Illustrator tutorial: The Perfect Diamond

By Vectordiary Posted on March 28th, 2008

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Loading ... illustrator diamond tutorial

Drawing a diamond is pretty simple in illustrator. First, let’s do some research on the anatomy of a diamond. We don’t want to do some fancy cut and get rejected by our clients. Here’s a proportional diamond line art taken from the website. We will use this as a guide to help us create a perfect diamond.

1. Create a template guide

First, place the line work by going File>Place and select the graphic. Go to Layers Palette and click the arrow to show the menu and select Template. This will lock and make the graphic transparent for easy tracing.

diamond step 1

2. Placing a guide in the center

Turn on your Rulers by pressing Ctrl/Command+R. Drag a guide and place it in the center.

diamond step2

Next turn on the Snap to Grid by pressing Shift+Ctrl+”/Shift+Command+” or go Window>Snap to Grid. You will see the grid appear at the background.

diamond step3

3. Tracing the artwork

Create a new layer in your Layer Palette (new layer icon at the bottom of the palette). Using the Pen Tool, start to trace each facet. The points will snap to the grid. Make sure to close each shape and make the points meet in the same spot. Do this until we complete the right half of the diamond. We can turn off Snap to Grid and manually adjust the points to fix the curves which doesn’t snap to the grid very well.

diamond step4

4. Reflecting the diamond

Select the whole half of the diamond. Select Reflect Tool and Alt/Option+click on the center guide line. This will pop up a menu. Select Vertical for Axis and click Copy.

diamond step5

Let’s start combining the center facet. Select both the facets at the bottom and hold Alt/Option+Click and click Add to shape area from Pathfinder (Window>Pathfinder). Repeat this step for the top facets too.

diamond step6

diamond step7

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Tags: diamond, draw, graphic, illustration, Illustrator, tutorial

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marcos(dominican republic) March 30th, 2008

Great thanx 4 sharing…:).great tutorial

Bekindi April 5th, 2008

I just wanted to say thankyou very much for this tutorial You did a brilliant job of explaining, and the visuals were extremely helpful.

iStockdiary April 12th, 2008

Thanks Bekindi, I will keep up with my new tutorials. I’m now writing on a tutorial to create a cool disco ball. Be sure to catch it. =)

Furtoosh April 16th, 2008

Great tutorials.

dhanushka April 21st, 2008

it was a good tutorial.

Zapps April 22nd, 2008

Great stuff. Keep it up

Neisha Diaz April 25th, 2008

This was really helpful. Thank you for the quick lesson.
It was cool too.

bernz April 25th, 2008

very nice.. i just hope that theres a lot more tutorial will share to your site.. tnx..

Saranga Asith May 2nd, 2008

actually this tutorial is give a variance design to the person.great tute

summilux May 4th, 2008

Hello. I tried your disco ball tutorial. it was very cool.
now before i get onto the perfect diamond tutorial, please tell me how you can make shinny stars!!! and how did you make the disco shine like glory!!
thank you!

iStockdiary May 5th, 2008

Hi Sumilux,

What I did was I brought it to Photoshop to boost up the contrast and brightness.

yousaf November 4th, 2008

simple but valuable for everyone

Cole Key November 13th, 2008

3taw18luvboknkgx

Lia December 6th, 2008

Does this “perfect diamond” have a copyright? It truly is the perfect diamond illustration and I would like to use it! May I?

Vectordiary December 6th, 2008

Hi Lia, this illustration is for educational purposes. You may not use it in your projects. You may want to create your own Diamond.

Vectordiary

Illustrator tutorials, tips and tricks on vector art by iStockphoto exclusive artist. Enjoy free vector downloads.