How to Draw Store Shelves in Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a graphics editing program that designers and others use to make countless kinds of images, including logos, brands, fashion designs, web comics, and more. If you need to illustrate a store shelf, Illustrator has a straightforward way to make the image: by using the shape tool, the arranging effect, and direct selection, you can make a realistic illustration of store shelves in less than half an hour.
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Instructions
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Visit the Easy Rack web page that has a sample of what store shelves look like. Observe the perspective for use in your own illustration.
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Open Illustrator and choose a CMYK basic document. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key, or black, and is the easiest fundamental color set to work with for printing and web applications. Choose a name for your new file, such as "store shelf" and press OK.
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Note the tool bar on the left side of the art board, the canvas upon which you're going to draw a shelf. Click the rectangle icon and draw a wide rectangle on the art board by clicking and holding down the cursor at a point on the art board and dragging to the left or right.
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Select the Direct Selection icon in the tool bar. The Direct selection icon looks like a white cursor. Now click to the top right corner of the rectangle. Press and hold the down-arrow key and note how the right corner slides downward. Repeat this process for the bottom-right corner, except slide the corner upward. This creates a three dimensional effect, as though the shelf is receding into the distance.
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Click the rectangle icon again and create a rectangle that is the same width as the original rectangle you made but much shorter.
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Click the Direct Selection icon and hold down the shift button while selecting the bottom left and right corners of the new rectangle. Press the right arrow key and slide these corners sharply to the right, creating the effect of a shelf. Continue this until you're satisfied that the shelf you've just made looks horizontal to an imaginary floor.
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Select the shelf and drag it so that the right-top corner intersects at point high on the left side of the original rectangle. This action makes it look as though the shelf is mounted to the horizontal backing.
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Select the shelf again and click the Edit button at the menu bar. Click Copy and then Paste to create a new shelf. Drag this one below the original shelf to create an additional shelf.
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Make two more copies of the original shelf. Line these shelves up so that they are horizontal and to the left of the original shelf and the first copy of the shelf you made. Now right-click and select the Arrange option. Click "Move to Back." This will push one of your left shelves behind the shelf backing, making it appear as though the shelf is mounted to the left side of the backing. Repeat this process for the last shelf.
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Create two more copies of the original shelf. Select both of these shelves and click the Object button in the menu bar. Select Transform and then Scale. Scale these images 200 percent, doubling their size. These images are the base of your shelf.
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Drag these images to the base of the mounting. Move these to images to the back in the way you did for the left-side shelves. Now move one shelf below the other. Click the Line icon in the tool bar. Create three horizontal lines while pressing the shift button so that the lines are perfectly vertical. Drag these lines so that they intersect the corners of the base in such a way that the base is now connected and has substance.
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References
- "Adobe Illustrator CS4 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques"; Karlins, David; 2008
