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In this adobe illustrator tutorial, I will demonstrate how to draw a beautiful vector flower plant
illustration using combination of simple shapes, pluck and bloat effect and gradients. Next we
will use brush tool to create more instances of the flower. Hope this flower tutorial will teach you
some useful techniques on drawing flowers.

   

1. Start a new document with RGB color mode. Next, draw a polygon using Polygon Tool with
pink to white radial gradient with 3px stroke width. I use (251, 214, 219) for pink and black for
the stroke color.

2. Apply Pucker and Bloat effect from effect menu. Move the slider to 200% bloat. Then expand
the object from menu Object > Expand appearance while the object is selected.
3. Convert the stroke to shape using Object > Path > Outline stroke, and apply purple (128, 29,
127) to white radial gradient starting from the middle of the object.

4. Select all the shapes we have created and drag them to symbol panel. Choose graphic on the
symbol options pop up window and click OK. This step will create a new symbol from the object
we just created.

5. Now let¶s start to create more flower petals by spraying with the Symbol Spray Tool. Use
symbol cruncher and symbol shifter tool to arrange the instances positions. Repeat the steps
untill you got the desired effect of the flower¶s appearance.
6. Now copy the symbol and paste it in front (Ctrl + F) to make the flower petals look more
dense.

 

7. Now we will start drawing the stem for the flower. Draw an arc using arc tool and adjust the
bend of the arc so that it¶s not bent too round and give it 20 points weight of stroke.

8. Now go to Object > Path > Outline Stroke to convert the stroke to shape.
9. Apply a reflected light and dark brown gradient to it. I used 110, 83, 36 for dark brown, and
151, 111, 72 for lighter brown.

10. Now we will use a simple trick to make the stem look greenish. Copy the shape we just
created and paste it in front (Ctrl + F) and apply reflected green linear gradient. Set the
transparency to soft light so that the green shape we just created will blend with the brown one
below it. You may want to move the gradient slider around to find the desired effect of the.
 

11. Now let¶s start to draw the leaves. Draw a vertical ellipse using Ellipse Tool and give it dark
to light green vertical gradient as shown in vector flower plant below. I used these colors for
gradient: (4, 63, 33) (1, 105, 55 Location: 79%) (139, 167, 64).

12. The steps on drawing the leaf is shown below.

13. Now let¶s enhance our leaf¶s appearance by clicking on the two middle anchor points of the
object and drag them down using free Transform Tool (Default shortcut: E).

14. Now we will add brown shades to the leaf. You can either define your own brown gradients
or use the available wood gradient in adobe illustrator. For this tutorial, I¶ll just use the wood
gradient.
15. Now copy the leaf object and paste it in front and select pecan wood gradient available at
wood gradient library and set the transparency to soft light. Group these two overlapping objects
so they¶re not messed up when you move them around.

16. Create another leaf with yellow shades by duplicating the leaf (remember that there¶s 2
overlapping objects that should be copied together). Select the one on top using arrow tool and
apply another lighter wood gradient color and set its transparency to Hard Light.
  

17. Now let¶s arrange all the objects we created from earlier steps together. Arrange the order of
the leaves to overlap each other and put the stem in the middle of the overlapping leaves. Also
put the flower symbols we created earlier on top of all object. After you are happy with the
arrangements, group all the objects together (Right Click > Group)

Tips: You can use Ctrl + [ to bring an object backward, or Ctrl + ] to bring it forward,
alternatively you can select all grouped objects cut them (Ctrl + x) and paste in front (Ctrl + F) to
instantly bring a group of objects in front of other objects.

18. Create a copy of the grouped flower petals and open reflect transform menu by right clicking
the mouse and go to Transform > Reflect. Select Vertical axis for the Transform option, and then
click OK. Scale down the copy of flower we just created and arrange the placement as how it
looks on vector flower plant below. Now we are ready to do the final touches.

  

19. Create a small shape as shown in vector flower plant, give it black-to-brown linear gradient. I
used (117, 76, 36) for brown.

20. Define a new symbol using the shape we just created by dragging it into the symbol panel.
Choose Graphic on the Symbol Options window.
21. With the current created symbol selected, use Symbol sprayer tool to spray the symbol
around the bottom of the flowers.

22. Use Symbol Scruncher Tool to make the soil closer to each other. Click on the spot where the
soil should look dense the most. Also, rotate the symbols using Symbol Spinner tool so that the
gradient direction of the symbol will look different.

23. To make the soil denser, select all of the soil symbol instances. Copy and paste in front and
move it slightly. Repeat the steps again but this time transform the symbols by reflecting them
either on vertical or horizontal axis.
24. Now all the flower¶s part is finished, you can duplicate them and arrange them around to
achieve your desired effect.

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