Beginner Adobe Illustrator Tutorial – How to Create Flat Watermelon Design Icon

Introduction

In this beginner tutorial, you will learn how to create a flat watermelon design icon using Adobe Illustrator. Follow these easy steps to enhance your design skills and create a vibrant, fresh icon. This tutorial is perfect for beginners and will help you understand basic tools and techniques in Adobe Illustrator.

Step 1: Draw the Outer Circle

1. Open a New Document: Start by creating a new document in Adobe Illustrator.
2. Select the Ellipse Tool: Go to the toolbar and select the Ellipse tool, or press L for the keyboard shortcut.
3. Draw a Circle: Hold down the Shift key to draw a perfect circle. Set the size to 1230 pixels.
4. Color the Circle: This is the rind of the watermelon so fill the circle with a deep green color, using the hex code #467f41.

Step 2: Create the Inner Circles

1. Copy the Outer Circle: Select the outer circle, press Ctrl + C to copy, then Ctrl + Shift + V to paste it directly on top of the original.
2. Resize and Color the Inner Circle: Change the color to #f2edb6 and resize the circle to 1100 pixels by holding Shift + Alt while dragging a corner.
3. Repeat for the Watermelon Flesh: Copy the inner circle again (Ctrl + C, Ctrl + Shift + V). Change the color to red #cc4065 and resize to 1000 pixels.

Step 3: Slice the Watermelon

1. Draw a Rectangle: Select the Rectangle tool from the toolbar or press M. Draw a rectangle from the top left corner, covering half of the circles.
2. Trim the Shape: Select all shapes and go to the Pathfinder tab. Click on Trim to cut away anything outside the rectangle.
3. Ungroup and Delete: Press Ctrl + Shift + G to ungroup the shapes and delete the unnecessary parts.

Step 4: Add the Seeds

1. Create a Guide Circle: Draw a circle of 775 pixels. Press Shift + X to swap the fill and stroke colors.
2. Align the Circle: Select all shapes and align the guide circle vertically to the center of the watermelon slice using the Align tool.
3. Draw a Seed: Use the Ellipse tool to draw a small ellipse, sizing it to 55px by 85px. Fill it with color #4c2037.
4. Shape the Seed: Select the middle anchor points and drag them down slightly to create an egg shape.
5. Position the Seed: Rotate the seed 180 degrees and place it at the top center of the guide circle.
6. Duplicate the Seeds: Select the seed, press R for the Rotate tool, and find the circle’s center. Hold Alt and click the center point to open the Rotate dialog box. Enter 360/16 to space 16 seeds equally around the circle and click Copy. Press Ctrl + D to duplicate the seeds along the circle.

Step 5: Final Adjustments

1. Remove Excess Seeds: Delete the guide circle and any seeds outside the watermelon slice.
2. Refine Your Design: Make any final adjustments to ensure your watermelon icon looks perfect. Here you can group everything together with Ctrl + G and resize the image.