Illustrator starburst - Graphic Design Courses

Adobe Illustrator is the industry-standard program for the creation of professional-quality visual artwork and illustration. By combining various tools and techniques we can produce quite complex and interesting imagery, like the Starburst Effect shown here. We show you how to create stunning artwork like this in all our Illustrator training courses.

First create a new document in Illustrator via the File menu, size A4 and landscape orientation, for example. Next select the Star tool and create a five-pointed star with a coloured Fill and no Stroke. Illustrator asks for two radii – set the first one to 8mm and the second to 4mm. Copy this star to one side and reduce it in scale , then use the Blend tool to create nine-step blend between the two main objects.

Next we use the Reflect tool to create a vertical copy. Copy it again and rotate by 90°. Then copy all of the stars and rotate them by rotate 45°. Once again copy all again and rotate them by 22.5° (half of 45). In this way you could have up to 18 copies within one quadrant. Go to your layers panel and rename this layer Stars and lock it.

Now we create a new layer and name it Background, ensuring that it’s on the bottom of the layer stack. Next create a pale yellow swatch, then create a rectangle on the background layer. Give this a radial gradient fill of lime-green to a pale yellow, for example.

You could also create a new layer and name it Glow. We will use the Pen tool now to create a thin triangle behind one of the horizontal rows of stars and apply the pale yellow swatch to its fill (with no stroke). Change the opacity to 60%. Then go to the top Effect drop-down list and choose Stylize and Feather, and change the value to 4mm. You can alter the feather later in the Appearance panel. You can also tweak the points of the triangle with the Direct Selection tool (white arrow). Copy and rotate this object as you did for the stars (by 90°, 45° and 22.5°).

To complete the design we would then add some text using the Type tool and the Pattern Maker.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or self-taught, our courses will help you gain self-confidence in your Illustrator workflow, as well as adding to your professional skill-set. Many more tips and techniques can be found at the Adobe website. And see many examples of our clients’ work on our Facebook page.