In this tutorial, we'll explain how to create an illustrated poster and how to set up our own crop marks in a few easy steps. This tutorial is aimed at the beginning Adobe Illustrator user. Creating this poster is relatively easy, so let's get started at the jump!
Final Image Preview
Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Step 1
First, pick a movie or a documentary of your interest that you want to recreate or illustration your own artistic style. I picked a documentary that has to do with the rain forest. The title of the documentary is "Wanamei: The Last Tree." Therefore, we will start with a tree as our main focus. Select the Pen Tool (P) and start drawing an outline of a simple tree. It can be whimsical or stylized or even a real to a tree.

Step 2
Fill the tree with a dark brown and set the stroke to a dirty green. Then duplicate the tree shape by clicking Alt and dragging the shape away. Repeat this several times. I created three duplicate to have a total of four trees. Lastly, group them close together.

Step 3
Next we need some leaves. With the Pen Tool (P) start drawing similar shapes like you see below. Quick tip: raw the outer shape first, then draw a line through the middle and select both with the Add to Shape Area in the Pathfinder palette. Next, fill the shape with a light shade of bright green, then set the stroke to a dirty green.

Step 4
Place the leaves close together. Select them all and drag them into the Symbol Palette. Name them "leaves" and check the Graphic button.

Step 5
This is the symbol instance of the leaves.

Step 6
Select the Sprayer Symbol Tool (Shift + S) and start adding leaves to your trees.

Step 7
Create as many as you like, but don't make it too dense. Select some of the trees and place them in front of the leaves, so the branches stick out. You might have to expand the leaves and ungroup them so it looks more natural.

Step 8
Let's get it going with the grass. Draw several shapes as shown below. Next, fill them with the same green as the leaves. Quick tip: draw three and then mirror them while duplicating.

Step 9
Group them close together and repeat Step 4 and drag an instance into the Symbol palette.

Step 10
Create a long rectangle and fill it with the grass green.

Step 11
Select the grass symbol and with the Symbol Sprayer start spraying grass along the top of the rectangle.

Step 12
Select both the grass and the rectangle and select Add to Shape Area in the Pathfinder Palette.

Step 13
This is what the stripe of grass should look like.

Step 14
Draw a long rectangle and fill it with a red to black linear gradient.

Step 15
Place the trees in the top middle of the background.

Step 16
Create a sun burst with two different greens. I chose a slight mint green. Place the sun burst behind the trees but in front of the background and set the Layer Mode to Darken.

Step 17
Place the grass shape above the trees hiding the bottom of it. Duplicate and mirror the grass if it is not long enough.

Step 18
Select the grass shape and reflect it vertically (Object > Transform > Reflect).

Step 19
Copy the tree part and scale it up about 200%. Remove the stroke. Then select the shape and flip or rotate it and apply an Opacity Mask to it. This will make it fade into the background.

Step 20
Repeat Step 19, but don't apply an Opacity Mask.

Step 21
Create the title (T) of your movie and place it on the grass line. I chose a free font over at dafont.com called Astro 867 .

Step 22
Once you've added the text, it's time to set it up with crop marks. We need some bleed (the artwork should extend beyond the edge of the paper sheet, see Wikipedia Explanation of Bleed Printing). Select the background and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. In the pop up window, choose for Scale, set Vertical and Horizontal to 115%, and click OK. This will extend the background shape, but we can still see the original borders when selected.

Step 23
Drag guidelines onto the artboard along the background's original size. Then Select the Crop Area Tool (Shift + O) and place the crop area along the guides.

Step 24
Grab the Selection Tool (V) and you will see the crop marks have been added. Now you could print it out yourself and cut it easily. Keep in mind that to a professional printer there are a few more steps involved. This will work fine to build a portfolio piece for yourself or artwork for your home.

Conclusion
This is the final poster. You can add much more information and elements though. So have fun and be creative!

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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )DKumar M. March 24th
eco Friendly Vector Poster… Nice stuff.
( )Steffy March 24th
Nice tutorial, ugly font
( )olybop March 24th
Nice poster !
( )123 March 24th
thats great:)
( )David March 24th
Some good learning tips in the tutorial. You may want to proofread it though
( )Buzzness March 24th
lovley
( )Diego SA March 24th
The leaves and grass are well done. I didn’t like the roots.
( )But the final result looks great.
Indra March 24th
Same, not too fond of the roots, could’ve been done way better in my opinion. But besides that, nice poster!
( )Al March 25th
In Step 3, “Add to Shape Area in the Pathfinder palette” didn’t work. The line in the middle of the leaf would disappear. I ended up clicking Pathfinders: Divide
Love the brush effect with the leaves and trees.
Yeah, there’s some proofreading to be done.
I was bummed that the tutorial didn’t go into detail of how to make the sun burst.
( )loveleen March 25th
nice idea for eco-friendly posters.. thanks..
( )how about something in green?
tibô March 25th
nice try, but for an eco friendly poster, ijust had chosen different colors with a green ambiant
( )7944 March 25th
cool poster.. !!!
( )Shane March 25th
Nice tutorial – I agree with tibô a bit about the colour scheme, but the techniques have been described well. Thanks for writing it!
( )Ben March 25th
I find it contradictory that you have created an “eco-friendly” poster for a documentary about the devastation of logging, yet encouraging unnecessary printing without mentioning the possibility of recycled stock, low VOC inks etc.
( )K March 26th
How would one go about making the sun burst described in the tutorial?
( )Jockamo. April 3rd
I dont think it’s necessary to make the color scheme “more green” . I have been down this road when designing for clients and its like saying all dogs have to be brown. As designers, I think it’s too literal to say that green friendly design has to have green as the majority. To paraphrase the late and great Mitch Hedburg, our next tutorial could be how to design a forklift lifting a crate of forks.
I would like to see how you made your sunburst. I have my way of doing but im not convinced its the most efficient.
( )Abhijit V. Chaore April 6th
Hi…this is a nice tutorial, good one for beginners….thanks
( )Greg April 7th
Yea, as far as the sunburst goes, is there an efficient way to do this, without creating shapes and rotating them? Just looking for a sunburst tool…does it exist?
( )CgBaran Tuts April 19th
Great tutorial thanks
( )songbird April 24th
so how do you crop it so all the exess is gone?
( )Lauren Hartman May 5th
I am trying to make a project similar to this and I was wondering how the sunburst fades into the background gradient??
( )Qushal Shrestha June 18th
really great work dudes…
( )DAICHUS July 14th
WHCI TOOL U USED TO MAKE THE sun burst?
( )