In this tutorial I`ll show you how to make a realistic / vector coffee cup in Adobe Illustrator.

What new you will learn (for the ones that didn`t know before):

-How to add realistic shadows;

-How to make the 3D feeling of objects (in this case cup);

-How to make coffee cream

-How to draw easy a cup

etc!

The result:

Let`s start it:

Step 1: Create a new document, with any size you want, and fill with (if you want) with a radial gradient: white in the middle and the lighten gray on the other side of the gradient. Then create a new circle, using Ellipse Tool (L) and make it like I did in the next image:

Step 2: In this step, create a new circle, but this time make it oval (holding SHIFT+ALT and drag the click 1 mouse to make it perfect). Send it to back (Right click – Arrange – Send to back) and fill it with other color.

Step 3: Duplicate the green circle, move it up using your UP keys from your keyboard, or with your mouse holding SHIFT+drag with click1 up. Now select the white and blue circles, select  Trim from your Pathfinder window(if you don`t have it go to Window-Pathfinder), ungroup the layers (SHIFT+CTRL+G), select the white layer, delete it with the shape remained up. Add a gradient to the green one and to the blue one like I did in the Step4 :

Step 4:

Step 5: Duplicate the gray circle, make it smaller using: SHIFT+ALT+dragging the mouse and fill it with a brown color. It should look like that:

Step 6: Using Pen-Tool (P) make the shape I did in the next image(this will be the shading of the cup that makes it looks more realistic):

Step 7: Add a gradient to the shape done with pen-tool, linear gradient darker in the right side and lighter in the left side. I used this colors in my gradient:

Step 8: Now, duplicate the shape done with pen-tool, right click on it Transform-Reflect-Ok and then move it to the left side of the cup. Fill it with white (this will be the light coming from the left to make the cup more realistic).

Step 9: Duplicate the brown circle, select the Twirl Tool from the left menu tools and twirl the circle. Don`t matter too much the shape that you get, you just need something abstract. After you did this, make it smaller, to enter into the brown one, and fill it with a lighter color. It should look like that:

Step10 : Now let`s make the cup “tail”. Using Pen Tool (P) draw a shape like I did in the next image.

Step 11: Fill the “tail” with a gradient (gradients used are quite similar, just little changes done, to give the ceramic effect). Then draw with your Pen Tool the shadow of the “tail” that makes it looks more realistic and integrated with the cup. You should get something like that:

Step12 : Duplicate the brown circle, to make the plate and to keep the perspective, and move it under the cup

Step13 : Now duplicate the last circle done, make it bigger and fill it with a darker gradient, like in the next image:

Step14 : Duplicate the laste circle duplicated, make it a lot bigger and fill it with a lighter gradient like in the next image:

Step15 : To make the plate more realistic, duplicate the biggest circle, make it bigger and fill it with a darker gradient/color.

Step16 : Now to make the plate more realistic, that is upper than the ground/background/table let`s make a shadow. Duplicate the last circle duplicated, fill it with black and reduce the opacity to 20%. Then move it to the right-down from your UP + DOWN keys, like in the next image:

Step17 : Now let`s make the coffee more realistic. Duplicate the brown circle, move it upper, fill it with black then duplicate it again, move it upper and make it white like in the next image. Then select both circles, select Trim from your Pathfinder window, then ungroup the objects and delete the white one.

Step18 : From Step17 should result the line showed in the next image. Fill it with a darker brown color than the coffee circle, move it down closer to the cup line, like in the next image.

Step19 : After we have done with the coffee, let`s make the cream. Make a circle, transform it just from the Up and Down using ALT + drag the mouse down. Then duplicate the circles like you see in the next image (brown circles). Then keep duplicate them, fill almost 100% the coffee circle. The middle circles make them a little darker from the other ones. I made them white and in the middle a lighter gray.

Step20 : Now, select the cream circles from the right corner down, duplicate them and move them like I did in the next image.

Step21 : Keep duplicating them, move them down and down too give you the sensation that the cream is falling down out from the cup. Like in the next image:

Step22 : Now, duplicate 6-7 circles of cream, make them smaller, and move them to the plate to give you the sensation that the cream felt on the plate.

Step 23: To make the cream more realistic, duplicate the circles on the plate, move them to right, send them to back, fill them with black and reduce the opacity to 30%. Like in the next image:

Step24 :In the last step of this tutorial, we will make the shadow of the cup. Now, using Pen Tool draw a shadow of the cup like I did in the next image:

RESULT:

THE COFFEE CUP SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:

Hope that you liked my tutorial. I`m waiting for your comments.

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