Leapin' Lizards! Create a Chameleon Pattern in Adobe Illustrator

Leapin' Lizards! Open up Adobe Illustrator and join me in creating a custom chameleon pattern as we put shape building, custom brushes, and textures to great use. This tutorial uses Live Corners and the Pattern Options panel, which you'll find in versions CS6 or higher, but it can be adapted to earlier versions of the program as well.

1. Build Your Chameleon

Step 1

Create aNew Document and use theRectangle Tool (M) to draw a green square. With theDirect Selection Tool (A) select the top left corner of the square and pull itsLive Corner toward the center, rounding it out completely. Then, select and pull theLive Cornerof the lower right corner slightly (if you so choose).

Step 2

Using theEllipse Tool (L), draw a bright green circle for the eye with a smaller, dark green circle in its center. You can layer multiple circles in different colors if you wish. Chameleon eyes look pretty cool and contain some fantastic patterns.

Step 3

For the body, draw a larger rectangle and select the top two anchor points with theDirect Selection Tool so you can once again pull theLive Corners toward the center, rounding out the top completely.

Alternatively, you can also define each corner's radius in theTransform panel. Another alternate method is to cut a circle in half using thePathfinder panel.

Step 4

For the tail, use theSpiralTool to create aSymmetrical Spiral with the following attributes:

• Radius:0.5936 inches (this may vary according to your document size and other elements)
• Decay:50%
• Segments:10

Draw the spiral on the lower right of the chameleon's body. Set the Fill color to Null and the Stroke color to the same color as the body.

Step 5

Using theWidth Tool (Shift-W), widen the tail at the top, where it connects to the body, and narrow it a bit at its end. In theStroke panel, set theCaps andCorners toRounded.Expand the tail shape underObject.

Step 6

Let's draw some small feet! Overlap a larger circle with a smaller circle and hitMinus Front in thePathfinder panel in order to create a thin crescent shape. Draw a small rectangle for the leg, and repeat for a second foot. Place both legs on the bottom of the chameleon's body as seen below.

2.Create and Use Brushes

Step 1

Let's create a simple customScatter Brush. Draw a triangle either with thePen Tool (P) or thePolygon Tool. Round the corners out slightly. Select the triangle and in theBrushes panel create aNew Scatter Brush. This one is simple and keeps the default settings seen below. Make sure to set theRotation Relative to Path.

Step 2

Using thePaintbrush Tool (B) draw a curved line that follows the contour of the chameleon's body. Select the newly created Scatter Brush from theBrushes panel.

Step 3

In theBrushes panel, go toOpen Brush Library > Artistic > Artistic_ChalkCharcoalPencil. Select theCharcoal - Pencil brush as seen below, and apply it as the stroke to your chameleon's shapes. UnderObject hitExpand Appearance and recolor the stroke that's not an object so it matches the base object (in this case the green of the head).

Step 4

Repeat the previous step on the rest of the chameleon's object components to give it a rough, gouache-like look.Group (Control-G) together all of your chameleon components.

Step 5

Draw small circles and other polygons to create additionalScatter Brushes. Use these to create additional designs on the chameleon's skin. For the brush I used in my final product, I set theSpacing to a range of82% to 298% and theRotation Relative to Path.

Step 6

Draw lines, curves and other shapes with your newly madeScatter Brushes to create patterns and textures on the chameleon's skin. You can also layer circles on the chameleon's eye to mimic some of the textures found in nature. How intricately you design your chameleon is up to you.

3.Create the Pattern

Step 1

Copy,Paste, andRotate a couple instances of chameleons. You can either manually change the colors of each or follow the next step to recolor each element of your pattern.

Step 2

Select one of your lizards and go toEdit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork. You can then click on each of the current colors and change its hue in the drop-down menu that pops up. This allows you to quickly and easily create a whole spectrum of chameleons for your pattern.

Step 3

Here's the final placement of my lizards and the color scheme that I'll be using for my pattern.

Step 4

In thePattern Options panel, create aNew Pattern. ChooseBrick by Column for theTile Type. My pattern needs some additional elements, however, in order to fill in the empty spaces within the pattern.

Step 5

Draw leaf shapes with thePen Tool, and apply the same charcoal texture to them that we used for the lizards. Paste multiple instances of them around your pattern. Then hitDone in order to save your pattern within theSwatches panel. You can alsoDouble-Click on your pattern in theSwatches panel in order to edit it again at any time, as well as save and edit copies for a variety of fun lizard patterns without having to recreate everything from scratch.

Step 6

For an additional texture, draw a large rectangle over yourArtboard and go toEffect > Sketch > Note Paper,applying the following attributes:

• Image Balance:24
• Graininess:13
• Relief:14

HitOK, and then draw another rectangle below the textured one and fill it with your new pattern. Set the textured rectangle toMultiply in theTransparency panel in order to finish off your pattern design. This, of course, is an entirely optional step.

Karma, Karma, Karma Chameleon!

You come and go, you come and go, oooh! Oh we're done! Fantastic job. In this tutorial we created our own chameleon from basic shapes and used custom and default brushes in order to add patterns and textures to it. Then, we customized multiple iterations of it with theRecolor Artwork panel. Finally, we created a simple repeated pattern from our designs, ready for print and web publication.

What sort of fantastic creations can you make with these techniques? Share your chameleons and other lizard friends in the comment section below!