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Design a flower in 5 easy steps

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      11. Design a flower in 5 easy steps
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Want to give a floral theme to your posters, cards, brochures, and more? Let's learn how to create a flower with heart-shaped petals using the basic features of Illustrator.

Flower

Before you proceed

Download Illustrator

Step 1: Create the first petal

Use the Ellipse tool

Create a circle

Let's create a circle with the Ellipse tool.

Press L to use the Ellipse tool, or long press the Rectangle tool () and then select the Ellipse tool () from the drop-down list.

 To create a perfect circle using the Ellipse tool, press the Shift key and then draw the circle.

Design journey of a petal

Create a flower

a.

Press Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (macOS) and drag the first circle from its center to create a duplicate.

Flower structure

b.

Merge the two circles using the Unite shape mode in Pathfinder
(Windows > Pathfinder).

Create a flower

c.

Remove extra anchor points from the bottom of the circle using the Delete Anchor Points tool.

Create a flower

d.

Press the Shift key and drag the handles of the bottom-most anchor point to form the heart-shaped petal.

Watch this animated illustration to see how these steps work:

Flower structure
Creating a petal in heart shape

If you are working with Illustrator 24.1.2 version, press the Shift key when you delete anchor points, else the path shape will change.

Step 2: Create the flower structure

Use rotate and duplicate features

Flower structure
Creating the flower structure by rotating and duplicating petals

Flower structure

  • Select the first petal using the Selection tool.
  • Click the Rotate tool from the toolbar.
  • Hold Alt and click right below the petal shape to open the Rotate settings dialog.
     To maintain symmetry in the petal arrangement, ensure you click vertically below the center of the shape.
  • In the Rotate dialog, specify the angle as 90 degrees and click Copy.
  • Now, press Ctrl+D or Command+D to create duplicate shapes.

Step 3: Create components of the flower

fold lines

Fold lines

pollen

A Pollen

fold marks

A Sepal

Flower structure
Creating fold lines for petals using Rotate and Ellipse tools

  1. Create a straight line using the Pen tool and then select it using the Selection tool.
  2. Choose Width Profile 1 (leaf shape) and change the Stroke to 5.
  3. Click the Rotate tool. Alt+click at the bottom point on the line to open Rotate settings. Specify Angle as 12 degrees.
  4. Press Ctrl+D or Command+D to form a circular pattern.

Convert strokes to path

We have now got a collection of strokes and now will expand appearance to convert your strokes to a path. To do this, select all strokes and choose Object > Expand Appearance. 

Note: Alternatively, if you don't want to convert strokes to a path, set the General > Scale Strokes and Effects preference.

Flower details
Converting outlines to a shape

Flower details
Creating pollen using Rotate and Ellipse tools

Flower details
Creating sepal using the Star tool

Sepal is a green leaf-like support on the base of the flower.
  • Select the Star tool from the toolbar. Press Alt and click to open the Star settings. As we have 4 petals, let's create a 4-point star with Radius1 as 25px and Radius2 as 100px. 
  • Use the Ellipse tool to create a small circle at the center of the flower shape.

Step 4: Add color to flower components

Add color to the flower and its different components using the Color panel.

Flower details

Flower details

Flower details

Flower details

See also: Paint with fill and strokes.

Step 5: Arrange the flower components

Prerequisites

Before arranging the components, do the following:
  • Create a petal group: Select the petals and then right-click and choose Group.
  • Create a compound path:
    • Select the petal group and create its copy. Keep it aside.
    • Choose Object > Compound Path > Make or press Command+8 or Ctrl+8.
      See also: Combine objects.
    • Select the fold lines and the compound path. Align them using the Align panel (Horizontal and vertical Align Center). Ensure that Align to key object option is enabled. Ensure that the petal comound path is on the top. 
Align components

Create the clipping mask to clip the fold lines inside petals: 

  • Select the petals and flower folds and choose Object > Clipping Mask > Make.
    See also: Edit clipping masks.

 To control the visibility of objects, right-click the objects and choose Arrange > Send to Back or Bring to Front.

Flower details
Creating the clipping mask to clip the fold lines inside petals

To derive the final shape for the fold lines, trim the clipping mask using the Trim option in Pathfinder.

See also: Cut, divide, and trim objects

Trim objects
Trim objects in Pathfinder

Clipped fold lines
The trimmed art

Arrange the components to form the flower

Arrange flower components
Order in which the components are to be placed

Select all the components and align them using the Align panel (Horizontal and Vertical Align Center). Ensure that Align to Selection option is enabled.

The final artwork. You did it!

Flower

Recap of tools and features used

Tools:

Features:

Try it yourself

Download the sample files to try out this creation at your end.

Get file
Sample files

What's next

Play with shapes and colors to create different varieties of flowers. Then, use your artwork to add a floral theme to your posters, stickers, flyers, logos, and more. 

Have a question or an idea?

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If you have a question to ask or an idea to share, come and participate in Adobe Illustrator Community. We'd love to hear from you!

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