Create a Multicolored Splashed Text Effect in Adobe Illustrator

What You'll Be Creating

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a multicolored splashed text effect in Adobe Illustrator. In the beginning you will manipulate the text a little and once ready, you will add some dimension to it with the help of the Bas Relief effect.
Next, you will create the multicolored splashes using the Appearance panel and by playing with two built-in Scatter Brushes and their settings.
Towards the end of the tutorial you will add highlights and shading to the text and also to the splashes, and that’s it! Sounds easy? Let’s find out.

1. Start a New Project

Open Illustrator and go to File > New to open a blank document. Type a name for your file and set up the dimensions, and then select Pixels as Units and RGB as Color Mode. Next, go to Edit > Preferences > General and set the Keyboard Increment to 1 px and while there, go to Units & Display Performance to make sure that the Units are as in the following image. I usually work with these settings, and they will help you throughout the drawing process.

2. Type and Prepare the Text

Step 1

Grab the Type Tool (T) and type Paint me on your artboard. The font that I've used is LeckerliOne, Regular, size of 117 pt and is created by Gesine Todt. Select Expand from the Object menu.

Step 2

Next, take the Direct Selection Tool (A) and drag a selection over the top half of the letter “t” as shown below. This allows you to select all the points in that area and move them upwards in a single movement. After this, the letter “t” should be about the same size as the letter “i”.

Step 3

Use the Direct Selection Tool (A) again to drag a selection over the letter “t” as shown in the following image. Move the selected points towards the letter “m”.

Step 4

Now, select all the letters and press Add in the Pathfinder panel to unite them into a single shape.

3. Add Dimension to the Text

Step 1

Select the compound path that you created in the previous step and set the fill color to black. Next, go to Effect > Sketch and apply the Bas Relief effect. Reduce the Opacity to 40% for a less dramatic look. I will name this the “bas relief shape”.

Apply these settings for the Bas Relief effect and set the Light to Top.

Step 2

Copy and Paste in Back (Control-B) the “bas relief shape” and remove all existing appearances by pressing the Clear Appearance icon at the bottom of the Appearance panel.
Use the color indicated as the fill color, and then go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow and apply this effect four times. I will name this the “shadow shape”.

These are the settings for the four Drop Shadow effects:

Step 3

If you zoom in on the letters, you will notice they have pixelated edges. To fix this problem, you will use a mask. Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) the “bas relief shape” and remove all existing appearances. Now, select this new copy along with the “bas relief shape” and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Control-7).
You can name the resulting group “Bas Relief” if you want, and at this point in the Layers panel you should have this group and the “shadow shape” under it.

Step 4

Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) the “shadow shape”, and then bring it in front of everything by going to Object > Arrange > Bring to Front (Shift-Control-]). Remove all existing appearances, select white as the fill color, and set the Blending Mode to Soft Light. As a result, your text will be whiter, and we want this because the multicolored splashes will stand out more. I will name this the “white shape”.

4. Create the Multicolored Splashes 

Step 1 

Grab the Pencil Tool (N) and draw a path over the letters as in the next image. Try to follow the shape of the letters as accurately as possible because you want most of the splashes to be on the letters, not around them on the background. If needed, you can make additional adjustments with the Direct Selection Tool (A).
Stroke this path with the Ink Splats Scatter Brush that you can find in Brush Libraries Menu > Artistic > Artistic_Ink. Since the Colorization Method is set to Tints, by changing the stroke color to light blue, your splashes will turn light blue as well.
Keep the Stroke weight at 1 pt, but go to the Appearance panel and double-click on the brush stroke to open the Stroke Options window and change the settings. I've only changed the settings for Size and Spacing and left the others as they were.

Step 2

With the path still selected, choose Add New Stroke from the fly-out menu of the Appearance panel. As a result you will get a second Stroke attribute above the first. Change the color to red and use the Ink Splats Scatter Brush again. Open the Stroke Options window and change the settings as shown. We want bigger splashes at the beginning and smaller splashes later.

Step 3

With the path still selected, add the third Stroke attribute above the others. Set the color to orange and this time use the Ink Spatter 1 Scatter Brush from the library. Open the Stroke Options window and change only the settings for Size and Spacing as shown.

Step 4

Add a new Stroke attribute and use the color indicated. Select the Ink Splats Scatter Brush again, and then change the settings. Obviously, you won’t get a result identical to mine, but it should be pretty similar.

Step 5

Add a new Stroke attribute, set the color to green, and use the Ink Splats Scatter Brush again. Use smaller values for Size in order to get smaller splashes.

Step 6

Add another Stroke attribute above the others and set the color to brown. This time use the Ink Spatter 1 Scatter Brush and change the settings for Size and Spacing in the Stroke Options window. You want to get really small brown splashes this time.

Step 7

Add the last Stroke attribute and set the color to purple. Use the Ink Spatter 1 Scatter Brush again, with the settings shown below. The purple splashes should be pretty small as well.

Step 8

It’s time to mask the splashes around the letters, but before you continue, make a copy of the stroked path for later use. Now, Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) the “white shape” and remove all existing appearances.
Bring this copy in front of everything by going to Object > Arrange > Bring to Front (Shift-Control-]). Select the newly made shape along with the stroked path and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Control-7).

Step 9

Next, we will add more splashes around the text, on the background, because at this point the text looks quite strange. Select the copy of the stroked path that you made earlier and move it in a new layer under the text. Select Expand Appearance in order to turn the strokes into fills.
At this point, in the Layers panel you should have a group that contains seven other groups (each Stroke attribute will turn into a group of splashes). In each of these groups you will find the path that you have used (stroke-none, fill-none). Therefore open each group, scroll to the end of it and delete them. It’s important to delete all seven paths before you continue.
When you are done, select the big group of splashes and Ungroup (Shift‑Control‑G) two or three times until you are able to select individual splashes or smaller groups of splashes.

Step 10

Start to delete some of the splashes from around the text because at this point it is much too crowded. In the next image you can see the areas that I've cleaned up, so you can follow my example or create your own unique design.
The important thing here is to keep the bigger splashes located right at the edge of the text (indicated by the arrows), otherwise the overall look is going to be weird. You are free to delete a large part of the splashes that are further from the text.

5. Add Highlights/Shading to the Text 

Step 1 

First, create a new layer above the one with the text. Grab the Pen Tool (P) or the Pencil Tool (N) and draw a path over the left side of the letters “P”, “a”, “n”, “t”, “m”, and “e”, as in the next image (1).
Stroke these six paths with a brush from the Set of Multi-Use Blend Brushes called Black Angled Art Brush, which we created a while ago. Increase the Stroke weight to 2 pt (2) and set all of them to Blending Mode Overlay and 75% Opacity (3).

Step 2

Next, draw the paths shown in the following image over the letters (1). Stroke these paths with the White Angled Art Brush from the Set of Multi-Use Blend Brushes, which is just the white version of the previously used brush. Set the Stroke weight to 1–1.5 pt depending on the letter (2), and then set all of them to Blending Mode Overlay (3).

Step 3

Here is a before and after image. At the beginning the text looked pretty flat, but after the highlights/shading the text looks shiny and more defined.

6. Add Dimension to the Outer Splashes 

Step 1

Before you continue, lock the layer with the text and the layer with the highlights/shading. Now select all the splashes around the letters and Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) all of them (1). Keeping them selected, fill all the copies with a radial gradient from white to black (2) and set them to Blending Mode Color Dodge and 50% Opacity (3).

Step 2

Select all the splashes around the text again, and Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) all of them. Keeping them selected, press Add in the Pathfinder panel to unite them into a single shape. Remove any existing appearances of the newly created compound path, and select white as the fill color.

Step 3

With the white compound path from the previous step still selected, go to Effect > Stylize and apply the Drop Shadow effect twice. After that, reduce the Opacity to 0% but only for the white Fill attribute, otherwise we won't be able to see the color of the splashes. We are interested in only the shadow. Set the shape to Blending Mode Color Burn.

These are the settings for the two Drop Shadow effects. Notice that the first one uses the color black and the other one uses white.

Step 4

In the last step let's add even more shine to the outer splashes. Grab the Pen Tool (P) or the Pencil Tool (N) and draw a few small paths over the bigger splashes (1).
Stroke these paths with the White Blend Art Brush, size of 100 x 3 px, from the Set of Multi-Use Blend Brushes. Set the Stroke weight at 1–2 pt depending on the size of the splashes, and reduce the Opacity to 40-75% depending how shiny you want them to be (2). And with this you've just finished!

Congratulations! You're Done

I hope you learned something new from this tutorial. If you decide to create this splashed text effect, please share it with us. It would be lovely to see other color combinations, or maybe a unique design.

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How to Create Autumn Leaves, Berries and Chestnut Icons in Adobe Illustrator

What You'll Be Creating

Autumn beauty is all around us. Let's display this magic of nature through our artwork. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create perfectly shaped leaves, berries, and chestnuts. As usual—you guessed it—we will use just simple shapes and a few useful tricks.

1. Creating the Chestnut Leaf

Step 1

Open Adobe Illustrator and create a new document (Control-N). First, we are going to create the stalk. Set the fill color at R=132 G=98 B=3, and then take the Polygon Tool and click on your art board. Make it 3 Sides with any Radius. You will get a triangle, which you will need to make very narrow and long.
Now, go to Effect > Warp > Arc Lower. In the new dialogue window, enter the following: Style Arc Lower Horizontal, Bend -50%, Distortion Horizontal 0%, Vertical 0%. Press OK. Go to Object > Expand Appearance.
So, now you have the stalk. We will use the same stalk with a different fill color for all the leaves. Make one more copy of this shape and keep it for later. I will let you know when you need it!

Step 2

We'll create the leaf now. Start with the Ellipse Tool (L) and set the fill color at R=215 G=195 B=0. Keeping the ellipse selected, take the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C) and click on the bottom anchor point to make it sharp.
Then select the Direct Selection Tool (A) and slide the left and right anchor points up. Using the Direct Selection Tool (A) again while holding the Alt key, move the handles of the top anchor point of the ellipse down to make it sharp. Look at the image below to see what it should look like!

Step 3

Remember the stalk you created in the first step? I asked you to keep it for later—now it's time! Holding the Alt key, drag the stalk across to use it for the chestnut leaf. Be sure to leave a copy of the stalk to use on other leaves. Place one of the copies of the stalk over the leaf you created in the previous step (Control-X, Control-F). Copy-paste the stalk a few times to make several of them. Then arrange them as shown below to create the veins of the leaf.

Step 4

Copy-paste the leaf to create another one, and make the stalk smaller. Select the whole new leaf and rotate it to the left while holding the Shift key. You will see that the leaf is rotated by 45 degrees.
Copy-paste this leaf, make it smaller, and rotate it to the left by 45 degrees while holding the Shift key. Repeat this last part once again.

Step 5

Select the three leaves from the left side, right-click the mouse and select Transform > Reflect. This will bring up the Reflect dialogue window, where you should enter Axis Vertical, Angle 90 degrees, and press Copy. Move the three new leaves to the right. Group the chestnut leaves (right-click > Group).

2. Creating the Berries

Step 1

Set the fill color at R=193, G=5, B=45, choose the Ellipse Tool (L), and draw a circle while holding the Shift key. Keep it selected, and hold the Alt key (to make a copy); now shift this circle diagonally. Then select the first circle and make a copy in the front (Control-C, Control-F). Keeping this new copy selected, hold the Shift key, and select the circle you moved diagonally. Go to the Pathfinder panel and press the Minus Front button. Color the new shape in R=178, G=2, B=40.

Step 2

Using the Ellipse Tool (L), create a new ellipse, rotate it a little to the right and place it as shown. Set its color to R=214 G=7 B=46. Then take the Direct Selection Tool (A) and move the right anchor point inside, as in the image below, to show the volume of the berry.

Step 3

Let's create a sepal (the base of the berry) from a brown oval (R=85 G=25 B=0). You will need to get sharp corners with the help of the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C). Click on the top and bottom anchor points. Keep the ellipse selected and take the Rotate Tool (R). Click the Enter key on your keyboard to bring up the dialogue box. Enter 90 degrees and press Copy.

Step 4

Place the sepal where it should be.

Step 5

Make three kinds of the berry. Play with it!

Step 6

Create one more copy of the stalk and use it to create a branch for the berries (remember to leave another copy of the stalk for further leaves). Give the branch a fill color R=85 G=25 B=0 and place the berries on it. Group the berries (right-click > Group).

3. Creating the Maple Leaf

Step 1

Create an ellipse with sharp corners and fill color R=239 G=65 B=53.

Step 2

Create two more copies and place them on the left side of the first ellipse. Select these two copies, right-click the mouse and select Transform > Reflect. In the new dialogue window, enter Axis Vertical, Angle 90 degrees, and press Copy. Move the two new ellipses to the right.

Step 3

Use a copy of the stalk and change the fill color to R=181 G=18 B=27. Create a copy of the leaf, make it smaller, and rotate it to the left while holding the Shift key.

Step 4

Repeat the process until you fill up the left side.

Step 5

Select the leaves from the left side, right-click the mouse, and select Transform > Reflect. Make a Vertical reflection and move the new copies to the right.

Step 6

Draw a circle on the middle of the leaf.

Step 7

Select all blades (sharp red ellipses) and the circle from the previous step together. Use the Unite button in the Pathfinder panel to make a solid shape. After that, use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to achieve the result you want. Group the maple leaf together (right-click > Group).

4. Creating the Branch With Pink Leaves

Step 1

Set the fill color to R=209 G=18 B=66. Create the sharp corners of the leaf. Then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen and set the slider to 3 px in Size, check Absolute, move the Detail slider to 10 in, and check Points Smooth. Press OK. Then expand the leaf (Object > Expand Appearance).

Step 2

Use a copy of the stalk, and set the fill color at R=130 G=0 B=36. In this case, it's a branch. Place the branch over the leaf that we just created. Create one more leaf (Copy-Paste) and make the stalk smaller. Rotate the new leaf to the left and place it on the left side of the branch. Holding the Shift and Alt keys together, move the new leaf down. Then keep pressing Control-D until you fill up the left side of the branch.

Step 3

Select all leaves from the left side and make a reflection to the right side (right-click > Transform > Reflect). Move the new copies to the right side of the branch. Group the whole branch.

5. Creating an Acorn

Step 1

To create an acorn, start with two ovals (R=205 G=178 B=47).

Step 2

The next part needs a brown oval (fill color R=121 G=68 B=0). Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), move the left and right anchor points down.

Step 3

Draw a tiny rectangle using the Rectangle Tool (M). Then go to Effect > Warp > Arc. In the new window, adjust the options: Style Arc Vertical, Bend -35%, Distortion Horizontal 0% and Vertical -30%. OK. It's a stem to the acorn. Expand it (Object > Expand).

Step 4

Put all the parts together. To show the volume, create two lighter ovals on the acorn.

Step 5

Create two acorns. Play with the colors. Then group the acorns.

6. Creating the Yellow Leaf

Step 1

Сompose the copy of the stalk and veins as in the image below. Change the fill color to R=117 G=63 B=0.

Step 2

Draw a yellow circle. Hit the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C) and click on the top anchor point. Then go to Effect > Warp > Arc. Adjust the options: Style Arc Horizontal, Bend 0%, Distortion Horizontal 0% and Vertical 30%. Click OK.

Step 3

Now go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen. Make the Options Size 3 px, check Absolute, Detail 10 in, Points Smooth, and click OK. Group the leaf.

7. Creating the Three Light Green Leaves

Step 1

Create an oval (R=215 G=195 B=0), and then move the left and right anchor points down. Make the top anchor point sharp. Go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag and enter in the new dialogue window Options Size 1 px, check Absolute, Ridges per segment 25 and Points Corner. Your options can be different than mine—just try to find what suits you the best.

Step 2

Create three leaves following the image below. Make two leaves darker and put them behind (Control-X, Control-B) the lighter one. Group the leaves.

8. Creating the Chestnuts

Step 1

Draw a brown ellipse (R=85 G=25 B=0). Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), move the handles of the ellipse to distort the shape a little. Draw another ellipse (R=218 G=199 B=146) which overlaps the brown shape. Make a copy of the brown shape in front (Control-C, Control-F), and while keeping it selected, hold down the Shift key and select the light brown shape. On the Pathfinder panel, press the Intersect button. Draw over the chestnut a distorted ellipse with a lighter color to show the volume.

Step 2

Try to create more chestnuts by yourself simply by distorting the ellipses.

Step 3

Place them together and group.

9. Creating the Oak Leaf

Step 1

Using the last copy of the stalk, create the stalk and veins of the oak leaf. Draw an oval on the top of the leaf (fill color R=205 G=178 B=47) and add three more on the left side of the leaf. Make a vertical reflection of the left-side ovals to the right side. Draw one more oval on the bottom.

Step 2

Select the blade (all the ovals without veins and stalk) of the oak leaf, and on the Pathfinder panel press the Unite button. Make the bottom of the leaf sharp using the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C). Group the leaf.

10. Creating the Background

Step 1

Draw a square with a fill color of R=247 G=245 B=178 and a width and height of 600 px. Then draw nine darker (R=239 G=238 B=128) circles where you will place the leaves, berries, and chestnuts.

Step 2

Place the plants on the yellow circles.

Conclusion

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial as much as I did! You can also use these autumn icons to create a seamless wallpaper, seasonal greetings cards, and so on. Enjoy!

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