In this quick tutorial, we will create a poster with shaded green leaves pattern background.
- Create a new document in Adobe Illustrator, with width and height 600px.
- Choosing colors:
- Under Swatches panel, click on the light green.
- Under Color Guide panel, select 4 shades of green, holding Cmd in Mac/ Cntrl in Windows.
- Click on the bottom right button “Save color group to Swatch panel”. Now these colors are added to the Swatches panel.
- Creating Background rectangle:
- Using the Rectangle tool (shortcut M), create a rectangle of width and height 600px.
- Align it to the center of the Artboard, using the Align panel.
- Make sure its fill is dark green and border is set to none.
- Lock it from under Object > Lock > Selection ( shortcut Cmd 2 in Mac / Cntrl 2 in Windows ).
- Creating the leaf shape:
- Using the Rectangle tool (shortcut M), create a rectangle of width and height 100px.
- Fill it with the lightest shade of green (from our selected swatches).
- Using the Direct Selection Tool (shortcut A), click on the circular point of 1 corner of the square and drag it towards the diagonally opposite corner. Drag till a red highlight is visible (this means that the maximum point has reached).
- Now repeat the above step for the diagonally opposite corner. Leaf shape is ready.
- Creating the horizontal repeat:
- Align the leaf shape to the top left corner of the Artboard using the Align panel.
- Using Selection tool (shortcut V), select the leaf.
- Click and drag on the right side holding Option in Mac / Alt in Windows and Shift key. ( Option to duplicate and Shift to align horizontally )
- Use the Smart Guides(pink lines in the video) to ensure that the 2nd leaf is aligned just after the 1st one. ( Make sure there is a tick on Smart Guides from under View > Smart Guides )
- Click Cmd D in Mac / Cntrl D in Windows – 4 times to duplicate the above action 4 times.
- Creating the vertical repeat:
- Using Selection tool (shortcut V), drag and select all the leaves.
- Click and drag them below, holding Option in Mac / Alt in Windows and Shift key.
- Now, keeping the selection, right click on the mouse, choose Transform > Reflect ( or Object > Transform > Reflect )
- Under the Reflect options, choose Vertical.
- Using Selection tool (shortcut V), select both the leaf rows.
- Click and drag them below, holding Option in Mac / Alt in Windows and Shift key ( ensure their position using Smart Guides ).
- Click Cmd D in Mac / Cntrl D in Windows once to duplicate the above action.
- Creating the pattern swatch:
- Now select the leaves of your choice and give them different shades form the remaining 2 shades of green that we had selected.
- Unlock the background rectangle from under Object > Unlock all.
- Using Selection tool (shortcut V), drag and select the whole of Artboard.
- Drag and drop it into the Swatches panel ( A small pattern swatch of our reflected green leaves is visible in the Swatches panel ).
- Test the pattern:
- Create a rectangle of random size and apply the pattern swatch and check.
Video tutorial of the making of the pattern:
Create the quote box on top (optional – not included in the video ):
- Create a rectangle of a smaller size (eg – width and height 350 px ).
- Align it to the center of the Artboard using the Align panel.
- Fill it with a very light shade of green.
- Using the Direct Selection Tool(shortcut A), select the circular points of 2 diagonally opposite corners of the square.
- Click and drag them inside slightly , to create the mild curve.
- Reduce the opacity of the square to about 85% (from under the Transparency panel).
- Using the Type tool, add the quote of your choice.