Working on Illustrator provides numerous opportunities to experiment and create objects from your imagination and bring them to life. In this tutorial, I will teach you how to create a book with 3D alphabets illustration. This idea can be applied to a fairy tale book with magical characters and castles coming out of the book. You will also learn how to use special effects present in the illustrator to further enhance your skills as a designer.
Drawing the Book
1. To start off, we will open a new document. To open a new document, go to File > New. Once we click on New, a window will appear. We will input the sizes of the artboard in this window, as shown in the above image. We should always remember to keep the color mode in the document to RGB, so that the image looks like an original image.
2. Currently. you can see 2 parts in this image: an alphabet and a book. We will first work on the book and make it look realistic.
3. To make the book, first set a guideline in the center of the page. To set the guideline, locate the ruler on the right side of the software. By dragging the line from the ruler, the line will come out. If you are unable to see the ruler in the software, press CTRL + R and the ruler will appear, as shown in the image below.
4. After the guideline has been set, we can start working on the book. First, we will make a shape that looks like this.
5. We will fill this shape with the gradient value shown in the image below. After filling the shape with the ideal gradient values, you will see the image somewhat like this.
6. Next, we will make a copy of this box by pressing ALT+Drag. Press D after selecting the copied image. By doing so, the image will come in it’s original outline look.
7. Now, select the outline stroke and delete the node from the top left side. Our image will then look like this.
8. Expand this shape and place it over the gradient shape, which we made earlier. To expand, first select the shape then go to Object > Expand. Select stroke in the Expand window.
9. Once we’ve placed the shape, we will input this color values as indicated in the image below.
10. Make some shapes shown below and fill them with colors. Input the values indicated in the image below.
11. Place the shapes together. See below image.
12. Together, the shapes will form the image below.
13. In the next step, we’ll make a rectagular shape to form the book cover. We will then create a line to give thickness to the cover. Follow the steps below.
14. Now that the bottom part of the book is ready, we will make the pages of the book. To create the pages, draw the shape as shown below and fill it with gradient color. Follow the values shown below for the gradient color.
15. Next, let’s draw 2 lines and place them on this shape. Fill the lines with B&W gradient. Refer to the image below.
16. Now, let’s add another shape to create the pages. See image below.
17. After making the shape, fill it with gradient color. Use the values shown below for the gradient color.
18. After filling with gradient color, we’ll make the upper pages of the book. To create those pages, we’ll make the shapes first and fill them with the gradient color. Let’s make the shapes shown below and fill them with 10% black.
19. To give the book a realistic look, we’ll make one more shape and fill it with gradient. The value of gradient is given below.
20. Let’s make more pages following the images below.
21. After making one more shape, we’ll give it the look of the original page. To do so, we’ll make the shape shown below and place it on the topmost page. We’ll fill it with gradient and use a bright color for it.
22. After placing the shape, our image will look like this.
23. To make another page, see the image below. This page will give more volume to the book.
24. To give it the look of the page, we’ll make one more shape and attach it with the line on the page. We’ll fill this other shape with gradient values given below.
25. We’ll attach this shape with the line and our book will look like this.
26. We are almost done with all the pages of this book. We will now create the topmost page. To make this page, we’ll create a shape, as shown below.
27. To give this shape the look of the page, we’ll go back to the technique we used earlier. We’ll make one more shape and fill it with gradient. The values of gradient are given below.
28. Attach this shape with the line.
29. After attaching it with the line, we get one more page of the book ready and our book looks something like this.
30. We are now finished making one side of the book. We then group this whole unit and make a copy of it by using Alt + Drag. Select Copy and then Right Click, go to Transform and select the Reflect option. Now, press the vertical ratio button and then press OK. By doing so, the image would be reflected.
Drawing the Stars
31. You can see there are some stars placed in the middle of the book. Let’s get started drawing the stars.
32. To make the stars, go to Toolbox and select Star Tool.
33. Create the stars and scatter them as needed. Keep the sizes of the stars different for variety. Also make sure the transparency is different, too, so that all the stars have a different look.
34. Then, place these stars at the center of our book to achieve the following look.
Creating the Alphabets Effects
35. Now our book is complete with stars. All that’s left is the alphabet. We will now work on the alphabet. To do so, type an alphabetic letter of your choice and expand it. In this case, I chose the letter P.
36. After expanding the alphabetic letter, fill it with 5% gray color.
37. After filling with color, select the letter and go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel.
38. After selecting that option, you will see a window that lets you enter values for the 3D effect. Adjust values according to your preferences to achieve the 3D look and feel of the alphabetic character.
39. After applying the 3D effect, our alphabet letter will achieve a 3D shape just like in the image below.
40. Select this letter and select Object in the top bar. Expand this so that it turns into a different object. Fill the shape with different gradients, according to your preferences. This is how we make a letter to include in the group of alphabets in the final image.
41. Now that we have created the first letter in our alphabet, we are ready to create the rest of the letters in the alphabet. By using the same technique we used to make the letter P, we will be able to make the other letters. Create as many letters as you want and place them sporadically around, just like in the image below.
42. Place the group of alphabet letters over the book.
43. After placing the alphabet, our final image is now ready.
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very simple tut…..Thanks 🙂 i love your tutorials..
This design is incredible! You obviously know how
to keep a reader entertained. Between your sense of humor
and your clips, I was almost moved to get started on my own
blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Excellent job.