This Adobe Illustrator How To makes Christmas easy for Illustrator users.
Our How To illustrator is at it again, this time getting ready for Christmas with some beautiful holiday art. In this Adobe Illustrator how to guide, we’ll see how to make a Christmas tree in Adobe Illustrator CS5. We all like to talk about computer parts during the Christmas season, but let’s take some time and follow this Illustrator how to so we can spread some cheer.
Getting started
If you don’t have Adobe Illustrator CS5, you can visit Adobe.com to download a 30-day trial version. If you have already used up your trial version, now is a good time to buy it. With all the holiday projects coming due, you really need to get started now..
Open a new Illustrator document and then draw a rough outline of a tree. Use the pen tool. The color settings used here are C=90 M=40 Y=100 K=50. Of course, you can change it to whatever you want.
Adjusting the roughness
Our How To illustrator next will change the roughness settings for the tree. For Illustrator users, click Effect on the main menu and then Distort and Transform, and then Roughen.
For the next step in this Adobe Illustrator How To guide, set the roughness for Size = 4, Detail = 90, and Points = Corner.
Branches for Illustrator Christmas trees
We now have an outline of a Christmas tree, like one that just came out of the box. Now, let’s make some branches. Our How To illustrator will do this by creating a brush. Get started for Illustrator CS5 by drawing a path for a branch the same way we drew the tree.
Now
Now, apply Roughen the same as in the earlier step.
Great. The next step of this Illustrator How To guide calls for us to press the Alt key and drag the branch to create a copy. Change the fill to a lighter color and then re-size the copy. Repeat.
Now, stack these bad-boyz on top of each other to make a single, comprehensive branch for Illustrator.
Making a brush
Now, so we can easily re-use this branch in Illustrator CS5, select all three layers and then drag it over to the Brushes palette.Choose Art Brush from the New Brush dialog.
In the Art brush Options window, the default settings are usually OK. For this Illustrator tutorial, choose Tints and Shades for the Colorization option. You can also name the brush if you want. Also, our How To illustrator chose Scale Proportionally form the Brush Scale Options section of the dialog.
Applying the brush
Now, the next part of this Illustrator How To guide asks you to grab the Pen tool from the Illustrator CS5 toolbox. Criss-cross the tree with some wavy stroke paths and choose a green stroke color.
Now, adjust the opacity of the brush strokes so they blend in a little bit better for Illustrator. In this Illustrator How To guide, you do this by opening the Transparency palette from the Window option on the main menu.
Decorate the tree with ornaments
Use the ellipse tool to create some ornaments for our Illustrator CS5 tree. Use a radial gradient to fill them with different colors.
Use some variety when decorating the tree. Put some in the back as well as in the front, OK? This Illustrator How To guide is almost finished.
Now, lets create a scatter brush for lights. Make a few bulbs and then drag them over to the Brushes palette.
Now, in the Scatter Brush settings, change the values to random and then set the ranges for each one.
Put the lights on and finish
Now that our How To illustrator has guided us through drawing a Christmas tree for Illustrator, turn the lights on. This Adobe Illustrator how to guide says to grab the pen and draw a zig zag across the tree. Then, finish the Illustrator How To procedure by applying the scatter brush.
Going on from here
Now that you know the technique for Illustrator Christmas tree design, take your time experimenting until you come up with a Christmas tree you like. This Adobe Illustrator How to tutorial showed you the Roughen effect and how to create brushes in Adobe Illustrator. For Illustrator CS5 users we also used the Pen tool, the Ellipse tool and the Gradient tool. We also applied brushes to paths.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM COMPUTER PARTS GREENVILLE!
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