1. We are going to start by drawing a circle with the Eclipse Tool (l) and create an even circle by holding the Shift Key. Then copy and paste that shape on top by pressing CMD+C then CMD+F to paste in front, then change the top layer to white and shrink it a bit so it looks like the following image (RGB:240,70,35) – Drag this to create a swatch in your palette, it will make it easier to access later:

2. Now select both objects and go to the Pathfinder and select Minus Front from Shape Modes. This will make the large and inner circle one image.

3. Now that we have the outline of the shape that we need to make the sections that go around the floatie. We will do this by creating triangles and copying them four times. I made the color green for it will be easier once we lay it over the circle, we will change it later. Create a rectangle and then bring it each of the top left and right points to create:

4. Once you have that, we want to make four copies by clicking the shape and pressing ALT and drag it to create a copy of that shape. Similar to the image below. We want to create a Maltese Cross.

5. Now we need to make this one shape, we can achieve this by using the Pathfinder -> Add To Shape Area. Then Expand the selection. The four objects should now be joined as one.

6. Lets take the cross and place it over the circle. Make you adjust the size and scale it to what is appropriate, similar to:

7. Now lets hide those edges and wrap this tutorial up. Now we can start to change the color of the orange circle. Create this gradient.

Then apply the gradient above to the orange outer circle and set the cross to the orange we previously used (Remember we created a swatch for it!) Now you should have something like:

8. Now create a copy of the outer circle by pressing CMD+C and we are now going to use the Pathfinder to generate the sections of the floatie. Select both objects and go Pathfinder -> Intersect. Now paste the object in front by pressing CMD+F and send it to the back by pressing SHIFT+CMD+[.

9. Finally, we are getting there, one more quick step! Create a stroke on the outer cirlce, I used: 1PT Oval with 40% black as the color. Then lets create some gradients for the orange sections, the inner will be the orange we see now and the outer will be a tad lighter.

You are going to need to click inside and set the gradient for each. Then adjust the degrees for the gradient:

• Top: 90
• Left: -180
• Bottom: -90
• Right: 0

That should result in the following image:

Boom! There you have it, how to create a nautical buoy. You can build off this and work in rope and other knots, give it a shot. So what do you think? Have any questions? Post them. Enjoy

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1. Create A Simple Vector Tree In this tutorial I will show you how to make...

1. Lets get started. First off, lets open up Illustrator and create a new document. Select the Eclipse Tool (m) and hold the SHIFT key and draw a circle. Fill it in with

#5E8523 or RGB(94,133,35). You should have something that looks like this:

2. Now that we have the circle, lets add some more to give it the shape of the tree. We are going to do this by holding the ALT key, and move each shape around to give it the shape of the tree, like in the image below.

HINT: Holding the ALT key creates a new shape each time you click and move it.

3. Now that we have the basic shape of the tree, we want to make each of those shapes in to one, and this can be done by using the Pathfinder. Under “Shape Modes” click the first one “Add to shape.” This will create one big shape. Once completed “Expand” the shape by clicking the button to the right of the Pathfinder palette.

4. Now that we have the tree as one shape we want to shrink it a bit to create the front layer of the tree, we can do this by simply pressing “CTRL+C/CMD+C” (copy) and then pasting in front using “CTRL+F/CMD+F” and now select the top layer and using the Transform Tool and making it slightly smaller like the image below. Once we have that we want to fill it with a gradient. Refer to the image below and color codes are in RGB and angle is “-142.6″.

5. Ah…finally! We are starting to see the shape of the tree appear. Good. Now lets work on the base of the tree. Select the “Rectangle Tool” (m) and create the base of the tree similar to what is shown in the image, after it is drawn go to “Object -> Arrange -> Send to Back” or the shortcut “SHIFT+CMD+[” will send the base to the back. Like so:

6. Now lets add some color to the base of the tree, for this I am going to use a brown gradient. Refer to the image below for RGB values.

7. The last thing we really need is a shadow to give the tree a little perspective and to show that is has a place and is not floating around.  First off, create an even circle by holding the “Shift” key. Once you have done that, go up to “Effect -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur” and use “3.0″ as the amount to put on the shape. Shrink it down by selecting the “Selection Tool” (v) to something like the image below:

8. Once you have shrunk the shadow down in to relative size to the tree, use the same method to send it to the back – “SHIFT+CMD+[”. And I decreased the opacity to “70%”. Your final product should look like below! Congratulations, those are the easy steps to creating a very simple vector tree using Adobe Illustrator.

You can also add some more small features to it and get a result like below. If you have any comments or question on this tutorial, leave a comment or send me an e-mail and I will get back to you. Enjoy!

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