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Illustration
TUTORIALS
23 NOVEMBER 2015
21 COMMENTS
In todays Adobe Illustrator tutorial Ill show you how to create a colorful landscape
scene, similar to the style of those trendy illustrated travel posters I recently featured in
a showcase. Well make the entire illustration out of simple vector shapes, then bring it
to life with vibrant gradients to give the scene a tranquil sunset vibe. My example
features an old wild west desert with mountains that extend to the horizon, but these
same techniques could be used to create a landscape scene for any fictional or non-
fictional place.
A large setting sun provides a red, orange and yellow colour scheme in my artwork,
which is applied to all the element to help determine the depth of the scene. The colour
of the mountains darken as they approach the silhouettes in the foreground, while the
sky spans from warm to cool as the it turns from day to night.
Begin by creating a new document in Adobe Illustrator. Im creating a long, thin portrait
artboard of 1000x1500px. Change the Color Mode to RGB to give us a full spectrum of
vibrant colours to play with, then change the Raster Effects to High (300ppi).
Select the Rectangle tool and draw a shape that covers the artboard. Use Smart Guides
(CMD+U) to easily snap to the artboard edges. Remove the stroke, then add a linear
gradient fill from under the Gradient panel. Add a series of handles to the gradient bar
and carefully tweak the RGB sliders to produce a vibrant range of colours that
seamlessly transition. Im using the colours #fdb983, #ff6655, #7b0f3b and #310045.
Select the Pen tool and randomly click and drag points across the width of the artboard
to create the outline of a series of mountains. Start and end the path beyond the edge of
the artboard and close the path back at the starting point.
Give the shape a gradient fill and adjust the angle to 90. Use the Eyedropper tool to
shift-click two colours from the background gradient, Im using #e05f4d and #bc0e40.
Move the gradient slider towards the darker end of the spectrum to allow the darker
previous shape with the Eyedropper tool, then double click each colour and move the
each time. I used #ad0536 to #5f001e in my third shape, and #5f001e to #430018 in my
fourth shape.
Draw one more shape near the bottom of the artboard. This time create a smoother
outline and give it a solid fill using a darker shade of red, such as #320115.
The transition between the colour gradients can be eased by reducing the transparency.
Select the 2nd, 3rd & 4th shapes and reduce the opacity to 70%.
Grab the Ellipse tool and hold Shift to draw a perfect circle to represent the sun. Give
the shape a gradient fill with warm orangey reds like #ff814d and #d92940. Change the
gradient type to Radial and move the gradient slider towards the darker end of the
spectrum.
Move the sun into place over the mountains, then repeatedly press the shortcut CMD+
Opacity and 100px Blur. This will add a vibrant yellow glow to the setting sun.
Draw a smaller white circle near the top of the artboard, then hold the ALT key and drag
a duplicate towards the upper right, overlapping the two. With both shapes selected,
click the Minus Front option from the Pathfinder panel to trim the circles into a crescent
shape.
Go to the Effect menu and select Outer Glow from the top of the list to bring up the
previously used settings. Reduce the Blur to 20px then click OK.
Draw a much smaller circle elsewhere in the sky area, then go to Effect > Distort &
Transform > Pucker & Bloat. Move the slider to -60% to make a simple star shape.
Dramatically reduce the star in size then click the New icon from the Symbols panel to
convert this shape into a Symbol, then delete the original shape.
Select the Symbol Sprayer tool then click and drag the spray can across the sky to fill it
over the stars to alter their size. Clicking and dragging normally will enlarge the shapes,
opacity of some of the star shapes. Alter the size of the tool if necessary using the [ key,
the brush size with the ] key, then draw a simple cactus shape somewhere beyond the
rectangle that matches exactly with the artboard dimensions, then with everything
selected, choose Make Clipping Mask from the right click menu.
The result is an illustrated landscape scene that is brought to life with vibrant gradients
and colours. Being vector elements means the shapes could be moved around to tweak
the composition or the colours easily changed. The same scene could even be
duplicated to create a series of artworks depicting different times of day from dawn til
dusk!