Create a Stylized Avocado in Illustrator
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In this tutorial, we'll explain how to create a cut avocado with simple shapes, blends, and textures. We’ll design both the outer skin, yummy light green avocado filling, and the inner core. Let’s get started!
Final Image Preview
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Tutorial Details
- Program: Adobe Illustrator CS4
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour
Step 1
Open up a new document and select the Ellipse Tool (L), then use it to create an ellipse.
Step 2
Select the Pen Tool (P) and add a path point on each side. Grab the Direct Selection Tool (A), then use it to move the added points inward to make it look more like an avocado shape. Make a copy and put it aside.
Step 3
Select the shape and add a 4pt Stroke. Then go to Object > Path > Outline Path.
Step 4
Select the outlines shape and go to Effect > Stylize > Zig Zag and apply the settings you see below.
Step 5
Create a rectangle filled with green and place it behind the shape.
Step 6
Select both and in the Path Finder Palette, chose Divide. Then select the outer part with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and delete it.
Step 7
This is our simple avocado shape for now. You could save the last two steps if you fill the shape right in the beginning with a color before outlining the stroke.
Step 8
Take the copied shape from Step 2 and scale it down. Place it towards the bottom and fill it with a lighter green.
Step 9
Select the outline and fill it with a brown.
Step 10
Make another copy of the shape with the lighter green, scale it down and fill it with an even lighter green.
Step 11
Select the green shapes and apply a blend with the specified steps shown below.
Step 12
Create another oval like shape or take another copy of the shapes we created and fill it with a beige radial gradient.
Step 13
Make a copy of the pit shape on top and alter the outline with the Direct Selection Tool (A). Move the gradient slider around if you think it gives it a better contrast.
Step 14
With the Pen Tool (P), create a small roundish shape as a highlight on the pit and fill it with white. Set the Layer Mode to Overlay with a 40% Opacity.
Step 15
This is the inside part of the avocado.
Step 16
Copy the outline shape and inside fill of the avocado and Unite in the Pathfinder Palette. Now fill it with a muddy green.
Step 17
Open the Patterns and choose the Cheetah patterns form the animal patterns. Drag it onto the artboard. We want to change the colors a little bit.
Step 18
Select the small black fill and go the Select > Same > Fill Color. This will pick all the small black circles.
Step 19
Fill them with the radial white to black gradient, then change the background color to the muddy green or a dark green as shown.
Step 20
Now drag the pattern back into the Swatch Palette and name it avocado skin.
Step 21
Copy the avocado shape on top (Command + C + F) and fill it with the just the altered pattern. See how big it is? We will change that.
Step 22
Double-click the Scale Tool and uncheck all option boxes except for the Patterns box. Now chose about 25% for scaling. With the preview button checked, you can see how it just changes the size of the pattern without affecting the shape.
Step 23
Set the shape to the Layer Mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 20%.
Step 24
This is what it should look like now.
Step 25
Copy the shape on top again and fill it with a green to brown to green radial gradient. Set the Layer Mode to Overlay.
Step 26
Copy it on top again and fill it this time with a black to white radial gradient and set the Layer Mode to Multiply at 55% Opacity.
Step 27
Repeat the copy on top again, change the gradient sliders and set it to Overlay at 30% Opacity.
Step 28
Repeat and apply the settings you see below.
Step 29
One last time, fill it with a light green, a muddy green and black gradient. Set the Layer Mode to Multiply and 100% Opacity. This way we achieve a glossy and rich look. I bet there are other ways to achieve this as well, feel free to get creative and experiment here.
Step 30
Create two little beige shapes that act like the little stem piece of the avocado.
Step 31
Ah, the avocado is ready…
Step 32
I created a background with a linear black to white gradient and placed the avocado on top. I added a Drop Shadow to the inside part.
Step 33
To make it even glossier, I copied and reflected the shapes and applied an Opacity Mask.
Conclusion
Last but not least, I transformed the inside part and placed a scaled skin to the back to make the avocado look like it is lying on the back and not standing up. That’s it! I hope you had fun and learned some new techniques!
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By Simona Pfreundner
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great tutorial
thank you
How is this on Vector Tuts?
Hahaha I love avocados…
Thanks for the tutorial, but somehow I dont like how it turned out.
A mesh would have had a better result?
Agreed… the result is not good looking at all but i have to say this method looks to be quiet intuitive especially for people that dont really know their way around illustartor…
Other than that thanks for the tutorial
there are some useful techniques in this tut
thanks for sharing
The mother of that tutorial is having a hard time looking at the result..
Not a fan of the end result. Seems too flat for a round Avacado.
Also the perspectives are off. There are some cool techniques used but not really up to par with others I’ve seen here.
I don’t like the final result too.
I think this tutorial should be for beginners, not intermediate.
Not good enough imo.
I think it looks terrible. I know I couldn’t do any better but that is bad.
Looks really flat.
It’s not realistic and it’s not cartoony – unfortunately, it’s somwhere in the middle, resulting in a flat, unimpressive illustration. A mesh gradient would have been more ideal?
I suppose it’s okay for beginners, though.
Not really vectuts quality, I usually expect much more from you, but anyway, thnx!
Well, I hate giving bad critique on other peoples articles & tuts, but this is really not the quality I’m used to on vetcortuts. The result looks bad, the technique is basic or overly complicated (adding 3 Gradients on top won’t help a bad color selection), and the few lines of text add nothing to the screenshots presented.
Sorry, but as authors get paid to write, and as readers pay for plus services on this site, I think it’s ok to except a certain quality.
WHY does it have so much ankerpoints?
well done thanks vector plus
hai
hmm..the center seed needs more depth; looks too flat. but I love avocados!
mmmmmm, high contrast gradients! looks like psd/vec tuts gets a 0/2 for today.
A very poor tutorial
Wow, I can’t find one correct thing with the final result. Colors are all wrong, there is not one single hint of depth feel, the shadows are all wrong, the reflection is ver messed up. I am not a memeber of vector tuts, but I have considered it for a long time. Not any more.
Pleas dont take this the hard way Simona… we are all just giving a little feedback and mainly just encouraging you to do better on your next tutorial, which im sure you will.. but like I said before, theres a lot of useful tips and thank you so much for that, its just that the final result doesnt look pretty at all.
Thanks again
No offense, but this is really bad.
If you hold this up against ie. the gumball machine tut and the alarm clock tut on here, this just plummets to the ground.
There might be good techniques in this, but who wants to do a tutorial with techniques that produce a faulty result? Not me.
I wish i could say something positive to cheer up the author, but come on, how did this ever get up here? Is is not clear by now that a good end result sells the tutorial better and keeps people smiling?
Can you not tell that a tutorial like this is going to get bashed or do you like the negative “debate” that it brings?
I don’t really care if its free for me or what you might excuse this with, it’s just not good enough for this place.
My two cents.
This was a bit hard way to get to the goal!
Made this a few months ago:
hum, looks like it isnt possible to use img-tags here.
preview – http://www.mathias.li/upload/uploads/avocado.jpg
Now that is an avocado !
Good Work !
I want your tutorial
Simona , I am sorry dude I like the step by step work but as said before the end product just does not look good.I don’t know man, I eat avocados a lot, and your avocado sort of breaks my heart
Keep trying ! Hey I cannot even write tutorials
There are thousands of people out there opening Illustrator for the first time right now. Therefore, it is fair to offer tutorials for beginners as well, not only for experts. This avocado tut helps to understand basics of vector graphics – that is the point.
Simona, don’t get upset because of criticism – one average tutorial among dozens of excellent ones makes a great statistics!
You don’t have to be an expert to do many of the other tuts here that has a great end result.
This tut is even rated “Intermediate”.
It’s just rubbish.
THOUSANDS of people opening illustrator for the first time at this VERY MOMENT? Wow, nice statistic.
I wish people wouldn’t be so negative. Maybe the end result is not the best ever but it is also not the worst. I feel like people are opening themselves up for criticism and really putting themselves on the line when they make tutorials and all feedback is good as long as it is not an attack. Maybe a better result in the pattern could have been achieved by doing a revolve using only one side of the avacado outline then mapping the pattern onto that?… Thank you for providing information for those that find it useful.
I liked it!
Flatvocado… : )
For me it’s a great excersise(I’m a begginer).
maybe one of the worst tuts ive seen on here!