Make a Whimsical Chess Piece - Illustrator CS3
Jacquelin Vanderwood

March, 2008

In this tutorial I'll show you how to make a chess piece.

I start with an ellipse then choose the Direct Selection tool and select the point at the bottom. Holding the Shift key down, I used the up arrow to move the point.

I duplicate it 3 times by holding the Alt key and the Shift key down and dragging upward. 

Then I select the second from the top and used the Selection tool and the Shift key to reduce the size of it. 

I select the top piece, use the Direct Selection tool and click on the bottom point. I then use the down arrow to move it down a little. 

With the Rounded Rectangle tool and in Outline mode, I create the neck of the piece and center it. 

Next I use the Ellipse tool to create the head. 

Using the Direct Selection tool I select one side and use the arrow key tapping it 8 times to bring in the side of the face. I do it for both sides. 

Then I use the Ellipse Tool to create one ellipse, the use the Alt key and the Shift key to create a duplicate. 

Next I use the Ellipse tool to create the top piece. 

With the Direct Selection tool, I select the top point and use the up arrow a few clicks to reshape the piece. 

For the mouth I use the Ellipse tool again, create one ellipse then use the Alt+Shift keys to duplicate downward. 

I select both pieces of the mouth, use the Pathfinder option of Subtract from shape and then press Expand. 

For the nose I create two circels. 

Then in the Pathfinder dialogue box and with both pieces selected, I click on Add to shape area. I do not use Expand.

For the eyes I create the rectangle area with the Pen tool, create a circle with the Ellipse tool and then use Pathfinders Add to shape area to join them. I do not use Expand. 

I then fill each section with color. 

Now selecting the body I change to the Gradient tool, open the Gradient dialog box, choose Show Options and select Radial. Then I create the gradient I need in two colors. To drag the gradient I start at the top of the shape and drag down about half way.  

At this point I notice the top of the hat is not right so the bring it down a few clicks, use the Direct Selection tool to select the point at the top, click on the up arrow a few times, then drag each handle out horizontally. 

I then apply the gradient to the top of the hat and then to the face. 

I create a new gradient and make it Linear. 

I apply that at the bottom. 

I change the gradient specs but keep the same colors. 

For the brim of the hat I change the gradient to Radial and use the Gradient tool and start almost at the bottom of the top part of the hat and drag down to create a rounded shadow. 

I select the whole piece and apply Inner Glow set to Multiply with the settings below. 

In this final step I change the stroke color. So now we have one piece of the chess set.

Download the original source files from this tutorial in Zip format Here




Copyright (c) 2008, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved