Blog Archives

Infographic Series - Spray Can

8/28/2016

Summer vacation so I took a week off of posting... and worked on all my cars. And then I thought an icon of a spray can would be just right, so here it is. AS always it is simple to build and looks great when you are done. Enjoy!

Start with a rectangle. 8 pt stroke around the rectangle.

Select the rectangle and open the Stroke panel and set the Corner to a rounded corner.

Create a line above ad below the rectangle, round the ends.

To round the ends of the line, select the line then using the stroke Panel, add a rounded cap on the ends ( I call this hot-dogging).

Next, draw an oval.

Draw a rectangle over the oval so the top of the rectangle is in the middle of the oval.

Select both shapes, the use the Pathfinder panel and select the Minus Front Shape Mode to remove the lower half of the oval.

This becomes the cap of the spray can.

Draw a small rectangle on top of the oval.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the top corners, then round the corners using the corner widgets and pull them in slightly.

Set the 2 lines, the oval and the spray head to a light gray. Fill and stroke the main part of the spray can any color you choose.

Move the shapes together so they touch. Change the spray head to a darker or lighter color to create contrast.

Add highlights to the can by drawing a line, stroke of white. Use the Arc tool to draw an arc for the dome of the can.

Cap the ends of the highlights by using the Stroke Panel and cap the elected ends.

Select the spray cap and choose Object>Expand the click OK to expand the fill and stroke. Use the Pathfinder panel to Unite all the new shapes into one shape.

Draw a circle and move it to one side of the spray head.

Select both the spray head and the circle, then use the Pathfinder Panel to Minus front.

Draw a circle outside the spray head and match the color to the body color of the can.

Using the selection tool, OPTION + CLICK and drag the circle to duplicate it.

Use COMMAND + D to duplicate it several times. Select all the dots then choose Object>Group.

Select the group, then select the Rotate tool. OPTION + CLICK on the center of the left most dot. This will open up the rotate dialog box and set the point of rotation. Choose 10° then click COPY.
Repeat the process and rotate the first set -10° and click copy.

This will give you 3 spray lines equally spaced.

And here is the final spray can. Enjoy and pass it along.

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Infographic Series - Curled Ribbons

8/14/2016

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Here you can create a curled ribbon effect using a gradient and a gaussian blur. Simple and quick, just like all these posts! Have fun.

Start with a rectangle with slightly rounded corners.

Duplicate the rectangle below and to the right of the original rectangle.

Create a rectangle, square edges.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the bottom 2 corners of the box, then use the right arrow to move the bottom line to the right.

Using the Curvature Tool, click on the center of the right side and pull the line segment out.

Repeat the process on the left side of the shape.

This the resulting shape with rounded ends.

Rotate the image about 55° - more or less depending on the curl look you want.

Apply a gradient to the rounded rectangle. Window>Gradient. To change the color on the gradient, double click on the color stops below the gradient ramp.

When you double-click on the color stop, it brings up the CMYK color sliders to choose the color. To add colors, just click under the ramp to add color stops.

Adjust the angle of the gradient to match the angle of the rectangle.

The gradient should parallel the sides of the rectangle.

Place the gradient shape on the 2 rectangles. Matching the corners up the rounded corners of the rectangles.

Create an oval, fill it with black.

Go to the Effect Menu>Blur>Gaussian Blur.

Rotate the blurred oval about 30°.

Click on the Opacity link in the Control Bar, this opens up the Opacity box, set the Blend Mode to Multiply and the opacity to 80%.

Place the shadows under the curled part and on top of the rectangles.

And that is your curled ribbon with a nice highlight and a few shadows to give it dimension.

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Infographic Series - Circuit Board

8/7/2016

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Create a circuit board using Illustrators grid structure and snap to grid features. One of the issues that comes up is adding the ends on the lines and making them the right size in Illustrator and keep the line weight and end weights the same. I have a cool trick to show you how to make this happen! Enjoy!!!

Start a new file and turn on the grid. Go under the View Menu>Show Grid. Then turn on the Snap to Grid.

Using the Pen Tool, click on the grid to create lines that form straight lines, or lines at a 45° angle.

Using the spacing of the grid, keep the same amount of space between the line in the circuit board.

Create a random pattern of lines, some short, some long, and different directions.

Call up the Stroke panel from the Window Menu. You may need to click on the Stroke Panel cheese grate to call up the Show Options.

Show Options calls up the entire Stroke Panel options. Select all the lines, then set the ends of the lines to be open circles from the list of options.

This will create circles on both ends. You can set the scale of the end circles to be larger or smaller by adjusting the scale percentage.

One of the problems with this is that the line weight is now heavier than the ends. With the ends at 100% the line weight of the ends match the line weight of the line. When the percentage is adjusted up or down, the end weight doesn't match the line weight.

To solve the problem with the ends not matching the line weight of the line, copy the lines without the ends. Then paste them into InDesign.

In InDesign, use the Stroke panel to add circle ends to the lines.

Set both the start and end of the lines to be an open circle.

These line ends are not adjustable in size. But they match the size of the line better. And when the stroke is adjusted up or down, the ends match the stroke of the line.

Copy the lines from InDesign and paste then into Illustrator.
Vector objects in Illustrator and InDesign can be copied between either application and it still retains the vector shapes and lines.

Set the lines to a green stroke once you paste it back into Illustrator.

Add a green background behind the lines, a bit darker than the original lines.

Duplicate the grid, then set the lines to a darker green. Then set the darker lines behind the lighter lines Object>Arrange>Send to Back. Then offset it a few clicks to create a drop shadow effect.

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