| St. Patrick's Day Shamrocks in Illustrator, p. 2 | |
(If you arrived on this page from a search, you should begin the tutorial from page one.)
Step 6. Tap the right arrow key repeatedly to move the new circle to the right until it will snaps into place on the upper right slant of the diamond.
Step 7. Select all three pieces (Select > All) and go to the Pathfinder palette. If it isn't open, go to Window > Pathfinder to open it. Mac: Option + click on the Add to Shape Area button to combine and expand the shapes at the same time. Windows: Alt + click on the Add to shape area button to combine and expand the shapes at the same time.
And here's the resulting heart. Now you have one leaf of the shamrock.
Step 8. We need to make two copies of the heart and rotate
them to make the other leaves of the shamrock. First select the heart by clicking
on its outline. This heart will be referred to as Heart 1. In the toolbox activate
the Rotate tool
by clicking on it.
Hold the option key (Mac) or alt key (Windows) and click the cursor just above the bottom point of the heart. This will set the point of origin for the rotation, and at the same time open the Rotate options box. By default, the point of origin is the center of an object unless you change it.
Step 9. In the Rotate options enter 100 for the angle, and click the Copy button. This will rotate the heart and make a copy at the same time. Clicking the preview checkbox allows you to see where the new heart will be placed.
Heart 1 is copied and rotated so you now have Heart 1 and Heart 2.
Step 10. The Rotate tool should still be active in the toolbox. Select Heart 1 again, set the point of origin as before, and using the option key (Mac) or alt key (Windows), click the cursor just above the bottom point of the heart. This time set the Angle of rotation to -100°, and click the Copy button. You should now have three shamrock leaves.
Step 11. Select Heart 2 and Heart 3 (click on one, hold shift and click the other, making sure to click the outlines to select), and press the down arrow key about 6 times to move them downward. They will still intersect, but not quite as much, and they'll make a better shamrock shape.
Continued on Page 3..
©2005 Sara Froehlich
