Illustrator Tutorial: How to Make an Icy Cocktail

Do you desire to drink an icy refreshing cocktail on a sunny day? I know I am, so in this tutorial, I will explain how I draw a refreshing cocktail drink in illustrator. Hope you will find this useful and inspiring to make other kinds of drinks or cocktails.

Drawing the Glass Shape

Open a new document, any size, RGB mode. Take the Pen tool and draw the shape that you see in the image below or just draw half of it and then reflect it to be symmetrical, like I did. Fill it with the linear gradient shown. Colors are: (230,230,230) or 10% black; white (255,255,255) and (204,204,204) 20% black.

Now copy and paste in front this shape. Take the Direct Selection tool and select the upper point of the shape and drag it a bit down like in the image. Make the same with the lower point of the shape. Then fill it with the linear gradient shown using the colors: (191,191,191) or 25% black; white (255,255,255) and (230,230,230) 10% black.

Next, copy and paste in front of the shape again and make it a little smaller. Fill it with the linear gradient using the colors: (77,77,77) 70% black; white and (51,51,51) 80% black, then set it to Color Burn. We will use this shape again later to make the liquid inside the glass. You should get something like in the image below:

Drawing the Glass Legs

Now let’s make the ‘leg’ of the glass. Draw the shape from the image below or just half of it and reflect it, then fill it with the gradient shown: (204,204,204) 20% black; (230,230,230) 10% black; white; (242,242,242) 5% black and (153,159,164).

Drawing the Glass Foot

For the ‘foot’ of the glass take the Ellipse tool and draw the shape that you see in the image and fill it with the linear gradient. Colors I’ve used are: (230,230,230) 10% black; white and (178,178,178) 30% black. To create more depth, copy and paste the shape that we just made, fill it with a darker gray and place it like in the image below. Now, the glass should look like this:

Coloring the Drink

It’s time to color the drink. Copy the shape that I said we will use it for this part and fill it the gradient using the colors: (63,98,46); (85,124,62); (168,194,88); (248,211,103) and (251,232,191) or any other colors that you prefer. The original shape, set to Color Burn that we made, has to be on top of this one not the other way.

Next, draw a simple shape like the one below and fill it with a linear gradient using the orange from above and a darker one. This way we will get the surface of the liquid inside and a more realistic look for the cocktail.

Drawing the Ice Cubes

Now, we will make the ice cubes. Take the Pencil tool and draw some shapes like the ones below. Fill them with a radial gradient from white to black, set the mode to Screen and lower the opacity for each one of them. You can adjust this later also till you like what you see.

Now place them all on top of the glass shape and you should have now something like this:

Adding in Details for Ice Cubes

We will continue to add some details to the ice cubes. Take the Pencil tool, draw some random shapes and fill them using different shades of orange. If necessary, lower the opacity for each one of them.

Creating Reflections

We will add some reflections in this step. With the Pen tool draw the shapes from the image below, fill them with a linear gradient using white and a similar green color to the one used for the liquid, then set the mode to multiply and lower the opacity.

Water Fizzles

To make the cocktail look more realistic, I decided to draw some water fizzles on the glass. With the Pen tool draw a shape like the one below or any other shape that will fit on top of the glass later. Copy and paste the shape and fill it with the linear gradient shown using black, white and gray. Place the second shape on top of the first one and go to Transparency panel and select Make opacity mask.

Now go to Effects/Pixelate/Mezzotint and select Fine Dots. Place the shape on top of the glass, set the mode to Screen and reduce the opacity till you get the icy effect that you like.

Water Droplets Dripping Effect

Take the Pen tool and draw a shape like the next one to make the water drop flow. Fill it with a linear gradient using the same colors like the drink inside the glass. Next, go to Effects/Pixelate/Crystallize and set the Cell size to 4, this will make the flow look more natural.

Now, place the shape on top of the water fizzles shape made earlier. Set the mode to multiply and lower the opacity.

Water Droplets

For the water droplets, take the Ellipse tool, draw 3 shapes, color them with (63,98,46) dark green; (179,202,109) light green and white, then place them on top of each other like in the image below. Go to Effects/Stylize/Drop Shadow and set the values like you see in the image and then group them all.

Placing the Water Droplets

Place the water drop like in the image and reduce the opacity to 25%. Copy one more water droplet and made it smaller to get a more realistic look.

We are done with this part and the cocktail should now look like the image below.

Drawing the Straw

It’s time to draw the cocktail accessories. With the Pen tool draw a shape like a straw. Fill it with white and a 0.5px light gray stroke.

With the Rectangle tool draw a small rectangle, fill it with green or other color that you prefer and drag it to the Brushes panel. Then I made the orange rectangle, we will need this one later for the second straw.

Next, draw a path with the Pen tool following the straw shape and stroke it using the green brush that we just made. Place it on top of the other one and make an Opacity mask. Copy the straw shape, select the path with the green stroke, double click the black square that you see in the image and paste the straw shape that we copied, then exit the mask mode. You should get something like in the image below.

Now make another Opacity mask so the bottom of the straw looks more transparent when we will place it in the glass. You can adjust the mask later if needed.

Make the second straw like we did the green one. Then place them on top of the glass and adjust the Opacity mask for both of them to look realistic. I got something like this:

Drawing the Umbrella Stem

We will make the little umbrella for our cocktail. Use the brush from the Library that you see in the image, Expand appearance and fill it with a light brown. Copy and paste this shape, then delete the points except the 3 ones from the tip to make the little shape from the image. Copy and make 8 shapes that we will use later.

Drawing the Umbrella

Using the Pen tool draw a shape like the one below and fill it with a linear gradient using 2 green colors or other colors that you prefer. Draw some lines starting from the top and color them using a light and a dark green like in the image below.

Next, place the 8 shapes that we made earlier and draw with the Pen tool the little shape on top. The flower I used is from the Symbols Library and I set it to multiply. The umbrella is ready and should look like this:

Cocktail Stirrer

Next using the Ellipse tool and the Rounded Rectangle tool draw the cocktail stirrer. Fill them with a linear gradient. The colors that I have used are (244,237,203) and (244,187,58).

Final Cocktail

The final cocktail image is done. The final image of the cocktail looks like this:

Hope you have enjoyed this cocktail tutorial and find it useful and refreshing.

Copyright by : vectordiary.com

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How to Create a Mesh Flower in Illustrator

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator
• Version: CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 hours

Step 1

Open up a new document and select the Polygon Tool. Click once on the artboard and choose Radius 50pt and Sides: 6 in the pop up window. Fill the polygon with an orange color.

Step 2

Select the Mesh Tool (U) and start adding mesh points. Click once on the top line of the polygon.

Step 3

Then repeat the step by clicking in the middle and on the right of the top horizontal line of the polygon as shown.

Step 4

Then click once right into the middle of the polygon with the Mesh Tool (U).

Step 5

Select the Direct selection Tool (A) and highlight the center mesh point, then fill it with a darker orange.

Step 6

Next, select each corner mesh point and fill it with a yellow.

Step 7

Start dragging each middle mesh point of each side of the polygon towards the middle until you create a similar star shape, just like you see in the image below.

Step 8

Let's move onto the flower pedal creation. Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a similar shape as shown in the image below. Fill it with 5% Black.

Step 9

Create another shape similar to the one shown below, which will be the bottom part of the flower pedal. Fill it with a pink or any other color of your choice. Then go to Effect > Stylize > Feather, then set the Feather amount to 5pt. Place it on top of the gray pedal.

Step 10

Apply mesh points to the pedal with the Mesh Tool (U). Select random mesh points and fill them with a darker gray.

Step 11

Select the smaller pink shape and make a copy. Then scale it down to about 75% of the original one. Fill it with a darker pink or a purple. Apply a Feather effect of 2pt.

Step 12

Group the flower pedal and the two small shapes together. Then select the grouped shape and Rotate (R) and duplicate it until you have six pedals.

Step 13

Select the orange shape from Steps 1-4 and place it on top of the pedals. Set the layer mode to 88% Opacity and apply a Feather effect of 5pt.

Step 14

Make a copy of the orange feather shape and scale it down.

Step 15

Create a rectangle and fill it with green. Then add mesh points with the Mesh Tool (U). Select random points and fill them with a darker or lighter green. This will be the backdrop.

Step 16

Group all the flower shapes together and make a copy. Then apply a Gaussian Blur effect of 21 pixels.

Step 17

Place it on top of the backdrop.

Step 18

You can add some text on the right.

Step 19

Make a copy of the blurred flower, scale it down and place it to the right of the bigger one. Set the layer mode to 20% Opacity.

Step 20

Make another copy and apply a stronger Gaussian Blur of 65 pixels, then place it on top of the big flower. Set the layer mode Opacity back to 100%.

Step 21

I started adding some Opacity Masks to the original non-blurred flower and placed several into the background in order to create a sense of depth of field. will explain how in the next step.

Step 22

Take a copy of the original flower and apply an Opacity Mask. Select the Opacity Mask window (Black square).

Step 23

Create a circle that is bigger than the flower and fill it with a black to white linear gradient.

Step 24

Add another smaller ellipse on top with a black to white gradient. This will hide the edges of the pedals. Remember, we are still in the same Opacity Mask.

Step 25

Leave the Opacity Mask. Place another original flower on top. We want to add another Opacity Mask.

Step 26

Repeat Step 24 and apply another Opacity Mask. As you can see, the image is set up with several flowers placed on top or behind, scaled down or blurred. This will create the illusion of a depth of field and it makes it much more interesting.

Conclusion

Voila, that's it folks. Opacity Masks can be difficult to understand, but they can help to create some awesome effects. Just remember that black hides and white reveals and always make sure that you are in the active Opacity Window and that you leave it by clicking on the layer window next to it.

Copyright by : vector.tutsplus.com

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