Craft a Dramatic Vector Landscape Environment
Tutorial Details
- Program: Illustrator
- Difficulty: Beginner-Intermediate
- Completion Time: 1 hour
Download Source Files
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
This tutorial will show the intermediate Adobe Illustrator artist how to make a dramatic landscape environment. You should have a basic understanding of Adobe Illustrator tools before you begin this tutorial, as the tutorial moves at a rapid pace.
Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in July of 2008.
Step 1
Start by drawing a matte that will cover the edges of the artwork. Put this artwork on its own layer and move it to the top of the Layers Palette.
Step 2
Easily make smooth grass using this technique. Using the Pen Tool, draw a slightly curved line. The trick to getting your lines flowing nicely is once you draw point 2 you have to click on that same point once more. In the "Wrong" diagram point 2 wasn’t clicked after it was drawn. In the "Right" diagram, point 2 was clicked after it was drawn.
You simply click using the Pen Tool, you don’t have to switch tools or anything. The reason you click twice on the same point is because the next point drawn will be directed back toward the top near point 1.
Step 3
It’s better to draw a 3rd point instead of just going from point 1 to point 2 and back to the top (unless you’re fairly handy with the Pen Tool).
Step 4
Now close the shape by going from point 3 to point 1.
Step 5
Fill the grass with a gradient.
Step 6
Draw several more grass shapes that are slightly varied.
Step 7
We achieve the curvy or windy effect by using the Warp tool.
Step 8
Select all of your grass shapes. Then click and drag over your grass to distort it. It’s like painting, the further you drag the mouse, the more distorted the grass will become. The blue lines indicate how the grass will look once distorted.
Power Tip: Change the size and pressure of the distortion ring by double clicking on the icon in the palette.
Step 9
This is what the distorted grass looks like. You can distort the grass as many times as you like. However, the more distortion you do, the more likely the grass will become jagged and rough. So, adjust your pressure and size instead of distorting multiple times.
Step 10
Select a few blades of grass and vary the colors. Then copy and paste your grass shapes to quickly build up large areas.
Step 11
Notice how there are subtle color differences in the grass. This adds to the interest and realism of the grass.
Step 12
Draw a rectangle and select a moody green color. This rectangle will become the sky so it needs to have a gradient. The secret to making gradients transition smoothly from one color to the next is to start by making two of the same color points in the gradient palette (colors 1 and 2 are identical.)
Step 13
Select color 2 and change the slider shown at number 3 to achieve a smooth color shift.
Step 14
This is what your sky should look like.
Step 15
Copy and paste a blade of grass.
Step 16
Use the grass to make wispy shapes in the sky. Adjust the Opacity so that the shapes blend into the background.
Step 17
Copy and paste a few more grass shapes and vary their placement.
Step 18
To make the stars we’ll draw a narrow oval to start.
Step 19
Use the Convert Anchor Point tool and click on the top and bottom points of the oval to make them pointy.
Step 20
Compress the oval, duplicate it, and rotate it to make a star.
Step 21
Copy and paste the star making sure to vary the size.
Step 22
Draw a circle, which will become the moon. Using the Pencil tool draw arbitrary shapes that mimic the Moon’s craters. It’s OK to draw outside the Moon’s edges as we’ll eliminate the overlapping areas next.
Step 23
Using the Pathfinder Palette click the Add to Shape option to merge your individual Moon craters (1). After you merge them, click Expand (2). Select both the Moon and the newly merged craters then click Divide (3). Delete the unnecessary extra shapes from the edges.
Step 24
Make rocks by using the Pencil tool and drawing rough shapes like below.
Step 25
Then add a gradient.
Step 26
Give your rock more detail by using the Artistic Ink palette (Window > Brush Libraries > Artistic > Artistic_Ink). For the example below, I’ve used Fire Ash Ink. Simply select the Pen tool, select the ink type, from the palette. Then draw a line (curved or straight). In order to see what you’ve drawn, make sure you have a stroke color specified.
Step 27
In order to make the ink spots the color of your choice you need to do two things. First, expand the ink spot by selecting Object (from the top) then Expand Appearance.
Step 28
Next go to Object (at the top) then select Ungroup. Keep Ungrouping the object until you cannot ungroup it any more (about 5 or 6 times.) Once you cannot ungroup it any more then you will be able to change the color of the ink.
Step 29
Duplicate the ink and arrange it to cover the rock.
Step 30
Move the rock behind the grass by copying and pasting the rock. Then vary the size shape to give the impression of different rocks.
Step 31
Your dramatic landscape environment is complete!
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Very cool idea.
Not half bad
Breathtaking.
quite interesting approach
i feel like the grass is a bit too green
but the whole composition is pretty cool
Grass is sexy.
Awesome, finally! I’ve been looking forward to something like this, I hope to see more. Id mostly like to see photo/car vectors..
Symbols are great. I don’t use them at all but I really appreciate this tutorial’s use of them! Saves so much time!
I really dig the result! Great work! :)
Tutorials of this quality are a great advertisement for Illustrator. Love the end result – thanks for posting.
I’ve never thought about using the Warp tool rather than drawing the curved lines directly with the Pen Tool, great tip!
I… dig… this. I have a new favortie tut here. I have no idea what I could use this on, and I don’t care. Art for arts sake thats what I am talking about. Great stuff. Thanks
Wow. This is a great tutorial… I will definitely try this on for size.
Thanks for posting this.
Oh these tuts are getting better and better!
Nice tutorial. You could also convert the blades of grass into symbols and then use the symbol sprayer to quickly build up the blades. You could then use the symbol sizer/scruncher tools to vary the size and direction of the grass.
I agree, the same for the starts
i really like this one, everything looks so calm!
I like how they do it, awesome the word I can say to this tuts. great job.
Sickening sweet.
Unbelievable ….
YOU R THE MAN
Reall Cool
That is the needed level!
definitly awesome.
I’m glad you guys are liking this tutorial. I also see that some people have tried it out on Flickr, good work guys! I’ll make sure to do more cool tuts like this.
Thanks for the nice comments, it’s always appreciated!
Jonathan
I love it *-*
Great work!
But I prefer symbols!
I ADORE THIS!
it has such a sweet charm about it! have you ever illustrated children’s books?
when i tried to click on the link to your site
“Visit Jonathan’s Website”
it said link not valid.
Great tut! I love the result!
Hey SC,
Thanks so much for the compliment. Nope, I’ve never illustrated for childrens books. I started off doing illustration and have transitioned to graphic design and art direction. I find myself doing illustrative work in my spare time.
If you have a project you’d like me to work on I’d be happy to work something out. Email me at user853 -at- gmail.com Thanks again for the compliments!
Great blog! Thanks for share.
Nice to meet you !
inspiring indeed!
it just amazing!!!, very nice, from Nicaragua, greeting for you man. :D
So simple, so beatiful.
As usual , great content.
whoa!! this is nice….
Nice, I will definitely try some of these techniques.
+10 bonus points just for the grass.
Its a good work.
I love the grass part, always wanted to learn that!!
Hi Jonathan, great tut……….but(sry) How the hell do you draw the matte at the start, theres two paths there yeah?? I have had the same problem with another tut that says the same thing at the start. Am I missing something real basic here!? Any feedback guys would be well appreciated. Thanks again great result!
It’s not two paths, or at least it doesn’t end up as two paths. It ends up as a shape (a rectangle with a hole in the middle). Draw the outside square, then draw the inside shape (square with curved sides in this case). then make sure the inside shape (curve sided square) is in front of the larger outside square. Then select both shapes and go to the Pathfinder and select the “Minus Front” button to subtract the inside shape from the outside shape. tah dah.
Very inspiring man..i like it!
This is exactly what I wanted to see. Great approach, it gives me confidence that I can create something almost as stunning [probably 10x more time than what you do].
Beautiful. I’ve been looking for a tutorial like this for quite some time.
Good job man! I like it….. keep it up.
wow!!! its realy cool.
I really like what you did, I just didnt like the rock you made, but overal was very good.
I have a question for your, I would like to know what do you think about Illustrator compared againts Corel Draw, which do you think is better? why? in what ways?
Thanks and very good job
I like this style so I’ll have to try it out soon. I’m so impressed with the stuff on this site. Looking back at some of the older stuff I’ve never seen, I keep finding more and more to try out.
natural … a great tutorial …
“Step 1
Start by drawing a matte that will cover the edges of the artwork. Put this artwork on its own layer and move it to the top of the Layers Palette.”
I understand the other steps, but what are the exact ways to craft a “matte that will cover the edges of the artwork” ? Just don’t understand the terminology, could someone clarify please?
Thank you!
great tutorial!
Great work thanks
I also don’t understand step one either please help
To clarify the matte:
Draw a rectangle, draw the internal shape of the frame with the pen tool, and then use the pathfinder to subtract one shape from the other.
There are many other ways to do this as well