Making the Shield

Note: if you have vector shields already (symbols, vector packs, or brushes) you can easily skip the first 2 steps of this part of the tutorial.

1. Open a new RGB document (I’ll be working with 500×500). Begin to draw half of a shield. If you cannot get it as perfectly as you want, you can use pictures as references (draw the shield on a layer above the reference) or you can download shield vectors. Note: do not have a stroke when drawing the shield.

Step 1:

2. Now, since, obviously you only have half of a shield, we’ll make it a complete and symmetrical. Start by duplicating your shield half. Then flip it vertically (Object -› Transform -› Reflect). Now you need to position it. You can do this manually, or the easy (relatively) mathematical way. You’ll need to know the coordinates of your object to do this, so select your object and look at the top toolbar. There should be something that looks like:

There are two parts to this method. First (and easy) copy the Y coordinate of the first part and and make it the Y coordinate of the second part also, so they are vertically level. Secondly, copy, or look at the X coordinate of the first part and use a calculator (or your head) to solve this equation: (Total Width) - (X coordinate of first part) = X coordinate of second part. For me this would look like: 500 - 249.48 = 250.52, so I would make the X coordinate of the second part 250.52

Now you need to merge the two objects. Select both parts and merge them:

Step 2:

3. Now, to make the inside parts of the shield. First, to make the white outline and/or colour. Select the shield, and duplicate it. Then you need to scale it (Object -› Transform -› Scale). Select Uniform and then change the percent to 90%. Now you have a smaller shield that is a bit smaller than your first shield. Align it to the center of the larger shield manually or copy the coordinates of the first shield (assuming they are both aligned in the middle). Now change the colour of the second shield to white or any other colour. Then if you want a secondary/inner colour, select the second shield, copy it, scale it 98% (Object -› Transform -› Scale, Uniform, 98%), align it to the center and finally change its colour to a different colour.

Step 3:

4. Now for the stripes. Start by making a fairly long rectangle, on a new layer. Rotate it 45° counter-clockwise or (as I have done) clockwise. Put it towards the bottom part of the shield (if you do not get what I am saying, look ahead to the outcome of Step 4). Then you need to place stripes at intervals. The method I use, is to copy the stripe and place it over the farthest one, and then use Shift + Arrowkeys to move it at a set interval. Then, copy the white outline shield from the base of the shield. Scale that by 98% and then make it a mask for the stripes layer.

Step 4:

That’s all for the shield.

Making the Ribbon
The ribbon has 4 parts, the top part of the ribbon, the two ends, and the tiny wedges that makes the two other parts look connected, and the Text.

1. Making the top ribbon.
Not too hard. Start by drawing half of the ribbon, with no stroke (you might have to use a different colour to see it). Use the same method from the shield to copy, flip, align and merge it into a complete symmetrical ribbon. After merging the parts together, you can add a stroke. Move it to the center, bottom area of the shield.

Step 1:

2. Making the ends.
I cannot give much advice on how to draw these, so just draw them, use the picture below or the final effect as a reference if you need it. Once you have drawn one — with stroke — align it manually towards the edge and a bit above the top part of the ribbon. Then copy it, flip it, and use the method of getting the coordinates to properly align the other part.

Step 2:

3. Making the small wedges
I really cannot give you much advice on how to draw these, but they are just small wedges that look like and ‘A’ that has been curved a bit. Put it on the edge of the bottom ribbon. You might have to move it backwards (Object -› Arrange -› Send Backwards). Once you have drawn one, you copy, flip and align it to the to the other side.

Step 3:

4. The Text
Really simple, write your text then envelope it about 10%:

I used these settings:

Align it and then it should look something like:

The Embellishments
The embellishments consist of three parts, the crown, the leaves, and those things on the side.

1. The Crown
Same idea as the ribbons, draw half it without stroke, then copy, flip, align and merge it. Then add a small circle to the tip of each spike and merge those to the crown.

Crown:

2. The things on the side.
Same idea again, draw a shape, and then copy, flip, and align it to the other side. Do this as you wish.

Things of the side:

3. The leaves.
I did the leaves on the side all manually. I started by making a leaf like shape, and copying it and flip it. Then i kept copying it, and slowly rotating the pieces, to make it curve with the shield. I moved the leaves closer and closer towards the top and finished it off with one leaf at the top.

Leaves:

Conclusion

Well, that’s all the steps to making a shield in illustrator. I hope I have helped you learn to use Illustrator and create a shield. Feel free to leave comments or responses below.

Final Outcome:

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