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Cold Turkey

11/10/2019

Things can get chilly this time of year. And with the thanksgiving holiday right around the corner, let us have some fun. So here is a cold turkey just chillin'.

Start the body with a slight oval. Fill it with a brown, no stroke.

To create the feathers, start with a circle.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the top point of the circle and move it up.

Duplicate the feather, remove the fill, add a stroke.

To create a highlight on the feather, create a rectangle and move it behind the stroked feather. Select both shapes and group them together. CUT the group

Select the original feather, click the Draw Inside Mode at the bottom of the toolbar.

Paste the cut group into the shape.

Position the group so the lighter stroke only appears near the large end of the feather. Click on the Drawn Normal mode when done.

Position the feather behind the body as shown.

Select the Rotate Tool and position it in the center of the body (the center hint should show) and OPTION + CLICK on the center point.

OPTION + CLICK will open the rotate dialog box. In the angle field, type in 360/12 and click COPY.

This will copy the rotated feather.

Use COMMAND + D to repeat the rotate until you have a nice fan of eathers.

Create oval on each side of the body

Draw an oval in the center of the body for the breast.

Select the body and the breast oval and use the Shape Builder Tool to remove the unwanted section by holding down OPTION to get the minus. Click on the area to remove it.

Draw a leg using the line tool Be sure to hot dog the ends of the lines in the Stroke Panel.

Duplicate the leg for the other side.

Create the neck by drawing a polygon with 3 sides. Narrow the triangle with the pull handles.

Select the corner widget and pull it in to the center a bit to round the points.

Duplicate the neck, shorten it and made it a darker read for the head.

Duplicate the head, fill it with yellow and rotate and scale it for the beak.

Add white circles and blue circles for the eyes.

Create a rectangle for the hat.

Use the Free Transform Tool in Perspective Mode to pull the top edges in a bit to narrow the top.

Draw a lines with hot dog ends for the brim of the hat.

Draw a rectangle the same color as the neck. Select the hat and click on the Draw Inside Mode. Cut the rectangle, paste it into the hat.

Position it for the hat band and then click on the Draw Normal mode.

Group the head, neck and hat sections together.

Draw a line, Add a ZigZag Effect. Effect> Distort & Transform> ZigZag. Set the points to be smooth.

Select the line and choose Object>Expand Appearance to convert the effect into a wavy line.

Duplicate the line below the original line. Choose Object>Path>Join. Do this twice to close the shape.

Remove the stroke and add a fill. Duplicate the shape and create a slightly lighter fill. Cut the wavy shape with the lighter fill.

Move one of the wavy sections over the neck. Select the neck and the scarf and choose the Shape Builder Tool and hold OPTION to remove the section the extends beyond the left of the neck.

Select the scarf and click on the Draw Inside Mode. Paste the cut scarf from a few steps back into the shape.

Position the pasted section so a little bit shows inside the bottom of the scarf. Click on the Draw Normal mode when done.

Now the turkey is all set for the cold. Nice job, you have one cold turkey.

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Match Book

11/2/2019

4 Comments

Create a matchbook with a drop shadow. This uses a blend to create the match sticks and the match heads. Really quite simple!

Start with a rectangle. Heavy stroke around the shape.

With the Direct Selection tool, select the lower corners of the rectangle.

In the Transform panel, unlink the link icon between the corner values, set the lower corners to a 20 pt radius.

Copy and Paste In Place the shape. Drag the right side to the left until it stops (the radius of the corner widgets at the bottom will stop it).

Draw a rectangle over the bottom of the shapes. Fill it with white. Center the left side in the middle of the small rectangle. Hang the right edge over about the width of the small rectangle.

Select the white rectangle and the small rectangle. Select the Shape Builder too and hold Option/Alt to turn the cursor into the subtract cursor.

Remove the two sections as shown.

Select the lower right side of the white rectangle and pull the corner widget in to match the 20 pt radius of the other rectangles.

Add a small rectangle to the top of the shape, same width as the large rectangle.

Use the Direct Selection tool to select and move the top to the right. This will create a pointed tangent where the shapes meet.

To correct these point, select the shapes and in the Stroke panel, set the Corner to rounded. This will eliminate those akward points.

Duplicate the shape again and align it to the previous shape.

Use the Direct Selection tool to select and move the bottom of the rectangle to the right. This will create the cover of the match book.

Draw another rectangle to make the matches.

Send the shape backward. Object>Arrange>Send Backward to place it behind the front lower rectangle.

Draw a line on the left to create a separation between the matches. Duplicate the line on the right side as well.

Select both lines and choose Object>Blend>Blend Options…. Set the Spacing to Specified Steps and set the number to 7. Click OK.

Choose Object>Blend>Make. This will create lines in between the two lines.

Create a match head by creating a rectangle filled with red. Round the top corners of the match head with the Direct Selection tool and pull in the Corner Widgets slightly.

Duplicate the match head on the far end of the sticks.

Select both shapes and choose Object>Blend>Make. The same setting used to create the match stick vertical lines will blend using the 7 steps setting last set.

These match heads can be scaled and made taller or shorter by selecting the head and pulling the bounding box handles. Add a line for the staple on the lower flap.

Duplicate the top rectangle.

Fill the shape with black, remove the stroke. Set the opacity to 30% and the blending mode to Multiply to create the shadow shape.

Bring the top flap to the front. Object>Arrange>Bring to front.

Select the shadow shape and the background shape. Select the Shape Builder tool and hold option/alt and click on the area to remove as shown

Add a color fill to the lower flap and you have yourself a match book!

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Design Points n PixelS

Cold Turkey

Match Book

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