Scallop tool/ Illustrator

If you’re familiar with the basic tools in Illustrator, you should be able to follow along. But do not despair if you think it’s a bit difficult. This is not a tutorial for beginners.

• To start with define an Illustrator document. I’ve chosen the size 1024×768, rgb-colors, 72 ppi.

• Draw a vertical stroke a bit under the center of the artboard with the pen tool. Stroke 10 pt. color: Black, length approx. 500 px.

• With the stroke active: Choose Distort & Transform under the Effect menu and insert the values in the menu that pops up like this:

… and press OK.

Your art board will now look something like this:

• The strokes are now one path and you can only select the “original” stroke. Go to the Object menu and choose: Expand Appearance.

• Now the strokes are changed in to a group. We’ll leave them like that for a moment…

• Now we’ve got the basic elements to draw the fellows body. The first thing we’re going to add is the waved shape. With the strokes selected go to the Effect menu and select Warp, Flag.

• Select Horizontal, 45% in the menu and press OK.

• Make the strokes active and go to the Object-menu and choose Expand Appearance. Then go to the Object menu again and choose Expand and select stroke.

• We’re going to separate the strokes. We do that by going to the Object menu and choose Ungroup. You’ll have to ungroup three times to make sure the strokes are absolutely separated.

Now we’re going to the fun part:-)

We’re going to use the Scallop Tool. You’ll find it under the Warp tool in the tool palette. You can see it selected here:

• We’ll have to make sure the tool values a correct, so – double click on the Scallop icon in the tool palette to open the menu.

• This is my default values, so maybe it’s yours too? Otherwise – set the values to the same as you see beneath and press OK.

• Now we’re ready to draw! With all the strokes active (chosen) drag the Scallop tool over from left to right with a curved move. Follow the center stroke as precise as possible. Take your time. Speed makes no difference. Precision does on the contrary;-).

Now your art board should look something like this:

• To enhance the fur effect we’ll repeat the action twice, so the Scallop tool has been used three times over the strokes.

It’s starting to look like something! Now it’s time to put some color on…

• With all the strokes selected go to the Transparency palette and set the mode to Multiply.

• Now we are going to put a gradient on. Open the gradient palette and insert four colors. Place the colors with a fairly even distance.

• If you want your element to have the same colors as mine, insert the following RBG values:

Color 1: R=188, G=179, B=113

Color 2: R=191, G=178, B=64

Color 3: R=247, G=188, B=96

Color 4: R=217, G=212, B=204

• Now choose the Scallop tool again and hit a pair of hair strokes carefully to make the fur looks natural and lively. It can be difficult not to hit to many hair strokes at the time. You can adjust the Scallop tool to have a smaller radius. (Double click on the tool in the tool palette and choose the radius to be around 50 x 50px)

• Go to the Transparency palette again and set the opacity down to something like 60% to lighten the impression a bit.
  Now we’re ready to draw the fellows’ head.

• For that we need the Polar Grid tool, which you’ll find in the tool palette under the Line tool.

• Draw a Polar Grid – and with the mouse still down – adjust the number of lines with the arrow keys. You’ll adjust the number of circles with the up and down arrow keys, while the arrow keys back and forward adjust the number of strokes going though the circles. Set the tool to six circles and no strokes going though.
  It looks like this:

The stroke is black and 5 px wide.

• With the circles active – go to the Object-menu and choose Expand and select stroke. Now we can repeat the Scallop tool process from before.
• Drag the tool over the circles (with the circles still active) – in a straight line from left to right.

• Like the body we have to repeat the process twice, so Scallop Toolet have been used three times.

• Ungroup the elements for the head (they’ll have to be ungrouped three times to be absolutely sure they are totally separated). Set the transparency mode to Multiply.

• Select the Eyedropper tool in the tool palette. With the head elements selected suck up some color from the body.

Our element now looks like this:

• Group all the strokes for the head. (Go to the Object menu or use the shot cut apple + g with the elements active).

• I think the head are a little bit to thin. Therefore I copy the head and paste it in place (apple + c, apple + f).

• Press R on the keyboard to select the rotate tool and set a fix point by clicking on the nose of our fur head with the mouse.

• Rotate the head about 10-15 degrees. Feel your way until you’re satisfied with the result.

• Now we’re going to draw a pair of eyes. With the Ellipse tool draw to small, black eyes.

• Make the eyes active and go to the Effect menu and choose Stylize, feather and set Feather to about 3-4 px.

• Now draw a pair of white ellipses as highlight in both eyes.

• You’ll draw the feelers with the Pencil Tool. Set stroke to 0,25 pt and color to black.

Now we’ve got a little fellow like this:

• I think the body is a little bit to short, so I enhance the body by copying and reflecting the tale vertically (Object, Transform, Reflect)

• Choose the two tale parts and the head (without the eyes and the feelers) separately and go to the transparency palette.

• If you click on the litlle arrow in the upper right corner you can choose “Show options”, so the palette opens more options. Set a check mark in Isolate Blend.
• Now the Multiply mode we’ve added to the parts only influences the parts individually. That ensures the elements blends better when you stack them.
• Rotate and move the elements around a bit until you’re satisfied whit the result.

Now my little fellow looks like this: I think it’s cute! What does your little fellow look like?

I’ve done a little experimenting with the effect above and drawn these feathers. Maybe you can guess how I did?

(Copy the fellows head and put a new gradient on with all the parts selected at once. If you start and end the gradient with a white swatch, it will look like the fur has very light and soft ends)

Good luck with the Scallop Tool!

If you’ve got any questions or problems with the tutorial, please fell free to drop me a line!