Making a wood grain in Illustrator can seem to be a daunting task. Not to fear – this is a relatively easy way to make a good-looking detailed wood grain using the warp tools.

Let’s begin by selecting the Rectangle Tool and draw a thin rectangle.

Using the Selection Tool now click on the rectangle and use Alt/Option + Shift (to keep it aligned) and click + drag a duplicate of your rectangle. Leave a little space (not much) between the rectangles.

Without doing anything else, repeat this function by using the Ctrl/Cmd+D as needed to give you rows of rectangles.

Select all the rectangle rows. Go to Object>transform>Transform Each.

Each and enter the values similar to the ones below. Make sure you check the Random Box to give it a random height. Select Preview to take a peek.

Double click the Warp Tool.

Which will open a pop up option box. Use similar settings to the ones below.

Use the Warp Tool to horizontally drag over the rectangles to give them a more natural wood look.

Double Click the Twirl Tool.

Makes your settings similar to these below.

With the Twirl Tool carefully click on various areas to twirl the lines. Change brush size by holding down the Option + Shift/Alt + Shift keys. BEWARE: Holding to long will spin your design out of control with no hope of return—OK not that bad.

Next select the Pucker Tool and use the settings below or something similar.

This should move the lines closer together where clicked.

Now let’s makes the lines thinner by squashing them together. Use the Select Tool and select all. Now you should have a Bounding Box. Use the bottom middle anchor to squeeze the box tighter by clicking on the anchor point. While holding down move up until the lines squeeze closer together.

Now draw a rectangle behind the current lines that covers the entire background of the smaller rectangles. This will be your background. Select colors for your background and lines (Wood Grain).

Play around with gradients and other effects to add more depth.

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