How to Draw a Set of Emoticons in Adobe Illustrator

by Beto Garza

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What You'll Be Creating

This tutorial was originally published in January 2013 as a Tuts+ Premium tutorial. It is now available free to view. Although this tutorial does not use the latest version of Adobe Illustrator, its techniques and process are still relevant. 

In this tutorial we are going to draw a set of Emoticons or Smileys by using gradients and basics shapes that, combined with the Pathfinder panel, will give the emoticons life. So let's begin.

1. Create the Emoticon Base

Step 1

First open a New document (Command-N) and add layers in this order: on top it's the "Faces" layer, then the "Faces Sketch" layer and the "Base" layer (in here we are going to draw our base shape of the emoticons) and finally the "Base Sketch" layer.

Step 2

In the "Base Sketch" layer we draw our base figure of the emoticons by using theBlob Brush Tool (Shift-B). In this case it's just a circle with some lines to define shadows and lights. Lower the Opacity of the sketch to 40% and lock the "Base Sketch" layer. We are going to begin to draw in the "Base" layer.

Step 3

Our circle (L) size is 300 x 300 px. This is the basic shape, so draw it with a 1 ptblack stroke.

Step 4

Select the circle and apply the Offset Path option (Object > Path > Offset Path) with a -10 px Offset value. With this we get a circle a little smaller than our original circle (you can also do it by duplicating it and scale it).

Step 5

Now duplicate the circle (the blue one in the image) with Command-C to Copy andCommand-F to Paste in Front, and drag it like the magenta circle in the image. Duplicate the blue circle again, select both circles, and apply Intersect in thePathfinder panel.

And we get this figure (yellow one)—this is the light area of the emoticon.

Step 6

Now repeat the process—duplicate the circle again. Drag it like the magenta circle in the image, duplicate the blue circle in the image again, select both, and applyIntersect in the Pathfinder panel again.

And we get this figure (yellow one)—this is the darker area of the emoticon.

Step 7

Select all the shapes and press D. This is our emoticon's base shape without color. With the color application we are going to detail a little bit more. Now you can delete your "Base Sketch" layer.

Step 8

This is our color palette:

• White #FFFFFF
• Yellow #FCF17C
• Red #F05850
• Blue #67CDF5
• Brown #641912

With these colors we are going to generate all the gradient combinations to have a more complete palette (all the gradients we are going to use are linear gradients). To save your palette colors, select the colors and click the New Color Group icon in the Swatches panel.

Just give a name to your palette and click OK.

Step 9

Now we add the gradients of each color, first from an opacity of 100% to 0% for each one. To change colors in the gradient window, just double click on the color and you get your Swatches panel, and there you change the colors.

Step 10

Now the gradients with all the colors with white.

Now with the yellow color.

The red color.

And finally the blue. Now we have all the gradient combinations of these colors, and this will be our color palette. To add gradients to the Swatches panel, you need to drag them from the color window.

Step 11

For applying the colors, I recommend having your colors near your illustration and applying them with the Eyedropper Tool (I). If you click with this tool, you get the color value of the figure you click, and if you press Alt you use that color to paint. We start with the yellow color.

Step 12

Now apply the red and yellow gradient; however, in the Gradient panel we will select Radial instead of Linear. This will be the only gradient that we use in Radial mode.

Step 13

For the shadow, we use the Red Gradient like in the image.

Step 14

For the light, we use the white gradient. Now we are starting to see some depth in our shape.

Step 15

Add more detail to our base, and now we are ready to start drawing the faces of our emoticons.

2. Create the Crying Emoticon

Step 1

We copy five circles of our base shape for the emoticons and in our "Faces Sketch" layer. We draw the sketches—sad, angry, surprised, happy and in love expressions—by using the Blob Brush Tool (Shift-B). We put the Opacity to 40% to redraw more easily, lock this layer, and we start to redraw in our "Faces" layer.

Step 2

For the sad emoticon, we begin by drawing the eyes. The shapes we are going to use are a Rectangle (M) and a Rounded Rectangle. Remember to align the sketch to our emoticon base shape.

Step 3

Now, to add more detail like the shine of the tears, we draw a figure made of triangles with the Polygon Tool. Intersect it with the Pathfinder panel into the rectangle shape.

Step 4

To draw the shine, draw a triangle with the Polygon Tool. To do it, draw a Polygon and with the arrow keys up and down you can add or remove sides to the polygon. Make a triangle and then duplicate it by dragging it and pressing Alt. ThenCommand-D to duplicate a copy at the same distance, and then duplicate the three triangles and rotate them with the Rotate Tool (R) like in the image. Finally applyUnite in the Pathfinder panel.

Step 5

To start the mouth, we begin by drawing a Rounded Rectangle. Select it, and then with the Eraser Tool (Shift-E) by pressing Alt we make a drag and erase half of the shape. Then we duplicate our shape and again with the Eraser Tool make another drag to get the teeth. 

Add some rectangles for more detail. First draw one and then duplicate it. To do this select it and then press Alt-Shift and drag it to get a copy of your rectangle figure. Then press Command-D to do your last step and you get a copy of it at the same distance. Then select the three. Apply Unite in the Pathfinder panel, and finally apply Intersect in the Pathfinder panel with the tooth shape (remember to duplicate your base shape).

Step 6

Now to add the shape of the shadow of the teeth. Use your base shape and duplicate it and drag it down a little, and then duplicate again and you get the shadow shape. To make the tongue you can use your mouth base shape and scale it and then duplicate it and apply Unite in the Pathfinder panel. Finally duplicate your mouth base shape and Intersect the shapes.

Step 7

Once you have created the tongue, to give more detail to the mouth you can use a circle and Crop it with our mouth base figure. Then just draw a little circle and applyMinus Front in the Pathfinder panel. Now our sad emoticon mouth is done.

This is the look of the emoticon Sad face. Remember to group everything and Alignit to the center.

Step 8

Select the face and press D to set it with the basic Black line and White fill. If you need to send something to front or back, just select the object and Cut it (Command-X) and select the object where you want to Paste in Front (Command-F) or Paste in Back (Command-B). Use the Pathfinder panel to paste the tears inside our emoticon base shape, and align all to center. Now we are going to begin to add some colors.

Step 9

For the eyes we use our brown solid color, for the tears the yellow and blue gradient, and for the shine the white gradient. Apply them like in the image.

To paint the mouth we use the brown and red gradient, for the tongue the yellow and red, and the brown gradient to the last detail. You can play with the values of the gradients as you wish, or you can apply them like in the image.

For the teeth we use the blue color for the lines and our blue and white gradient for the tooth base. For the shadow we use our brown gradient, and now our sad emoticon is finished.

3. Create the Angry Emoticon

Step 1

Now with the angry emoticon, we begin with a circle for the eye.

Step 2

To draw the eye, first use the Eraser Tool (Shift-E) and erase with a drag by pressing Alt and drag to cut the circle to the half. Then duplicate your figure and drag it and use Minus Front in the Pathfinder panel to make the eyelid. Finally duplicate your eye's shape and erase with a drag to make the shadow.

Step 3

To the eyebrow we only need to draw a triangle and transform it like in the image. Then just rotate it and add it to the eye as shown.

Step 4

To make the horns, we start with a circle and then grab the upper node and drag it like in the image. Then remove the anchor points of the node with the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C) and click on the node. With this tool you can add or remove anchor points. Finally just rotate the horn as shown in the image.

Step 5

To make the mouth we start with a triangle, and then remove the nodes with theScissors Tool (C). Just click on the nodes and remove the segment. Another way to cut anchor points is by selecting them and on the application bar clicking on the scissors icon. The cut will be exactly in the node(s) you select. Then, after removing the nodes, add some points to the line and apply Outline Stroke (Object > Path > Outline Stroke), and finally with the Eraser Tool erase with a drag and we've got the mouth.

Our Angry emoticon's face will look something like this.

Step 6

We align to the center our angry face to the emoticon base, and now we are going to begin with the color. And we erase a part of the shine (in magenta) because of the horns.

Step 7

First we color the horns with our yellow and red gradient and the eyebrows with brown color.

For the eyes and mouth use red, for the eyes' shadow the brown gradient, and for the eyelids the yellow and red gradient. Our angry face is almost done.

Add some details like the shine in the horns with white gradient and the shadow behind them with red gradient, remembering to apply the Pathfinder to Crop the objects. Our angry emoticon is done.

4. Create the Surprised Emoticon

Step 1

For the surprised emoticon we begin with a rounded rectangle for the eyes.

Step 2

You can do the eye by using the Offset Path and then duplicating the figure and erasing with a drag with the Eraser Tool like the magenta figure in the image. Finally add some circles for the shine in the eyes.

Step 3

For the mouth, we begin with a simple circle, and for the teeth two rounded rectangles. Apply Unite in the Pathfinder and Crop them inside the circle, and then generate a smaller circle by selecting the object and applying Offset Path.

Step 4

Duplicate the teeth and use Minus Front in Pathfinder to generate the shadows. To make the tongue, add two circles and apply Unite and then crop with the main circle of the mouth.

Step 5

To add more detail to the mouth, you can draw the throat with a circle for the base and combine a rectangle and a circle for the uvula. Apply Unite in the Pathfinder, select the nodes as you see in the image (green dashed line), and in the Toolbar convert them to rounded to give a smoother look. Finally apply Minus Front.

Our Surprised face is done. Remember to press D and arrange the objects where they belong by cutting them and pasting them in front or behind the part where they should be. When you get used to this, it's faster than using the arrange commands.

Step 6

Align the surprised face to the emoticon's base shape, and let's begin with the colors.

Step 7

For the eyes we use the brown color, for the eyes' shines we use the yellow and white gradients, and for the detail in the eyes the yellow and red gradient.

For the cheeks we use the red color, for the teeth the white and blue gradient, and for the shadow the brown and blue gradient.

For the mouth we use the yellow and red gradient to add color to the tongue, the brown and red gradient for the mouth, and for the throat the brown color. Our surprised emoticon is finished.

5. Create the Happy Emoticon

Step 1

We can start the happy emoticon with a circle to draw a big smile.

Step 2

First apply the Eraser Tool and erase half of the circle with a drag.

Step 3

To create the teeth, first draw a Rounded Rectangle and then duplicate it like in the image. Then use the Eraser Tool, and finally duplicate them and use the Reflection Tool (O).

Step 4

Align the teeth to the mouth shape, and then remove one of the teeth.

Step 5

For the tongue and throat we can use the same as in the surprised face—just crop it in the mouth's base shape.

Step 6

For the eye, draw a circle, remove some nodes and add some points to the line, and make the values of the line Round Cap and Round Join. Finally apply Outline Stroke.

Our happy face is done, and now we can color it.

Step 7

As with the previous emoticons, align the face to the center, and now let's begin with colors.

For the eyes we use our yellow and brown gradient, and for the cheeks the red color.

For the teeth we use the white and blue gradient and for the shadow the brown gradient. To separate the teeth in different planes, just adjust the gradient to give volume and a sensation of depth in the teeth.

The colors of the mouth are the same as the surprised face—just the light in the tongue is a white gradient. Our happy emoticon is finished.

6. Create the Love Emoticon

Step 1

Finally the in love emoticon. As with all of the previous emoticons, align the sketch to the center and start the re-drawing.

Step 2

To draw the heart, the base is two circles. Apply Unite in the Pathfinder and drag the node in the middle, as shown in the picture.

Step 3

Select the node in the middle and remove the anchor points. You can do it by clicking on the icon in the application bar and converting to corner, or you can convert it to corner with the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift-C). After this, adjust the nodes to make the heart more rounded, and finally apply Offset Path.

Step 4

To make the mouth, we start with a circle, remove some anchor points, and duplicate and drag like in the image. Then add more points to the stroke, apply Outline Stroke, and finally apply Unite to convert it into one path.

Our in love emoticon face is done.

Step 5

Align the face to our emoticon's base.

For the hearts we use the red and brown gradient, and for the light the white gradient.

For the mouth and cheeks we use the red color, and our in love emoticon is finished.

Awesome Work!

This is our last result. Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial! If you make some emoticons, share them with us. Saludos to everyone!

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Leapin' Lizards! Create a Chameleon Pattern in Adobe Illustrator

by Mary Winkler

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What You'll Be Creating

Leapin' Lizards! Open up Adobe Illustrator and join me in creating a custom chameleon pattern as we put shape building, custom brushes, and textures to great use. This tutorial uses Live Corners and the Pattern Options panel, which you'll find in versions CS6 or higher, but it can be adapted to earlier versions of the program as well.

1. Build Your Chameleon

Step 1

Create a New Document and use the Rectangle Tool (M) to draw a green square. With the Direct Selection Tool (A) select the top left corner of the square and pull its Live Corner toward the center, rounding it out completely. Then, select and pull the Live Corner of the lower right corner slightly (if you so choose).

Step 2

Using the Ellipse Tool (L), draw a bright green circle for the eye with a smaller, dark green circle in its center. You can layer multiple circles in different colors if you wish. Chameleon eyes look pretty cool and contain some fantastic patterns.

Step 3

For the body, draw a larger rectangle and select the top two anchor points with the Direct Selection Tool so you can once again pull the Live Corners toward the center, rounding out the top completely. 

Alternatively, you can also define each corner's radius in the Transform panel. Another alternate method is to cut a circle in half using the Pathfinder panel.

Step 4

For the tail, use the Spiral Tool to create a Symmetrical Spiral with the following attributes:

• Radius: 0.5936 inches (this may vary according to your document size and other elements)
• Decay: 50%
• Segments: 10

Draw the spiral on the lower right of the chameleon's body. Set the Fill color to Nulland the Stroke color to the same color as the body.

Step 5

Using the Width Tool (Shift-W), widen the tail at the top, where it connects to the body, and narrow it a bit at its end. In the Stroke panel, set the Caps and Cornersto Rounded. Expand the tail shape under Object.

Step 6

Let's draw some small feet! Overlap a larger circle with a smaller circle and hit Minus Front in the Pathfinder panel in order to create a thin crescent shape. Draw a small rectangle for the leg, and repeat for a second foot. Place both legs on the bottom of the chameleon's body as seen below.

2. Create and Use Brushes

Step 1

Let's create a simple custom Scatter Brush. Draw a triangle either with the Pen Tool (P) or the Polygon Tool. Round the corners out slightly. Select the triangle and in the Brushes panel create a New Scatter Brush. This one is simple and keeps the default settings seen below. Make sure to set the Rotation Relative to Path.

Step 2

Using the Paintbrush Tool (B) draw a curved line that follows the contour of the chameleon's body. Select the newly created Scatter Brush from the Brushes panel.

Step 3

In the Brushes panel, go to Open Brush Library > Artistic > Artistic_ChalkCharcoalPencil. Select the Charcoal - Pencil brush as seen below, and apply it as the stroke to your chameleon's shapes. Under Object hit Expand Appearance and recolor the stroke that's not an object so it matches the base object (in this case the green of the head).

Step 4

Repeat the previous step on the rest of the chameleon's object components to give it a rough, gouache-like look. Group (Control-G) together all of your chameleon components.

Step 5

Draw small circles and other polygons to create additional Scatter Brushes. Use these to create additional designs on the chameleon's skin. For the brush I used in my final product, I set the Spacing to a range of 82% to 298% and the Rotation Relative to Path. 

Step 6

Draw lines, curves and other shapes with your newly made Scatter Brushes to create patterns and textures on the chameleon's skin. You can also layer circles on the chameleon's eye to mimic some of the textures found in nature. How intricately you design your chameleon is up to you.

3. Create the Pattern

Step 1

Copy, Paste, and Rotate a couple instances of chameleons. You can either manually change the colors of each or follow the next step to recolor each element of your pattern.

Step 2

Select one of your lizards and go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork. You can then click on each of the current colors and change its hue in the drop-down menu that pops up. This allows you to quickly and easily create a whole spectrum of chameleons for your pattern.

Step 3

Here's the final placement of my lizards and the color scheme that I'll be using for my pattern.

Step 4

In the Pattern Options panel, create a New Pattern. Choose Brick by Column for the Tile Type. My pattern needs some additional elements, however, in order to fill in the empty spaces within the pattern.

Step 5

Draw leaf shapes with the Pen Tool, and apply the same charcoal texture to them that we used for the lizards. Paste multiple instances of them around your pattern. Then hit Done in order to save your pattern within the Swatches panel. You can also Double-Click on your pattern in the Swatches panel in order to edit it again at any time, as well as save and edit copies for a variety of fun lizard patterns without having to recreate everything from scratch.

Step 6

For an additional texture, draw a large rectangle over your Artboard and go to Effect > Sketch > Note Paper, applying the following attributes:

• Image Balance: 24
• Graininess: 13
• Relief: 14

Hit OK, and then draw another rectangle below the textured one and fill it with your new pattern. Set the textured rectangle to Multiply in the Transparency panel in order to finish off your pattern design. This, of course, is an entirely optional step.

Karma, Karma, Karma Chameleon!

You come and go, you come and go, oooh! Oh we're done! Fantastic job. In this tutorial we created our own chameleon from basic shapes and used custom and default brushes in order to add patterns and textures to it. Then, we customized multiple iterations of it with the Recolor Artwork panel. Finally, we created a simple repeated pattern from our designs, ready for print and web publication.

What sort of fantastic creations can you make with these techniques? Share your chameleons and other lizard friends in the comment section below!

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Apple Mobile Device Management Made Easy With Bushel

Mobile Device Management for Small Business

Bushel—created by JAMF, the makers of the Casper Suite—is a mobile device management solution aimed at a different sort of person whose task is to manage devices in a workplace.

JAMF envisaged a system for people who had IT as a task, not as a career. The sort of person that, perhaps, manages IT devices within a business in addition to their primary role. 

Setup, Manage and Protect With Bushel

Mobile Device Management Simplified

Bushel has been designed to make it easy for everyone to set up, manage and maintain their Apple devices. What's more, this can be done at any time and from any location.

Bushel is a simple, intuitive way for non-technical people to manage Apple devices.

Bushel streamlines the setup process so that even the simplest of steps do not become time-consuming and it is no longer necessary to configure devices individually, which is time consuming in itself.

Even mobile devices can be managed, with Bushel, through its remote management functionality. This enables the configuration of work email, Wi-Fi settings, distributing apps and resetting passcodes.

Bushel recognises not only the importance of devices themselves but the importance of company data. This is protected securely and can be removed, with just a click if a device is lost or stolen, ensuring the security of your information.

Bushel Functionality

Device Inventory

The Bushel dashboard

Device Inventory gives visibilty to:

• Serial numbers
• Device assignment
• Settings configuration
• Installed apps
• Device model
• Date added
• Hardware addresses
• IP addresses
• UDID of each device

Through a web-based dashboard and control panel, Bushel provides an overview of the status of applied email accounts, security settings and deployed applications.

The device name, operating system version, serial number of the device and more, means no more managing inventory on a spreadsheet. This one is always up-to-date.

Bushel can monitor the storage available across the devices meaning that any storage issues can be addressed long before they become an issue.

When it comes to warranty status and extended coverage availability, Bushel manages those as well. Asset information can be exported to a spreadsheet for easy importing into popular accounting and asset management packages.

Distributing Apps

Bushel enables you to distribute specific apps to enrolled devices

For anyone tasked with managing even a small number of devices, any duplication of work is not only repetitive, it's tedious and it is not a smart use of time.

If it takes 30-minutes to configure a device, having to then configure another dozen devices will take you the rest of the day. No good at all if IT is not your primary role.

Bushel installs any defined free apps on OS X and iOS, from the Mac App Store and iOS App Store, respectively. 

It does this all at once to make the managing of apps painfree.  For apps that are paid, an enrolment into Apple's Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) means you can distribute and manage these, too.

Furthermore, any app purchased using the VPP can be revoked from one device and moved to a new device.

Email Configuration Made Simple

Pre-configure email accounts across devices and make it easy for you and employees

Configuring email accounts is a bind, even for those familiar with the process.  Just entering a username, password, email address, incoming mailserver, outgoing mailserver, and more, takes time.

Now repeat that across multiple devices to take even more time.

Alternatively, have Bushel configure company email accounts across all of your devices.  This works with IMAP, POP3, GoogleMail, Yahoo! Mail and even Microsoft Exchange accounts.

Wi-Fi Settings Sorted

Configuring company Wi-Fi settings and distributing to all enrolled devices

Like email, Wi-Fi can be a pain to maintain. 

Bushel helps you configure devices to automatically join your secure wireless networks. Supporting WEP, WPA and WPA2 security, there is no limit to the number of networks that can be added through Bushel.

Not only can you save your staff from having to type, and get wrong, multiple secure passwords. You can roll out super-secure Wi-Fi passwords without inconveniencing any of your colleagues. 

Device Security

Bushel helps to protect your valuable hardware assets as well as company data

Apple products are renowned for their ease of use and longevity. They also retain good resale values, are desirable in their own right and are an attractive proposition to thieves.

Perhaps more worrying than the cost of the device itself is the cost to your business, and reputation, should any confidential information be compromised following a loss or theft.

Bushel protects your hardware and your reputation as any device that is lost or stolen can be locked remotely or even completely wiped.

Bushel goes further with the option to require passcodes and to control the length of time before any device automatically locks.

Apple Device Enrolment Program (DEP)

Apple Device Enrolment Program

For any business, whether it has remote-working employees or not, a key benefit of Bushel is the ability to configure company devices without the need to physically touch them.

Through the Apple Device Enrolment Program (DEP), it is possible to automate the enrolment of a device and to skip basic setup screens in order to streamline the device activation process for new users or for users of new devices.

This means that your employees can be up and running with the minimum of fuss and that frees up your time to manage all of the company devices.

Device Management

Enrol both desktop and mobile Apple devices in Bushel

Bushel is a web-based system that can be accessed wherever and whenever you need to manage any of the company devices.

A fully-responsive web-app, Bushel provides an attractive interface to convey key information to make managing multiple devices a seamless experience.

Pricing

Bushel is free for the first three devices and then US $2.00 per month, per additional device thereafter. There are no contracts or commitments so you can cancel at any time, no questions asked.

You can read more information about pricing and sign up for a free Bushel account at bushel.com.

Conclusion

For some businesses, IT responsibilities are split between employees to save money, regardless of their IT experience. If managing a number of devices at work is a task outside of your core role, you have the potential to save lots of time with help from Bushel—without exhausting the budget.

For the setting up, the roll out of applications, email and Wi-Fi functionality and the management of device security, Bushel's web-based dashboard and control panel does an extraordinarily good job of simplifying complex tasks.

With it's flexible approach on device enrolment and management with a monthly per-device nominal subscription, if you want to reclaim your evenings and weekends and concentrate on what you are employed to do at work, Bushel is invaluable. 

Useful Links

• Apple Device Enrolment Program
• Apple Volume Purchasing Program
• Bushel Sign-up for free

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