Creating Artwork Using Shapes in Illustrator

As mentioned earlier, Hannah is looking for a new logo for her website, one that incorporates a simple drawing of a rabbit with the name of her pet shop. We can use Illustrator to accomplish this, and create a logo that will be displayed at the top of her website.

We'll build a simple logo using the Shape tools, specifically the ellipse and polygon tools. These tools allow us to quickly make shapes of any size we need. As we work, we'll also make use of the grid and the rulers to ensure everything is aligned properly. Let's start off by zooming in to our artboard so we can see it better, if we need to.

Step1. To zoom in on our artboard, if necessary, in the Tools panel,

Click, Click the artboard a few times until the artboard takes up most of the screen

We'll start off by drawing the rabbit's head, which will be a circle. Let's switch to the Ellipse tool to accomplish this.

Step2. To activate the Ellipse tool, in the Tools panel,

Click, Click

Step3. To begin creating a circle,

Click on the artboard

The Ellipse dialog box appears:

We can type the desired size of our circle in the height and width fields, and Illustrator will create a circle for us based on the dimensions we provide. All of the shape tools in Illustrator allow us to create shapes in this manner. Let's fill in our circle's width and height now.

Step4. In the Width field of the Ellipse dialog box, type:

50 Tab key 50 Enter

A circle appears on our artboard. We'll add an oval next.

Step5. Repeat step 3, and in the dialog box that appears, type:

20 Tab key 50 Enter

Now that we have some shapes on our artboard, we'll use the Selection tool to arrange them so they look a little more like a rabbit's head.

Step6. To activate the Selection tool, in the Tools panel,

Click

Step7. To position the oval correctly,

Press & Drag the oval so it is one grid square down from the top of the artboard, and two grid squares away from the left side of the artboard

Step8. To move the circle into place,

Press & Drag the circle until it is two grid squares away from the left side of the artboard, and one grid square away from the bottom

At this point, our logo should look like this:

To save ourselves some time, we can quickly duplicate the oval we made by pressing and dragging the oval with the Selection tool while holding down the Alt key as we drag the shape.  

Step9. To make a copy of the oval, with the Selection tool active,

Press & Hold the Alt key, then Press & Drag the oval to the right side of the circle, one grid square away from the left oval

NOTE: To move the shape along a straight line, after you've begun moving the shape, hold the Shift key to constrain the shape to moving along a straight line.

We've made some progress with our logo, so now is a good time for us to save.

Step10. To save the file, on the keyboard, press:

Control key+S

NOTE for MacOS Users: The keyboard shortcut for saving a file is Command key+S.

Our file is now saved. The rabbit logo is coming along, but to make it look its best, we'll need to use the Pathfinder panel to unite the three shapes we just made into one.

Using the Pathfinder Panel

The Pathfinder panel offers us many options for working with shapes and paths on our artboard. If we want to make complex shapes without using tools such as the Pen tool, we can use the Pathfinder panel to make combinations of shapes into complex objects.

Let's use the Pathfinder panel to unite the three shapes on our artboard into one.

Step1. To open the Pathfinder panel, in the Menu bar,

Click Window, Click Pathfinder

The Pathfinder panel appears:

There are two different groups of tools in the Pathfinder panel - Shape Modes and Pathfinders. Each of these collections of tools give us different options for combining and creating shapes.

We'll be using the first option, Unite, for our rabbit logo. Before we unite our shapes, we need to select them.

Step2. Ensure the Selection tool is active.

Step3. To begin the process of uniting the shapes, with the Selection tool active,

Press & Drag a selection over all three round shapes on the artboard

Step4. To unite the shapes, in the Pathfinder panel,

Click

Now our shapes are united into a rabbit-head shape. Let's deselect it before we go any further, so we don't accidentally make some changes to it.

Step5. To deselect the shape,

Click outside of the artboard

At this point, our logo should look similar to the following image:

We'll add the face to the rabbit logo next. Before we do that, let's dock the Pathfinder panel in the Panel dock, so we can access it quickly next time we need it.

Step6. To dock the Pathfinder panel,

Press & Drag the Pathfinder panel group to the Panel dock at the right side of the screen

Let's move on to creating the rabbit's face.

Working with Ruler Guides

Before we make the rabbit's face, let's bring out some ruler guides to help us make sure that the eyes and nose will be positioned properly. We can create ruler guides by pressing and dragging downwards from the horizontal or vertical rulers until the ruler guide we need is in the right position. Let's create a ruler guide now.

Step1. To create a ruler guide,

Point to the horizontal ruler, then Press & Drag downward to the 60 pixel mark on the vertical ruler

This will result in a guide line that is four grid squares up from the bottom of the artboard. We now have a ruler guide that will help us make sure the eyes are properly aligned. Let's create another ruler guide and place it right in the center of the rabbit's head, so we can ensure the nose will be positioned correctly.

Step2. To create a vertical ruler guide,

Point to the vertical ruler, then Press & Drag to the right until the ruler guide runs through the center of the rabbit's head

Our artboard should look similar to the following image at this point:

NOTE: The position of the vertical ruler guide should be approximately four and a half grid squares from the left side of the artboard.

Using More Shape Tools

To finish the rabbit's face, we'll be using two different tools - the Ellipse tool, which we've already used, and the Polygon tool. Let's start by making the rabbit's eyes with the Ellipse tool, and then move onto creating the nose.

Step1. To ensure nothing is selected, click outside the artboard.

Step2. Activate the Ellipse tool.

We'll need to set the fill color for the eyes to black. We can do this in the Color panel, which is located in the Panel dock.

NOTE: To open a panel that isn't currently visible on the screen, on the Menu bar, Click Window, then Click the panel's name.

The Color panel is located at the top of the Panel dock, and looks like the following image:

NOTE: Depending on your Illustrator configuration, your Color panel may be partially collapsed, or only showing the color spectrum. To expand the Color panel, in the Color tab, Click  until your Color panel looks similar to the example above.

The Color panel is composed of a few sections. We can use the sliders to create a color, or choose a color from the spectrum at the bottom of the panel. We can also change the color of our stroke and fill here. Stroke and fill refer to the two parts of our shapes: the stroke is the outline of our shape, and the fill is the inside of our shape. We'll be changing the fill color for the rabbit's eyes to black.

Step4. To change the fill color, in the Color panel,

Click, Click the black color swatch located above the color spectrum

Step5. To create the first eye, with the Ellipse tool active,

Click the artboard

Step6. In the Ellipse dialog box, type the following:

6 Tab key 6 Enter

Let's move our eye into place with the Selection tool. We can quickly switch to the Selection tool by using a keyboard shortcut.

Step7. To switch to the Selection tool, on the keyboard, press:

V

Step8. To move the eye into position, with the Selection tool active,

Press & Drag the eye to the left side of the rabbit's head, centered on the horizontal ruler guide

Now that the first eye is in place, we'll make a copy of it to use for the second eye.

Step9. To make a copy of the circle to use as the second eye,

Press & Hold the Alt key, then Press & Drag a copy of the black circle to the right

NOTE: It might be necessary to deselect the eye first before attempting to copy it with the Alt-drag method.

At this point, our rabbit should look like the following image:

Now we're ready to add the rabbit's nose.

Working with the Polygon Tool

In order to make the rabbit's nose, we'll need to switch to the Polygon tool.

Step1. To switch to the Polygon tool, in the Tools panel,

Press & Hold, Click

We'll click on the artboard to bring up the Polygon dialog box, and create our shape from there.

Step2. To start the process of adding a triangle to our artboard,

Click on the artboard

Step3. To indicate how large the shape should be, in the Radius field,

Press & Drag the current value, type: 5 Tab key

Step4. To indicate that we want our shape to have three sides, in the Sides field, type:

3 Enter

We now have a triangle that we can use for the rabbit's nose, although it'll need some adjustments in order to look more like a nose. Before we go any further, let's choose a color for the nose from the Color panel.

Step5. To change the nose color to pink, in the Color panel,

Click a pink color in the color spectrum

Step6. To change the stroke to None, in the Color panel, if necessary,

Click, Click

Now we have a pink nose, but it is currently upside down. Let's rotate it using the Selection tool so it is right side up.

Step7. Activate the Selection tool.

Step8. To select the triangle, if necessary,

Click the triangle

Step9. To rotate the triangle so one of the points is pointing downward, with the Selection tool active,

Press & Hold the Shift key, Point to a corner until you see , Press & Drag to rotate the triangle

NOTE: Holding down the Shift key while pressing and dragging to rotate the shape will result in rotating in 45-degree increments.

Altering the Corners of a Shape with the Selection Tool

We now have a nose for our rabbit, but it looks too angular. There are a couple of ways we could soften the corners on our triangle; one way to do this involves the Selection tool.

Step1. Ensure the Selection tool is active.

Step2. To select the triangle, if necessary,

Click the triangle

To adjust the corners of our triangle, we'll need to use the corner radius adjustment circles inside of the triangle. Below is an image displaying the corner radius adjustment handles:

We might not initially see the corner adjustment handle. Let's zoom in so we can see it better, and then press and drag the corner radius handle to slightly round the corners of our triangle.

Step3. To zoom in so we can see better,

Click, Click the artboard a few times

Step4. Activate the Selection tool.

Step5. To round the corners of the nose, with the Selection tool active,

Press & Drag the corner radius handle until the corners are slightly rounded

The nose now has rounded corners, and we can move it into place on the rabbit's face. The vertical ruler guide we created earlier will help us with this.

Step6. Zoom out, if necessary.

Step7. To move the nose into place, with the Selection tool active,

Press & Drag the triangle into place on the vertical ruler guide, with the bottom point of the triangle aligned with the ruler guide

Step8. To deselect everything on the artboard,

Click outside of the artboard

Step9. Save the file.

We have now completed the rabbit part of the logo, and it should look similar to the following image:

Before we move on, we should group all our shapes together. This way, if we need to move the rabbit, all of the shapes will move together. While we could use the Selection tool to draw a selection box over all the shapes we want to group, if we use this method we'll also end up selecting and grouping the guides with our rabbit. Let's use a different method of selecting all our shapes.

Step10. To select all the shapes on the artboard, with the Selection tool active,

Click the rabbit's head, Press & Hold the Shift key, then Click each of the eyes and the nose

Step11. To group all the shapes into one unit, on the keyboard, press:

Control key+G

NOTE for MacOS Users: The keyboard shortcut for grouping items is Command key+G.

Step12. Deselect all the shapes on our artboard.

Let's save our file, and then learn how to work with color in a website.

Step13. Save the file.