How to Make Lips Using Letters in Illustrator

Imitate the shape of lips with the words of your choice.

Humans use their lips to form words as a primary method of communication. Use your vector imaging program to create a scalable image that humorously reflects this notion, displaying words not escaping from lips but as the lips themselves. You can extensively customize this simple activity, which is well-suited for use on greeting cards, personal web sites and all kinds of personalized gifts. The possibilities are neverending, so experiment and have fun.

Instructions

Making the Lips

1. Open a new document in Illustrator with the dimensions of your choosing.

2. Locate the "Ellipse" tool in the "Tools" panel and select it. Click on the art board to bring up the "Ellipse" options and enter the dimensions for your ellipse, making sure that the width is relatively larger than the height. Click "OK" to confirm and display your oval. Click again on your art board to bring up the "Ellipse" options which will retain the last values. Click "OK" without changing the measurements to create a second oval of identical size.

3. Arrange the ovals side by side with the edges somewhat overlapping. Hold "Shift" on your keyboard as you click each oval to select them both. Click "Unite," located in the "Pathfinder" panel under "Shape Modes," to join the paths.

4. Choose the "Paintbrush" tool located in the "Tools" panel. Draw a long cone. Select the object and hover your cursor over a corner until the "Turn" tool appears. Drag and turn the object until it appears to extend from the oval, with the base of the cone overlapping the widest part of the oval.

5. Leave the cone selected. Click "Object," "Transform" and "Reflect." Select "Vertical" as the axis in the "Reflect" box that pops up. Click "OK." Arrange the second cone as a mirror image of the first.

6. Hold "Shift" to select all three objects by hand and click each. Choose "Unite" from the "Pathfinder" panel. Remove any anchor point that lies outside the desired shape. Choose the "Direct Selection" tool in the "Tools" panel and click the anchor point, then select "Remove selected anchor points" from the "Anchors" section of the "Control" panel.

7. Choose the "Paintbrush" tool in the "Tools" panel and draw a leaf-like shape with points on either end as the bottom lip.

8. Click the "Direct Selection" tool again in the "Tools" panel. Make final adjustments to the lips' shape, including removing anchor points as previously described. Drag object handles to adjust curvature. Simply click and drag to move anchors.

9. Choose the "Selection" tool from the "Tools" panel. Click the top lip to select it, then choose "Swap Fill and Stroke" from the bottom of the "Tools" panel. The lip will fill with the selected color; disregard the chosen color for now. Repeat with the bottom lip.

Filling with Text

1. Click the "Type" tool, located in the "Tools" panel and click anywhere on the art board to begin typing. Type whatever letters you'd like to fill the top lip, then click the "Selection" took and select the entirety of the text. Select the desired values for each from drop-down menus in the "Control" panel to change colors, typefaces and font sizes.

2. Repeat using the text meant to fill the bottom lip. Drag and drop each text string directly on top of its respective lip.

3. Right-click the top string of text. Select "Arrange" and "Send to Back." Repeat with the bottom text.

4. Use "Shift" while clicking to select the upper text and upper lip simultaneously. Select "Object," "Envelope Distort" and "Make with Top Object" to fill the lip with the selected text. Select the bottom text and bottom lip together and repeat.

References

• Vector Diary; Illustrator Tutorial: Warp Text inside a Heart Shape; Tony Soh; February 2009
• AI Vault; Creating Lips Using Mesh Tool; April 2008