Creating a Vector Four Leaf Clover in Illustrator

(available in video format here)

One of the types of art that sells well in the world of Microstock vector art is holiday themed illustrations. The only drawback is that they only sell really well for a short period of time during the year just before the holiday takes place.
For St. Patricks day let’s create a four leaf clover or shamrock.
To create the image that we will use for this illustration I used google and the images option to open and download pictures of four leaf clovers. From those I drew out a rough sketch of what I want our clover to look like. If you use this technique you can make your sketch as detailed as you want.
I scanned the drawing and saved it as Clover Sketch to a folder I created called Four Leaf Clover.
You can right click on the image below and then choose Save Image As, save it to somewhere on your computer. A good place might be in your My Pictures folder or perhaps on your desktop.

In Illustrator open a new document.

Go up to File in the top menu and click on Place.
This opens up a browse window where you can browse for your image. Select the image from where you saved it and click place.

Position the image where you want it on the artboard.
For purposes of this tutorial we will use the Essentials workspace. Go to Window in the top menu, click on Workspace and choose Essentials. The panels should appear on the right of your workspace.

These are the basic tools we might need and even though we won’t be using most of them it is a good habit to use a workspace where the tools are out of the way. Later on as you develope your skills you’ll probably customize that area in your own way.
Let’s lighten the image a little so we can see our vector lines more easily. Go to the panels on the right and choose Transparency. This expands the Transparency panel on the right
Make sure you have the image selected using the selection tool. in the Transparency panel change the Opacity from 100% to 40%.

This will enable us to see the lines we are creating more easily. Once you have done this you can close the Transparency panel by clicking its icon again. You can see the image is now lighter.

Another way to help in seeing your lines is to change the color of the outlines. Select your pen tool first. Go to the panels on the right again and select Color. This opens the color panel. First let’s get rid of any fill color which we don’t need for now. Click on Fill and below that click on None.

Next click on Stroke and in the colors section choose something that will be easy to see against the background image. I’m going to select a bright blue color. Use whatever color works best for you.

Now we’re ready to start recreating the logo in vectors. Go to your Pen tool. Create a line around the entire image of the clover. Once completed, select this line and go to Edit in the top menu and click on copy (Ctrl + C). Now go back to Edit and click on Paste in Back (Ctrl + B). This will make a copy of the outline that we will need later on.

Use the Zoom Tool as needed. To use this click on the Zoom Tool.

Your cursor turns into a magnifying glass icon with a plus sign inside. Click on what you want to zoom in on and it will become larger on the screen. To reduce the amount of zoom hold down the alt key.

The plus sign in the hour glass turns to a minus sign. Continue holding the alt key down and click on the object to zoom out.. When you release the alt key the plus sign reappears.

We’re going to create each leaf separately. Starting with the left leaf create the vein that runs through the center of the leaf. For the remainder of this tutorial I will use a red outline to indicate the object I am referring to.

On the lower section of the leaf create the larger area seen below. Note that the bottom of this object is placed slightly above the bottom edge of the leaf until it gets closer to where the leaves meet at the center.

Now create the shape at the bottom of the previous one. Also extend the bottom of this shape well below this leaf.

We’re going to use the Pathfinder tools to make this shape fit perfectly within the previous one. Go up to Window in the top menu and select Pathfinder. This will open your Pathfinder palette.

Use your Selection Tool to select the last two shapes we created and on the Pathfinder palette click on Divide.

Go to the top menu and under Object click on Neuropil.

The two objects are now three separate objects. Select the bottom object and hit the delete button. You now are left with the two shapes perfectly fit to one another.

Next create this shape. You can extend this well above the previous shape because we are going to use the same process to divide the shape as before.

Select your two shapes and click on divide.

Once again the two objects are now three separate objects. Select the top object and hit the delete button. You now are left with three shapes perfectly fit to one another.

Use the same process to create the upper section of this leaf. Start by making the larger area again like so. The bottom can overlap slightly into the shape of the dividing vein

Select the dividing vein and copy it by going to Edit in the top menu and choosing Copy (Ctrl + C). Now hold down the shift key and select both that object and the larger one you just created. On the Pathfinder palette click on Minus Back.

The area of the small object will be trimmed from the larger object. Now you can go to the top menu again under Edit and choose Paste in Front. (Ctrl + F). This will paste the object in it’s exact previous position on the artboard.

Create both of these object extending them well past the edges like so.

Now select those two objects and the previously created one and on the Pathfinder palette click on Divide.

Ungroup the objects and delete the upper and lower objects that extend out and you will be left with just the three sections of the upper part of this leaf.

Use the same techniques that we used for this leaf to create the inner portions of the other leaves.

Create the stem next. Start with this section extending it past the right outside edge.

Select the line that goes all the way around the clover and the object we just create. In the pathfinder panel click on Divide.

Ungroup the objects and delete the unwanted section on the right.

Edit the stem so that it lines up with the bottom edge of the right leaf. Use the Direct Selection tool to move the points where you want them.
If you hit the minus key on the keyboard it will bring up the delete anchor point tool so that you can delete points. Hitting the plus key will bring up the ad anchor point tool. I suggest that you play around with these tools and become familiar with them. The A key is the shortcut key for the Direct Selection Tool. Shift + C will bring up the convert anchor point tool which will allow you to change your point from a corner to a curve or vice versa.

Create the section seen below and extend it on the left side.

Select both of the objects above that are in red and in the Pathfinder palette click on Divide. Ungroup the objects and delete the unwanted section on the left.

You can now select the original image and delete it. Select everything and go to the Color Palette on the right and pick a Dark Green for the outline like the one below. Ctrl + S and save your art.

Next we’re going to define the color of the fills and outlines.

Go back up to where the Color Palette is. To the right of it is the hidden Color Guide Palette. Click on the word to bring it to the front. Now click, hold and drag the palette to separate it from the docked palettes. With it separated you can grab it at the top anytime to reposition it where ever you want it on the screen.

Click the small triangle to the right of the colors and choose shades.

You can use whatever colors you want to color your vector art. Using the color guide can help you to get harmonious colors. It is just a place to start and by no means the best or only way to do this.
Select the objects below and fill them with a medium green.

Use a lighter brighter green for the next areas that we color.

A still lighter shade of green for what would be our highlight.

Use a darker color for the objects or veins in the center of each leaf.

Repeat the two lighter shades of green to color the stem.

Use this darker green to fill the large outline of the clover.

We need to select the copy of the clover outline that we created in the beginning. Select the outline of the clover that you can see. Right click, go down to Select and then to Last Object Below.

Now Go up to Object, Arrange and Bring to Front.

Make the fill none and the outline the same color as the darker color we used for the vein in the leaves.

You can adjust the size of the stroke at the top of your screen when you have the outline selected.

On the top menu click Select, All. Shift click on the outline we just made to deselect it. Make the outline none for everything else. Your vector four leaf clover is now complete. I suggest checking out the companion video to this one that goes more into working with color. It’s called Coloring Vector Art In Illustrator.