This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Creating with basic shapes
In the first part of this lesson, you’ll create all kinds of shapes, including rectangles, ellipses, and polygons.
Shapes you create are made of anchor points, with paths connecting the anchor points.
Examples of closed paths
For instance, a basic square is made of four anchor points on the corners, with paths connecting those anchor points (see the upper figure at right). A shape is referred to as a closed path because the ends of the path are connected.
Examples of open paths
A path like a line is an open path. An open path has distinct anchor points on each end, called endpoints (see the figure at right). You can fill both open and closed paths with color, gradients, or patterns.
Creating rectangles
The main artwork for the clothing badge will be a shoe. First you’ll create the main shape of the shoe with several rectangles. The rectangles you’ll make in this section are highlighted in red in the figure.
Select the Rectangle tool (
) in the toolbar.
To start, you’ll draw a rectangle. As you draw it, notice the width and height in the little gray tool tip next to the pointer.
On the artboard, drag to create a rectangle of any size and shape, and then release the drag.
)
The gray tool tip next to the pointer is called the measurement label. That label is a part of Smart Guides.
Move the pointer over the blue dot in the center of the rectangle—called the center point widget. When the pointer changes (
), drag the shape into the middle of the artboard.
)
With the Rectangle tool (
) selected, click above the first rectangle you made, to open the Rectangle dialog box.In the dialog box, change the Width to 1.6 inches and the Height to 1.45 inches. Click OK to create a new rectangle where you clicked.
)
Let’s make one more rectangle the same way.
Click next to the rectangle you just made to open the Rectangle dialog box.
In the dialog box, ensure that Width is 1.6 inches and Height is 1.45 inches. Click OK to create a new rectangle of the same size, where you clicked.
You now have three rectangles. Creating a rectangle by clicking can be useful when you need to make shapes of a specific size.
Practice: Make another rectangle!
The shoe needs one more rectangle. You’ll make the sole (bottom) of the shoe for practice!
With the Rectangle tool (
) selected, to the left of the other rectangles, draw a longer vertical rectangle. Don’t worry about matching the figure exactly—you’ll edit it soon.Choose Select > Deselect.
Choose File > Save to save the file.
Editing rectangles
With four rectangles created, you’ll switch to the Selection tool and make some changes to them so they look more like a shoe and are scaled relative to each other.
Select the Selection tool (
) in the toolbar.Click anywhere in the first rectangle you made, to select it.
In Lesson 2 you learned about the bounding box and its points. Now you’ll resize the rectangle using them!
Drag the bottom, middle point of the rectangle until you see a height of approximately 4.2 inches in the gray tool tip next to the pointer and release.
Because your rectangle might have been bigger or smaller, I didn’t tell you which way to drag (up or down). You can resize shapes with more precision in the Properties panel.
)
In the Transform section of the Properties panel on the right, make sure Maintain Width And Height Proportions to the right of Width (W:) and Height (H:) is not selected (it looks like this:
).
)
Setting Maintain Width And Height Proportions (turning it on) is useful when you change the height or the width and want the other value to change proportionally.
Select the Width (W:) value, and type 2.5 in. Press Return (macOS) or Enter (Windows) to accept the change.
)
Next, you’ll resize and then rotate the vertical rectangle (the sole) to be horizontal.
Click the vertical rectangle to select it.
With the Selection tool, you can select a shape by clicking within its bounds, as long as it’s filled with a color, pattern, or gradient.
Practice by changing the Width in the Properties panel to 0.9 in and the Height to 5.8 in.
Move the pointer just off a corner of the rectangle. When rotate arrows (
) show, drag clockwise to rotate the shape. As you drag, press the Shift key to constrain the rotation to increments of 45 degrees. When the rectangle is horizontal, release the drag and then the key.
)
Your four rectangles don’t look like a shoe yet—time to fix that by dragging them into place!
Drag the rectangles together so they look like the figure. Make sure the sole and the biggest rectangle are aligned on their right edges. An arrow is pointing to where I mean.
As you drag shapes close to each other, notice that they snap and align to each other. This is because of the Smart Guides. Sometimes this can be annoying, but now it’s helpful!
)
Click the toe rectangle to select it (see the figure). To make sure the sole rectangle lines up with the toe rectangle, drag the point on the left edge so it aligns with the left edge of the sole rectangle.
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Great job! You now have the makings of a proper shoe.
Changing the color of the shapes
By default, shapes are filled with white and have a black stroke (border). Next, you’ll change the color of the rectangles to add some personality to the shoe.
With the Selection tool (
), select the sole rectangle, then click the Fill color box (
) in the Contextual Task Bar.In the panel that opens, make sure that Swatches (
) is selected. Select black to fill the shape.
)
Click the Stroke option (
) in the Contextual Task Bar, and change the Stroke Weight to 0 (zero).
)
Practice: Change the color of the other rectangles
For practice, follow the previous steps to:
Change the fill color of the toe rectangle to a light gray, and the remaining two rectangles to a blue.
Set the Stroke Weight to 0 (zero) for the three rectangles.
Choose Select > Deselect.
)
Rounding rectangle corners by dragging
The rectangles you created would look better if the corners were a little rounded. Shoes don’t have sharp corners, after all. Luckily, you can round the corners of a lot of different kinds of shapes.
)
Select the larger blue rectangle.
You need to see the Corner Radius widgets (
) in each corner of the rectangle. If you are zoomed out far enough, those widgets are hidden on the shape. If you don’t see them, zoom in until you do (View > Zoom In).
Drag any of the Corner Radius widgets (
) in the rectangle toward the center to round all of the corners a little.
)
Rounding individual corners
You can also round individual corners using the Selection tool. Next, you’ll explore rounding the individual corners of a few of the rectangles.
)
With the rectangle still selected, click the Corner Radius widget (
) in the lower-right corner to select it, and then release.
If you move the pointer away, you will see that the widget has changed in appearance, from this () to this (
). If you drag that corner widget now, it will be the only one that changes.
)
Now, drag the selected corner widget away from the center of the shape to completely remove the rounding.
Be careful! If you don’t click, release, and then drag, you won’t select just the one corner widget. Instead, you’ll change them all!
)
Follow the previous steps to remove the rounding from the lower-left corner of the rectangle as well.
)
Practice: Round more corners!
For practice, follow the previous steps for the shoe toe rectangle (light gray) and the sole of the shoe (black). You’ll round individual corners on each.
Select the black rectangle that is the sole of the shoe. Round the lower-right and lower-left corners a little. As a guide, you can round to roughly 0.26 inches.
)
Select the rectangle that is the toe of the shoe. Round the upper-left corner as much as you can. A red arc should appear on the shape, indicating you’ve reached the maximum corner radius.
)
Choose Select > Deselect.
Choose File > Save.
Discover other ways to round corners 
There are many ways to round corners. To learn more, check out the video Discover other ways to round corners, which you’ll find in the Web Edition. For more information, see the “Web Edition” section of “Getting Started” at the beginning of the book.
Changing a corner type
Aside from rounding corners, you can also change the corner type. The three types are shown in the figure at right.
Now you’ll make a copy of a rectangle and change the corner type for it. This rectangle will become the heal of the shoe.
Select the gray toe rectangle, and to copy it, choose Edit > Copy, and then paste it by choosing Edit > Paste.
Drag the copy onto the shoe where you see in the figure.
)
In the Properties panel, click More Options (
) in the Transform section to show more options. It’s circled in the following figure.Ensure that Link Corner Radius Values is off—it should look like this:
. You can click the button to toggle it on and off. It’s circled in the figure.
Each corner value in the panel corresponds to a corner in the shape.
)
Change the upper-left corner to 1.125 inches.
)
Because the corner was already rounded, it will make it less round most likely.
Aside from changing the corner radius, you can also change the corner type. You can choose between Round (default), Inverted Round, and Chamfer.
Change the Corner Type setting for the upper-left corner to Chamfer (
).
)
Press the Escape key to close the options panel, and leave the shape selected.
Drag the left side handle to make the shape a little narrower. See the figure.
I made it so it’s around 1.5 inches in width.
)
Creating an ellipse
The Ellipse tool is used to create ellipses and perfect circles. Next, you’ll create an ellipse with the Ellipse tool (
) to make eyelets for laces.
Select the Ellipse tool (
) in the toolbar.
When you draw shapes, you can make them bigger than they will be in the end so you can work with them more easily.
In an empty area of the artboard, Shift-drag to make a perfect circle. As a reference, I made mine about 1 inch in width and height. Release the drag and then the key.
Zoom in to the circle a little by choosing View > Zoom In once or twice or by pressing Command and + (macOS) or Ctrl and + (Windows).
)
Editing an ellipse
With the circle made, now you’ll change the appearance and put it in place.
Press the D key to apply the default of a white fill and black stroke.
This is a keyboard shortcut that I use a lot to remove formatting from shapes and get them back to a default (that’s what the “D” stands for) appearance of a white fill and black stroke.
)
Click the Stroke option (
) in the Contextual Task Bar, and change the Stroke Weight to 22 pt.
Now, you need the fill to be black and the stroke to be another color. To make it easier on yourself, you can swap colors between the stroke and the fill.
)
To swap the fill and stroke colors, click the Swap Fill And Stroke arrow (
) toward the bottom of the toolbar on the left.
)
Drag the circle by the blue dot in the center, onto the blue shoe shape to the right, as you see in the figure.
Next you’ll make the eyelet circle smaller. By default, stroke weights stay the same when the shape resizes.
)
Say you make the circle a lot smaller, the stroke weight would stay 22 pt and look too big. See the figure. If you turn on an option, you can scale the stroke at the same time as the circle.
)
Click the More Options button (
) in the Transform section of the Properties panel. Select Scale Strokes & Effects in the panel that opens.
)
Shift-drag the circle to make it smaller, release the drag and then the key.
I made it around 0.3 inches in size.
)
With it still selected, change the stroke color by clicking the Stroke color box (
) in the Properties panel. In the panel that opens, make sure that Swatches () is selected. Select an orange color.
Select the Selection tool (
). Make two copies, Edit > Copy and Edit > Paste, and drag them into alignment with each other.
Smart Guides will tell you when they are the same distance apart. In Lesson 2, you learned all kinds of ways to align and distribute things.
)
Choose File > Save.
Changing stroke alignment
As you’ve seen, strokes are borders of an object or path. By default, strokes center on a path, which means that along the path, half the stroke weight is on one side and half is on the other.
You can adjust this alignment so the stroke appears in the center (default), inside, or outside. Next, you’ll change the strokes of the three circles you just created.
With one of the eyelet circles selected, Shift-click to select the other two.
Zoom in by pressing Command and + (macOS) or Ctrl and + (Windows) a few times.
Click the word “Stroke” in the Properties panel to open the Stroke panel.
In the Stroke panel, click the Align Stroke To Outside button (
) to align the stroke to the outside edge of each circle.
)
Choose Select > Deselect.
Creating a pie shape from an ellipse
Ellipses have a pie widget that you can drag to create a pie shape. Next, you’ll make a new circle and turn it into the tongue of the shoe.
)
Choose View > Fit Artboard In Window.
Select the Ellipse tool (
), and change the Stroke Weight in the Properties panel to 0.Shift-drag to make a larger circle. For a guide, the circle in the figure is 3.2 inches.
With it selected, look for the pie widget (
) on the right side of the shape. You can drag that to make a pie shape.
)
Drag the pie widget clockwise around the bottom of the ellipse, and then release.
)
Notice that there is another pie widget in the same place from which you started dragging this one. The pie widget you just dragged is called the pie start angle, and the other pie widget is called the pie end angle.
Drag the other pie widget (the pie end angle) from the same place counterclockwise around the top of the ellipse. Don’t worry about how far.
)
The shoe tongue shape you are making will look best if we see exactly half of it. That requires the two pie widgets you dragged to be at precise angles to each other—showing 180 degrees of the circle. Next, you’ll adjust them with precision.
In the Contextual Task Bar, click the Ellipse Properties button (
).Choose 270° from the Pie Start Angle (
) menu.Choose 90° from the Pie End Angle (
) menu.
)
From the blue center point, drag the half-circle onto the shoe like you see in the figure.
Yes, the blue dot is in the center of what used to be a whole circle, but is now only a half!
)
With the shape still selected, change the Fill color in the Properties panel to the same orange as the stroke on the eyelets you just made. You can select it from the Recent Colors in the Swatches panel.
Choose Object > Arrange > Send To Back to send the tongue behind the shoe.
Choose File > Save.
Drawing lines
Lines created with the Line Segment tool are Live, and similarly to Live Shapes, they have many editable attributes after they are drawn. Next, you’ll create a few lines with the Line Segment tool that will become shoelaces and a detail on the sole.
Press and hold on the Rectangle tool (
) in the toolbar, and select the Line Segment tool (
).In an empty area of the artboard, drag in any direction to draw a line. Don’t release the drag yet.
As you drag, press the Shift key to constrain the line to a multiple of 45 degrees. Drag directly to the right until the line is around 1.2 inches in length. Release the drag and then the key.
Editing a line
Now you’ll change the color and stroke weight of the shoe lace (line).
Click the Stroke color box in the Properties panel, and make sure that the Swatches option (
) is selected in the panel that appears. Select the same light gray as the shoe toe shape.
)
With the line selected, change the stroke weight to 13 pt in the Properties panel to the right of the document.
)
Select the Selection tool (
) in the toolbar, and drag the line by the center point onto the shoe, like you see in the figure.
Now you’ll make a copy by dragging!
)
Make a copy of the line by Option-dragging (macOS) or Alt-dragging (Windows) the line from the center point, to make another shoe lace. Release the drag and then the key. See the following figure.
)
Create a third shoe lace (a third line) using the previous step as guidance, like you see in the figure.
Select all three lines by Shift-clicking those that are not already selected.
)
Click the Stroke option in the Properties panel. In the Stroke panel, select Round Cap to round the ends of the shoelaces.
)
Practice: Create one more line!
For practice, follow the previous steps to make one more line that is a detail above the sole of the shoe.
Select the Line Segment tool (
), and drag to draw a horizontal line. As you drag, press the Shift key to constrain the line. Release the drag and then the key.With the Selection tool, drag the line in place, like the figure.
If you need, drag either end of the line to make it shorter or longer to fit the width of the shoe.
Change the Stroke Weight to 18 pt.
Change the Stroke color to the same orange you’ve already used. You can select it from the Recent Colors in the Swatches panel.
)
Creating polygons
Using the Polygon tool (
), you can create shapes with multiple straight sides. By default, the Polygon tool draws hexagons (six-sided shapes). What’s different about polygons is that they are drawn from the center. Polygons are also Live Shapes, which means attributes such as size, rotation, number of sides, and more remain editable after you create them.
Next, you’ll create a series of polygons that will become tread on the sole of the shoe.
Select the Polygon tool (
) in the toolbar.
)
Choose View > Smart Guides to turn them off.
Choose Select > Deselect.
Move the pointer into an empty area of the artboard. Drag to the right to draw a polygon. As you drag, press the Shift key to straighten the shape. Release the drag and then the key.
)
Notice that you didn’t see the gray measurement label (the tool tip), since it’s part of the Smart Guides that you turned off. Smart Guides can be helpful in certain situations, such as when more precision is necessary—maybe you want to know how large the shape is—and can be toggled on and off when needed.
Click the Fill color box (
) in the Properties panel, make sure that the Swatches option () is selected, and change the color to a dark gray.Change the Stroke Weight in the Properties panel to 0 (zero).
Choose View > Smart Guides to turn them back on.
)
Next, you’ll make it a triangle.
With the Polygon tool still selected, drag the little side widget (
) on the right side of the bounding box up to change the number of sides to 3, making a triangle.
)
Choose File > Save.
Editing a polygon
Now, you’ll change the size of the polygon and create a nail from it.
Select the Selection tool (
) in the toolbar.Drag the polygon to the bottom of shoe. See the figure for where. It should snap to the bottom of the black line.
Zoom in to the polygon by pressing Command and + (macOS) or Ctrl and + (Windows) a few times.
)
To make it smaller, press the Shift key and drag the top center handle to change the width and height proportionally (together). When it looks like the figure, release the drag and then the key.
)
The polygon shape looks a little sharp, but rounding the top point will help.
Select the Direct Selection tool (
) in the toolbar, and click the Corner Radius widget () in the top corner of the triangle.
)
Drag the selected widget toward the center of the triangle to round the top corner a little.
)
Select the Selection tool (
). To make a copy, Option-drag (macOS) or Alt-drag (Windows) the polygon to make another one directly to the right. Release the drag and then the key.
)
To make a few more, choose Object > Transform > Transform Again four times total.
You’ll want to learn the keyboard shortcut for Transform Again: Command+D (macOS) or Ctrl+D (Windows).
Shift-click to select all of the polygons, and drag them so they are mostly centered on the black sole shape.
)
Creating a star
Next, you’ll use the Star tool (
) to create a star that will become a detail on the shoe. The Star tool also creates Live Shapes, so editing the star after the fact is made easy.
Press and hold the Line Segment tool (
) in the toolbar, and select the Star tool ().In an empty area of the artboard, drag to make a star. As you drag, press Shift to straighten it. Drag until the measurement label shows a width of about 1.8 inches. Release the drag and then the key.
)
Zoom in a bit to make it easier to see.
To change the number of points on the star, drag the Side widget down to increase the number to seven (7).
)
To make the arms shorter, drag the Radius 1 widget toward the center.
)
Drag the Corner Radius widget (
) to round each point a little.Click the Fill color box in the Properties panel, make sure that the Swatches option (
) is selected, and change the color to the same light gray as before from the Recent Colors.
)
Choose View > Fit Artboard In Window.
Drag it into position from the center, as you see in the figure.
