INFOGRAPHIC SERIES - Tasty Tacos

Create a Tasty Taco, complete with a crispy shell, lettuce, shredded beef, tomatoes, cheese and even a guacamole on top. Give it some texture and its ready to go. 

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Create a circle. No fill, heavy stoke (the example uses a 10 pt stroke).

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the top point of the circle and delete it to create a half circle. 

Draw a larger circle, delete the lower half.

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Place the half circles as shown. Use the Outline Mode (COMMAND + Y) to line up the ends of the lines perfectly.

Duplicate the small half circle and move it over to the right side. Line up the end points. 

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the small circles left most point and delete it. 

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Draw a line front the right point to the left the half circle. 

Duplicate the large half circle and move it over to the left point of the left half circle. Line up the ends exactly. 

Select shapes 1, 2 and 3. Join them together under Object>Path>Join (COMMAND + J). Select shapes 4 and 5 and join them together.

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Select both joined shapes and use the Pathfinder Divide function to divide the shapes. Ungroup the shapes and deselect. Use the Direct Select Tool to remove the overlapping arc.

Fill the shapes with a color. Darker in back. Lighter in front. 

Copy the front shape. Remove the stroke on the shape then choose the Paste In Place Command. Remove the fill on the shape you just pasted.

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Repeat the process with the shape in back. This will leave 2 shapes with fills, no strokes and in front, two shapes with stroke, no fills.

Use the Scissor Tool (C) to cut section of the front stroked objects and remove the cut sections. Add circles to the cut sections.

For the internal taco parts, draw a line, add rounded end caps (hot dog the lines). Apply a Zig Zag Effect (Effect> Distort and Transform>Zig Zag) to the line to create the lettuce wiggles. 

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Create different colors of lettuce. 

Duplicate the lines and make them darker for shredded beef wiggles. Make the lines thicker.

Create some tomato bits using squares, round the corners, rotate them at a 45° angle

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Copy the wiggles, make them thinner and make them orange for the cheese. Copy the wiggle for guacamole, shorten the line to make the wiggles closer together. 

To create a window for the internal taco bits, duplicate the back shape of the taco shell. 

Add a rectangle to the side of the copied shape lining up the shape with the bottom of the copied shape. 

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Select the two shapes, use the Pathfinder Unite Mode to join the shapes together. 

Remove the fill and stroke from the shape. Click the Draw Inside button at the bottom of the Tool Bar. 

Select all the taco bits, group them and copy them. 

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Paste them inside the shape and position and scale them so they fit. Click on the Draw Normal Mode at the bottom of the Tool Bar. 

Place the shape with the taco internals pasted inside, on the taco. Send the shape backward until it appears behind the front shell. Object>Arrange>Send Backward. 

Use the Arc Tool to create 1/4 circles for texture on the taco shell. Place them on the shell using different stroke colors to create the shell texture. Enjoy!

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