How to Make a Heart in Adobe Illustrator
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As a graphic designer, you'll need to make different shapes within your design projects. Thankfully, Illustrator makes it easy to create just about any type of shape you need. The key is simply knowing the most effective ways to create those shapes.
Most of the elements of the heart shape are derived from curves, and you might be thinking of making or drawing a heart using curves or tools including curves. There are some quick simple methods to make a heart in Adobe Illustrator, and we'll look at them in this tutorial.
Making a heart in Illustrator might look a bit difficult or tricky. But trust me, once you go through this 5-7 minutes tutorial, your opinion will completely change. So let's learn how we can easily make a heart in Illustrator.
Different Methods for Making a Heart in Illustrator
The following are some quick methods to make a heart in Adobe Illustrator. Go through them, and you'll find it easy to make a heart in Illustrator.
Method 1: Using the Rectangle Tool and Anchor Point Tool
The easiest way to make a heart in Adobe Illustrator is by making a rectangle and then simply curving two of its sides. You'll get a nice quick heart drawing with this method.
To understand it much better, let's dive into the specific steps.
Select the Rectangle Tool from the Toolbar on the left of your Illustrator window.
Now, go to the artboard and make a square using the rectangle tool. To make a perfect square, you must press and hold down the Shift key while you click and drag the left mouse button to make a rectangle.
Now, we rotate the square to 45 degrees. To do that, you bring your cursor to one of the corners of the square until it shows you a rotating double arrow icon. Then you click and drag your left mouse button while pressing and holding the Shift key.
For rotation, you can also use the Properties Panel to put in the angle value you want the square to be rotated to, as shown below.
Now, go to the Toolbar and select the Anchor Point Tool.
Next, press and hold the Shift key. Then click, hold, and drag one of the upper two sides of the square. In this way, you'll get a constant nice extension of the side in a curvilinear manner.
Now, do the same for another side.
And there you go! You've got a nice heart shape on your artboard. You can color this shape and alter it in any way you like.
Method 2: Using Rectangle Tool and Shape Builder Tool
If you want to create a perfect heart, then this method will help you to achieve that. To understand it better, let's get into the details.
Select the Rectangle Tool from the Toolbar on the left of your Illustrator window.
Now, go to your artboard and make a rectangle by clicking, holding, and dragging the left button on your mouse.
In the next step, you need to make the corners of this rectangle round. To do this, using your mouse, click and hold on one of the small circle icons at the corners of your rectangle and then drag inwards or to the center of the rectangle until all the corners become round.
Now, you rotate this rounded corner rectangle to 45 degrees. You can use the previous methods to rotate the rectangle to 45 degrees.
Duplicate this rectangle.
By selecting both shapes and using the Align Panel, align both shapes horizontally and vertically to the center.
Next, you need to reflect or mirror one of the shapes. For this, you select the shape using the Selection Tool, and then you reflect the shape by going over to the menu bar, as, Object>Transform>Reflect.
In the next step, you select both the rectangles and Select the Shape Builder Tool from the toolbar.
After selecting the Shape Builder Tool, you click on the extra two extensions on the downside of the shapes to separate them from the above shape.
Now, delete both the extra shape by selecting them and hitting the Delete Button on your keyboard.
Now, select the remaining heart shape using the Selection Tool from the Toolbar and select the Shape Builder Tool. Combine or merge all the shapes with the click, hold, and drag method using your mouse.
And that's it! You've got a perfect heart shape. You can change its color as needed.
Making Hearts in Illustrator is Easy!
Congratulations! You've just learned some quick and easy methods to create a heart shape in Adobe Illustrator. Now, it's time to add some lovely heart visuals to your designs.
Enjoy!
Learn how to make other shapes in Illustrator:
