Tutorial: How to make a bird face in Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is an awesome program that lets you draw "Vector Graphics" which are really awesome due to the fact that resizing them doesn't change their quality.

Vector Graphics is usually used in:

• Brochures, advertisements, etc..
• Infographics
• Videos 
• Cartoons and more

So, today's tutorial is on how to draw a bird's face. It won't be a detailed one, just basic enough to get beginners to grasp the basics of Adobe Illustrator (I have version CS5, but I believe this tutorial will work with any version).

This is how it will look like in the end ;)

ARE YOU READY?! :D

1.Open Illustrator and create a new file with ,if you want, equal width and height.
In this tutorial we'll make it 600x600 to get the 1:1 ratio, helps when uploading to Instagram or Facebook Profile pics ;)

2. Create a new layer, Above Layer1

3. While Layer1 is activated, Make a new rectangle (M) and press on the left upper corner.

4. Now make its width and height equal to that of the whole canvas.

5. Now give it a color.
(Bright color is sometimes preferred) to act as a background. This helps because it makes your drawings stand out easily instead of a white background.

6.Lock layer 1.
Lock layer1 by clicking on the empty box next to the eye.

7. Make an ellipse.
Make an ellipse (L) and give it a color. You can use the colors shown above.

8. Make a new layer for the eyes.
Double click on Layer 2 and call it "face", then make a new layer for the eyes. This helps in case you wanted more than one expression!

 9. Create the eyes!

9.1 Make a white ellipse (L).
We will cute into two halves to make the eyes!

9.2 Choose the Pen tool (P).

9.3 Click on the left side of the Circle to create a vector point.
Make the vector on the same line as the center of the circle. a guide line will show up to indicate this.

9.4 Click on the opposite side to make a line that cuts through the center.

9.5 Choose the Selection tool!
 Select both objects (The circle and the line)

 9.6 Go to the pathfinder menu and choose Divide.
This will divide the circle into two pieces where the line goes through. Creating two new objects (Two halves of a circle)

9.7 Ungroup the object.
This is how the object will look like. After using the division tool from the pathfinder menu we divided the Circle into two halves, but the program still work with it as on. So we ungroup it to with each half separately. We do this by selecting it then Pressing (CTRL+SHIFT+G).

As you can see we divided them.

 9.8 Flip the upper half.
Now we need to flip the upper half to make it identical to the lower one.

9.9 Now choose the rotate tool.

9.9 Rotate the upper half.
While holding SHIFT we press the left mouse button and rotate it.

Note: Pressing shift makes sure that selected object is in a straight line.

Now we have this shape! yaaaah!!!

10. Make the pupil.
Now we make the pupil.. What is an eye with out a pupil?.
Make a black circle and put it inside the shape.

11.1 Make a triangle.
Press and hold the ellipse tool and select the Star tool.

11.2 Make them 3 points instead of five.
 This will make the Triangle shape, make it white

12. Put the Triangle over the pupil.

13. Now select them all. 
Select the pupil and the triangle. if you select the eye just hold SHIFT and click it to unselect it.

14. Use the division from the pathfinder.
Do the same thing we did with the White circle (Steps 9.1~10).

15. Now can color it freely! 

This is how it looks like now! :)

16. Making the BEAK!!! 
Create a new layer above the eyes layer and call it the beak, Don't forget to lock the rest of the layers.

16.1 First point.

Choose the pen tool and place the first point beneath the right eye. 

16.2 Second point.

Now place the second point slightly out of the circle and while holding the mouse button move to the left to give it a slight curve.

16.3 Third point.

Now make another point under the left eye and on the same level with the first point. Keep holding the mouse button and move upwards.

16.4 Connecting Third point with the first.

Now click on the third point again to get rid of the handle and click on the first point to connect the third point with the first.

16.5 Making the nostrils (If that's what they're cold xD ) Double Click on the Fill and choose a stronger color than that we used with the beak.

16.5 Creating the ellipse.

Make the ellipse a bit elongated and copy it and rotate it to the left.

The one on the right could be straight or a bit tilted to the right.

16.5 Creating the inside.

Lets give it more depth. Choose the ellipse, copy it and paste the copy exactly on the original one. Then click on one of the corners and hold SHIFT+ALT to make it smaller while keeping the shape.

16.5 Coloring.
Now that we have created it. move it to the left so that it touches the outer ellipse on the side. Give it an even darker color..

Do the same thing to the other one.

This is how it will look like!.

Refining the edges of the nose.Choose the direct selection tool then click the upper left corner point like shown.

Now make sure you only selected that point.. click on the shown button to give it a less pointy look.

This is how it will look like.

 17. Eyebrows.
Now lock the beak and go back to the eye layer to make the eyebrows. Create a wide ellipse and make it's color darker than the skin.

Using the direct selection tool. Click on the point below and raise it up.

This is how it will look like.

Copy it and paste it on the other eye to make it look like this. :D

18.1 SHADING!!!! 
Lets do some shading to give it a better look.. it looks totally flat right now! 

Lock all the layers except the beak. Then using the pen tool create a point outside the beak and do move it to the other side like the picture above.. less points is preferred though ;)

Using the same methods as before.. divide it and then ungroup it.
Give the upper half a brighter color.

Just like this. You will notice that the nostrils are gone.. it's ok don't panic!! just click on the upper half and press CTRL+SHIFT+[  ("[" is the button to the right of the letter P).

 This is it.. we're done with the beak!!

 18.2 Shading the face.
Now we shade the face! Lock all the layers except the face layer.

Copy the face and paste it.

Copy the new copy and move to the middle of the original. make sure that you put exactly on top of the original.. Then click it and while holding SHIFT move it up a bit.

 Using the direct selection tool choose the lower point and move it up.

You can move it slightly to the left.. depending on the light source (I kinda suck at this xD ).

Now select the copy and the original and divide them from the pathfinder menu.. you will end up with Three new parts. ungroup the object and delete the uppermost part.

Choose the lower part and give it some darker color.

19. BADASS HAIR!! 
What is a bird without a badass hair to show-off? 

 Make this shape with the pen tool.

Copy it and paste a couple of times to make it look like this.

 This is how it looks like in the end! pretty cool huh? ;)
 

 20. Add some cool background.
Add a new layer above the lowest layer and call it "background". Lock all the other layers.

 Make an ellipse give it a color.

Now just like we did with the triangle when we created the pupil ( Step 10 ) use the same way to make a triangle. give it some color and put it above the background circle.. make sure it aligns with the center of the circle. Put it in its own layer above this layer.

 Now choose the triangle and the circle and choose the rotate tool (R), Then while holding alt click on the middle of the two objects ( it will look kind of yellow-ish)

 put the angle at 20 degree, or any suitable amount, then click copy. You can tick Preview to be able to see where the new shape will be.
Note: Negative numbers rotate to the left, positive numbers rotate to the right. 
After you pressed copy press CTRL+D to copy again.. keep doing it until they triangles meet.

 Now lock the triangles layer. and click on the arrow next to the circle layer to expand it.

This is how it will look like.

 Select ALL the paths but one. DELETE THEM.

 This is how it will look like in the end.

 To export it go to File>Export..

PHEEW!!! We're finally done.. glad I was able to finish this, Hope you enjoy it

If you liked this tutorial, Please share it with your friends!

Salah Al-Dhaferi