Being healthy and active means eating healthy food. Greens and veggies are our best friends! Let’s motivate ourselves and create a beautiful poster in a trendy flat style, depicting a bowl full of various vegetables. We’ll be using simple shapes, operations and Mask Layers, drawing each vegetable in Affinity Designer. Let’s do it!
1. Draw a Precious Avocado
Avocado is actually more like a fruit, but people often prepare it as a vegetable, so let’s include this green guy in our composition.
First of all, create a New Document in Affinity Designer of any desired size (for example, 600 x 600 px), make sure that you have the Draw Persona selected by default, and let’s start.
Step 1
We start by making a 180 x 180 px circle with the Ellipse Tool (M) and fill it with pale-yellow color. Then click the Convert to Curves button in the upper context toolbar (the area below the Persona selectors) and select its upper node with theNode Tool (A). We drag it up a bit, extruding the shape, making it look like an egg.
Step 2
Add another egg-like shape beneath the first one (Command-C > Command-V), make it a bit larger, and fill it with rich green color.
Step 3
Now let’s add the inner part and the seed. Form a smaller circle inside the yellow part and fill it with pale-green color. Select the yellow base and the circle and Align Horizontal these two shapes to Centre from the upper context panel. Form a brown seed above the pale-green circle and put a tiny highlight on top of it.
Step 4
Now we’ll create a shadow. Copy (Command-C > Command-V) the lower dark-green shape and place it on top in the Layers panel. Fill the shape with light-beige color and in the Layers panel lower down the Opacity to 50% and set the Blend Mode to Multiply.
Step 5
We need the shadow to cover only the right part of the avocado, so let’s take theVector Crop Tool and cut off the unneeded part. As you may notice, in the Layerspanel, the Mask Layer was applied to the shape after cropping. This is a non-destructive way of cutting the shapes, which means you can always use the Vector Crop Tool again to edit the shape or to undo the cropping completely.
Great! Our avocado looks just like it should look in flat style. Let’s move to the next vegetable!
2. Form a Fancy Carrot
Step 1
Again we start forming our carrot from a circle of 170 x 170 px size, filling it with bright-orange color. Convert to Curves, select the bottom node with the Node Tool (A) and drag it down, forming the base of the carrot.
Step 2
Let’s add a green fluffy top to our carrot. Make a green circle of about 85 x 85 pxsize. Add two smaller circles on both sides of the first one, forming a group and connecting them to the carrot base by drawing three curved lines with the Pencil Tool (N). Head to the Stroke panel to make the lines thicker, setting the Width to15 pt. You can change the Stroke color of the lines to green in the Colour panel.
Step 3
Use the Order function to rearrange the objects, placing the green part beneath the carrot base. Otherwise, you can do it manually, dragging the green group and dropping it under the carrot in the Layer panel, as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 4
Let’s add a semi-transparent shadow to our carrot. Group (Command-G) all parts of the carrot and duplicate the group (Command-C > Command-V), and thenUngroup (Command-G) the parts of the carrot copy. We ungroup the parts because otherwise the Operations panel won’t function.
Now, keeping the ungrouped parts selected, head to Operations at the top of your context panel and click the Add button. This way you merge all the parts into a single shape, creating a silhouette of the carrot.
Set the Opacity of the silhouette to 50% and the Blend Mode to Multiply, as we did previously. Take the Vector Crop Tool and cut the shape, making it cover the right part of the carrot.
Step 5
Let’s add some smaller details to our carrot to give it a completed look. Carrots usually have those thin lines and notches on their surface. Use the Pen Tool (P) to add a few of them, setting the Stroke color to darker orange and the Stroke Widthto the same 15 pt as we had for the green lines.
Step 6
Our last step here is hiding the unneeded parts of the notches, which are outside the carrot. Group the notches and in the Layers panel drag the notches group under the carrot shape. You will see a blue line appears right under the carrot (check out the screenshot below) and the notches will be placed inside the carrot shape, like inside the mask.
You can modify the existing notches and add more of those for both parts of the carrot.
3. Make a Ripe Radish
Step 1
As before, we start forming our radish from the even circle of a bright pinky-red color.Convert the shape to Curves and drag its lower node down. Then, keeping the node selected, head to the upper context toolbar and Convert the node to Sharpcorner. Select the upper node and squash the top of the shape a bit by dragging it down.
Step 2
Let’s form some green leaves for the top of the radish. These are quite simple. Create three green circles, each one smaller than the previous one, and place them one above the other in a column. Add a straight line using the Pen Tool (P) with a thick green Stroke, dividing the leaf into two equal parts. Add a gentle shadow to the right part of the leaf.
Step 3
Add a couple more leaves and place them on top of the radish. Then form the bottom part of the vegetable. Make a light-yellow ellipse, overlapping the lower tip. In the Layers panel, select the ellipse shape and drag it beneath the red radish base, placing it inside the shape, so that the unneeded parts are hidden.
Finally, finish up the radish by creating a shadow.
4. Form a Sweet Pepper
Step 1
This time we use the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 30 x 55 px shape for the base of the bell pepper. Make the corners of the shape 50% rounded from the upper context toolbar.
Step 2
Convert the shape to Curves and let’s make the bottom of the shape narrower. Select the lower left node with the Node Tool (A) and either move it to the right with the right arrow key or use the Transform panel and type -2 next to the X horizontal position value, this way moving the node 2 pixels to the right.
Do the same for the lower right node, but moving it to the left. To do so, type +2 in the X box, moving the node to the left.
Step 3
Copy the shape, make it darker, and place it behind the initial shape. Then add another copy and Flip it Horizontal from the Transforms panel on top, forming the basic bell paper shape.
Now let’s add the green top to our pepper. Form a green ellipse and use the Pencil Tool (N) to draw a curved stem on top. Use the Stroke panel to adjust the Stroke Width (in my case it is 4 pt, as I’ve made the whole pepper smaller, but you can set any other Width value to make it fit your shape). At the bottom of the Stroke panel you can find the Pressure options window, which helps to manually set a custom width to each part of your line with the help of the graphic. In our example, we made the top part of the stem wider than its bottom.
Step 4
Add two red shapes in the back, creating the final form of the bell pepper. Let’s add a subtle shadow to finish up the pepper. Copy the three front shapes and merge them into a single silhouette. Set the Opacity to 50% and the Blend Mode toMultiply. Finally, use the Vector Crop Tool to form the shadow. Add a smaller shadow to the inner green part of the vegetable as well. As for the background parts, you can just make the red color of the right part darker—no need to place an additional shadow there.
5. Make a Sunny Corn
Step 1
Maize consists of a bunch of small yellow kernels. Let’s start by forming a group of yellow circles of 11 x 9 px size and placing them one beneath the other in a column. You can duplicate each new circle and use the Transform panel to move the object along the vertical axis by typing +10 in the Y field, thus moving the corn-piece down by 10 px. I’ve created a darker-yellow base under the set of kernels to make it easier to shape out the corn cob.
Step 2
To form the detailed shape of the corn, let’s just copy the first column and place two copies on both sides beneath it. Make those a bit darker. Then create two more copies and add them beneath, moving them farther from each other, making the maize shape wider. This way we have seven columns in total.
Step 3
We don’t actually need our maize to be as long, because its lower part will be covered with some leaves. So we can delete the unneeded particles in each column and then make the bottom particles in each column wider than the top ones, giving the maize a conical shape.
Step 4
Now we’ll form a leaf. Make a squashed vertical ellipse of about 40 x 95 px size and fill it with dark-green color. Convert to Curves and make the upper corner of the shape Sharp.
Step 5
Create a shadow on the right part of the leaf and make three more copies. Finally, decorate our maize with leaves, placing two in the front of the corn and two in the back.
6. Draw a Bushy Broccoli
Step 1
Broccoli reminds us of a tree—it consists of a branchy stem, which looks like a tree-trunk, and a fluffy green top. Form the stem with the Rectangle Tool (M), making a narrow green stripe and then moving its upper nodes closer to each other, so that the top looks narrower. Add smaller branches and rotate them, placing them on both sides of the main stem.
Step 2
Let’s form the top of our broccoli. Start by making a row of dark-green circles, covering the top of the stem. Add three smaller circles on top, forming a nice bushy crown. Add some dimension to the shape by placing smaller green highlights on top of the bushy shape.
Step 3
Finally, add a subtle shadow to the stem and to the top of the broccoli to make it look complete.
7. Draw Fresh Leaves and Green Cucumbers
Step 1
Let’s make another leaf so that we have enough minor elements for our poster. Form the leaf base from the egg-like modified ellipse, and add a lighter-green vertical line for the stem. Use the Stroke panel to vary the Width of the stem and play with thePressure value, making the bottom part of the stem wider.
Add thinner lines and rotate them, placing them on both sides of the stem.
Don’t forget to add a shadow to our leaf.
Step 2
Now let’s make a funky flat cucumber. We start by forming a narrow rectangle and make its corners Rounded by 50%.
Step 3
Convert the shape to Curves, make the top narrower by moving the nodes closer to each other, and add a short rounded stem on top.
Duplicate the created cucumber base, fill it with lighter green color and make it narrower, placing it in the center of the basic shape by Aligning both shapes to theCentre. Use the Ellipse Tool (M) to make a group of tiny circles for the bumps of our cucumber.
Step 4
Last but not least, create a copy of the base, place it on top, and set the Opacity to50% and the Blend Mode to Multiply. Use the Vector Crop Tool to make a half-side shadow.
8. Make a Juicy Tomato
Step 1
Start forming a tomato from a 160 x 160 px circle of a ripe red color. Then add another, lighter circle inside for the flesh of tomato.
Step 2
Now we need to form those cavities, which contain juice and seeds. To make this, add another darker-red circle on top of the previous two. Form a narrow vertical stripe with the help of the Rectangle Tool (M), crossing the circles in the middle and dividing them into two halves. Fill the stripe with the same light-red color as the middle circle to make them blend nicely with each other. Finally, form two small circles in the center of our tomato and place them in the center.
Step 3
Now let’s make a simple yellow seed for the tomato. Make a small 15 x 15 px circle,Convert it to Curves, and drag the bottom node down to extrude the shape.
Step 4
Rotate the seed to about 30 degrees, resize it if needed, and place it in the top left part of the tomato, inside the dark-red inner circle. Make a copy of the seed and flip it vertically to the bottom part. Add more seeds, filling the dark-red cavity.
Step 5
Copy the seed group and flip it horizontally to the other side of the tomato. Form a small drop-shaped leaf from a circle and place several copies on top of the tomato, beneath the basic shape. Finally, add a subtle shadow to the right part of the tomato.
9. Build a Poster Composition
Step 1
Great! Now we have the set of healthy vegetables ready.
Let’s also add some smaller particles, which will help us to fill the blank spaces of our poster.
Use the Vector Crop Tool to slice half of the avocado (I’ve also deleted the seed here) and half of the tomato. Use the Ellipse Tool (M) to make a round piece of radish and a green piece of cucumber with small circular bumps on its surface.
Make several copies of the leaves that we created earlier, and recolor some of them. Here we also add a green pea and a yellow piece of a corn.
Step 2
Let’s form a deep bowl, which we’ll later fill with the created vegetables. Take theRounded Rectangle Tool (M) and make a blue shape of about 230 x 230 px size. Adjust the corner roundness to make the shape look almost like a circle.
Use the Vector Crop Tool to cut off the upper part of the rectangle. Add several smaller details to the bowl—place lighter-blue stripes on top and in the bottom of the bowl, and decorate the base with a wide white stripe. Add a shadow to our bowl as we did with all the previous objects.
Step 3
Start filling the bowl with veggies. Rotate the elements and place them in layers, one beneath the other, making a nice composition. Add several green leaves to make the pile of veggies more fluffy and three-dimensional.
Step 4
Place the bowl in the center of the document and draw a big, light-green circle under it. Apply a dark-green Stroke to the circle and adjust it in the Stroke panel, switching the Style of the stroke to Dash Line with 1-3-0-0 Dash values.
Step 5
Use the vegetables from our set to rotate them and place along the edge of the circle.
Step 6
Add smaller particles and leaves to fill the empty spaces and to make the composition look more detailed.
Step 7
Let’s finish up our healthy poster. Create a new Layer in the Layers panel beneath the first one, which contains all our elements. Make a rectangle of the size of our document and fill it with light-beige color, thus forming a gentle background.
Keep Calm and Eat Your Greens!
Great job, folks! Our healthy vegetable poster is finished. I hope you’ve enjoyed following these simple instructions and discovered some interesting new tips and tricks, which can make the process of drawing flat objects easy and fun. Stay cool and enjoy your healthy life!
