I select "Minus Front" to cut out the front objects (seeds) from the back one (blood-red blob).

With the drawing behind it, it's easier to tell how the seeds have become gaps in the strawberry.

If I hide the original strawberry paradigm, and add color to the leaves, this is the concluding production! It'south not a masterpiece, only information technology gets an thought across and hopefully you feel more than comfy with anchor points at present. They're the ground for all drawings in Illustrator, so play effectually with them and experiment.

Here's a summary of some of the keyboard shortcuts:

A = Straight Option Tool; use for clicking on ballast points to edit them

P = Pel Tool; utilise to add or remove anchor points

Q = Lasso Tool; use to chop-chop select multiple anchor points

V = Selection Tool; default cursor for when you want to move shapes effectually

Ultimately, the all-time mode to learn how to use Illustrator (or whatever tool) is to just dive in and keep googling every question you have. Information technology'southward okay if you're uncomfortable with it or it takes fourth dimension to learn. It does for everyone! So good luck, happy googling, and have fun :)

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How to Draw a Drop in Illustrator TUTORIAL

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