Premium Tutorial: Wine Barrel

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a wine barrel using Adobe Illustrator. For beginners, you can create the main shapes using the basic tools along with vector shape building techniques. As you continue, you will learn how to add shades, highlights and subtle textures with the help of Transparency Palette, a bunch of gradients, some effects and blending techniques. Let’s have a good time while reading the tutorial and creating your own outstanding artworks!

Difficulty: Intermediate
Requirements: Adobe Illustrator

What will you get?

Instant download of PDF e-book (41 pages, 70 steps)
Comes with Ai file for easy reference
Detailed step by step tutorial to draw a nice wine barrel

Tutorial Preview:

Create a New Document

1. Press (Ctrl + N) to create a new document. Select Pixels from the Units drop-down menu. Enter 800 in the width box and 800 in the height box and then click on the Advanced button. Select RGB and Screen (72ppi).

Create the Wine Barrel

2. Start by drawing a 280px by 428px ellipse using the Ellipse Tool (L). Keep the ellipse selected and go to the Object > Transform > Rotate. In the Rotate box, enter a 16 degrees Angle and click OK. Next, go to the Object > Transform > Scale. In the Scale box, select Uniform and enter 66, and then click Copy. Finally, move the duplicate 342px to the right and move it 90px up.

Create the Staves

3. Pick the Pen Tool (P) and use this tool to draw shapes as you see in the images below. Once your shapes are drawn, reselect them and send them to back (Ctrl +Shift +Left Square Bracket). Next, select and remove the smaller ellipse. Once done, your artwork should look like the fifth image shown below.

4. Now select the remaining ellipse and go to the Object > Transform > Scale. Select Uniform and enter 85 in the Scale letter box and then click Copy. Next, move the duplicate 4px down and move it 5px to the left. While the newly created ellipse is selected, go to the Object > Transform > Scale. Enter 95 in the letter box and then click Copy. Move the duplicate 7px up and move it 19px to the right.

5. Select and duplicate (Ctrl +C, Ctrl +F) the medium ellipse once. While the duplicate is selected, hold down the Shift and click on the smaller ellipse. Next, open the Pathfinder Palette (Window > Pathfinder) and then click on the Minus Front button. Select the remaining medium ellipse and the large ellipse and then click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder Palette.