Here’s something I would like to confess: I’m not really good with illustration on Illustrator. I can draw simple things like balloons, lanterns, navigation menus, hearts and balls with the pen tool. I can create a 3D vase with the Revolve tool in Illustrator. But if you ask me to draw a cartoon girl or a tiger on Illustrator, I’ll find the task extremely challenging. But it doesn’t mean I will give up right away. I’d probably ask you if I can sketch it out and paint it with water colour before scanning it into the computer for you.

Ah yes, I am better in drawing if it’s with a pencil and papers. That’s why I am always finding ways to draw things easily on Illustrator. And one of my latest experiment includes drawing a simple Flower Shape. It’s amazing how a simple shape can make such a great background design (above). And here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Draw a perfect circle with the Eclipse Tool. Make sure you hold down SHIFT when you drag the circle shape so that it’s perfectly round.

Step 2: Select the circle which you have drawn and click on the Scale Tool. Scale down by 80% (depending on your preference) and click on COPY. You will get two circles like above.

Step 3: Select both circles and click on the Rotate Tool once. Then hold down ALT and target your focus point on the right of the circles (refer to blue point in image above). Click when you are ready and a option menu will pop up. You can use any angle you like but it has to be dividable to 360. For example, I am using 60° here. The smaller the number, the more petals you will get at the end of the graphic. Click COPY to proceed.

Step 4: After you have clicked COPY, you will see the above images on your screen. Select the latest two circles which you have just created for the next magical step.

Step 5: This might be common knowledge to many, but I’ve only found out about this shortcut when I was learning geometrical shapes in class. When you press COMMAND + D, your last action will be repeated to the object you have selected. For example, you have just used the Rotate Tool and you want to repeat the same action to other objects. Simply select the objects of your choice and press COMMAND + D.

Step 6: Once that is done, you will get the image above. Select everything and go to Pathfinder > Divide. This will enable all the overlapping strokes to slice one another into different pieces. You’ll have many individual shapes now.

Step 7: Ungroup the whole selection. Then select all the inner shapes which you do not require. I have selected the above. Now press DELETE.

Step 8: When you have deleted the inner shapes, your visual will now look like this. Notice the diamond shapes at the end of each curve? The next step will guide you to get rid of them.

Step 9: Select ALL again. Now go to Pathfinder > Unite.

Step 10: Tadaa! You’ve got a Flower Shape. Now you can fill it with any colour of your choice.

It’s that simple! All it takes is two minutes and you’ve got yourself a simple Flower Shape. There’s so much you can do with this shape and it’s so easy to be created. Have fun!

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