Wood Cut Effect

Create a wood cut effect using simple lines. Add some Blend magic and a gradient. The possibilities are endless. Check out the video here.

---

Select the Pencil Tool. Double click on the Pencil tool in the tool bar to open the preferences. Set the Fidelity to Smooth.

Draw a curve to mimic the curve of a leaf or a flower petal. Set the stroke weight to 5pts or greater.

Apply a width profile from the drop down menu, choose the first one in the list; a dual taper. 

---

This is the result. 

Duplicate and flip the line to create a leaf or petal shape. 

Select both paths and choose Object > Blend > Blend Options. Set the Spacing to Specified Steps and set the number to the number of lines you want in between the two that are selected. 

---

Choose Object > Blend > Make to render the lines. 

To curve or edit the start and stop lines, you can use the Direct Selection tool or the Curvature Tool. 

Change the shape of the start and stop lines to create different petals or leaves. 

---

To create a set of petals, select the shape and then select the Rotate Tool. Hold Option/Alt and click on the end of the petal you want to rotate. 

When the dialog box opens, type in 360 divided by the number of petals you want. Click COPY. 

Once you get a duplicate petal, click COMMAND + D to keep copying the rotate around the center of the flower.

---

You can fill the petals with a white fill to create in interesting half shaded effect. 

Draw a circle. 

Use the Direct Selection tool to select and remove a section of the circle. 

---

Select the line and add a heavier stroke. Apply the same width profile as the petal.

Duplicate the path and make is smaller. 

Select both paths and choose Object > Blend > Blend Options and set the steps to 2. Choose Object > Blend > Make.

---

To create a set of arcs, select the shape and then select the Rotate Tool. Hold Option/Alt and click on the end of the petal you want to rotate. ​

To create a set of arcs, select the shape and then select the Rotate Tool. Hold Option/Alt and click on the end of the petal you want to rotate. I chose 360/5 then click COPY. 
​Once you get a duplicate arc, click COMMAND + D to keep copying the rotate around the center of the flower.

This set is not filled with white, creating an overlapped effect. The previous set shows the arcs filled with white. 

---

Move the arcs into the middle of the petals. 

To create the stem, draw a line with the pencil tool. Add a heavier stroke and apply the Width profile to it. 

Duplicate the path, then use the Blend command like in the previous steps to create several lines.

---

Repurpose some of the petals from the flower, changing the start and stop lines of the shapes to create flowing leaves. 

Select the paths and expand them by using the Object > Blend > Expand. This will convert the blend effect to paths. 

Select the paths and choose Object > Path > Outline Stroke to make all the paths shapes. 

---

Open the gradient panel to fill the shapes with a gradient fill. Double click on the gradient stop dot to select the color. 

Apply the linear gradient fill to the shapes, adjusting the angle of the gradient fills to give some highlight and shadow effects.

Apply a radial gradient to the center seection. 

---

To create a more distress effect, select a section and choose Effect > Artistic > Rough pastels. This is a raster effect that is the same as Photoshop.

The Rough pastels effect gives a somewhat distressed look to the vector shapes. 

---

If there needs to be an adjustment to the Effect, go to the Appearance Panel and click on the Effect to make any edits. 

This is a close up of the Rough Pastels.

---

And here is the effect of all that work. Some seriously cool wood cut effects.