In order to give more realism to your drawing in illustrator, you need to work with light and shadows. Today let's talk about the latter. There are several simple ways to draw a shadow in Illustrator, about this - in the article.
To start
Before starting work, we first draw the object itself, which according to the plan will cast a shadow from the light source, as well as the rest of the composition, where this shadow will fall. It is necessary to think over where the light source will be in the illustration, whether it will be one or there will be several, in which direction the light beam will be directed. When we figured out the light source, we go directly to creating the shadow of the object in Illustrator.
Using a geometric shape
One of the ways how to make a shadow in Illustrator is a simple object. For example, a ball. First, consider the shadow that the object casts on the surface it is on. To create a simple shadow from simple objects, it is enough to use the same geometric shapes.
For our ball, we use an ellipse (called by the hot key L), which we make about the same size as the object itself. But we narrow it vertically so that there is an understanding that the shadow is flat and lies under the object. Depending on the light source, the shadow may be directly below the object, to the left or right. The lower the light source, the narrower it is in our ball. To give greater credibility to the shadow in Illustrator, you can experiment with gradients and transparency.
From the object to the second object
If you need to create a shadow that falls from one object to another, you need to copy both objects and paste them in the same places as the originals (to do this, select the desired object and press the hot keys Ctrl + C and Ctrl + Shift + V).
When both objects are copied and pasted in the place of the originals, it is necessary to select one from which the shadow falls, and shift it to the second. To the extent that the shadow from the first object reaches. Then you need to select both copies of objects and apply cropping of vector objects so that after cropping only the area of overlapping of the first copy to the second is preserved.
We lower the resulting new object to the level under the first object. But so that it is one level above the second. Then we make it a few tones darker than the color of the second object. Thus we create a shadow.
Shadow gradient
Another kind of shadow in Illustrator is on the object itself. When light falls on an object, the latter, in turn, not only casts a shadow, but also changes color. From the side of the light source it becomes lighter, and from the opposite side it is darker. A shadow is created on the object. Everything is much simpler here than with the previous methods of creating a shadow.
In order to display a shadow on the object from the light source, you must use a gradient. In this case, the gradient strip should be stretched from the light source to the shadow and two identical colors with a smooth light transition should be added to the strip. The main thing in this way is to direct all the strips of gradients equally to the light source so that the whole composition looks right.
The object is completely in shadow.
When we draw a complex object in Illustrator, for example, of a person, it happens that one part of this object, which we painted separately and then grouped with the rest, is completely in shadow. For example, the ear or arm is on the back of the light source. How in this case to create a shadow effect in Illustrator? In order not to additionally apply shadows, just paint the object (hand or ear in our example) a few tones darker.
Here we looked at the simplest ways to create shadows in Illustrator, which will be useful to beginner illustrators or amateurs.