Create a creative cat in Illustrator – Guide Part 1

Creativity and design go hand in hand, especially when it comes to digital art. In this guide, I will show you how to create a round cat step by step in Adobe Illustrator. You will learn how to create the basic shape, add the ears, and bring your artwork to life with clever gradients.

Main insights

• Use of the ellipse tool to create the basic shape
• Adjust the ears with the star tool
• Unite shapes in the Pathfinder
• Create gradients for the cat

Step-by-step guide

First, you need to create a new document in Illustrator. To do this, click on "File" and then "New". In the window that opens, name your document simply "Cat". The standard A4 landscape format is excellent for your project. I recommend the RGB color mode, as you will likely view the artwork digitally or use it on the internet. To complete the process, confirm your selection with "OK".

With the new document, the first layer is also created, which you can find in the layers panel. If it's not visible, you can activate it by clicking on "Window" and then "Layers". We will now insert the basic shape of your cat into this layer - a circle. To do this, select the ellipse tool by right-clicking on the rectangle tool and choosing the ellipse tool. Hold down the Shift key and drag to create your circle.

To determine the exact size of the circle, go to "Transform". Here you can configure the dimensions; set them to 70 mm x 70 mm to get a perfect circle. By holding the Alt key and using the mouse scroll wheel, you can now zoom in or out to edit your image better.

When you click on the circle now, the options for fill and stroke appear in the toolbar. Make sure you only edit the fill first; otherwise, the stroke might unintentionally be colored as well. Remove the stroke by clicking on the small square below the stroke selection, leaving only the fill color. Choose a red color for the fill.

To give your cat a characteristic touch, add the ears now. For this, again select the star tool and click on a point in the document. Set the number of spikes to three to create a triangle for the ear and confirm this.

After creating the triangle, you can adjust it. Move the mouse pointer to the edge of the triangle to rotate it, and you can scale proportionally by holding the Shift key. Think about how large the ears of your cat should be and adjust the size accordingly.

To make the ears less pointed, use the direct selection tool. Click on one of the anchor points of the triangle and drag to round the corner. Be careful to select only one anchor point, so the others remain unchanged.

Since your cat has two ears, duplicate the first ear. Hold down the Alt key and drag the ear to the right. To ensure it appears in a straight line on the other side, you can activate the "Smart Guides".

Once you have duplicated the ear, go to "Object", click on "Transform", and select "Reflect". Check the preview and confirm. Place the ear so that it is symmetrical to the other ear.

Now you need to unite the three shapes (circle and two ears) into a single shape. Select them all with the selection tool. You can also do this in the layers panel. Open the Pathfinder, which can be found in the "Window" menu, and click on the first symbol for "Unite". This will merge the shapes together.

After the shapes are united, you can add a gradient to the new overall shape. In the "Window" menu, select the "Gradient" option. Set the gradient type to "radial". You will see that the default gradient runs from white to black.

Adjust the colors by clicking on the gradient sliders. Choose a value of about 12% gray for the left slider and 13% gray for the right. If necessary, add another slider and set its value to 33%.

To change the position and spacing of the gradient, select the gradient tool and click on the image to move the center point. Think about where the gradient looks best and optimize the proportions to perfect the overall image.

Summary

In this guide, you learned how to design the basic shape of a cat in Adobe Illustrator, starting from creating a document to finishing the ears and gradients. The key lies in skillful use of the tools and adjusting the shapes.