In this video I will show you how you can make a heart in Illustrator. By the end of the video, you will be able to make a regular heart symbol and fill it with color.
Additionally, I will show you how you can make the below heart-shaped designs from your original. One is a crying heart illustration with eyes, while the other is a text-filled heart shape.
Steps Making a Basic Heart in Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator does not offer a specific tool to create a heart shape; you need to use different shapes to create it. To make the basic heart shape, we will use the rounded rectangle shape.
Create a rounded-edged rectangle
Using the selection tool, select the rectangle option from the basic illustrator shapes tool. Click and hold the rectangle tool to bring up the rounded rectangle.
Click and drag to create the shape on the artboard . Before you let go of your mouse, click the up and down arrow keys to adjust the rectangle curve area.
You want it to be as smooth as possible to match the heart shape’s top part. As demonstrated in the image below, make sure the length is greater than the width.
Tip: Fill the rectangle with your favorite color; it is recommended, as it allows you to view end-to-end edges of the shape. Please note, do not stroke the shape.
Duplicate the round-edged rectangle
Go to Window Transform, and a panel comes up. Set the tilt angle to 45 degrees.Simply enter 45 degrees. As soon as you achieve this, the above diagram, duplicate the shape.
Click Control C then Control F with the shape selected. This creates a duplicate shape on top of the older one.
Select the top shape, Object > Transform > Reflect. Object>Transform>Reflect. Choose vertical, then OK.
You can move the shape depending on how you want the heart to look. Alternatively, you can select the two shapes and, using the align function, align them vertically and horizontally towards the center.
It will result as per the image shown—a cross-like rectangle—but if you can look at it critically, you will notice a heart formed within the rounded rectangles.
Trim off using the Shape Builder Tool
Select the two rectangles, then choose the shape builder tool. Click and drag through the shape forming a heart to separate it.
Click the direct selection tool and delete the unwanted areas. That is it; you now have a vector heart shape that you can change colors or use for different functions.
How Make a Custom Brush in Illustrator
We now want to add the crying eyes like on the other design. Choose the ellipse tool and make a long oval-like shape like below.
Go to Brush and click the three lines on the top right of the panel. Choose to create a new brush. You have just created a brush. You can now use it to draw the eyes.
Choose an art brush from the pop-up.
A new pop up panel comes up. Choose tints in the next one under the method. Leave everything as default, then choose OK.
Pick the brush tool, and you can click and drag to draw the eyes. If your hands are not steady, you can use the Pen tool. Draw the eyebrows as well, but change the stroke type to width profile for the brows.
For the tears, choose the pen tool and draw. Check out previous article on How to Use the Pen Tool. Duplicate the eye and tears after positioning, then reflect to the other side. If you are lost, just comment, and we will send you the full video.
If you would like to know how to create the previous post on how to curve text. You can also check out the full video tutorial.
Related Posts
- How to Copy in Adobe Illustrator
- CorelDRAW vs Adobe Illustrator
- What is Illustrator and How is it used?
