How to Create Lamp Illustration on Adobe Illustrator
Creating your own objects for your designs is very easy. Like most illustrations, all components can be divided into shapes.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a lamp with just basic shapes and the shape builder tool.
We’ll be using Adobe Illustrator. According to Wikipedia, Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program developed and marketed by Adobe Inc.
If you are new to using Illustrator, this tutorial should help.
Now, let's get straight to business.
Getting Started
The colour palette used in this tutorial is this:
Now, open Adobe Illustrator on your computer and start a new illustration. A box similar to the one below will pop up. You can use any dimensions of your choice but in this tutorial, we will be using 1080 x 1080 px.
In the Layers panel, create two layers and name them: Lamp and Background.
Layers help us organize our illustrations and arrange the components in the order they are to be seen.
Lock the Background layer as we will be working with the Lamp layer first. You can lock the layers by clicking on the box beside the eye icon on each layer. A padlock icon will appear.
Locking the layers stops you from tampering with them.
Illustrating the Lamp
The Lamp Shade
Draw a circle with the Ellipse tool (L).
Tip: Using keyboard shortcuts is much easier than navigating around the application.
You should have something like this:
To create the lampshade, we need to turn our circle into a semicircle.
Click on the Direct Selection tool (A) and then the Delete Anchor Point tool [minus (-)] to remove the bottom anchor. You should have something like this.
Use the shortcut, (Shift + C), to activate the Anchor Point tool. It will look like a caret (^). Remove the bottom handles of the circle. This will sharpen the bottom edges and give a flat bottom.
Rotate the semicircle at an angle of 45 degrees. You should have something similar to this:
With the Eyedropper tool, (I), fill in the semicircle with the first colour from the palette (or any of your choice).
Make a copy of this semicircle. You should now have one semicircle overlapping another.
Using the Shape Builder tool (Shift +M), subtract the left edge of the overlapping semicircles. The shape builder is located at the extreme left panel.
Tip: To subtract shapes, press down ALT and click on the shape. It will immediately disappear.
You should now have something like this.
Click on the bottom rectangle and change its colour to a darker yellow colour to create the shadow effect.
The Shade Cap
Now, using the Ellipse tool (L), draw a small circle and place it behind the lampshade. You should have something like this:
Tip: You can send objects backwards by right-clicking, clicking Arrange, and then sending the component backwards.
Group the shapes (CTRL + G) and move them away from the artboard.
The Lamp Arm
with the Ellipse tool (L), draw two ovals of the same size and make them overlap like this:
Using the Shape Builder tool (Shift + M), merge the overlapping shape on the left side and delete the other parts. you should get something like this:
Now, using the Eyedropper tool (I), change the colour of the handle to the bright yellow colour. It should now look like this:
Create the shadow effect by making a copy and subtracting the useless edge just like we did in the lampshade. Use the Shape Builder tool (Shift + M) for this.
Group them together so they stay in place.
The Lamp Base
Using the Rounded Rectangle tool, draw a rounded rectangle and flatten the bottom just like we did at the beginning with the circle. Remember to use the Delete Anchor Point tool (-) and the Anchor Point tool (Shift + C) to do this.
The rounded rectangle should change from the one on the left to what is on the right. It should have a flat bottom.
Create the shadow effect by making a copy and subtracting the useless edge just like we did in the lampshade and arm. Use the Shape Builder tool (Shift + M) for this.
Group them together so that they stay in place.
Bringing All the Pieces together
Bring the pieces onto the artboard and start placing them in the right order. The lamp base goes to the front, the lampshade and cap stay at the middle, and the arm should be at the back.
Feel free to resize the objects to fit the proportions. Use your designer’s eye.
You have now created a lamp.
The Background
This is the easiest part. Lock the Lamp layer and unlock the Background layer.
Using the Rectangle tool, draw a rectangle big enough to cover the artboard. You can give it any colour of your choice. I’ll use grey.
You can also add a line to create a base.
Conclusion
You have seen how easy it is to draw a lamp on Adobe Illustrator. Using basic shapes and the Shape Builder tool makes illustrating very easy. I hope you play around and create more objects. Check out my portfolio to get some inspiration.
If you have any questions, contact me on Twitter @chiizaraa
