ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS: HOW TO DRAW A PENGUIN ON A

WINTER BACKGROUND USING SIMPLE SHAPES

Today on the blog of the Notes of Microstock Illustrator there will be a guest lesson in Adobe Illustrator from Natalia
Dolotko. Natalia drew a very cute and funny penguin and now she will tell you how you can do it.

To complete this tutorial, you will need basic Adobe Illustrator skills, knowledge of basic functions and tools. If you just
opened Adobe Illustrator a couple of days ago, then the first step is to take the course "Learn Adobe Illustrator in 30
days!" , and then already start this lesson. If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments at the very
bottom.

Author: Nataliya Dolotko

Level: for beginners
Adobe Illustrator version: any

Let's draw this cute penguin on a winter background. And since only simple shapes are used here (circle, rectangle,

arc ...) - it will be easy and pleasant to create! 1. Create a penguin hat 1.1 Having created a new
document of 500 px by 500 px, take the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw an oval (color R = 224, G = 121, B = 44). We overlap
its lower part with a longitudinal oval of any color. 1.2 Select two shapes using the Selection Tool (V) and on the
Pathfinder panel (Window - Pathfinder) press the Minus Front key. You will get the following result: 1.3 While holding
down the Alt key, start moving the resulting shape a little to the left. We now have two copies of this shape. 1.4
Select the very first copy again and press the key combination Ctrl + C, Ctrl + F. You have made a third copy of the
shape on top of the first. Then select the third and second copies at the same time (for this you need to hold down the
Shift key) and on the Pathfinder panel press Minus Front. Paint this part with R = 232, G = 101, B = 28. 1.5 Still keep
this narrow dark orange strip selected and press the right mouse button. In the new menu, select Transform - Reflect. A
dialog box will appear, where you should mark Vertical, leave the angle at 90 degrees and press Copy. Simultaneously
with this shape (hold Shift) select the light orange shape, our very first shape. Then on the Align panel (Window - Align),
in the Align Objects section, press the Horizontal Align Left button. 1.6
Let's add two green circles as in the picture below - this is a pompom. The larger green circle has the color R = 189, G
= 207, B = 60, and the smaller and lighter circle has the color R = 201, G = 216, B = 97. To put the pompom behind
the header, select it and press Ctrl + X, Ctrl + B. 1.7 Take the Arc Tool, remove the fill and make the stroke green (R =
189, G = 207, B = 60). We look at the Stroke panel. Make Weight 40 pt, press the Round Cap button and draw an arc at
the bottom of the cap. With the Direct Selection Tool (A) we can move the guides to achieve the desired result. 1.8 Make
another copy of the arc on top of the first one (Ctrl + C, Ctrl + F). Reduce its Weight to 20 pt and set the color to R =
201, G = 216, B = 97. 1.9
It is advisable to immediately Expand two arcs, so that later they decrease and increase proportionally. And also group

the entire hat as a whole (right mouse button - Group) 2. Penguin body 2.1 A large dark gray oval is the
base of the body (R = 26, G = 28, B = 27) 2.2 Two light gray circles (so that the circle is even, while drawing, hold the
Shift key at the same time). Give the two the same fill R = 235, G = 229, B = 218. 2.3 Add a larger oval of the same

color so that the light gray ovals will roughly form the silhouette of Mickey Mouse's head. 3. Eyes 3.1 Draw an oval
using the Ellipse Tool (L), fill it with black and add a small white circle - this is a highlight from the light. 3.2
Select the whole eye at the same time. You can alternately click on each object and hold down the Shift key, or you can
simply take the Selection Tool (V) and, by pressing the left mouse button, drag from the upper left corner to the lower
right corner.
When selected, group it for convenience (right mouse button - Group). Now press simultaneously two keys - Shift and

Alt (Shift - to drag the shape in a straight line, Alt - to copy it) and drag this eye to the side. You now have two eyes. 4.
Beak 4.1
Let's start with a regular triangle. But to draw a regular triangle, you need to start with a regular polygon by clicking on
the corresponding button - called the Polygon Tool. If you can't see it, look for a square or a circle on the left panel,
click on it and hold it for two seconds, then an additional menu will appear with different shapes and there will be a
polygon among them.
Take it and click on the work area. A new window will appear in which you need to specify the number of corners, in our
case - 3. Give it the color R = 225, G = 229, B = 88 and set it so that one corner is up and two down. 4.2 Take the
Direct Selection Tool (A) and click on the topmost point of the triangle. Hold down the Shift key and pull it down a
little. 4.3
Make one copy on top of this triangle (Control-C, Control-F) and drag the leftmost corner of the new copy of the
triangle a little to the right (remember to hold Shift for smooth movement). For the new shape, fill it with R = 221, G =
221, B = 51. 4.4 Select two shapes at the same time and make a mirror image. To do this, press the right mouse button,
select Transform - Reflect. In the new window, put a dot beside Horizontal and click Copy. Move the two new triangles
downward as shown below. 4.5 Take the Direct Selection Tool (L) and select the anchor points as shown. To do this, use
this tool to draw diagonally over the points from the top to the bottom corner, as if drawing a small square. Raise the
selected points a little up.
5. Putting all the parts together

5.1 It is very convenient to group them before putting all the elements in place: two eyes together, a beak, light gray
parts of the penguin's body and a hat. Putting everything as in the picture below, you can align all the parts - for this,
press the key combination Ctrl + A (select all) and look at the Align panel, where we press the Horizontal Align

Center. 6. Scarf 6.1 In this step we will transform the hat into a scarf. Ungroup it, select only the lower green parts
(light green and dark green). Click the right mouse button Transform - Reflect. Then do the Horizontal display and press
Copy. Using the key on the keyboard, we move it all down, where usually the scarf is for penguins. 6.2 Expand the scarf
downwards, so that it looks like in the picture. 6.3
Draw a rectangle under the main part of the scarf. To do this, first you need to draw a small rectangle and then select
the main part of the scarf and use the right mouse button to make Arrange - Bring to Front. By the way, the difference
between Bring to Front and Bring Forward: the first command takes the object to the very top, and the second only one
step forward. 6.4 Select the rectangle we just made and go to Effect - Warp - Arc. In the new window, look for Style: Arc,
and a point near Vertical. In the Bend section we move the slider to the right until it is 30%, in the Distortion section we
also do Horizontal 40%, Vertical 25%. It should look like this: 6.5
Now make the stroke color R = 244, G = 121, B = 44, remove the fill color and grab the Pencil Tool (N). Look at the
Stroke panel, make the stroke 2 pt thick and make sure the Round Cap button is pressed. Now draw a fringe on the

scarf with a pencil. 7. Wings 7.1 Using the Ellipse Tool (L) draw a small oval in the same color as the penguin's
body. To do this, you can take the Eyedropper Tool (I) and click where the penguin's body is dark gray and then draw an
oval. 7.2 Tilt the oval slightly to the left and place it on the penguin. 7.3
Keeping the left wing of the penguin selected, press the right mouse button and select Transform - Reflect. In the new
window, check the box next to Vertical, leave the angle at 90 degrees and press Copy. We put the right wing in

place. 8. Paws 8.1 Create a small yellow oval (R = 221, G = 221, B = 51) 8.2 Make another copy of this oval, which
we tilt slightly to the left. Keeping the new oval selected, we make its mirror image (right mouse button - Transform -
Reflect, Vertical, Copy). Place all the shapes so that it looks like in the picture below: 8.3 Group the entire paw for
convenience and copy it (Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V). Now we will put these two paws in place. And our penguin is completely

ready! 9. Background 9.1

In the Layers panel, press the Create New Layer button. 9.2 But this new layer turned out above the penguin, and we
need it under it, because on this layer we will make the background. So just grab it with the mouse and drag a new
empty layer under the penguin layer. 9.3 Now you can close the layer with the penguin - on the same panel, press the
Toggles Lock button (empty square next to the button with the eye). If you want to edit this layer, just click on the lock
again. So - draw a 500 px by 500 px square using the Rectangle Tool (M). This is our background, the color of which is

R = 129, G = 207, B = 211. 10. Snowflakes and stars 10.1 Snowflakes. Take the Rounded Rectangle
Tool and draw a long vertical rectangle with color R = 0, G = 170, B = 173.
10.2 Add two more very small rounded rectangles on top. You can make one and then mirror it. 10.3 Select two small
rectangles (step 10.2), press the right mouse button Transform - Reflect. In this case, we do a Horizontal reflection,
then Copy. We move it all down. 10.4 Select all the blue rectangles and on the left panel press the Rotate Tool (R) and
immediately press Enter. A new window will appear where you need to select the rotation angle. Make a 45 degree angle
and the Copy button. Then, to repeat our last action several times, press Ctrl + D several times. The snowflake is
ready. By the way, there are only hexagonal snowflakes, all the rest are a flight of the imagination of artists. 10.5
To make it convenient to copy the snowflake later, group it (Ctrl + G). Distribute snowflakes of different sizes
throughout the background in any order. 10.6 Make the fill color white and on the left panel take the Star Tool. Click on
the workspace and in a new window specify the number of corners - 4. Radius 1 should be much larger than Radius 2.
Place several stars on the blue background. And now our cute penguin on a winter background is ready! Nataliya
Dolotko specially for the blog Notes of a microstock illustrator