Illustrating a Furry Cat in Adobe Illustrator

1. Introduction: Things Thank you. Hello. This is Alan AUB, and I credit this class exclusively for Scale share. In this class, we will be doing something fun in Adobe Illustrator. We will be creating this fairy cat. Throughout this class, you are going to learn some tips and tricks that will allow you to create this exceptional look in Adobe Illustrator. And you will be able to use these tips and tools in your future graphic design projects. By the end of the class, we have a class project. Each of us will create our own ferry friend. It's going to be a very fun class. I'm hoping to see you inside. 2. Mastering the Tools : Everyone, in this lesson, I'll be covering all the tools and effects that you are going to use throughout this course. I'll make sure you understand each of them, and you know how to use them. Let's get started. This listen, we are going to cover all the tools and effects that we're going to use to achieve our final project, which is this beautiful ferry ball. Even though this course is not for the absolute beginners as you are not going to cover all the basics of Adob Illustrator, but I'm still going to cover all the tools and tell you exactly how to achieve this. Even if you don't have any knowledge about Adobi Illustrator, you will still be able to follow me and create this artwork. Let's start with the first one. The first one are shaves and line. Basically, we'll be creating some shaves over here, and specifically, you will create some circles like this. And then we will create some lines, you're going to use the pen tool and create some lines like this. Of course, we only need the stroke. For that, we are just going to click on this one, we only have the stroke. Then you will press on the V on the keyboard and select it again. Now you have the settings for the stroke. Basically, you're going to deselect and then select it again to be able to see the sittings for the stroke. Here we can increase and decrease. But for this project, we don't need to play with the width of the stroke as we don't need that. Okay, so now this is covered. The next thing that we need to use is blend tool. How the blend tools work, Blend tool basically combines two shapes together. I'm pressing on the option, and I'm going to duplicate this one, and I will change the color over here to something. Just like this. And now I want to combine these two shaves together. Bland tool will create copies of both to combine both of them together. So this is how it works. Now I'm going to use that tool so you know exactly how it works. All I have to do is come over here. This is the Bland tool. Click on it, and then click on the shaves that you want to combine. We want to combine this one with this one. Just like this, we combined these two together. As you can see, we've created a smooth line because we've created so many copies here. If you want to change this, you just come over here and double click on it, and then we are going to change this two specified steps. Just like this, we can change the numbers. As you can see, now we are going to add more copies. Now we know how blend tool works. Now let's move to the next one, which is blend replace with the spine. What this does, it allow us to replace our blend object and put it on a line that we have drawn. For example, we have drawn this line, I want to replace this and to be the exact shape of this line. What you're going to do is to select the line and your blend object and then go to the object. Here we have the settings for the blend tool, and we are going to make it replace with the spine. Just like this, we moved our blend object and replace it with our line that you have created. The next one, before I talk about the raffen effect, let's talk about the gradient, The gradient, you might know if you have ever worked on any design toll, you know what is gradient. Basically, this is a gradient that we have. It's not made with a gradient toll, but the fit between two colors, we call it gradient. How do we create gradients? For example, I'm going to create a shape over here, and I will add gradient to it. Well, your shape is selected, come over here. This is the gradient toll and settings. If you don't have it, you just go to the window and enable it over here. This is a gradient, and if you don't have it, it will appear over here. Let's add some gradient to this shape. While shape is selected, I'm going to add a gradient. We have linear gradient. We have radial gradient, and we have free form gradient. With this one, you can add points and create any combination of colors that you want. For this course, we are going to use the radial gradient. Over here, you can add more colors, and double click on them to change the color to anything that you want. This is how you use gradients. By the way, you can also play with the gradient if you want. You can make it bigger, smaller, or even distort it like this. Finally, let's talk about roughen effect. This basically makes your shape rough, something like this, and this is crucial to achieve this fur effect in a Dub illustrator. Let me tell you how it works. You just select your shape and come to the effect and then distort and transform, and then roughen. Just like this, we can roughen the edge of our shape. Okay, so now we know all the tools and the effects that we're going to use to achieve our final project. Before we create our cat, in the next lesson, I'll show you how to achieve fur effect. So I'll see you in the next one. Bye bye. 3. Structuring the Cat : Hello, everyone. In this listen, we are going to get into the real deal. We are going to create the structure of our pet, and we are going to apply the fur effect to it. In the previous lissens, you learned about all the tools that we need to create our project, and you also learned how to achieve the fair effect or fur effect inside Adobe Illustrator. In this listen, we are going to create our cat. And we are going to start with the structure. We are going to create the structure of our cat using circles and lines. Why? Because with the lines, circles and blend tool and gradients, we are going to achieve the fair effect, and we want our cat to be fairy. So we're going to create the structure. I'll start with the tail of the cat. What I'm going to do is to create a line like this. Like this and this. Now we have the structure of the tail. I want to make this one round. I'll press on the option while I'm also selecting the pen tool just to make it a bit round like this. Now I will add a bit of the strokes we can see, make it black. Okay. And of course, you can always play with the structure. For now, I'll keep it like this and later you're going to refine it. Okay, now we have the line. I'm going to create circles. So come over here and click here. And the end of the tail, I want it to be big. Actually, let me bring the original artwork that I have created so we can follow and tell you why you are doing what you are doing. Okay, so I brought the cat over here, the one that I created. As you can see, we want this part of the tail to be thick and then over here a little bit less thicker and very like small. So we're going to do that based on the circles. Circles will decide how thick the tail will be. So we want this to be this thick, and this one to be around this. And of course, we can always play with it once we applied every effect on it, and we have a final work. We can always play with it. This one will be very small, so I'll make it very small. So we have this one. Now I'm going to create the body. For the body, I'll start with the circles. I'll make two big circles. I'll just come over here. Something like this will be okay. Yeah, I think like this is good. Then another one like this. This is the tail, this is the body. And then I'll create another small one over here. I'll just copy, paste, Control C, Control F, and I'll make it very small. Now, I'll put it over here. This is because I want the fur effect for these two to be equal. And I don't want this effect, let me show you. Over here, remember when we fix this with this small one. If you don't have this, it will be like this. So here we are doing the same. I'm creating the small one to avoid that gradient appearing. Okay, now we will move to the legs and the hands. I don't know what to call them. The pose. But before we do that, we need to create the line for the body. So the line for the body will be something like this. Of course, this is the basic structure. Once we applied all the effects, we can always play with it and refine. Okay, for the legs, I'm going to create circles over here, so I want them to be small from this side. Copy it. We have this I'll make it bigger. Something like this is good. I'll duplicate this and put it over here. For this, I want to go over here and this be over here. Actually, I'll move this here. Discount here. For this one, we need to play with it later after we add the effect. I'll do the same for the hands. I'll just copy this actually. Paste it over here. I'll just rotate it a bit. For this one also, something like this. And then we need to create lines connect them. This hand is Then we need to create the ears. I'll make two circles. I'll just doblicate this one. This will be small, this will be big. And we will do the second one here. The big one will be here, small one will be here, and then we're going to create the lines. I'll make something like this. And something like this. Then I'm going to make this one round. And we are going to make this one round as well. So just click on it. Come over here and make it round like this. So this is the basic structure of our cat. Okay, now we created the basic structure. In the next lesson, we are going to add all the effects to achieve the f effect. So I will see you there. Bye bye. 4. Applying the Fur Effect : Hello, everyone. Welcome to this new listen. So in the previous listen, we created the basic structure over our cat. Now all we have to do is to add the effects. Now, let's start with the tale. I'm going to select all of them. And we're going to add this gradient. So we've created this gradient already in the previous listen. And this is how it looks. This is it, the positioning and the colors. I'll just press on the eye to get the eye drop and click. I'll do the same for the other two, and then we are going to use Blend tool. But before I do that, I will select this one because it's always a bit hard to use blend tool and the smaller ones. I'll just select it so we don't miss it, and then I'll go to the blend tool, and then we're going to click on this one, then this one, then this one. Now we have something like this. Double click on it, and you guessed it, we'll make it specify steps and 121. Now we have something like this. The next step, you're going to select the line, actually, I'll select all of them together. So now we have the line and the object, and then we're going to go to the object, blend and then replace spine. Now we have something like this. The next step, we're going to go to the effects, and then fen, and we will use the same settings in the previous listing. So the 18 and smooth. And now we have something like this, which is very good. As I said, you can double click on it, play with the size, whatever you want, or move them around. Like this. Very good. We will do the same thing for this and this one. What I'm going to do is to press on the eye and give all of them the same gradient that we have here. Then I will slick this one just to avoid missing it. Then blend tool, click on this one, then this one, then this one. And then double click. Specified steps 121, and we have something like this. And then we are going to apply Ruffin just like the other one, and we have something like this. Here I want this to be a bit darker. What I'm going to do is to make this smaller. Of course, you can move this around by the way. You can Let me see. Just like this, you can put it anywhere that you want. But the aim here is to make sure that this is not appearing, and I want this to be a bit darker. So I will move this over here, make it less Now we have something like this, which is very good. Then I will select the line that we have, and this one and then go to the object, blend. We have something like this now. Perfect. Now let's do the same thing for the legs and the airs. I'm going to do is to select these. Again, we are going to get the same gradient, and then blend, this one, this one, the same steps. T then apply roughen. As you can see here, we have an issue. I want this one to be behind. So what I'm going to do to double click, we are inside the blend, and then I'm going to press on the comment and bracket on the keyboard to send it back. As you can see, just like this, you're sending it back. And then we might not need to apply to the line because these are straight ones. Now I'll just keep it like this, and now we're going to move the whole leg behind. So what I'm going to do is to select it, right click, arrange, send it back. We have something like this now. So I need to make the legs a bit more fluffy. Make it bigger like this, and this one also a bit bigger. I wanted to come over here. Something like this will work. Instead of doing the same steps, I'll just doblicate this and bring it here, and for this also. Just remove this one. We have this. You can always play with it, make it bigger or smaller or move it around. We have another one like this. Now we have the pose. I'll bring this down a bit. We are going to create the heirs. Same thing we are going to do. Oh, I We have this now. Then steps 121, and we will add the roughen. And then we're going to replace it with this blind or the spine. Blend, replace spine. Now we have this. If you want to make thee a bit thicker, we can always double click on it and make the size bigger. And we can also move them around like this. Of course, I want this to go behind. So I'm using command or control with the brackets. I'll move this over here, and we're going to rotate it like this. So I don't need to recreate it. So, just like this, re created our cat. The last thing that we need to do is to create the ice just like this one. Finally, let's make some ice. I'll the circle, something like this. Make it white. I'll give it a bit of the stroke so we can see it. Now we need to make the pupil. I'll just use the circle again and create something like this. And we are going to make it black. I will disable the stroke as well. Just like this, we have the eye. I'll group them together. And then one effect that I didn't explain to you is the shadow. We are going to add the shadow. It's over here, stylized, drop shadow. And, you can do the offset for it. Something like this is good. And I'll just bring it over here to make two eye like this beautiful, small, cute ones. You can always play with the size, and you can also stretch it if you want. They need to be close to each other and a bit up. Okay, so now we have our cat. There are some adjustment that I want to do. For example, this one, I'll just double click on it. I want this one to be big, just like this, and this one to be small. Just like this one. You may also play with the gradient if you want, because I can see it is a bit darker or is a bit too dark. We can always play with this one. Make it better, and you can do the same for the other one. One more thing that I want to do here is to hide this one. I'll bring it over here to be hidden behind the eye. Okay, so just like this, we created our cat. I'll see you in the next one. Bye bye. 5. Your Class Project : Hello, everyone. Now it's time for a class project. Let me share with you what will be the class project for this class. Congratulations for finishing this class. Now it's time to give you a homework, the class project. What I want you to do is to create a cat like this one. Now you know all the steps you need to take to create something similar. You either make this or make anything else, make your pet, do something different. I want you to experiment with the shape and also maybe with the colors or anything else that you can play with. And finally, before I finish this, if you want to master A Dub Illustrator, I do have a mega course about Adob Illustrator, which will teach you from absolute basic to advance. Till now, more than 50,000 people have joined this course all around the world. And it's the only thing that you need to take to master Adob Illustrator. So if it's something that you are interested, you can get it on my website 92 learns, and I'll add the link for the course to this listen. And for everyone who's taking this course, we'll get 50% off on my Adob Illustrator course. Okay, for now, I'll wait for your class project. Make sure to share it with me. I'll be personally looking at them and give you my feedback. Hope you enjoy the class. Bye bye. 6. Final Thoughts : And now we came to the end of this class. Hope you enjoy it and learn something new. Please don't forget to share your projects with me. Hopefully, I'll see you in another class on Skillshare.