Premium Tutorial: Fun & Cute Polaroid Robot

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a Polaroid robot illustration for my past t-shirt graphic project. Drawing this illustration is pretty easy. I am not going to use a lot of gradient so the graphic is easier to print on t-shirt. You just need to know the basic of using pen, shapes, and pathfinder, the rest are just patience and happy thought. Please enjoy~

(rentalry.com)

Difficulty: Intermediate
Requirements: Adobe Illustrator

What will you get?

• Instant download of PDF e-book
• Detailed step by step tutorial
• Learn the techniques to draw a robot in illustrator
• Comes with Ai file for easy reference

Tutorial Preview:

1. Before we begin, first, create a new document in CMYK color mode. Turn on Smart Guides (Ctrl/Command + U). Then, create a new layer, name it Body. Please make a habit to always name your layer. Draw a Rounded Rectangle, color it with maroon, #BA524E, and give it 1.5 px black stroke. You can set the size and corner radius of the rectangle by clicking anywhere in the artboard before you start to draw. Then, align the stroke to outside; you can do it from the stroke option at action bar at the top window.

2. Now, let's create the shadow. Select and clone previously rounded rectangle (Ctrl/Command + C then Ctrl/Command + F). Draw another rectangle and put it in the left side of the previous clone rounded rectangle. Color it with darker maroon, mine is #9D4B46.

3. Select both the new rectangle and the clone one, then click Intersect in Pathfinder (Shift+ Ctrl/Command + F9) to intersect shape area. Clone the new shape and flip it horizontally. By clicking Shift and using Smart Guides, put it neatly on the right side of the body. You will get a shape like in screenshot below. In this tutorial, I am going to use this trick a lot to create the shadows and highlights of our robot.

4. Let's draw the analog meter for the droid. Draw a black circle, give it yellow stroke, and align the stroke to outside. Draw a plus shape by using Line Segment Tool, color it light grey and put it inside the black circle. Draw a little maroon rounded rectangle, rotate it a bit then put it neatly as the meter pointer. Make another one for the right side of the body.

5. Making the lens is pretty easy. First, you need to draw a black circle, give it grey stroke. Then clone it. Resize it a bit by holding Ctrl/Command + Shift + Alt/Option then drag the corner. By doing so, you will keep the clone circle proportional and still in the center. Then fill it with grey, #636363. Then, using the same trick, create another circles. Repeat until you get the full lens shape. Sometimes you just need to keep the fill color empty and use only the stroke color. Finally, add simple light reflections for the details.

6. Draw two rounded rectangles, the first one is short and the second is longer. Before you draw, set the corner radius first, mine is about 9 px. Color the short one with yellow, #FFCC67, and give it darker maroon stroke, #9D4B46. Then fill the second longer one with black.

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