Make This AWESOME Floating Igloo Illustration!

Learn all sorts of tips, tricks, and hacks for Adobe Illustrator in this tutorial!

We’ll create an awesome floating ice island igloo based off a sketch based off a piece of artwork by the super talented artist @darumacreative. You’ll learn about masking, pen tool techniques, using the Pathfinder, gradients, and so much more!

Check out @darumacreative on Instagram!

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Tutorial Recording Notes:

Disclaimer: these are the actual notes I used to record this video and are written in a language you may or may not understand. Hopefully, you find them useful or cool.

1. New doc
2. Turn on Smart Guides
3. Create background color #1e0f3b
4. Import sketch
5. ISLAND
6. Trace the ground and then the front of the island with the pen
7. Divide the shape and ungroup
8. Copy the foreground piece and then Unite the two shapes and paste this back in place
9. Group these together
10. Paste in front the copied face of the island
11. Color the ground: #49437a and the face: #403b70
12. Draw the diamond shape for the bottom and make lines for the faces
13. Divide all the shapes and set fills of (#271649, #231342, #211040)
14. Draw the icicles and fill with #373062
15. Draw/duplicate a couple highlights for the icicles filled with same color and set to screen blend mode to add the highlight effect
16. IGLOO
17. 340×340 ellipse
18. 540×160 ellipse (floor of igloo)
19. Center those two shapes and shift nudge 3x left
20. 430×150 ellipse centered to the base igloo shape
21. 430×180 ellipse moved up for second row of ice blocks
22. 430×210 ellipse moved up as well
23. 430×240 ellipse moved up as well
24. Small ellipse for top-most hole
25. Select the floor and base pieces of igloo and Divide pathfinder (create igloo dome that will hold the solid color and gradient) and duplicate this shape, move to the back and fill with a contrasting color AND lock it
26. Use shaper tool to dump bits we don’t want and combine what we do
27. Expand the object and then ungroup
28. Pen tool and create the vertical edges for the ice blocks
29. Group all these lines together
30. Match the strokes across all lines
31. Use the Rounded Rectangle tool to create the entry for the igloo and select and Divide and ungroup and knock away the bits (make sure you draw a line for the floor!)
32. Select all the bits needed and Unite the shapes to make each piece
33. Draw the light coming from the doorway
34. Draw the inner wall and floor shapes for doorway
35. Draw the skis and send backward
36. Draw the bush in front of igloo
37. Fill the igloo base with color #3a304a
38. Fill the doorway with colors #3f314e
39. Fill the bush and skis with a color #221740
40. Fill doorway light with #fff583
41. Fill doorway floor with #bfb762
42. Fill doorway reflected light with #ccc67a
43. Round the skis and add the highlight to the top of the bush
44. Duplicate the base of the igloo and fill with a radial gradient #ffd44d – #ff6228 – #000000
45. Tweak this gradient using the gradient tool
46. Set the gradient shape to the Screen blend mode and 75% opacity
47. Select the strokes that make the edges of the ice blocks and Expand them to fills
48. Fill this grid with a white to black radial gradient (white being where the fire source is) and tweak it to make it look good
49. Set to Screen and 35% opacity
50. Mask this grid shape to the base of the igloo to get rid of overlap
51. Group the fire gradient base shape and the grids together and mask this to the base shape, add a 30px black inner glow and fill with a black to white gradient but push the black to the very bottom of the igloo shape to fade this into the color of the ground
52. Duplicate base solid of the igloo and paste in back. Reduce the width and height by 40px and nudge upward until near to of igloo. Add Outer glow, #eddf8e, 20px, 100% opacity
53. Create 580×90 ellipse, and fill with #aec172, set to 50% opacity, gaussian blur 55px, and move below all the igloo pieces and use the front piece of the island as a mask to “hide” it behind the face of the island
54. Create a shadow shape that would come out in front of the bush. Set the fill to match the fill of the ground and mask this also behind the face of the island
55. MISC
56. Draw the highlight that is “reflecting” the light coming out of the igloo and mask to hide behind the face of the island
57. Draw a shadow shape on the right side of the island and mask it near the tip of that rolling hill
58. TREES
59. Draw half a tree and flip and join the open ends
60. Duplicate them wherever needed
61. Fill them with #1e0f3b
62. Arrange them behind the island layers
63. SKY + RINGS
64. Set stroke to white and use the Brush tool and dot a bunch of stars into the sky, Mix up the sizing using the bracket keys
65. Use magic wand to select them all and group them
66. Drag out an ellipse that goes from edge to edge on the island for the base ring shape and fill with white
67. Set to Soft Light and 40% opacity
68. Copy and paste that shape in front and reset to Normal and 100% opacity
69. Lock proportions of scale and multiply this shape by 0.8 to reduce the size
70. Create gradient at -30º and go #5d9f7e to #8ff5e4 and set that bright green stop to 0% opacity
71. Duplicate this shape and paste in front and reduce size here by multiplying by 0.75
72. Set both green shapes to 90% opacity and drag the stars beneath these layers
73. Group the stars and rings of light
74. Create a mask that fades the whole bit as it gets near the island
75. TIP: Black to white gradient on a 110º angle works really nicely for this
76. Create an ellipse and fill with the gradient we used in the sky rings and set to radial and tweak to get a nice glow that will sit behind the igloo and spray light onto the trees
77. Position the glow so it’s behind the igloo, but above the trees
78. FINISHING TOUCH
79. Select JUST the face of the island and copy it and lock up that group and paste it in front
80. Drag this down so it sits just on top of the icicle layer group
81. Select this face shape and the group of icicles and open the Pathfinder and Alt/Opt + click the Minus Front icon (reset the blend mode to normal if it changes) to create the illusion of a shadow
82. Duplicate up the icicle highlights if needed and allow the “shadow” to be cast on them.