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Illustrator
TUTORIALS
23 MAY 2016
14 COMMENTS
A fun personal project designers and illustrators often take part in is 36 Days of Type, or equivalent
challenges like Daily Drop Cap where artists express their style on a new letter or number every day.
Initials have received decorative treatment throughout history, with examples dating as far back as early
biblical texts. In todays tutorial Ill take you through the process of decorating a letter in Adobe Illustrator
with a range of vector embellishments. Well make use of some really useful techniques that youll be able
letterforms to see how they each provide a different canvas to work with. Using some of the unique
features of Illustrator and its powerful shape building tools, well add a range of patterns that follow the
shape of the letter, and create some embellishments to decorate the inner spaces.
Open up Adobe Illustrator and create a new document. Use the Type tool to enter the letter of your choice
and pick a nice font, which will provide the foundation for your creative style. Here Im using an elegant
black fill.
Right click and select Ungroup to break apart the three objects (the original letter, plus the two offset
paths).
Select the outermost shape and Copy (CMD+C) and Paste Behind (CMD+B) a duplicate. Move this
shape diagonally to the lower left, then hold Shift and select the original again. Go to Object > Blend >
Make.
Go back to the Object > Blend > Blend Options menu and change the Spacing to Specified Steps with a
large number like 100 to form a smooth transition between the two shapes.
Permanently apply this blend effect by going to Object > Expand, which will convert the effect into a series
of individual shapes.
Merge all these individual shapes into one by clicking the Unite button from within the Pathfinder panel.
Select the original letter outline again, then go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a negative figure
such as -16px to create an inner outline in the centre of the letter. Give these shapes a white fill.
Copy (CMD+C) and Paste in Front (CMD+F) a duplicate of these shapes. Clear the fill, then set up a
black stroke. Increase the weight to 11pt, then check the Round Cap option. Enable the Dashed Line
option, then set the Dash to zero and the gap to 11pt. This will create a series of circular dots which make
used figure to create an outline exactly halfway between the outline and the inner shapes.
Set up a white stroke and configure the Dashed Line settings to produce a dotted effect. The key settings
are the Round Cap and 0pt dash, which provide the dots. Adjusting the stroke weight controls the dot
slightly while holding Shift and Alt to scale it centrally, then press CMD+F to paste in another copy. Scale
this new shape even further and give it a white fill. Add a third shape and scale it even further to alternate
leaving a sharp point. Add a small white circle as a simple decorative touch.
Copy and paste these shapes, rotate them by 45, scale them down slightly and position them next to the
originals. Copy and Paste in Front a duplicate, then go to Object > Transform > Reflect to flip it along the
embellishment. Scale, rotate and position a smaller shape to form a leaf, then make three more copies
Again to repeat the scaling, but press the shortcut twice. Use the shortcut three times on the last shape to
scale it down three times as much, leaving a gradual change of size between them. Select all the leaf
shapes and click the Horizontal Distribute Spacing button from the Align panel to evenly align them.
Make a copy of the leaves and flip it along the horizontal axis using the Reflect menu. Move them into
empty space.
Simple shapes like a basic circle can also be used to fill out any smaller gaps to add subtle details to the
artwork.
Once the layout is complete, draw a selection around everything and go to Object > Expand to covert all
The letter can now be given a splash of colour to finish it off. Some elements will need to be ungrouped
creating offset paths and dotted patterns made it easy to style up the original letter. The more details that
are added, the more ornate the final result becomes, even though its only made up of the most basic
shapes. Have fun creating your own type project by applying a unique style to 35 more letters and
numbers!