Many design would draw these icons by hand and then scan them into the computer, clean up a little bit and use them. Actually, to draw some vector icons in this style is not as complicated as it looks like. Thanks to some distortion functions in Adobe Illustrator. Here we will share some easy steps of drawing an RSS icon and a MP3 file icon. Once you master this technique you can create similar icons for use in other projects like printed brochure layouts.

Step 1

Create a new Illustrator file, basically what we want is a number of same lines in the same direction. Unfortunately, Adobe Illustrator does not have any array tools. However it does have a blend tool which can do the job. Draw a horizontal line, rotate 45 degree and make a copy. Put the two lines at the top left and the right bottom of the art board, respectively.

Click the Blend Tool on the toolbox, the cursor will become a small square with some dots. Move the cursor onto the first line, a small cross will appear on the cursor. Click once, and move to the other line click again when the cursor changes. Now Illustrator will create several lines between the two lines you drew.

You can adjust the stroke weight and the specify the steps between the two lines (double click the blend tool button on the toolbox, the option dialog will pop up) according to your drawing requirements. Basically, when drawing by hand, the more intensive the lines are, the darker colour they represent. So if your icon set are in a single colour scheme, this can be a good way to vary the darkness. Adjust the size so that the lines can cover the art board. Use the command Object>>Expand in the menu to convert the effect into objects which will produce a group of lines.

Step 2

Now, draw a square in the center which be used as the boundary of the RSS icon. Select both the group of lines and the square. Use the Crop command in the pathfinder window to crop the area in the center.

Before doing this, you should make sure the group of lines filled with any colour (NOT None or Transparent). Other wise the crop won’t work. After doing this you probably won’t see the lines but you still can see the selections because the stroke colour has changed. I am not sure why this happens but when you assign the stroke colour you should have the following graph.

Step 3

Apply the Illustrator filter “Tweak” (Menu: Effect>>Distort & Transform>>Tweak…). Set the amount for both horizontal and vertical into 1% relative. The lines will be tweaked a little which is similar to sketch drawing.

Then select the “Twist” filter (Menu: Effect>>Distort & Transform>>Twist…) and set the angle to 3 degree (or any some amount you want). A sketch style fill is ready.

Step 4

Adjust the stroke weight of the lines to meet your desired effect. Draw a square again of the same size you did just now for cropping the lines. Set the stroke weight into 3 to make it thicker. Draw or copy from the standard RSS vector image. Apply the Tweak and Twist filter to the square and RSS icon again to make them the same style. This sketch style RSS icon is ready.

Other Icons

Using this method, we can draw many icons in the sketch style. Here is another example which is a MP3 file icon. We can use the same procedures to produce most parts of this icon. There are something more in this one, the paper and the music notes have some shades on the right. This can be done by using the Blend Tool and the Free Distort filter (Menu: Effect>>Distort & Transform>>Free Distort…)

Download the .AI source file (for Adobe Illustrator CS3)

Have you tried the tutorial? Feel free to leave links to examples created using this as well as any feedback that you may have. Thanks…

In Photoshop there is a function called Angle Gradient which is able to give an easy way to draw a nice stripe of colour spectrum on the CD surface. However, there is no Angle Gradient function in Illustrator which makes drawing a little bit difficult.

I did read some article or tutorial related to how to draw a CD icon using illustrator. But I think they are not simple enough and not good enough. Here we will see some simple steps of drawing an icon of CD.

Step 1

Draw 6 circles from outside to inside. make 2 copies of the 5th circle and use the Pathfinder>>Subtract to create 3 thick rings. Make sure they are in the right order. Then we can now fill these rings.

Step 2

Fill the 3 rings from back to front. The bottom one is filled using grayscale (K=5) and the stroke is 1pt weight and grayscale (K=40). The second one should be filled using the following gradient (grayscale K=25 at both ends and white in the center), the stroke should be the same as the previous ring. The third smaller one in the center has to be filled in grayscale (K=10) and stroke is 1pt, grayscale (K=50). Also for this one, we have to set the opacity into around 50% to obtain a transparent effect.

Step 3

Draw a simple shape like the left one in the following (the angle in the middle is around 15 degree), then copy the second ring in the previous step and set to no fill. Put the ring in the back of the shape we drew just now. Then use Pathfinder>>Intersect shape to get two sectors.

Then make 4 copies of the sectors and fill them with different colours. and rotate them to have the following layout.

Step 4

Select the 5 sector we just made and make them into a group. Use the Radial Blur (Amount:18, Method: Spin, Quality: Good) in the menu (Effect>>Blur>>Radial Blur…) and set the blending option into Overlay.

Step 5

Now the CD is almost ready and the last step we can add some effects to the CD. For 2D style, we can add some simple drop shadow (Effects>>Stylize>>Drop Shadow) or cast shadow (Draw a very thin circle in black and set the opacity to around 30%, then use Effect>>Blur>>Gaussian Blur and set radius to 4.0). Also we can use Effects>>3D>>rotate function in Illustrator to produce a unique vision. The shadow can be drawn in the same way we discussed just now.

Furthermore, you can draw another ring in the same shape of second one in Step 1, fill it in Golden. Blend it on the CD using Multiply method and set opacity to 75%. Put a DVD logo on it. Your DVD icon will be ready.

Download the .AI source file (for Adobe Illustrator CS3)

Have you tried the tutorial? Feel free to leave links to examples created using this as well as any feedback that you may have. Thanks…