Tutorial Adobe Illustrator: How to Create a Realistic Vector Sand and Pebble Texture

posted by: Iaroslav Lazunov, in Illustrator Tutorials / Effects/ Comments: 1

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In this illustrator tutorial we will learn how to create random vector sand and pebble textures. It is not difficult to do if you have Phantasm CS - plugin for Adobe Illustrator. Of course, it could not be done without some magic, but I will generously share all the secrets with you. Find out more…

Step 1

Let’s start our tutorial with creating the texture of sand. Firstly, this tutorial is based in the RGB color mode File > Document Color Mode > RGB Color.

With the help of the Rectangle Tool (M) create a rectangle and fill it with a linear gradient, which consists of two shades of yellow.

Now create another rectangle in the bottom of the background and fill it with grey color (black = 50%).

Step 2

Take the Mesh Tool (U) and by clicking on one of the sides of the grey rectangle, create 4 horizontal Mesh lines.

Replace the color of the nodes a and b with a darker shade of grey, and color of the nodes c and d with a lighter one.

With the help of the Mesh Tool (U) create 3 vertical Mesh lines.

Moving mesh nodes with the help of the Direct Selection Tool (A), transform the mesh to the view shown in the following picture.

Step 3

Using the previous technique, create two similar meshes.

Select and group-up all the gradient meshes. Keeping this group selected, apply the Overlay blending mode to it.

There was a good reason why I had the exact value of grey color in the first step. The fact is that the grey color (black = 50%) becomes transparent if we apply to the Overlay blending mode to the object.

Step 4

We proceed directly to the creation of the sand texture. Copy the group with the Gradient mashes and paste it in front (Cmd / Ctrl + C; Cmd / Ctrl + F). Open the Appearance panel and add a new fill, then apply the linear gradient from white to black to it. The gradient direction corresponds to the direction of the light.