How to Create a Stylized Underwater Scene

Jan 17th in Illustration by Simona Pfreundner
In this tutorial, we'll explain how to create some fish with the Blend Tool and how to make our custom seaweed shapes using the Twirl Tool and effects like Twist and Pucker & Bloat. Let's get started making this stylized underwater scene.



PG

Author: Simona Pfreundner

I am a digital artist and graphic designer and love Illustrator and Photoshop. To design and and create is my passion and my everyday motivator.





Final Image Preview




Below is the final design we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join VECTORTUTS PLUS for just $9/month.







Step 1




Create shapes like you see in the image below. I created four shapes. Once for the outline filled with white of the fish. Then a sickle like shape just a little smaller, then the outline filled with a blue. Next, I created a yellow filled shape about half the size of the outline. The fourth shape is again a sickle shape filled with white.







Step 2




Move the blue shape over the first white.







Step 3




Next, move the yellow over the blue and the small white over the yellow. The stacking order is important, since the blend depends on it.







Step 4




Select all four shapes and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options. Apply the settings as following: Specific Steps of 150.







Step 5




While still selected, apply the blend to the shapes by pressing the keys Command + Alt + B. This is a easy and simple way to create a fish with blends. Please be aware that colors and shapes and details are totally up to you.







Step 6




So the fish shape is done, but we need some eyes for the little guy. Create to ovals, one filled with white, the other with black. Make sure that the black one is about a third of the white oval and is placed on top of the white shape.







Step 7




Select both oval shapes and apply a blend again. As you can see, the black acting as a pupil gets blended with the white.







Step 8




Duplicate the eye blend (Command + C + B) behind the other one.







Step 9




The fish can see now but let's give it some details. Create a shape like you see in the image below with the Pen Tool (P), and fill it with yellow.







Step 10




Then create a small sickle shaped object that fits inside the yellow and fill it with white. Move it to the left edge of the yellow shape.







Step 11




Select both and apply the Blend Options you see in the images below.







Step 12




Move the just created blend shape into the middle of the fish.







Step 13




Make two more copies of the shape, scale them to about 75% of the original one.







Step 14




Next, we will be creating some fins. Draw some lines with the Pen Tool (P). I made about seven of them. Set the Stroke to at least 0.25pt. Then add a yellow Stroke color. Offset the color though, making one line 100% yellow, the other 50% yellow.







Step 15




Select all the lines and apply a blend again.







Step 16




I placed the fin on the bottom right of the fish and then made a copy, scaled it down and placed it at the top right.







Step 17




Now on to some funky seaweed. Draw a long rectangle with the Rectangle Tool (M). Fill it with a dark green to green linear gradient.







Step 18




Then choose the Twirl Tool from the Tools Palette and start randomly deforming the rectangle by clicking on the corners.







Step 19




Keep on going and deform and twirl the shape.







Step 20




When done, select it and got to Effect > Distort & Transform > Twist. Apply an angle of 55 degrees.







Step 21




Then apply the Pucker & Bloat effect and set it to 23%.







Step 22




Make a duplicate of the seaweed shape and remove the 
Twist Effect via the Appearance Palette. Just keep the Pucker & Bloat Effect.







Step 23




Now we have two seaweed shapes. Once straight and one twisted. Make a duplicate of both and put the fill to none and apply a Stroke in a dark color..







Step 24




Create a rectangle (Rectangle Tool) and fill it with a dark blue to white radial gradient. Place the gradient highlight on the top left corner.







Step 25




Start placing the seaweed shapes on top of the background.







Step 26




You can scale them, duplicate them, overlap them and make it as wild as you want it to be.







Step 27




Once you built up some crazy seaweed jungle, place the fish in the middle..







Step 28




As a nice clipping path, I created a rectangle and filled it 
with green. Then go to Object > Envelop Distort > Warp and choose the Bulge Style. Apply a vertical bend of 10%.







Step 29




After that expand the appearance and make sure that both Object and Fill are checked. Hit OK.







Conclusion




I selected all shapes and applied a clipping path (Command + 7) and here we have a nice underwater scene. I also copied the fishes and changes some of the colors and scaled them down. I hid some behind some dark seaweed. That's it folks. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!







Subscribe to the VECTORTUTS RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.






Enjoy this Post?

We'd love your vote!

Plus Members

Source Files, Bonus Tutorials and
More for $9 a month for all TUTS+
sites in one subscription.

Join Now

User Comments

( ADD YOURS )
  1. PG

    Kasper Skov January 17th

    Very Nice tutorial – love the effect with the Twirl Tool!

    ( Reply )
  2. PG

    burnard January 17th

    love the blend tool. :) )

    ( Reply )
  3. PG

    Sergio Ordoñez January 17th

    Sorry buddy I expect more quality from Vectortuts.

    ( Reply )
  4. PG

    Alez January 17th

    Same here :S

    ( Reply )
  5. PG

    Tomas January 17th

    Sergio: yes that´s true

    ( Reply )
  6. PG

    Olafsson January 17th

    I agree with Sergio

    ( Reply )
  7. PG

    Henique Abreu January 17th

    Sinceramente… Esse eu não gostei

    ( Reply )
  8. PG

    Aaron Miller January 17th

    Yeah there are some handy tips here, but the overall outcome is horrible.

    ( Reply )
  9. PG

    Omer January 17th

    The overall outcome is nice, spectacular techniques has been shown. I am very impressed how easily you can create a work like this thank you!

    ( Reply )
  10. PG

    Jane January 17th

    Yikes! That’s not a particularly attractive end result. Looks pretty amateurish, sorry!

    ( Reply )
  11. PG

    DKumar M. January 17th

    Batter luck next time !!

    ( Reply )
  12. PG

    Rawl January 17th

    Pretty dissapointing.

    ( Reply )
  13. PG

    Gustavo Lemos January 17th

    I agree with Sergio too

    ( Reply )
  14. PG

    omg! January 17th

    wow pretty horrible .

    ( Reply )
  15. PG

    naantje January 18th

    I think it’s GREAT

    thanx

    naantje

    ( Reply )
  16. PG

    Rachelle January 18th

    I do like the style that the seaweed or grass in the back creates almost that scribble hand drawn look, but the overall I think this could be done better.

    ( Reply )
  17. PG

    ambientdream January 18th

    err. i know there are so many ‘experienced’ Illustrator users here to actually put off with the way of this tutorial… but I dont think its the excuse. people in this website seems to forget there are beginners who visited this website too. At least I learned something from this ( especially the usage of blend tool) . Thank you for making this tutorial dear♥

    ( Reply )
  18. PG

    sc January 18th

    hello, i feel bad to comment but i must say, the picture is …not too good. the fish look like plastic (although there was great tips on them) and the and the weeds and water are downright fugly. that dark blue and green clash and weeds just dont work, not even as an abstraction.

    ( Reply )
  19. PG

    Jonathan January 19th

    This really is bad… I can understand wanting to showcase techniques, but i think the ultimate goal should be for good design as well and this does not achieve that at all. it really does a disservice for the readers of this blog. Design is just as important as technique if not more important.

    ( Reply )
  20. PG

    Modisana January 19th

    Sorry to say this….I have to agree with Sergio and the others…this is really horrible (Again…sorry to say this)

    Im not really gonna dump on you cause you probably just starting and you only wanted to share your work with the rest of the world….I dig you for that Dude…

    Sergio can you please post one of your kick ass tutorials and show us all how it should be done!

    ( Reply )
  21. PG

    Melody January 19th

    Yeah…this is disappointing.

    ( Reply )
  22. PG

    Omair Rais January 19th

    This is Awesome.

    Thanks
    Omair Rais
    http://www.omairarts.com

    ( Reply )
  23. PG

    Dave January 19th

    Thanks for the great tutorial :) Strong concepts covered here.

    ( Reply )
  24. PG

    r4ge January 21st

    I agree with sergio.

    ( Reply )
  25. PG

    himangshu January 25th

    nice tricks but agree wit others_outcome is ugly
    {i suggest- extra tweaking of sea weed made it more ugly}

    ( Reply )
  26. PG

    Ranjith Balussery January 31st

    It was very helpful me. its a easy way to make illustrations thank u very much

    ( Reply )
  27. PG

    Tarek Farage February 4th

    Thanks, i learned a few things from this.
    To all the people that seem to forget, tastes differ and i think its arrogant to come expecting vectortuts to cater just for what you like.
    The person who made this tut probably put a lot of effort into it, to teach people who don’t know certain things. The day your tut gets featured on Vectortuts, maybe you can back and be taken seriously with your negative comments.

    ( Reply )
  28. PG

    jirolu February 7th

    nice thanx

    ( Reply )
  29. PG

    Lee February 8th

    I agree with you Tarek. Some people are so damn rude.
    I thank the tut author. I thought it was great. If these people want full, lengthy detailed step by step tutorials, go and sign up for a digital design class. This person is kindly sharing her talent and to insult them like this only discorages her from ever wanting to do so again! I think you did an awesome job Simona. Thank you!
    And yeah…Sergio and all the other baggers, I’m surprised such amazing, busy talented artists such as yourselves have time to make insulting comment on websites. Show us your ’spectacular’ tutorials. Can’t wait to see them! (I won’t hold my breath)

    ( Reply )
  30. PG

    David February 9th

    I agree Leee & Tarek. The Internet makes it so easy to make such offhanded comments. I don’t these people would say the same thing in person. Also, just saying you don’t like it or it’s ugly, doesn’t help the tut writer. Maybe he/she thought it was great and now you just dump on that person for no other reason than you can with no apparent repercussions.

    I hate comments that give no CONSTRUCTIVE feedback. What’s the point of saying you don’t like it, but not saying why in a constructive way? (a few people did, so ignore this part if you did). If it’s so bad, where’s your tutorial? Why not improve on this? or make a similar one that’s much better?

    ( Reply )
  31. PG

    Charlie February 11th

    Thanks much.

    ( Reply )
  32. PG

    BLAEZ ONG March 25th

    THANX I LEARNED FROM YOUR TUTORIAL>>>>
    BIG UP TO YOU MA MAN>>>

    ( Reply )
  33. PG

    Jacki March 27th

    As a newcomer to Illustrator I have to say tutorials like this one are fantastic. Thank you for taking the time and effort to provide this detailed explanation of how to use the tools in this software. Not everyone will like the same thing and I agree some of the posts here are just plain rude. Ignore them I reckon!

    ( Reply )

Add Your Comment

( GET A GRAVATAR )
  1. Arrow
    Gravatar

    Your Name
    March 27th