Part two of Illustrator's basic shapes and the first look at how to combine shapes to make new one with the Shape builder Tool.

1. Illustrator’s Basic Shapes
part 2
& Combining Shapes

2. Basic Shapes
Last week we covered rectangles and ellipses. Now we quickly
review the other basic shapes available in Illustrator. These are
the rounded rectangle, polygon, star, line, arc, and spiral tools.
The rounded rectangle, polygon and star are closed elements,
while the rest are open.
Rounded
Rectangle
Polygon Star Line Arc Spiral

3. ROUNDED
RECTANGLE
TOOL
Just like last week, we will add new
tools to our VCP 118 toolbar.
Remember to use the three dots at
the button to add new tools. Find the
Rounded Rectangle Tool and drag
it to your tool bar.

4. NEWLY ADDED
TOOLS
Repeat the process to add the
Polygon Tool, the Star Tool, the
Line Tool, The Arc Tool, and the
Spiral Tool. When you compress
your tool bar by clicking on the two
<< at the top of the tool bar,
your new tool bar should
look like this illustration.

5. CORNER
WIDGET
The Rounded Rectangle Tool allows you
to create quadrilaterals with four right
angles, or commonly known as rectangles
and squares with rounded corners. In the
corners are small round dots within a
circle. These are the Corner Widgets and
allows you to adjust the roundness of the
corners.

6. By dragging on the Corner Widgets using the Selection Tool
(black arrow), you can modify the size of the corner arcs. If you
use the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and only select one
corner, you can affect only that individual corner.
DIRECTION
SELECTION OF
CORNER POINT

7. With the Rounded Rectangle Tool
selected, just click on the artboard
and you will get a dialog box where
you can input the values you want.
You will get a new rounded
rectangle where you clicked.

8. To create a polygon shape, select the
Polygon Tool and drag to create the
shape. The Option Key will draw from
the center out.
Without releasing the mouse button,
press the up-arrow key to add more
sides, or the down-arrow key to
remove sides. A triangle is the smallest
number side shape you can create.
Holding the Shift key will put one side
on a horizontal plane.

9. With the Polygon Tool selected,
just click on the artboard and you
will get a dialog box where you can
input the values you want. You will
get a new polygon where you
clicked.

10. OPTION KEY
To create a star shape, select the Star
Tool and drag to create the shape. The
Option Key will draw from the center
out.
Without releasing the mouse button,
press the up-arrow key to add more
arms, or the down-arrow key to
remove arms.
To make a star similar to the US flag,
press the Option Key while creating.

11. COMMANF
KEY
To adjust the length of the
arms, hold the Command
Key and drag left or right.

12. With the Star Tool selected, just
click on the artboard and you will
get a dialog box where you can
input the values you want. You will
get a new star where you clicked.

13. To create a spiral, select the Spiral Tool
and drag to create the shape.

14. With the Spiral Tool selected, just click
on the artboard and you will get a dialog
box where you can input the values you
want. You will get a new star where you
clicked.

15. Combining shapes
In Illustrator

16. We will now look at combining shapes to make
new, more complicated shapes.
Select the ellipse tool and draw an ellipse similar
to what is shown here.
Now, make a copy of this shape by Command c,
we will use this later.

17. Switch to the rectangle tool and create a
rectangle similar to this illustration. You will want
to align the bottom corner points with the left and
right points on the ellipse. It should snap once you
get close to the points.
If you miss aligning, you can always drag the
rectangle sides in to match.
ALIGN WITH
ELLIPSE

18. We will now use the Advanced toolbar by
going to Windows/Toolbars/Advanced.
Look for the Shape Builder Tool.
Select both shapes with the Selection
Tool. Either use the Shape Builder Tool
or the shortcut, Shift M. Notice when you
move the mouse over the shapes, they fill
in with a dot pattern and the cursor has a
plus sign. Hold down the left mouse button
and drag over all the sections with the dot
pattern. This will unite the parts into a
single shape.
SHAPE
BUILDER TOOL

19. You should now have a single
shape that looks like this. The
Shape Builder Tool has
combined all the parts of the two
shapes into one.

20. Now we will paste the original ellipse into the
document. Drag the new shape using the
Selection Tool to the position as shown. NEWLY
COPIED
SHAPE

21. Select the bottom shape and open the Swatches
Panel and fill it with the gradient White to Black.
GRADIENT

22. Select the top ellipse and
open the Swatches Panel
and fill it with the shade 30%
Black.
30%
BLACK

23. You have now just created a
simple shape using the
Shaper Builder Tool.

24. Here’s another great use for the
Shape Builder Tool.
Draw a circle using the Ellipse
Tool while holding the Shift key
as a modifying key to make a
perfect circle.

25. Create another circle
overlapping the first as shown
here.

26. Use the Shape Builder Tool
after selecting both circles.
Remember you can use Shift M
as the shortcut. But this time
hold the Option key as a
modifier. You should now see
the plus sign change to a minus
sign. Drag across the top two
parts using the left mouse
button.

27. You have just removed part of
the original bottom circle using
the Shape Builder Tool.
This useful tool allows you to
combine or subtract part od
shapes from others. Practice
adding and subtracting shapes
until you get the hang of it. This
is an important tool to use in
Illustrator.