How to Create a Set of Ice Cream Icons in Adobe Illustrator

In today’s tutorial we will get to create something really sweet—yes, you guessed it, ice cream! OK, so it’s not real ice cream, but we will be making some cool little icons that will leave your taste buds craving. We will focus on using the Rounded Rectangle Tool to create the shapes, in combination with different Blending Modes and Gradients in order to get that interesting glow effect.

Summer’s
here, and I know almost all of you love to sit back and relax once in a while
with a big old ice cream in your hand. I won’t lie, I do it almost every day, and
that’s why I decided to make a cool little tutorial on the subject.

Enough talking—let’s open Illustrator and start
playing with some recipes.

1. Setting Up
Our Document

Let’s start simple by creating a New Document (Control-N or File > New) and adjusting some of its properties.

• Number of Artboards: 1
• Width:
  640 px
• Height:
  600 px
• Units: Pixels

And from the Advanced tab:

• Color Mode:
  RGB
• Raster Effects:
  High (300 ppi)
• Align New Objects to
  Pixel Grid: checked

2. Setting Up
Our Layers

Once we have created a New Document it’s time to layer it so that we can create a nice,
tidy workspace which in the end will let us focus on each section of the
illustration one step at a time. So, open up the Layers panel, and create six layers, naming them as follows:

1. purple
2. orange
3. green
4. chocolate
5. double
6. biscuit

3. Adjusting the
Grid

If you’re new to
the Grid, you should know that it’s a system of vertical and horizontal lines
that allows you to compose and position your artworkcarefully. For me its most
important function is the accuracy that you get once you have it set up to the
lowest values, which allows me to achieve a pixel perfect workflow.

To adjust some of the settings that I’ve talked about,
you must go to Edit > Preferences
> Guides & Grid. From there, a little popup will appear, where you
need to adjust the following:

• Gridline every:
  1 px
• Subdivisions: 1

Once you’ve
adjusted the above settings, you need to activate the Snap to Grid function by going to View > Snap to Grid.

Quick tip: You should know that the Snap to Grid option will transform into Snap to Pixel every time you enter Pixel Preview Mode, but that’s totally fine since the Grid is set
up to the lowest values, making the two functions act the same.

You can read more about the Grid and how it
works by going over some of my other tutorials that cover the subject:

• How to Create
  Pixel Perfect Artwork
• Understanding
  Adobe Illustrator’s Grid System

Also, if you like moving things around with the
help of the keyboard’s directional arrow keys, you might want to change the Keyboard Increment to 1 px to get it as precise as possible.
You can do this by going to Edit >
Preferences > General > Keyboard Increment.

If your version of AI has the value set to pt (points), just go to Units and change the General and Stroke units to Pixels and
you’re good to go.

4. Creating the
First Icon

Step 1

Position yourself on the purple layer, and
using the Rounded Rectangle Tool create
a 28 x 90 px shape with a 4 px Corner Radius. Next, color the
shape using #B392AC and position it using the following coordinates in the Transform panel:

• X:
  226 px
• Y:
  211 px

Step 2

Once you have the first shape in place, select
it, and let’s give it a thick outline by going to Object > Path > Offset Path and entering 4 px in the Offset field.

Step 3

You might have noticed that we now have the
offset underneath our original shape, but we need to change its color so that
the two won’t end up blending into a single shape. Simply select the shape
and then change its color to something a little darker #735D78.

Step 4

Next create a smaller 6 x 22 px rectangle with a Corner
Radius of 1 px. Color the shape
using #F7D1CD and then Horizontal Center
Align it to the outline section of the ice cream, making sure to position
it underneath.

Quick tip: As you can see, the top section of the stick
goes underneath the ice cream by about 4
px, which is the exact value of the outline itself. You can achieve this
level of precision by switching over toPixel Preview mode (Alt-Control-Y
or View > Pixel Preview), which
allows you to see the actual pixels that lie underneath your artwork.

Step 5

Give the stick an outline by using the same Offset Path trick, making sure to
change its color to #735D78.

Step 6

Once we have our base shapes, we can start
adding some details. Since we last worked on the stick, let’s start from there.
Using the Rectangle Tool (M), create
a 6 x 4 px shape, which we will
color black (#000000). Since this will act as a shadow, we will change its Blending Mode to Multiply and then lower its Opacity
to 20%.

Step 7

Next, add the two diagonal lines by creating two 6 x 4 px rectangles (#735D78) which we
will position4 px from one
another. We will then need to adjust the shapes by first selecting their right
anchor points with the Direct Selection
Tool (A) and then moving them up by 2
px,either by using the upward pointing arrow key or by right clicking > Transform > Moveand
entering -2 px into the Vertical input field. Finally group the
two (Control-G) and position them
right next to the shadow that we created one step ago.

Step 8

Moving up, we
can start adding a bunch of highlights to the ice cream. Let’s start with the
outer one, by first creating a copy (Control-C
> Control-F) of the inner section (the lighter one) and then adding a
smaller 24 x 86 px rectangle with a 2 px Corner Radius on top of it
(illustrated with light red).

With both of the objects selected, go to the Pathfinder panel and use the Minus Front option. This will create a
cutout in the larger shape, which we can then use as the actual highlight.

Step 9

Change the resulting shape’s color to white
(#FFFFFF), its Blending Mode to Soft Light and its Opacity level to 40%.

Step 10

Using the Rectangle Tool (M),create two white
(#FFFFFF) rectangles, one smaller (20 x
4 px) and one taller (20 x 10 px),
and position them on the top section of the icon.

Then, Horizontal
Center Align them to the purple shape underneath, so that you have a gap of
14 px between the outline and the
bottom rectangle, and another 4 px one between the two white shapes.

Step 11

Adjust the two highlights by selecting their
right anchor points using the Direct
Selection Tool (A) and then moving them upwards by 20 px (right click >
Transform > Moveand enter -20
px into the Vertical input
field).

Step 12

Since the highlights need to be somewhat
transparent, we will have to adjust ours by changing their Blending Modes to Soft Light
and their Opacity to 60%.

Step 13

Now I’m going to
show you a little trick (in case you didn’t know it already). If you apply a Blending Mode to an object, and then
group it to another one, you can apply a new Blending Mode on the group itself. Neat right?

So let’s select
the two highlights, group them (Control-C
> Control-F) and then from the Transparency
panel select Overlay,leaving the
Opacity as it is.

The effect is immediately visible, as it gives
the icon a more vibrant feel, making itpop.

Step 14

Next, we will
start adding the final details to our first ice cream icon by adding the little
colored sprinkles. Using the Rectangle
Tool (M),draw a bunch of shapes and rotate them at a 45°angle.

Start decorating using the color values
underneath to differentiate them from one another.

• Dark purple: #735D78
• Light pink:#F7D1CD
• Pale orange: #F49AA1

At this point you might have noticed that the
sprinkles go over the highlights, which is something we don’t want. To fix this,
simply select the diagonal and outer highlights, andright click > Arrange > Bring to Front.

Step 15

Once you’re done adding the sprinkles, it’s time to create the little
star-shaped highlights. First create a 12
x 12 px circle using the Ellipse
Tool (L). Then, using the Direct
Selection Tool (A),select its top and left side anchor points, and remove
them by pressing Delete.

Once you’ve removed the anchors, position the remaining segment towards the
top and create a duplicate of it (Control-C
> Control-F), reflecting it vertically
(right click > Transform >
Reflect > Vertical). Separate the two segments by adding a 4 x 4 px circle between them, making
sure that the segments are aligned to its middle anchors. Then create a
copy of the circle and side segments, and reflect them horizontally, adding
two more circles between the duplicates and the original shapes.

Select the segments, and unite all their anchor
points (select the anchors >
Control-J) so that you end up with a closed shape. Then simply select both
it and the little circles and use Pathfinder’s
Unite function.

Step 16

Create two more smaller star-shaped highlights and position them next to
one another. With all three selected, go to the Transparency panel and change their Blending Modes to Overlay while
lowering their Opacity levels to 80%.

Once you’ve done that, group them together (Control-G), and position them onto the
icon at about 18 px from the top
section of the main outline, leaving a gap of just 2 px between them and the right side of the outline.

Step 17

Finish off the icon by adding a nice gradient
on top of it. First select the two outlines (the one for the ice cream and
stick) and create a copy of each (Control-C
> Control-F). Then with the duplicates selected, unite them into a
single shape, and apply a Linear
Gradient with the following properties:

• Left color:
  #00FF00
• Right color:
  #D4145A
• Angle: -90

Step 18

Since the
gradient is way too hard, we need to adjust its Blending Mode by setting it on Lighten
while lowering the Opacity to 50%. This will give us a nice, smooth
glow effect.

Lastly, don’t forget to select all the elements
of the icon and group them together (Control-G)
so they won’t get lost or misaligned if you happen to move the icon itself.

5. Creating the
Second Icon

Step 1

Move on up to
the orange layer and use the Rectangle
Tool (M) tocreate a 52 x 90 px shape, coloring it using #F49AA1 (1).

Since we need both the top and bottom sections
to be round, we will use the Round
Corners effect to do just that. Using the Direct Selection Tool (A),select the bottom anchor points and apply
a 6 px roundness to them by going to
Effect > Stylize > Round Corners and
entering the value in the Radius input field (2). Then select the top
anchor points and repeat the same process, but this time give them a roundness
of 26 px (3).

Step 2

Once you have the base top shape created, it’s
time to add an outline to it using an offset path of 4 px, making sure to change the resulting object’s color to #C96975.

Step 3

Add a little stick by creating a 12 x 28 px rectangle with a 6 px Corner Radius. Color the object
using #F7D1CD and then create a 4 px outline
(#C96975) using the Offset Path trick, making sure to send both the fill and outline to the back of the ice cream (right click > Arrange > Send to Back).
Make sure the stick is properly positioned in the center of the icon, bottom
aligning it with the previously created ice cream stick.

Step 4

Add some details to the ice cream stick by
creating a 12 x 4 px shadow
(#000000, Blending Mode set to Multiply, Opacity lowered to 20%)
and some small 1 x 4 px rounded
rectangles with a Corner Radius of 0.5 px. Color the little line pieces
using #C96975 and then scatter them around the inside of the ice cream stick, making sure that the shadow goes over them. Also you might want to select all
the elements forming the stick and group them together (Control-G) so they don’t get lost.

Step 5

Move on up to the higher section of the icon and
give the ice cream an all-round highlight by repeating the same cut out process
and then setting the resulting shape’s Blending
Mode to Soft Light while
lowering its Opacity level to 30%.

Step 6

Add the diagonal highlights by creating two
white (#FFFFFF) rectangles, one 44 x 10
px and another 44 x 4 px one,
which we will then position towards the center of the icon (1). Using the Move function, select their right
anchor points with the Direct Selection
Tool (A) and move them vertically by -44
px (2).

Change the Blending Modes of the objects to Soft Light and lower their Opacity levels to 50% (3). Since the shapes need to stay inside the ice cream,
leaving a small gap of about 2 px on
each side, we will need to mask the rectangles by creating a 44 x 82 px shape that has similar
rounded corners to the larger pink shape underneath.

Then with both the larger
shape and the rectangles selected,right
click > Make Clipping Mask (4). Once you’ve done that, the highlights
should be ready to go (5).

Step 7

Once we’ve added
the diagonal highlights, we can start working on the little indentations on the ice
cream’s surface. First grab the Rounded
Rectangle Tool and create a 6 x 62
px shape (#C96975) with a Corner
Radius of 3 px (1).

Using the Direct Selection Tool (A),select and
remove the bottom anchor point, and then press Control-J to give the shape a flat end (2).

Next add a 2 x 58 px rectangle with a 1 px Corner Radius on top, and create a
cutout using Pathfinder’s Minus Front option
(3 and 4). Once you’ve created the cutout, add two 2 x 2 px circles to the bottom legs and unite them with the arch
like shape (5).

Create another 2 x 58 px shape identical to the previous one (6), and then cut out
a 2 x 2 px circle from its bottom
section (7 and 8). Add a small shadow towards the top inner section of the
indentation, and then select all the elements and group them together using Control-G.

Step 8

Position the indentation over the ice cream icon, and
then create three duplicates, spacing them out towards the right side at about 4 px from one another.

Step 9

Once we’ve added the indentations, we can now grab a
copy (Control-C) of the star-shaped
highlights from the previous icon and paste (Control-F) them onto the one we are currently working on.

Step 10

Finish off the icon by adding a linear gradient
with the following properties:

• Left color:
  #00FF00
• Right color:
  #D4145A
• Angle:
  -90
• Blending Mode:
  Color Burn
• Opacity:
  20%

6. Creating the
Third Icon

Step 1

As always, make sure you’re on the right layer
(the green one in this case) and create a copy of the first icon and paste it
over here, so that you have a gap of 40
px between the duplicate and the second icon.

Step 2

Ungroup all the elements of the icon (right
click >
Ungroup) and then remove the
gradient by selecting and then pressing Delete
(1). While we’re deleting things, you can also get rid of the little
sprinkles (2) and the diagonal lines from our little stick (3).

Now let’s shake things up a little by changing
the colors. Select both the larger outline and the stick outline, and color them using #386150.
Use #58B09C for the ice cream’s filling and #CAF7E2 for the stick's filling. At this
point (4) our little icon should be looking more like something sweet from another
planet, which is exactly what we want.

Step 3

Start adding
details such as the diagonal stripes (#CAF7E2) (2), the little sprinkled
dots (#CAF7E2) (3), and the two 12 x 4
px diagonal lines (#386150) for the stick (4).

Depending on how
you’ve grouped the composing elements of the icon, you will need to bring the
highlights to the front of everything else by selecting and then right clicking > Arrange > Bring to
Front.

Once you have everything positioned, don’t forget
to regroup the elements by using Control-G.

Step 4

Finish off the icon by adding a smooth linear
gradient with the following settings:

• Left color:
  #00FFFF
• Right color:
  #D4145A
• Angle:
  -90
• Blending Mode:
  Lighten
• Opacity: 60%

7. Creating the
Fourth Icon

Step 1

Move on upwards to the chocolate layer, and
using the Rounded Rectangle Tool create
a 28 x 18 px shape with a 2 px Corner Radius. Color it using #A07F7F
and then position it about 40 px belowthe first icon.

Step 2

With the newly
created shape selected, go to Object >
Path > Offset Path and give it an outline of 4 px so that we keep things balanced. Change the outline’s color to
#785F5F and then create an inner all-around highlight (#FFFFFF) as we did with
all our previous icons, with the Blending
Mode set to Soft Light and the Opacity to 40%.

Once you have both fill, outline and highlight, group the elements together using Control-G.

Step 3

Create a
duplicate of the section of the icon that we just created by dragging towards
the bottom while holding down Alt (to
create the duplicate) and Shift (to
drag in a straight line).

Since each segment will have an outline, you should
try to overlay them so that you won’t end up with a huge gap between
the fills. I recommend you turn onPixel
Preview Mode (Alt-Control-Y) so
you can be as precise as possible.

Once you’ve created the first copy, press Control-D (duplicate) twice to
create the rest of the segments.

Step 4

Adjust the second and fourth segment colors to
something a little bit lighter by using #BA9494.

Step 5

Start working on the icon’s stick by creating a 6 x 28 px rectangle
with a Corner Radius of 1 px. Color it using #F7D1CD and then
position it underneath the last segment so that it overlaps the bottom section
of the outline. Then, with the stick selected, give it an Offset Path of 4 px,
changing the resulting shape’s color to #785F5F.

Step 6

Add a subtle 6 x 4 px shadow (#000000, Multiply,
20%) to the stick and then select
all of its elements and group them together using Control-G.

Step 7

Since at this
point we’ve laid out our basic shapes, we can start working on adding details.
Using the Rectangle Tool (M),create
a bunch of different sized shapes, color them using #785F5F and then rotate
them at a 45-degree angle by pressing R (for
rotate) and then dragging with the mouse towards the top.

Group the
little decorative pieces together (Control-G)
and position one set onto the first ice cream segment (2) and another on the
third one (3).

Once you’ve done that you can add the diagonal
highlights (4) and select both them and the all-around ones and bring them in
front of the sprinkles.

Step 8

Grab a copy of the star-shaped highlights from
the first icon and position them towards the top section of our current one.

Step 9

Finish off the icon by adding a warm linear
gradient with the following attributes:

• Left color:
  #FFFF00
• Right color:
  #C1272D
• Angle:
  -90
• Blending Mode:
  Hard Light
• Opacity:
  20%

8. Creating the
Fifth Icon

Step 1

Position
yourself onto the double layer, and using the Rectangle Tool (M) create a 26
x 90 px shape which we will color using #9CD6F2.

Using the Direct
Selection Tool (A),select its bottom anchor points and apply a Round Corner effect of 4 px (2). Then do the same for the
top anchors, giving them a higher value of 13
px (3) to get that all round feel to it.

Step 2

Once you’ve adjusted the shape, give it a 4 px outline (#6B94A8) and then align the
two to the right side of the previously created icon, leaving a gap of 40 px between them.

Step 3

Add the little
stick underneath the ice cream by creating a 6 x 22 px rounded rectangle with a 3 px Corner Radius. Color the shape using #D9F0F9 (1), and then give
it an outline of 4 px (#6B94A8) (2).

Position the stick underneath the icon so that
the fill section overlaps the bottom outline of the ice cream.

Step 4

Add little details to the stick such as the dot-like
sprinkles (#6B94A8), and the 6 x 4 px subtle
shadow that we applied to all the other icons.

Step 5

Since this icon is a double-stick ice cream, we
can now use the elements that we have created until this point and use them to
create the second section.

To do that, simply select all the elements, and then
drag to the right while holding down Alt
(to duplicate) and Shift (to
drag in a straight line). Make sure that you have Pixel Preview turned on (Control-Alt-Y)
so that you can make sure the main outlines of the two overlap.

Step 6

Since we want the fill sections of the two ice
cream segments to be glued together, we will have to send both the outlines and
the sticks to the back by selecting them and then right click > Arrange > Send to Back.

Step 7

Start adding all the little details such as the all-around
highlights, the diagonal ones and finally the star-shaped ones.

Step 8

Finally add a nice-looking linear gradient using
the following values:

• Left color:
  #00FF00
• Right color:
  #D4145A
• Angle:
  -90
• Blending Mode:
  Multiply
• Opacity:
  10%

9. Creating the
Sixth and Last Icon

Step 1

Move on to the
last layer, the biscuit one, and using the Rounded
Rectangle Tool create a 52 x 112 px shape
with a Corner Radius of 4 px.

Color the object using #F4D5BD
and then apply an Offset Path effect
of 4 px to give it an outline (#806347).

Once you have both elements created, position
them towards the right side of the previously created icon, leaving a 28 px gap between them.

Step 2

Add the all-round highlight now, since we will
have a bunch of elements that will end up overlapping this part of the icon.
Use white (#FFFFFF) for the color, and set the Blending
Mode to Soft Light while keeping
the Opacity level at about 60%.

Step 3

Grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool and create a
smaller 52 x 56 px object with a 4px Corner Radius which we will color
using #C4976E.

Then, select the
shape and apply an Offset Path effect
of 4 px to it, and color the
resulting outline using #806347.

Horizontal Center
Align the two to the larger outline that we created
a few moments ago, making sure to position them towards its bottom.

Step 4

Start working your way through the details by
creating a bunch of 4 x 4 px circles
(#806347) (2), then adding the all-round highlight (3), then the diagonal one
(4), the star-shaped one (5), and finally a subtle shadow (6).

Step 5

As you've probably got used to by now, we will
finish off the icon by adding a sweet linear gradient on top of it. To get it
right, use the following values:

• Left color:
  #C7B299
• Right color:
  #C1272D
• Angle:
  -90
• Blending Mode:
  Hard Light
• Opacity:
  20%

That's It!

I hope you enjoyed this delicious treat and learned something new along the way.

Feel free to leave your versions in the forum section, since I always look forward to seeing what you come up with. Thanks for your attention, and have a good one!