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Illustrator Tutorial: Vector Book and Alphabets

vector book alphabets

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.

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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.

vector book alphabets

4. After the guideline has been set, we can start working on the book. First, we will make a shape that looks like this.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

7. Now, select the outline stroke and delete the node from the top left side. Our image will then look like this.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

9. Once we’ve placed the shape, we will input this color values as indicated in the image below.

vector book alphabets

10. Make some shapes shown below and fill them with colors. Input the values indicated in the image below.

vector book alphabets

11. Place the shapes together. See below image.

vector book alphabets

12. Together, the shapes will form the image below.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

16. Now, let’s add another shape to create the pages. See image below.

vector book alphabets

17. After making the shape, fill it with gradient color. Use the values shown below for the gradient color.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

20. Let’s make more pages following the images below.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

22. After placing the shape, our image will look like this.

vector book alphabets

23. To make another page, see the image below. This page will give more volume to the book.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

25. We’ll attach this shape with the line and our book will look like this.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

28. Attach this shape with the line.

vector book alphabets

29. After attaching it with the line, we get one more page of the book ready and our book looks something like this.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

32. To make the stars, go to Toolbox and select Star Tool.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

34. Then, place these stars at the center of our book to achieve the following look.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

36. After expanding the alphabetic letter, fill it with 5% gray color.

vector book alphabets

37. After filling with color, select the letter and go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

39. After applying the 3D effect, our alphabet letter will achieve a 3D shape just like in the image below.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

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.

vector book alphabets

42. Place the group of alphabet letters over the book.

vector book alphabets

43. After placing the alphabet, our final image is now ready.

vector book alphabets

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2 thoughts on “Illustrator Tutorial: Vector Book and Alphabets”

  1. 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.

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