Illustrator Tutorial: Wooden Smoking Pipe

This tutorial is on how to draw a stylish smoking tobacco pipe in Adobe Illustrator. You will learn how to create wood texture illustrator effect on the pipe in this tutorial. Also, you will learn how to make the tobacco and the smoke. The steps are simple and I hope you will find it useful.

Drawing the Bowl of the Pipe

1. The first thing to do is to take the Ellipse Tool and draw an oval shape. Then select the Direct Selection Tool to move up the top point a little and also adjust the other points to get a shape like an egg. Next, draw another oval horizontally and use from the Pathfinder Panel > Subtract from shape area and Expand to obtain the second shape from the image below. Then, draw one more oval to fit the shape I just explained. Go to Object > Path > Offset Path and use a negative value to create the smaller oval shape inside.

2. Use the Pen Tool to draw the shape of the shank like you see below, then Copy and Paste in front of this shape. Now, take the Direct Selection Tool and select only the points from the right and move them following the original shape to obtain the red one from the image.

3. Next using the Pen Tool, draw the shape of the stem and also the little one as the bit of the pipe like you see below. Place the shapes in the next order: the shank behind the bowl, the stem behind the shank and the last bit behind the stem.

4. Now, it is time to add some colors. For the bowl and the shank, I used a linear gradient using the colors: (108,44,1) and (78,35,36). For the bigger oval a radial gradient from (215,191,182) to (139,113,103) and for the smaller oval inside a linear gradient from (117,55,51) to black. The other parts of the pipe are filled with 90% black.

Creating the Wood Texture

5. Let’s see how to make the wood texture. I find it easier to take a picture of wood photo and trace it. For best results, modify the values, depending on the picture. You can set it by going to Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options and also apply Effects > Warp > Twist if needed. I modified the results according to my pipe shape and place it on top. The fill color is (141,69,30). Next, copy the brown part of the pipe and select the wood texture group. Double click the black square in the Transparency Panel and paste the copied pipe shape to make an Opacity Mask. Exit the mask mode and then lower the opacity to 65%.

6. For a more interesting wood effect, copy again the wood texture group, paste it in front and move it a bit towards the first one. Change the fill color to (217,183,150). Next, make another Opacity Mask, apply a 0.4 px Gaussian Blur and set the mode to Color Dodge and lower the opacity to 25%.

Adding Highlights

7. Take the Ellipse Tool and draw a shape on top of the pipe. Fill it with white and apply a 3 px Gaussian Blur. Set to Overlay and lower the opacity. Make the second one in the same way.

8. Draw another smaller oval on top of the previous one, apply a 5 px Gaussian Blur and reduce the opacity to 50%. Do the same with the second one like in the next image. This will add more shine to the pipe.

9. Take the Pen Tool and draw the shape you see below and fill it with a linear gradient using different gray tones or any other metal gradient that you want. There are some in the Swatch Library also.

10. Draw an oval shape like in the image below, fill it with white, apply a 5 px Gaussian Blur and lower the opacity. Also adjust the gradient from the ring to fit with the position of this shape and with the next reflection if needed.

11. Draw with the Pen Tool similar shapes to the ones below, fill them with white, apply a 2,2 px Gaussian Blur for the selected one and 1 px for the other one, then reduce the opacity for each one.

12. Next, draw 2 more shapes on top or decrease the original ones and reduce the opacity to 8-10% to add more shine.

Drawing Smoke and Tobacoo

13. Now, draw some shapes like little pieces of tobacco. Color them using different gray tones and add on some of them mash points using yellow and brown. Some of my colors are: (229,163,30), (120,34,0), (125,75,39) and (255,195,120). Group all the shapes, decrease their size and place them on top of the pipe. Copy the smaller oval from the beginning of the tutorial and paste it in front of the tobacco group, then go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make.

14. To make the smoke, draw with the Pencil Tool some random paths and stroke them using brushes from the Brush Library that you like. Some of the ones I used are in the image below. I applied a 3,5-5 px Gaussian Blur according to each path and also some of them have the stroke color white and some light blue for a more interesting effect. Reduce the opacity for each one until you like the final smoke effect.

13. The tutorial is done and I hope you like it. The final image of my smoking tobacco pipe is this:

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About The Author: Diana Toma

I'm a graphic designer extremely passionate about my work. I discovered Illustrator a while ago and simply love it. Since then, it has kept me busy and active.

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