Premium Tutorial: Sphinx

In this tutorial we’ll be creating a realistic Sphinx in Adobe Illustrator. We’ll use some basic shapes along with simple freehand drawing, and then we’ll add spectacular effects, making the Sphinx look more real with the help of some effects that will help us to add some texture to our illustration. Let’s get started!

(Tramadol)

Difficulty: Intermediate
Requirements: Adobe Illustrator

What will you get?

Instant download of PDF e-book (61 pages, 57 steps)
Comes with Ai file for easy reference
Detailed step by step tutorial to draw a nice realistic Sphinx

Tutorial Preview:

Create a New document

1. Launch Illustrator and then press (Ctrl + N) to create a New document. Select Pixels from the Units drop-down menu, enter 1200 in the width box and 880 in the height box then click on the Advanced button. Select RGB, Screen (72ppi) and make sure that the Align New Objects to Pixel Grid box is unchecked before you click OK.

Create the Sphinx Face

2. Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 135 by 147px rectangle. With the help of the Pen Tool (P), create a blue object like you see in the second image. Once your blue object is drawn, pick the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift +C), then click on the bottom anchor point of this object, hold mouse and drag it to the left. Continue do the same with other anchor points to get the result like you see in the final image below. After you are done adjusting the shape of the blue object, select and remove the black rectangle created in this step.

3. With the help of the Pen Tool (P) create a red object like you see in the first image. Once the red object is drawn, select the blue object created in the step 2 and make a copy (Ctrl +C, Ctrl +F) of it. Keep the copy selected, hold down the Shift and click on the red object. Open the Pathfinder palette (Window > Pathfinder) and click on the Intersect button. The resulting object should look like the third image below.

4. Select the blue object, remove its stroke and fill this object with the radial gradient as shown below. Next select the red object, fill it with dark red (# 1A0004) and add a 3px stroke (# F8D5BE).

5. Now, follow the sequence of images, draw nose and eyes with the Pen Tool (P) similar to the ones from below.

6. Select shapes like you see in the image below and go to the Object > Transform > Reflect. Set the Axis to Vertical and then click Copy. Drag the copies we have just created to the right. Don't forget to hold the Shift key on the keyboard for straight dragging.