Springtime and Pansies - Adobe Illustrator Tutorial

Jacquelin Vanderwood June 1, 2003 1 Let's get started. I'd like to walk you through how to create a pansy in Illustrator. You'll need a photo as a reference unless you have some growing in your garden. 2 To begin lock the layer with the photo. Create a new layer. Grab the Pen tool. Trace each petal starting with the one in the rear and working your way forward. 3 Switch the stroke to a fill. 4 Select the unfilled petals and lock them. 5 We want to apply a Gradient Mesh to the unlocked petal. Do it now. Follow the screenshot below. 6 Open up the Swatch Library and choose Pantone Solid Coated. 7 Remember Ctrl+3 and Ctrl+Alt+3. This is Hide and Unhide. With the petal selected and using the Direct Selection tool, drop varying shades of purple onto the various areas to create a look of the petal. If you want to add highlight to the edge, select just those pixels and grab the color you want from the Swatches palette and drag and drop color onto the anchor points. You'll know you're on target when you see a + sign on the cursor. When you are satisfied with the look, hide the photo layer to be able to view the petal better. This does not have to be an exact replica of the petal.  8 Unlock all and then select the next petal in the rear. Follow the same procedure as above except hide the first petal we worked on because you won't be able to view this current petal. This time when you apply the Gradient Mesh, change Appearance to To Edge. 9 You can drag around the anchor points to reposition color using the Direct Selection tool. 10 Use the Pen tool with one line bending it a little to create the little dark details of the petal. Take a look at what you have done so far by unhiding everything and then finish the other two petals. When you are finished with all the petals, group them. 11 Drag the grouped petals onto the Symbols palette. Save. Save. Save. 12 Drag your original off to the side. Drag the pansy that you just dragged onto the Symbols palette back onto the artboard. Use the Symbol Sprayer to create several pansies. 13 Use the Symbol Shifter to rearrange the flowers. 14 Use the Symbol Sizer to make different sizes. Hold the Alt key down to reduce the size. 15 Use the Symbol Stainer to change colors. First, make sure to change the Foreground color to one you would like. 16 With the pansies selected, break their connection with the Symbols palette. Ungroup them. Rearrange them however you want. Bring to the forefront and send them to the back. Reduce the size of individual petals too. 17 Here is our finished flowers. You can use this method to create varying shades of all kinds of flowers. Place them into the Symbols palette and next time you have something special to create, they are automatically there at your disposal.   Copyright 2003, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved