Drawing circles in Illustrator is like tracing back the ancient art of the wheel. If you’ve ever used a wheel in your life, you know how mesmerizing it is to watch its movements and how it can give an unexpected dynamism to any task. But it can sometimes feel like a daunting task to draw a perfect circle using Illustrator. Fortunately, creating a circle with this program is as easy as pie!
Follow these simple steps and you’ll be creating awesome circles in no time.
1. Select the Ellipse Tool
The Ellipse Tool is located at the top of the toolbar. It sat open wide, just like a gaping mouth ready to gobble up your ideas. Click on it and it will expand to reveal a circle-drawing tool.
2. Draw a Perfect Circle
In Illustrator, drawing a perfect circle is ridiculously simple. All you need to do is hold down the Alt/Option key and click and drag your mouse to create a perfect circle. As you drag the mouse, you’ll see that it creates the shape of a circle. When you’re done, release the mouse button and you’ll have a perfect circle.
3. Draw an Irregular Circle
If you don’t need a perfect circle, you can draw an irregular, wobbly circle without the help of Alt/Option key. All you need to do is select the Ellipse Tool, click and drag your mouse to draw the circle and release the mouse button when it’s done.
4. Resize the Circle
Once you’ve created your circle, you can resize it to your desired size. To do this, just click and drag on any of the corner handles. Hold down the shift key and drag the corner handle to make the circle perfectly symmetrical. You can also hold down the Alt/Option key and resize the circle from the center point.
5. Rotate the Circle
Another neat trick you can use to spruce up your circle is to rotate it. You can do this in just a few clicks. Simply select the circle, click- and-drag on the rotation handle to rotate the circle in any direction. You can also hold down the Shift key and rotate in increments of 45 or 90 degrees.
6. Edit the Circle
Finally, if you need to, you can also edit your circle. To do this, simply select the circle and use the Selection tool to move it, resize it, rotate it, skew it, or even distort it. You can also use the Pathfinder tool to add multiple circles together to form a complex shape.
Drawing circles in Illustrator can seem a bit daunting, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll notice how effortless and fun it can be. These simple tips will help you draw perfect circles in no time – the possibilities are truly endless!
7. Colorize the Circle
Once you’ve drawn your perfect circle, you can colorize it in no time! Choose a color from the color palette or create a custom color using the Color Picker tool. You can also use the Live Paint Bucket or Live Paint Gradient to colorize your circle.
8. Artistic Brushes
If you’re looking to add some pizzazz to your circles, then you can use the Brush Tool. There are numerous brushes to choose from and you can customize them to create something truly unique. You can play around with the size, angle, and shape of the brush and make your circle look like it was hand-drawn!
9. Lighting Effects
Another cool way to make your Illustrator circles stand out is to use the Lighting Effects Tool. This tool lets you create light sources and add shadows to your circle to give it a more dynamic feel. You can also adjust the angle, color, intensity, and direction of the light source to create amazing lighting effects on your circle.
10. Export the Circle
Once you’re done creating your perfect circle, you can export it to a variety of file formats, including JPEG, PNG, or PDF. You can also save the file to your Illustrator library, giving you easy access to the circle whenever you need it!
