Creating Simple Flat Vector Cactus Illustration in Adobe Illustrator | Xenia Sorokina | Skillshare
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Creating Simple Flat Vector Cactus Illustration in Adobe Illustrator

teacher avatar Xenia Sorokina, Illustrator & Graphic designer

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      0:31

    • 2.

      Making lines for the pot

      10:56

    • 3.

      Making lines for the cactus

      6:56

    • 4.

      Coloring

      14:01

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About This Class

Into this class we’re creating a simple flat illustration of a cactus in Adobe Illustrator.

During the class, we’ll trace 2 reference photographs by using the simple shapes, combine them together and convert them into an easy vector illustration.

We’ll work with a bunch of tools, such as Ellipse & Rectangle tools, Shape Builder & Eyedropper tools, the Width tool, and we’ll learn how to diversify the lines by applying an effect to them.

In the project and resource tab, you can find the file called “Color scheme”  where you can find the swatches that you can apply to your picture. 

You can find the reference photographs you would like to convert into the flat artwork on the free stock websites, such as unsplash.com or stockvault.net. Or if you want to take the pictures that were used in this class, check out the project and resource tab. 

As the result you’ll get an image that might be used as a sticker, postcard or whatever you want.

                                                                                                                                                           

If you liked this class and want a bit more of Adobe Illustrator check out these classes:

▶ Creating Cute Kawaii Food Illustrations in Adobe Illustrator

▶ Creating Vector Avatars in Adobe Illustrator

▶ Creating Modern Pop Art Vector Portrait in Adobe Illustrator

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Xenia Sorokina

Illustrator & Graphic designer

Teacher

Hello there!

I'm Xenia, and I'm an illustration and graphic design enthusiast. I know firsthand how complicated and confusing the new software, tools and simply learning new skills could be, so I'm here for all the neophytes and enthusiasts to help you with learning new things.

So if you want to learn something new or refresh already known but forgotten knowledge about Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Procreate and digital illustrations in general - you're more than welcome to join the creative journey!

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Transcripts

1. Introduction: Hello everyone, my name is and I'm an illustrator and graphic designer. In today's class, we are going to create an easy flood illustration of a character's using. Adobe Illustrator will use the simple shapes to convert a few reference photographs into a nice artwork, will work with a bunch of tools and we'll learn how to diversify the lines by applying an ethics to them. As a result, you get an image that might be used as a sticker, postcard or whatever you want. So if you're ready to launch your software and let's begin. 2. Making lines for the pot: Start with an illustration. Let's create a new documents. Will go to that step, art and illustration, and select the it 19-22 Bateson 80 into depressant details, we need to check out the orientation is horizontal ends into the advanced options. Let check out that color mode is RGB and Roster ethics is set too high of 300 ppi. When it's all done. Let's hit Create. Here's our new documents and now we need to best Our downloaded images that we are going to be using as a references. So we can do it in two different ways. The first one is to go to the folder where these pictures are. Here. We need to select the picture and just drag it to our documents. The second option is to go to that zip file and select the option place units to make sure that you are in the right folder. Select the picture and heat glaze on the bottom of the folder. When you did it, you will have a new tool into your hands. It will help you to pass your picture into your documents. Hold down the left mouse button and drag it down until you are satisfied with the size of the peak track when it's done, let's select both of our pictures and less drag it down under our art boards. So we the selection, so select both pictures, drag them down into the illustrator. It doesn't matter if you're working on the cardboard or one-degree Iranian by. So now, in order to make the better workspace, let's set these two images as a template. We'll go to our lives panel and you can see that we have one layer and both of our pictures are inside this one layer. So we need to click twice on the area near the list name ends into this pop up window that is called a layer options. We need to select that template checkbox. We will see that it will deem our image to 50% when it's all done, let's click. Okay. We can see that this picture started to look more mutates. And if you look at our lives panel, we will see that this layer is now locked. That means that we can't work here and we need to create the new layer. So let's do it in the Layers panel. And by going to this panel, we will click on this icon that is called create new layout. When the new layer is done, we are ready to start our illustration. So for our illustration, we will need to recreate the port from the right reference. And we will try to recreate the shape of the characters from the left reference. So let's start by creating the lines for the port. Now we need to zoom out Canvas and we can zoom in two different ways. The first one is to hit Control plus a few times on your keyboards. You can move this handles on the bottom and on the right side to adjust the placement of your picture. The second one is to go to the left toolbar and to find the zoomed. So with this tool, you can zoom precisely the area that you need. For example, if you want to zoom this spine, we will hold on our left mouse button and move our mouse to the bottom right. And if you want to unzoom it, we will do the opposite. We will hold down our left mouse button and drag our mouse diagonally up. Let's place our reference picture conveniently for making the lines. And now we need to recreate these ellipse on its own. So let's go to the left. So Uber and find the rectangle two. If we click on it with the right mouse button, we will see the new drop-down menu where we can select the different tools. Here we need to select the ellipse to. Now we can recreate the ellipse. But firstly, we need to get rid of the few books. So to get rid of the field box, we need to hit this little icon with the Red Cross line. Now, when we have only the stroke, we can go to our Canvas and we can start recreating this ellipse. So let's go to the intersection of the planes and put our first anchor points without on-hold in your left mouse button. Drag your mouse to their rights. When you are satisfied with the width, let's drag it a little bit to make a bit of high. When you're satisfied with your ellipse. Let's unfold your left mouse button. Now we need to adjust its placements and we will do it by dragging these anchor points, these up and down, a little bit up. So let's hover over the first anchor points on its own, you will see the little icon with the two sides arrow. And if we hold down our left mouse button and drag it up, we will see that the curvature is changing and we can adjust it the way we need. So when you're satisfied with the curvature, let's on-hold your left mouse button. When it's done, let's repeat the same for the bottom anchor points. So hover over the bottom anchor points and by holding down the left mouse button, drag it up. So when we have the first ellipse, let's make two more copies. Will start with the first one. To make the copy, we have to take this election Sue. Well, this LPS is selected. We need to hover over the line and hold down the Alt and control keys on the keyboard. If you see the little plus icon near the white arrow, that means that you did everything right? So let's hover over this line. Let's drag it down so you can see that we can move it freely and it's not what we need. We need to put all of our ellipses and all of our elements on one axis and on one line. So to make sure that we're making everything on one line, we'd also to hold down the Shift key on the keyboard. So now let's place the second ellipse somewhere here, and we need to make one more copy for the bottom part of the ports. So you already know what to do when you hover over these ellipse hole down there out and control keys first, move it down, please it correctly in to make sure that we're doing everything correctly, we need to hold down the Shift key. So when you're satisfied with its placement, Let's unfold your left mouse button and then unholy all your keys on your keyboard. Now we need to repeat the curvature of the ports. And again, we will do it by dragging the upper anchor points up. So let's hold your left mouse button and drag it up until you see the curvature is correct. You can also adjust the bottom anchor points to make it even nicer. So now let's click on some blink area near the port and see what we have. And we have a little problem because we are creating their flat illustration. Or the lunch should have the same appearance. But now the lines on the upper part are a bit different from the line on the board. Some, we need to solve this problem and we can do it in two different ways. And the first one is to select everything and go to the top toolbar and find its title stroke near this title, there'll be two arrows up and down, and we need to click a few times on the upper one until we see that the lines changed. The second option is to go to our color scheme documents. You can find the color scheme documents in the project and restaurants app. You can download it and use it in your work. Let's go to the color scheme document. Here we'll see that we have the beds watches for all the elements that we'll have in our illustration. So hoover over this watches, select them and drag them to our main document, please it somewhere where it won't bother you. And let's do the following. We need to select the lines weeds to go to the left toolbar and find the I drop it x2 with the eyedropper tool, we need to hover over the first watch until it's selected. We need to click on it with the left mouse button. When it's selected, you will see that all the lines change their appearance. And to be honest, all the lines that we are going to be making during this class will have the same appearance for the lines. That means that you can always get back to this watches and I drop it x2 and change their appearance if it's needed. So now let's again get back to this election Sue, and let's continue making our ports. Now we have the top elements and we have the elements on the board. Some ends we need to connect them. To connect them, we need to make the sight lines. We will go to the left toolbar and find the ellipse to that we already used. Click on it with the right mouse button and choose the Rectangle tool. We need to find its own ellipse and hover over this site anchor points, there's Margaret will show you a little title, anger, and that means that you are doing everything right. So now hold down your left mouse button and drag your rectangle diagonally down until you find the same anchor on the boards of ellipse when you found it, let's just hold your left mouse button. Now you can see that we have the lines on the sides. But if you look closely at the shape, it won't seem like a port. We have a lot of useless lines that we need to get rid of. Let's select everything with the selection tool. Now go to the left Uber and find the shape builder to, when you hover over some areas away, the shipbuilding CSU, UC that these areas are starting to look selected. Now we need to make these three separated shapes on the pods body as one. So let's hover over our first lunch shape. Hold the left mouse button and draw the line through all three separated shapes, thereby will connect them together when they all are selected, let's uncalled our left mouse button and we will have one sold shape. So now we need to repeat the same steps under that. So port elements and under the inner part of the ports, let's start with the top edge. It's a connect this triangular shapes with one elongated by holding down the left mouse button, draw the lines to connect the shapes on the rights remain the same on the left when we have one solid shape on the top edge, let's repeat the same for the inner parts by holding down your left mouse button, Draw the line and connect the shapes. Now we have the lines for the ports. And the last thing that we need to do here is to select everything and hit Control G on the keyboards that will make the group from our lines. And that will mean that we want to work with a separate lines. We will work with the group. So that's it for the lines for the board. And into the next part, we will try to recreate the shape of the characters. 3. Making lines for the cactus: When we have our lines for the board, we need to recreate the shape or the characters. So let's go to our left reference picture and we will try to recreate the shape of these characters. Let's go to the left. So Uber and find the ellipse to, with the Arabs to, we will create the elements that will be the shape of the characters. So hold down your left mouse button and drag it down until you're satisfied with their aerobes. Now, when they have their first ellipse, we need to recreate the segments of the characters. And that means that we need to make the copy of this ellipse and put our new ellipses inside to make the segments that way. So first of all, we need to make the copy of this ellipse. Let's hit control C, control shift V on our keyboards. And that will best our new ellipse right in the same place. Now let's hold down the outcome on our keyboards and drag one of the site anchor points to the center. When we have one copy, we need to make one more copy and x2 one more segments. So again, when this ellipse is selected, we're hitting control C, control shift V1, our keyboards, and doing the same thing. So when you are happy with the result, we need to make sure that all the lines have the same appearance. We will select a refund, seek the eyedropper tool, and copy the appearance of the lines from the ports. When all the lines are looking the same, we need to make some beautification. So we will try to recreate the waveshape of the characters. And we will easily do it by selecting air graphene and by going to that SAP effects distort and transform and zigzag inside this popup window, we need to hit the preview box and you will see that we have something weird here, and this is not the final result that we need. So first of all, into this window, we need to heat the smoothie button. After that, we need to play with the sites so you can drag the slider to the sides until you're satisfied with the result. Or you can put your cursor wants at this little window and play with your mouse wheel. So I'll probably leave it just on one millimeter. And we also can play a bit with the regions per segment. So the same you can play with a slider or use these window, enter your mouse wheel. So probably four is the right number for our characters. So when you played enough, let's hit OK. Now you can see that our selected lines look a bit different than the lines we just meet. To prevent some problems in the future, we need to go to the tap or objects and select the option expense appearance. And now you can see that our outlines ends, our selection lines look the same. So when we have these results, we need to make a few more beautification ends by saying that, I mean, that we need to make a little spines for our characters. So let's go to the Lyft Uber and find that bends. With append CSU, we will make a little V-shape that we're gonna be using for this binds. Let's just put our first anchor points, then the second one. And by using the smart guys, we will put our last and components on the board. When you are satisfied with the V-shaped that you created, just hit Enter on your keyboards. Now it can leave V shaped as a sample ends. We're going to be putting a few copies on our characters. So let's go to the left. So Uber and find the selection tool with a selection. So we'll hit out key on our keyboard and just drag our new copy to our characters. So firstly, we're going to be working just with the right side. So we're working with these three lines. So make a few copies by holding the ALT key and by dragging the copies to our places on the characters. Try not to overdo ARAF n. And if you need to move or at each your little spike, you can just select it with the selection tool. And if you hover your mouse cursor over the corner of this elements, you will see that two sides arrow. If you hold down your left mouse button, you can run your objects adjusted if you need it. And when you are happy with the result, legis select oldest spines and make the copy on the other sides. So let's select the first one. Let's hold the Shift key on your keyboard and select the second one. Let's continue selecting all the pieces. And when it's all done, let's heat control G on our keyboards that will make a group from our elements and that will be easy for us to make the copy on the other sides. So now let's click on it with the right mouse button and we will choose transform reflects into the pop up window. You can hit their previous books. And also you need to make sure that the axis is vertical. And when it's all done, let's heat copy. Now we have the copy of our group, so let's move it to the left side. You can select it and drag it to the other side if you want to make it very mirrored and very reflected, just hold down the Shift key, So plays the spines and let's adjust them just a little bit. We have a few options of how we can X2 it. We're working with a group and we can either ungroup every field, all yet our way into the group. So let's click twice on our elements and that will allow us to get into the group. And now you can see that other elements are a little bit muted and we can work only with our selected elements. So you can drag them, you can replace them, you can read them, and you can do everything you want. So adjust this elements if you need. When you're happy with the result, let's go to the left top corner and click twice on this little arrow that will get us back to our means documents. So when we have these results, let's put our sample V-shape on bits of our Kx s. So we will select it, we will irritated and move it to the top of our cactus. So when you have this result and the last thing that we need to do is to select everything and to heap control G on our keyboards. And that's it for the lines of the characters. 4. Coloring: When we have the lines for our characters and for the port, let's combine them together. So we'll select the lines of the characters and we'll drag them to our right reference picture. When we have all the lines in one place, let's select airfield and less drag them to our, our boards. Now we need to place our characters and also we need to adjust it. So let's drag the lines to the right, and let's scale these objects. So we're going to be holding down the Shift key on our keyboard and drag it out top anchor point diagonally up. So when you are satisfied with the size of your characters, let's just put it right in our ports. Now we have a little problem and we already know how to solve it. Let's select our reactors, go to the left toolbar and select the eye, drop it x2. We will coordinate the appearance from our lives from the ports, and that will make our picture look nice. So now we need to make sure that our captors is right in the middle of our ports. So let's select error Finn and let's go to the Align panel. You don't have the Align panel. Go to the Window, Align into the airline banner. We need to make sure that we're aligning it to the selection. And we need to click on this icon that is called horizontal align center. Now we're sure that we have our characters right in the center of the port. Now, when we have our two elements together, we need to get rid of all the useless lines. Let's select r objects and let's go to the left toolbar. We will select the shape builder tool with a she buildup x2 weeds a connect our port ends. We need to get rid of all of the useless lines. So by holding the left mouse button, just draw the line. Continued to get rid of all the useless lines on all the needed places. When we have these results, let's select everything and let's group our objects together. We will hit Control G on our keyboards when we have our lines, let's start coloring our object. So let's go and find our color palettes, drag it up and place it near our object. So now for the recoloring part, we need to make a copy of our lines. Let's select them and let's hit control C, control shift V on our keyboards. Now we need to create one more layer. So let's go to the list panel and Hindi create new layer bottom. Now let's open our layer with the lines and we will see that we have two similar sublayers. We need to select one of them and we need to drag it to our new layer. Now, let's give a name to our layers. The top one is going to be lines, and the second one is going to be color. So now for convenience, we can log the layer with the lines, and now we are going to be working just with the color layer. So let's select everything and let's heat a few times Control Shift G. We need to ungroup All the elements because we need to be able to select each element separately. So when we did it, let start recoloring Hue. We're gonna be using their selection, so we'll end the eyedropper tool. So let's start with the characters. We will select the first segments with the selection tool. Now we are going to the left toolbar and we're selecting the eyedropper tool. With the eyedropper tool, we are hovering over the first watch for our characters. When you see that it is selected, just click on it with the left mouse button and repeat the same for the rest of the segments. You are selecting the segment with the selection. So you are taking the eyedropper tool and just hovering over the second swatch, continue doing it by yourself. When you color the last segment, let's move on to the ports. Let's select these two parts of the ports. And we will go again to the left tuber and we'll select the eyedropper tool. With the eyedropper tool will select these being swatch. Now let's select all the backside elements. Hold down the Shift key to select multiple elements. And by using the eyedropper tool, we will copy the appearance of these darkest watch. When all the elements are recolored. This is the base colors for our illustration. Now we are going to be making some beautification. So let's start from the ports. We will create the stripe here in the middle of the board, and we will do it by using the rectangle tool. So let's go to the left tuber and let's select the rectangle. So now let's create the rectangle right in the middle of our ports. We need to go to the swatches panel or to the color. We'll select the white color. And if it's too intense, we will go to the transparency panel and play with capacity. If you don't have that transparency panel, go to the window transparency. So let's play with capacity until you're satisfied with the results. When you're happy with the result, let's do the following. We're going to be making the curve from this rectangle, we will go to the tab object envelope distort, and we will choose make with the work into the work, we need to select the style arc into. We're going to be played with the band slider. So drag it to the sites and when you're satisfied with the result, let's click OK. Now we need to go to the tab object and we need to expand the appearance of these objects. So let's click, Expand, click the OK button inside this window as well. Now when we have this beautification stripe and when we have the color for the port, let's get rid of the useless lines. So we need to select our port and we need to select the stripe. Let's go to our left toolbar and select the shape. Builds a tool with the shame buildup x2 hover over one of the extra parts. Now hold down the key and you will see a little minus icon near the arrow. So click on it with the left mouse button and get rid of this extra part. Let's repeat the same on the right side. So when we have these results, let's continue with our beautification. We're going to be agent that shade and we're going to be A1, the light for our port. So let's start with the sheet. So for this shade, we need to make the copy of these two elements from our ports. Let's firstly group them together by hitting control G14 keyboards. And let's make a copy by hitting control C, control shift v. Now we need to move this corporate to the left sides. Now let's select the body of our board without this tribe. And let's select a V shape that we just created. When the shapes are selected, let's go to the left toolbar and select the shape, build that. So now let's create the new ships on the right with the shame buildup x2. And with your left mouse button, click on these two shapes on the right, one by one. When we have these two new shapes, we don't really need the co-pilot coloring part on the left. So let's select it and outlets he believed. Now if you hover over your coloring part on the port, you will see that it's not there, solid shape. Now let's select all the general beam elements on the port, and let's ungroup them. So hit Control Shift G on your keyboards. Now we need to select these two new separated shapes. Let's hit Control G20. Group them together. Now let's make the copy and place it right in the same place. So hit control C, control shift v on your keyboards. So when you have the copy, let's go to the left toolbar and find the eyedropper tool. With the eyedropper tool, we will copy the appearance of the third watch, and that's how we made the sheet on our ports. So now let's move to the left and let's add the light. We're going to be A1, the light by using the rectangle tool. So let's go to the left toolbar and select the rectangle CSU. So create the elongated rectangle on the left and with the eyedropper to copy the appearance of the fourth watch. Now we need to get rid of all the useless lines. So we're selecting the port and we're selecting the lights. Now let's go to the left toolbar and let's select the shape Bill did so with the shame builder tool will Hoover or this useless part. And we will hold down the outgas on our keyboards. When the outcome is selected, we will hover over the useless part and click on it with the left mouse button. And now we have both lights and the shapes. So the last thing here is to add a little highlight to our characters, and we will do it in a following way. We will go to our left toolbar and we will select the pencil. I wanted the first left segments with append CSU will create the street line. Hold down the Shift key to make the line straight when you're satisfied with the line, heed that enter on your keyboards. Now we need to get rid of the field box and we need to copy the appearance of these watch here. So with the entrepot Sue, copy their appearance. And let's work onto this line. We will go to the folder of the pen CSU and click on it with the right mouse button. Here we need to select the anchor point soon. With the anchor point x2, we will Hoover outlines somewhere in the center. And by holding down the left mouse button, drag it to the left. Now you can play with the handles until you are satisfied with the results. You can use the direct selection tool to adjust the line m connected with the other lines. When you have something like that, we need to repeat the curvature of our segments. We will go to the tab FX, distort and transform and zigzag. Beans have a zigzag window hint the preview box set the points as smooth and also play with the sliders. I leave it as to for size and eight for regions per segments, USA, EU, and find what suits your draw in. And when you played enough, let's just heat, okay, now we need to go to that step object and expand the appearance of this line. Now let's adjust our anchor points with the direct selection tool. So just play with the anchor points until you see that they look fine. When you're satisfied with this line. We also can X2. One more thing. Let's select it and let's go to our Lyft, Uber and finally, a width to width, the width two, you can play with the appearance of this line. So for example, if you're hovering over the line in general, and if you hold down your left mouse button and if you're dragging it to the side, you'll see that this line is starting to look a bit de France. Also, you can play with the anchor points separately. If you hover over the anchor point ends, if you drag it to the side, you will see that your work in just with a little segments. So play with this tool until you are satisfied with the results. When you're ready and go to the list panel and unlock our lines. Now we need to select everything and hit Control G on our keyboard to make the group from our elements. So if you're making this seekers, it was your last stage. But if you are making the full illustration, we need to add the background and the cast shadow. So for the background, we're gonna be using just the rectangle. So now let's create the rectangle and with the eyedropper tool will copy the appearance of these swatch. Now you can see that our rectangle is upfront of all of our elements and it's not what we need. So when it's selected lenses, clicker that with the right mouse button and choose a range sent to back. Now let's put it right in the center so we'll select everything. And again, we will go to the Align panel. So make sure that we're aligning it to selection. And let's heat horizontal align center and also vertical aligned center. So now our cactus is right in the middle of our bear grounds. The last thing that we will do here is A1, the cast shadow. So let's go to our Lyft Uber, and let's select the ellipse tool. We the ellipse to create the elongated ellipse on the bottom of the picture with the eyedropper CSU COBIT appearance of the last MOOC that we have. Now we need to put this ellipse right under the ports. While it selected, we will click on it with the right mouse button and choose a range sent to back. Now, we will hold down the control key on our keyboard and click once on the right square brackets, and now the shadow has the right placement. Let's adjust its size and let's place it correctly by using the arrows on your keyboards. When you are satisfied with the result, let's select a refill M, group it together, and that's it for our illustration. I hope you found this class helpful and if you liked this, bleach it out, the other classes, give a follow and leave your review. And thanks for watching.