How's it going everyone this is Chris from Spoon
Graphics back with another video tutorial for Adobe Illustrator.
Over on my Spoon Graphics website this week I posted a showcase of Day of the Dead inspired
designs and artworks, which gave me the inspiration to experiment with a sugar skull illustration
of my own.
In real life, these are little sweet treats that are decorated with various floral patterns
and shapes, but they've also become a popular subject for vector designers.
In today's tutorial I'll take you through the process of creating your own vector sugar
skull illustration in Adobe Illustrator.
It will be entirely created out of basic shapes, which are customised and layered up to produce
intricate embellishments.
So begin by creating a new document in Adobe Illustrator.
The size doesn't matter too much, but I'm using the Pixels unit of measurement for simplicity.
Go to the View menu and select Hide Artboards to give yourself a nice large area to work
with, then head back to the View menu and make sure you have Smart Guides enabled.
Select the Rounded Rectangle tool and draw out a large shape to represent the overall
skull outline.
Press the Right cursor key to max out the corner radius.
Draw another rectangle shape that intersects the first just over half way down, making
sure that the straight edge extends all the way across.
Select both of these shapes, then hit the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel
to punch out this second shape from the first rounded rectangle.
Draw another rounded rectangle, making this one slightly smaller so it fits inside the
original.
This one will represent the jaw of the skull.
Select both shapes, then hit the Horizontal Align Center button in the Align panel to
centre them up.
Switch over to the Pathfinder and merge them together into one shape with the Unite button.
Activate the Direct Selection Tool from the toolbar and draw a selection around the points
that make up the short horizontal lines.
Hold the Shift key to add the second pair to the selection.
In the latest CC versions of Illustrator you'll see these little corner widgets.
Click and drag one of them to round off the corners.
Bring up the Stroke panel and bump up the stroke weight of this shape to around 9pt
to give it a nice thick outline.
Switch over to the Ellipse tool, then draw a small circle elsewhere on the artboard.
Head to Effect > Distort and Transform > Pucker and Bloat.
Move the slider towards the Bloat side by 30%.
Go to Object > Expand Appearance to apply this bloat effect, then go to Edit > Copy
followed by Edit > Paste in Front to make a duplicate.
Switch back to the Selection Tool and hold the Shift key while rotating this duplicate
shape by 45 degrees.
Select them both, then unite them with the Pathfinder panel.
Reduce the stroke weight of this new shape to around 3pt, then go to Object > Path > Offset
Path.
Enter 10px in the options.
Bump the stroke weight of this new offset shape back up to 9pt to give it the thicker
outline.
Go to Object > Path > Offset Path again, this time enter 12px.
In the Stroke panel, enable the Round Cap option, then check Dashed Line.
Enter 0pt for the Dash, then a random figure for the Gap.
Check the Align Dashes to Corners icon, then adjust the Gap figure to produce a nice spread
of dots.
You can also reduce the stroke weight to affect the size of the dots.
I ended up with 6pt stroke weight and 20pt gap.
Select the Ellipse tool and hover around the middle of these shapes.
You'll see the Smart Guides identify the centre point.
Hold Alt and Shift to draw a circle from the centre.
Switch the black stroke over to a fill in the toolbar.
Press CMD+C to Copy, and CMD+F to Paste in Front, then scale this new circle down in
size while holding ALT and Shift to keep it concentric.
Swap the black fill for a white swatch, then press CMD+F again to paste in another circle.
Scale this one down even further.
Press CMD+F to paste in another circle, this time switch the fill and stroke around to
give it a black outline, then align it halfway within the white ring.
Activate the Eyedropper tool and sample the dotted line from the other outline shape to
apply the same appearance.
Zoom in and use the Ellipse tool to add a little decorative circle in the empty space.
The Smart Guides will help line this up.
Switch over to the Selection tool and hold the ALT key to drag a copy for the opposite
side.
Select both shapes and use the CMD+C plus CMD+F shortcut to make copies, then rotate
each one by 45 degrees.
Deselect everything, then swap the black fill to white.
Draw a circle within the black ring of this pattern, keeping it lined up with the Smart
Guides.
Select the Pen tool and hold the ALT key while clicking the top and bottom points to reset
the bezier curves, then swap to the Selection tool and squish it horizontally while holding
the ALT key.
With this little white shape selected, activate the Rotate tool.
Hold the ALT key and make a single click on the centre to set the pivot point.
In the options you can do the maths directly in the angle field, so divide 360 by the number
of copies you want to work out the exact angle required.
Hit the Copy button, then repeatedly press the CMD+D shortcut to Transform Again, until
the pattern is completely filled.
Draw a selection around all the shapes that make up this decorative graphic, then right
click and select Group.
Move it into place to represent an eye, then drag out a duplicate while holding the ALT
and Shift keys.
Group these two graphics together, then add the main skull outline to the selection.
Give the outline and extra click to make it the key object, then click the Horizontal
Align Center button from the Align panel to line everything up.
Scale the eyes down while holding the ALT and Shift keys, then nudge them into place
within the skull.
Select the ellipse tool again and draw a circle in some empty space.
Give it a black fill so it's visible.
Switch to the Direct Selection Tool, then drag the top most point upwards while holding
the Shift key to keep it straight.
Select the Pen tool and give the point a click while holding the ALT key to remove the bezier
curves and turn it into a sharp point.
Use the Direct Selection tool to also move the bottom point upwards to distort the shape
into the basis of a nose.
Begin decorating this nose shape with an Offset Path command.
Enter 6px, then give the duplicate a white fill.
Add another Offset Path at 6px, this time with a black fill.
Head back to Object > Path > Offset Path and add a bigger offset of 9px.
Use the Eyedropper tool to sample the dotted outline from the eye graphics.
You might have to make sure that Align to Corners icon remains checked.
Group this group of shapes that make up the noise, then drag them into place within the
skull.
If you scale the nose up or down, the sizing of the dots will be affected, so use the Direct
Selection tool to select just that path, then sample it from the eye graphic again with
the Eyedropper tool.
Use the Ellipse tool to draw a small elliptical shape somewhere on the artboard to represent
a tooth.
Give it the default white fill / black stroke appearance by clicking the little icon in
the toolbar.
Use the Direct Selection tool to drag the lowermost point upwards to flatten the bottom
edge.
Select the shape with the Selection tool and drag a copy to the side while holding the
ALT key.
Press CMD+D to duplicate it another 2 times.
Draw a selection around the 3 duplicates and scale them down slightly.
Make a new selection of just 2 shapes, then press CMD+D to repeat the scaling.
Select the last shape and press CMD+D again so the teeth shapes incrementally decrease
in size.
Zoom in and use the Smart Guides to accurately line them back up so they sit side by side.
Select all the shapes, then Copy and Paste in Front a duplicate.
Head to Object > Transform > Reflect, then check the Vertical option to flip this set
for the other side.
Hit OK and move them into place.
Make a selection of the entire row of teeth shapes, then copy and paste another set.
Head back to Object > Transform > Reflect, but this time select Horizontal.
Move these shapes into place to form a complete set of gnashers.
Draw a selection around all the shapes again, then head to Object > Envelope Distort > Make
with Warp.
Change the drop down menu to Arch, then alter the Bend amount to around 20% to produce a
nice smile.
Go to Object > Expand to convert the Envelope Distort, then Copy and Paste in Front a duplicate
set.
Head to Object > Path > Offset Path and enter around 6px, then click the Unite button from
the Pathfinder panel to merge them all together into one shape.
Switch the fill to black and clear out the white stroke, then right click and select
Arrange > Send to Back.
Add another Offset Path of 3px and give it a white fill, then add another and fill it
with black.
Add a third offset, this time with a value of around 5px and sample the dotted stroke
appearance from one of the previous shapes.
Tweak the settings in the Stroke panel to ensure the Gap and Align to Corners options
produce an even spread of dots, then drag the mouth into place to finish the facial
features.
Remember to resample the dot size if you scale the mouth up or down.
The decorative elements for the rest of the sugar skull follow a very similar process,
but I'll show you a couple of other techniques you can incorporate to produce different patterns.
Draw a circle in some empty space, this time go to Effect > Distort and Transform > Zig
Zag.
Check the preview icon so you can see the changes live, then select Smooth points.
Tweak the values to produce a wavy outline.
I'm using 4px with 6 ridges.
Go to Object > Expand Appearance, then head back to Object > Path > Offset Path.
Add a couple of path offsets and alternative the fills between black and white to form
the same outline effect used previously.
Draw a couple of circles to build up the detail with more outline effects in the centre of
the shape.
The rotate tool can also be used to create different styles of radial pattern.
Draw a long, thin ellipse and hold the ALT key to set the pivot point of the rotate tool
on its bottom anchor.
Enter 360/40 to work out the angle for 40 shapes, then hit the Copy button.
Repeatedly press CMD+D to fill out the pattern.
Group all these shapes, change the fill to white, then position them centrally within
the decorative graphic.
Simply building up alternating black and white shapes can help add more detail.
Group all the shapes once you're done, then scale and position it over the skull so it
overlaps the main skull outline.
Make a copy for the other side, group them together, then align them centrally.
Remember to give the outline an extra click to make it the key object, so it won't move
out of place.
Mix and match the various techniques to build up another decorative element.
Make copies of this one to fill any large empty areas of the skull.
One simple decorative shape can be made from a basic circle.
Convert the top and bottom anchors with the Pen tool, then drag a copy so it aligns with
the bottom point.
Copy and Paste a duplicate, then rotate it by 90 degrees.
Unite these shapes with the Pathfinder to produce a little flower style graphic.
Use copies of the same element to fill out any empty space.
Simply rotating some shapes like this can change up their appearance just enough to
make it look like there's more variety.
Add an Offset Path to the shape and sample the dotted stroke to fill out more space with
this basic pattern effect.
Make a teardrop shape by dragging the bottom point of a circle downwards, then convert
it with the Pen tool.
Switch the fill to a stroke, then align a circle within it.
Fill out any left over space with copies of this shape, or by adding basic circles.
Just remember to reflect the same decorations on the other side.
Most of the time the Smart Guides will help you line things up, otherwise you can group
the elements and use the Align panel.
Currently those decorative graphics are extending beyond the outline of the skull.
In order to trim them down we first need to convert the strokes, so select them all and
go to Object > Expand Appearance, followed by Object > Expand.
Select the main skull outline shape and Copy and Paste in Front a duplicate.
Right click and select Arrange > Bring to Front.
Add all those decorative graphics to the selection while holding the Shift key, then click the
Crop button from the Pathfinder panel.
Those graphics are still creeping into the outline, so right click and select Arrange
> Send to Back, then select the main skull outline and remove its white fill.
The tutorial could end here since our sugar skull illustration is complete, but I'll quickly
show you a handy technique you might want to use to add colour to your artwork.
Select everything and drag a copy to one side.
Find yourself a colour scheme to work with.
I like to take a quick screenshot of a palette from ColourLovers.com and paste it into the
document.
Use the Eyedropper tool to sample the colours from the screenshot while holding the Shift
key, then click the New Swatch icon to save it within the Swatches panel.
Before recolouring the artwork, select this entire duplicate and go to Object > Expand
to convert all those strokes to shapes.
Activate the Live Paint tool from the toolbar and give the illustration a click to turn
it into a Live Paint object.
You can now set the fill colour to one of the swatches you've just created, and apply
it directly to the illustrations by clicking when the area is highlighted in red.
Replace the fills of all the shapes using your colour scheme to bring the sugar skull
to life.
So I hope you enjoyed this sugar skull tutorial for Adobe Illustrator.
If you did, or if you learned anything new, a thumbs up on the video to help spread the
word would be really appreciated.
If you'd love to wear this illustration as a t-shirt, check out the link in the description
area below to my little merch store I'm setting up, where you'll find this sugar skull artwork,
along with the designs from a range of my other tutorials available as apparel.
Stay tuned to my channel for plenty more guides for both Illustrator and Photoshop, otherwise
thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one!