Creating Decorative Flowers in Adobe Illustrator
Overview:
A._) Creating a Flower using WARP tool :
First open a new document of any size. Use the shape tool and select the star shape. Choose a dark red color fill color and choose orange as stroke color and set the stroke size to 1px. I chose this particular shape because it has good corners to demonstrate the creation of a flower. Now use the Warp Tool under the tools box. Click the intersections area and drag towards inward. Click on all the intersections and drag towards the center in such a away a particular side is not bigger than the other and all are proportionally placed. The final result is that the star shape is converted into a smooth flower. You will have a plain red flower. To have a simple background, select the flower using Direct Selection tool and on the top, along with fill color and stroke color, you will also have an option called > Brush. Right click the Brush option and select Open Brush Library. Under this option, amongst the various brush styles, select > Borders Decorative and choose the border called > Gold. You will notice that the flowers shape is covered by the brush style as border. You can also create custom brush styles and apply. Now for the middle part, first draw a Circle by using the ellipse tool and SHIFT + click and drag to get a circle. Set the circle fill color and stroke color as Orange. Now go to Effect menu > Distort and Transform > Zigzag. Under the options, you will be setting the measurements to get the desired effect. However, the measurements vary according to the size of the shapes created. Under the options, i set the size as- 35 px with 'absolute' option selected. Ridges per segment is also set to 35 px and the Corner option is selected. These measurements increase with increase in the size of the shape. Do not rely on the measurements solely. Use these to understand the effects only.
B._) Creating a Flower using Pucker and Bloat effect :
Use the Polygon shape tool and draw a polygon of any size. Now go to Effect menu > Distort and Transform > Pucker and Bloat and set the percentage to 95%. You will have a Perfect shaped flower. Select the shape using Direct Selection tool and on the top, along with fill color and stroke color, you will also have an option called > Brush. Right click the Brush option and select Open Brush Library. Under this option, amongst the various brush styles, select > Borders Decorative and choose the Border called > Ornaments. You will see a blue design as the border for the flower. Set the stroke color of the shape to > Pure green. We will not use a foll color but for this, we will use a Gradient. Select the shape and fill the shape with Rainbow gradient which is available as Default. Select the Rainbow Gradient and click the > Create new gradient icon in the Gradient box and name the gradient as > BG. The new gradient is the copy of the rainbow gradient. But, we do not need all the colors of the rainbow gradient, so i will move the color icons in such a way that i will have a gradient of two colors namely > Green shade and Blue shade. There is also another option in the Gradient box called 'show other options'. Select that and there you can set the style to > Radial. Now the next step is to create another copy of the shape. Press ALT+ click the shape and drag to make a duplicate or copy and paste the shape. If you are using the paste option, choose > Paste in front. See that the copy is placed on top of the original. Now for the copy, make the adjustments: a.) Set the opacity to 50% and under Transparency box, b.) set the mode to > Screen. The next is to create the middle part. Draw a circle using ellipse shape tool (SHIFT + click and drag to get a perfect circle) of stroke color as > Pure green and use a gradient for fill. Select the same gradient created above, BG. Once gradient is applied, seth the blend mode in transparency box to > Darken. Now to get the desired effect, use Effect menu > Distort and Transform > Pucker and Bloat and set the Pucker and Bloat percentage as 85%. This looks simple but the steps have to be carefully followed.
C_) Creating a Flower using Pen Tool :
Use the Pen Tool, click on the area so that a pixel appears and then click near that point but this time do not take your finger away from the mouse but hold on and drag so that a curve is formed. Next, click near that point. Use the pen tool to form a perfect petal shape. You should have something like shown in the image. Now make Four more copies of the petal by ALT+ click the shape and drag to make a duplicate or copy and paste the shape. Select each shape using the Selection tool and rotate them accordingly to place them to for a flower shape. You can also use the Object menu > Transform > Reflect option to flip the shapes accordingly.Once the arrangement is complete, select each shape using Direct selection tool and select the points that have to be altered and extend the petals to remove the gaps between the petals formed due to allignment.Apply the fill colr for all petal shapes as pink.Let the stroke color be blue and size be 1px. To have border, select the petals (select a petal and use SHIFT + select to select multiple petals at a time) using Selection tool and on the top, along with fill color and stroke color, you will also have an option called > Brush. Right click the Brush option and select Open Brush Library. Under this option, amongst the various brush styles, select > Borders Decorative and choose the border called > 50's tiles. Now for the middle part, draw a square, using rectangle shape tool (SHIFT + click and drag to get a square). Set the fill color as > orange and the stroke color as > Yellow. Next, use Effect menu > Distort and Transform > Pucker and Bloat and set the Pucker and Bloat percentage as -100%. Now make a duplicate of this by ALT+ click the shape and drag or copy and paste the shape. Now rotate the shape at 45 degree angle. Now select both the middle shapes (SHIFT + select to select multiple petals at a time) and go to Effects menu > Filter gallery > Artistic ans select Plastic Warp. Use the default settings
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D._) Creating a Flower using Ellipse Tool :
Use the ellipse tool and draw avertical oval shape.Now use the Warp tool and make the edges pointy by clicking inside the shape and dragging above towards outside. Set the stroke color as > light green and the stroke size is 3px. Select the shape and fill the shape with Rainbow gradient which is available as Default. Select the Rainbow Gradient and click the > Create new gradient icon in the Gradient box and name the gradient as > OR. The new gradient is the copy of the rainbow gradient. But, we do not need all the colors of the rainbow gradient, so i will move the color icons in such a way that i will have a gradient of two colors namely > Orange shade and Red shade. Let the style be default > Linear gradient. Now make Four more copies of the petal by ALT+ click the shape and drag to make a duplicate or copy and paste the shape. Select each shape using the Selection tool and rotate them accordingly to place them to for a flower shape. You can also use the Object menu > Transform > Reflect option to flip the shapes accordingly.Once the arrangement is complete, select each shape using Direct selection tool and select the points that have to be altered and extend the petals to remove the gaps between the petals formed due to allignment. Now for the middle part, draw a circle using ellipse shape tool (SHIFT + click and drag to get a perfect circle). Set the fill color as > Grey and stroke color as > Black with size as 1px. Under the brush option, Right click the Brush option and select Open Brush Library. Under this option, amongst the various brush styles, select > Borders Decorative and choose the border called > Star Burst.
E._) Creating a Flower using Borders as Highlights :
Use the shape tool and select the star shape. Choose Sea green( Dark blue) color as fill color and choose light green as stroke color and set the stroke size to 1px. Now use the Warp Tool under the tools box. Click on all the intersections and drag towards the center in such a away a particular side is not bigger than the other and all are proportionally placed. The final result is that the star shape is converted into a smooth flower. This is just as above in step A. Under this tool, there will not be any gaps now. Now for border, Right click the Brush option and select Open Brush Library. Under this option, amongst the various brush styles, select > Borders Decorative and choose the border called > Hopi. Once the border is applied, you will notice gaps due to thick border. So select the flower shape using Direct selection tool and select the points where there is gaps and extend the shapes of borders to cober the gaps. Now, for the middle parts, draw a Star using star shape tool and use, Effect menu > Distort and Transform > Zigzag. Under the options, you will be setting the measurements to get the desired effect. However, the measurements vary according to the size of the shapes created. Under the options, i set the size as- 15 px with 'absolute' option selected. Ridges per segment is also set to 10 px and the Corner option is selected. these are some simple methods to make flowers using some design effects.
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