In this step-by-step tutorial I will show you the process of how to draw a stylized bird inspired by one of my favorite illustrators, Catalina Estrada. If you’re looking for a step-by-step technical tutorial for beginners, I suggest that you see my Flowers & Leaves tutorial first.

No matter how talented, every designer takes inspiration from other designers’ work. This is part of the process of becoming a top designer. It’s a learning process of discovery, trial and error. However don’t copy blindly but analyze the style to see what is so unique about the illustration.

Step 1: Analyze your source of inspiration

The inspiration for this stylized bird originated from Catalina Estrada

What I like about Catalina’s illustrations:

Bold colours
Clean and simple shapes
Harmonious symmetries, lines and shapes

Step 2: Find additional inspiration

You need to understand the basics of a bird’s anatomy before you can modify and stylize it. Research on the web or go through magazines for other bird illustrations and photos.

Step 3: Sketch your bird

You can either draw the bird on paper and later scan it into illustrator or sketch it directly in illustrator if you have a Wacom Tablet. I opted for the latter. Create a new layer and draw a basic bird sketch using the Pencil Tool. (Sorry no sketch image provided here as it was accidentally deleted!)

Step 4: Draw your bird

Turn the transparency of your sketch to about 30%. Create another layer. Use the Pen Tool or the Pencil Tool to draw the outline of the bird’s body. I will usually use the Pencil Tool and the Smooth Tool to simplify and even out my lines. I like to use the Pencil Tool because it gives a more personal style to my drawing. For the larger wing and the tail, draw one feather then copy and rotate the feathers to make a full wing or tail.

Step 5: Polish & Refine

Tweak your drawing until you are satisfied with the look. I will use Smooth Tool and the Direct Selection Tool for that.

Step 6: Colour your bird using the Gradient Tool

Choose a light source. Here my light source comes from the top. Therefore the darkest shadow will be on the lower part of the bird. Click and drag from one end to the other to try various shadow angles. Try out a few of your favorite gradient colors.

Step 7: Finishing touches

Select your bird and disable the stroke outline when you’re done coloring. Create a new layer below your bird for the background. Draw a square and fill it with a color of your choice. I decided to go for a light grey so that my bird will stand out. Draw a few white circles to create the clouds. Et Voilà!

Step 8: Application

One of the greatest advantages of  vector graphics is their versatility. You can reuse the same graphic over and over. Just modify it to suit your design composition by resizing, duplicating, rotating and coloring it.

Download

Bird  illustration source file. Required Adobe Illustrator CS2 +

Feel Free to modify and use this graphic in your artwork. Please share it around but link it to this page for download.