Premium Tutorial: Digital Watch

This Adobe Illustrator tutorial will teach you how to draw a vector digital watch from scratch. It covers step by step on drawing the clock face, plastic watch strap, digital numbers and and glow in the dark effect. I will show you some simple and quick drawing techniques to achieve this final result. It will be an exciting tutorial for anyone who wants to master on drawing realistic objects in Illustrator.

Difficulty: Intermediate
Requirements: Adobe Illustrator

What will you get?

• Instant download of PDF e-book (58 steps)
• Detailed step by step tutorial
• Learn to draw a vector digital watch from scratch
• Comes with Ai file for easy reference

Tutorial Preview:

1. Open up a new document (Ctrl+N) and set the dimensions to 800x600 px.

2. First, go to Edit > Preferences (Ctrl + K) > Guides & Grid and in the Gridline every box type 100 px, and in the Subdivisions type 10. Then, make sure Grid is visible (Ctrl+"). Rulers must also be visible, and if they are not, hit Ctrl+R. Create a new layer and name it "Guides". It will be easier for you during the tutorial, because you can easily show or hide the guides (as necessary). Now, drag a horizontal and vertical guide as shown on the image below. To make the guides (or object) snap to the points or the grids, turn on Snap to Point (Alt+Ctrl+") and Snap to Grid (Shift+Ctrl+"). It's also suggested to turn on Smart Guides: View > Smart Guides. To switch them on and off use Ctrl+U.

3. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and click on the place where two guides intersect. To help you find the center point, you can use the Smart Guide option (View >Smart Guides). Now draw a circle (hold Shift to constrain the proportions) and go to the gradient panel (Ctrl + F9) to add a gradient color (3 gradient stops). From left to right set the next colors: for the first R:20 G:20 B:20, for the second one R:40 G:40 B:40, and for the third one R:60 G:60 B:60.

4. Select the previous object and scale it down proportionally by selecting Object > Path > Offset Path and in the Offset box type -7 px. Select the resized object and color it with different gradient colors (4 gradient stops). For that object, use the following colors: R:150 G:150 B:150, R:100 G:100 B:100, R:50 G:50 B:50, R:150 G:150 B:150.

5. You will need to create another circle (smaller than the previous one), so you will be using the Offset Path command here again. Select the object you have just created and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Now type -23 px in the Offset box. Once done, in the Gradient Panel choose another gradient (4 stops). You can choose the following colors here: R:80 G:80 B:80, R:40 G:40 B:40, R:60 G:60 B:60, R:40 G:40 B:40.

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