How to Create Flat Design Easter Icons in Adobe Illustrator

Easter is a lovely spring holiday, which is
well known for its tradition of painting eggs. It's usually associated with
gentle, vivid colors and a spring mood. In this tutorial, we’ll go through a
descriptive process of creating of flat Easter icons, using basic shapes, the
Pathfinder panel and some of the new Adobe Illustrator tools.

Apart from making Easter icons, these techniques
can be used to create any type of flat icons or flat banners as well. You can
find a lot of examples of similar flat graphics throughout Envato Market for
more inspiration.

1. Make Festive Easter Egg Icons

Step 1

Let’s start by making the base of the egg.
Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and make a
70 x 70 px circle. Select its side anchor points with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and drag them down a bit, making the
bottom of the shape bulged. Then select the upper anchor point and drag it up,
making the top of the egg pointed.

Step 2

We’ll be using a bright spring palette with
gentle colors that you can pick up directly from the screenshot below with the Eyedropper Tool (I) while holding the Shift key.

Fill the base of the egg with yellow and
keep a copy in back (Control-C > Control-B), as we may
need it later.

Now let’s depict the decorative ornament above the egg. Take the Rectangle Tool
(M) and make a 70 x 15 px blue shape.

Step 3

Take the Line Segment Tool (\), hold Shift
and make a horizontal shape with pink Stroke
of 3 pt Stroke Weight.

Let’s align all the shapes to the egg. Select everything (Control-A) and click
the egg while holding Alt in order
to make it a Key Object (you
will see a thick selection around it). Head to the Align panel and click Horizontal
Align Center.

Step 4

Now let’s modify the pink line. Select it
and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Set the Size to 5 px, Ridges per segment to 7
and Points to Smooth.

Object
> Expand the shape to apply the effect.

Step 5

Add another rectangle to the bottom of the
egg and fill it with green color. Now let’s delete those parts of the
rectangles outside the egg. We’ll be using one of the new Adobe Illustrator
tools: the Shaper Tool (Shift-N). Take
the Shaper Tool (Shift-N) and just
scribble above the piece that you want to delete. Repeat the same with other unwanted parts.

If you’re working with earlier versions of
Adobe Illustrator, try using the Shape
Builder Tool (Shift-M) instead. It works almost the same—just select
everything and click the unwanted pieces while holding Alt.

We will also try another way of hiding the
unneeded parts a few steps later, when we’ll be making another egg.

Step 6

Select the modified egg and Object > Expand it. Then select the
yellow middle of the egg together with the pink zigzagged line and Divide them in the Pathfinder panel, breaking the shape into two equal
halves.

Step 7

Fill the upper piece of the divided shape
in a nice pink color. Take the Ellipse
Tool (L) and make a 5 x 5 px
circle. Hold Alt-Shift and drag the
circle to the right, creating a couple of copies.

Step 8

Now that the basic view of the egg is ready,
let’s add a flat-style shadow, covering one half of the egg. Group (Control-G) all parts of the egg,
Copy and Paste in Front (Control-C > Control-F). Keeping the copy
selected, Unite it in the Pathfinder, merging it into one
silhouette.

Draw a vertical line across the egg, using
the Line Segment Tool (\). Align the
line to the egg silhouette, making the egg a Key Object.

Keeping the line and the egg silhouette
selected, Divide them in the Pathfinder.

Delete one of the pieces and switch the
remaining half to Multiply mode,
making it semi-transparent.

Step 9

Now let’s make another egg!

We already have a base, as we’ve made a
copy of it in the very first step. Move it aside and fill with orange color. Add
decorative elements on top and let’s see another way in which we can hide the
unneeded pieces. Duplicate the basic
shape once again (Control-C >
Control-F) and Bring it to Front (Shift-Control-]).

Select all the elements, right click and Make Clipping Mask. Here you have it!

Step 10

Let’s add a few more decorative elements to
the egg. Make two 5 x 5 px circles
above the yellow stripe of the egg, placing them closer to the edges. Select
both circles and either use the Blend
Tool (W) or go to Object > Blend
> Make. Then open the Blend
Options window (Object > Blend
> Blend Options) and set the Spacing
to Specified Steps with a value of 3.

Object
> Expand the Blend group and add more circles in
the upper part of the egg, filling them with yellow color.

Step 11

When you’re satisfied with the result, add a
semi-transparent flat shadow to one half of the egg.

Combine the eggs. Use the Rounded Rectangle Tool to make a
light-green background for our icon.

Make a square with the Rectangle Tool (M) and rotate it by 45 degrees with the Selection
Tool (V) while holding Shift.

Fill the rectangle with linear gradient
from light-green to white and switch it to Multiply
Blending Mode, making a semi-transparent long shadow.

Step 12

Duplicate the light-green background and
place the shadow between the copies. Use a Clipping
Mask to hide the unwanted piece of the long shadow.

Great! Our first icon is ready! Let’s move
on to the next one.

2. Make a Cute Bunny Icon

Step 1

Make a 70 x 70
px grey circle for the bunny’s head. Move the side anchor points
down a bit with the Direct Selection
Tool (A) to make the head slightly squashed.

Now let’s form the ears. Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and make a 15 x 50 px oval. Move its side anchor
points up a bit, making the top of the ear wider. Keeping the shape selected,
go to Object > Path > Offset Path
and set the Offset value to -5 px, leaving all other options as
default. This way we create a smaller shape for the inner part of the ear.

Step 2

Fill the inner part of the year with pink
color, group both parts of the ear and Send
to Back (Shift-Control-[). Double-click the Rotate Tool (R) to open the options window and set the Rotate Angle value to -20 degrees.

Step 3

Use the Reflect Tool (O) to flip the ear over the Vertical Axis and click Copy
to form the second ear on the opposite side of the head. You can group both
ears and Align them to the head,
making the whole set perfectly centered.

Squash the head base a bit more.

Step 4

Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to form a pair of dark glossy eyes with white
highlights and a circle for the nose. Take the Scissors Tool (C) and click both side anchor points of the nose in
order to split the shape into two halves.

Step 5

Delete the upper half and turn the
remaining part into a cute bunny nose. Press X to swap Fill and Stroke colors. Set the Stroke Weight to 2 px
and change the Variable Width Profile
in the control panel on top. Create two copies of the nose and make them
somewhat thinner and lighter, forming a mouth as shown in the screenshot below.

Step 6

Let’s finish up with our bunny by adding
tiny whiskers to his head. Make a 9 px
horizontal stroke of 1 pt, using the
Line Segment Tool (\). Rotate the
whiskers a bit and add them to both sides of the face.

Step 7

Add a flat shadow to one half of the
bunny’s head, as we did previously. Form a rounded rectangle for the background
and create a semi-transparent long shadow to finish up with the icon. 

If you feel any difficulty in adding a long shadow to a complex object, check out the following tutorial from Part 7, Step 1 and onwards in order to find out how to give our long shadow the desired shape.

• 
  Icon Design
  
  
  How to Create a Set of Flat Animal Icons in Adobe Illustrator
  
  
  Yulia Sokolova

There you
have it! Let’s move to the next icon!

3. Make a Cute Chicken Icon

Step 1

This time we’ll depict a funny little
chicken popping out of the egg. First of all, make a striped egg with a few stripes
or other decorative elements to your liking, using the techniques that we’ve
learned in previous steps.

We need to remove the top part of the egg,
creating a cracked edge. Keep a copy of the egg’s base somewhere in the bottom, because we will need it later to form our chicken.

Make a horizontal line across the egg and
apply Effect > Distort &
Transform > Zig Zag. Set the Size
to 4 px, Ridges per segment to 7
and Points to Corner in order to
make the cracked edges sharp.

Step 2

Object
> Expand the zigzagged line and position it
across the egg, in the center of it. Copy the blue base of the egg, Paste
in Front (Control-C > Control-F) and Bring it all the way to
Front (Shift-Control-]), placing it on top of all the elements.

Select the zigzag and the egg base and Divide them in Pathfinder. Delete the upper part of the divided shape.

Finally, select everything, right click and Make Clipping Mask. Great! The cracked
piece of the egg is ready. Let’s put a chicken into it.

Step 3

Reveal the copy of the egg base that we’ve
created previously and fill it with gentle yellow color for the chicken’s body.
Shrink the shape to 60 x 75 px, making
it smaller. Select the side anchor points with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and drag them up a bit, making the
chicken rounder.

Step 4

Take the Polygon Tool and single-click
anywhere on the Artboard to open the pop-up options window. Make a 15 x 10 px triangle for the beak and fill
it with orange color.

Combine two triangles to form a beak and
squash them to form the proper shape. Don’t forget to add a pair of shiny eyes.
We can copy them from our bunny icon.

Step 5

Add a couple of oval wings, using the Ellipse Tool (L). Place the copy of the
chicken’s body above the wings and Make
Clipping Mask to hide the unneeded elements inside the mask.

Step 6

Finish up with the icon by adding all the
necessary elements like shadows and background. Awesome!

Let’s move on to our last icon and finish
our Easter set!

4. Make a Gift Box Icon

Step 1

Let’s start shaping our box from a 60 x 40 px green rectangle. Form a top of the box from a 65 x 15 px orange rectangle.

Step 2

Now let’s create a ribbon across the box.
Select both parts of the box and remember the mutual height of the shapes. You can find it in the Transform
panel. In our case, it is 55 px.
Make a blue ribbon of 5 x 55 px size,
placing it right in the center of the box. Add a smaller 5 x 15 px piece of ribbon at the top of the box, filling it with
darker blue color.

Step 3

Use the Pencil Tool (N) to make a bow with blue Stroke of 2 pt Weight.

Step 4

Let’s decorate our box with some ornament
or pattern. Copy the base of the box
and Paste it in Front (Control-C > Control-F). 

Head to the Swatches panel, open the Swatch Libraries menu > Patterns > Basic
Graphics > Basic Graphics_Lines. Find the 10 lpi 30% swatch and click to apply a pattern with horizontal lines.

Step 5

Keeping the textured shape selected, double-click the Rotate Tool (R) and set the Angle
to 45 degrees. Deselect the Transform Objects checkbox and click OK, changing the direction of
the stripes.

Step 6

Let’s change the color of the stripes to
make them match our overall palette. Double-click
the applied pattern in the Swatches
panel to isolate it in the Pattern Mode.
Apply a light-green color to the Strokes
in the Color panel and click Done in the upper part of the working
area.

Step 7

Finish up with the icon by adding depth
with the help of the shadows and simple background.

Our Set of Icons Is Finished! Happy Easter!

Congratulations! We’ve done a great job, learning how to use the Shaper Tool and how to use work with basic shapes and the Pathfinder
panel. We can use these simple techniques to expand our set and create
more festive flat Easter icons!