A burger, the king of fast foods! Who doesn't like burgers? Everyone does! For those designers that are hungry a new tutorial, how to draw a burger in Adobe Illustrator.

Final Image Preview

Step 1

Open Illustrator and create a new document 650 by 800 px.  Rename "Layer 1" to "Top Bun". Using the ellipse tool create an ellipse 440 x 240 px, no fill, then create another ellipse 800 x 330 px.Select both of them and press the "Intersect" button on the pathfinder panel. Now we have the shape for out top bun.

Now with your Pen Tool (P) draw another two shapes, like in the image, select all three paths and in the pathfinder panel press the "Minus Front" button.

Give it a fill color. I used #CFAD56, and no stroke. Copy the path (Ctrl+C) and paste in front (Ctrl+F).  Now draw an ellipse as you see below, with your ellipse still selected, while holding Shift click on the the path that we've just a copy to select the both and in the pathfinder panel press "Minus Front" again. Give a darker brown color (#B58F43) to the resulting path.

Select the first path that we created and give it a 4pt dark brown (#8C5F28) stroke. On the top panel, press on the "stroke" and Select the "Align Stroke to Outside" option. We'll apply this option to all our paths.

Step 2

Now let's put some sesame on our bun. For this, we need to create a new brush. So, draw an ellipse 17 x 10 px, set the #F4DF78 as fill color and give a 2pt stroke with the same color as the bun. Press F5 to open Brushes panel and drag your ellipse there. Check the "New Scatter  Brush" and click ok, name our new brush "Sesame" and enter these values.

Select Paintbrush Tool (B) and start drawing sesame on the bun.

Lock the layer.

Step 3

It's time to draw cheese! Create a new layer, name it "Cheese" and drag it under the "Top Bun" layer. Using you Pen Tool (P) try to draw a path that will look like a piece of cheese. Set the fill color the same that we used for sesame and #D3AC0B as stroke color.

Now, draw some circles on the cheese, those will be holes. By Shift-clicking select all "holes" and the cheese path and in the pathfinder click on the Minus Front.

Toggle the visibility of the bun layer, select the cheese path, copy it by pressing Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+F and make it no stroke. Then draw an ellipse, select it and the top copy of the cheese path and pres "Minus Front" in the pathfinder. Give the resulting shape a darker yellow color to make it look like a shadow. Lock the layer.

Step 4

There is no burger without meat, so let's draw meat. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool and draw a rectangle (420 x 95 px and 30px Corner Radius) with no stroke and #8C5F28 as fill color.

Draw a shadow for it like we did with bun and cheese, and give it a darker color (#6D4821).

Select both (meat and shadow) and press Ctrl+G to group them. Then go to Effect -> Warp -> Arc... Check horizontal, enter the -5 value for Bend and -3 for Vertical Distortion. Press ok, then go to Object -> Expand Appearance. With your group still selected apply Roughen effect that is located in the Effect -> Distort & Transform. Enter these values:

Expand Appearance of the group and press Ctrl+Shift+G to ungroup our paths, select the bigger path and give it a 4pt stroke with a dark brown color.

Using Pen Tool (P) draw some paths on the meat with the same stroke settings to add some details to it and lock the layer.

Step 5

Now we'll draw shredded lettuce. Create a new layer and name in "Lettuce" and drag in under the rest. Try to draw some random paths as you see below, it's ok if they look a bit strange, when you'll add some shadows and highlights, they'll look better. I used #A5B43B as basic color, #84903A for shadows and #788337, but you can use colors that you like.

Try to use shadow color as a fill color for those paths that you'll place on the left to create a good-looking effect of shadows. Lock the layer.

Step 6

Create a new layer and name it "Bottom Bun" and again drag in under the rest.

Using Rounded Rectangle Tool draw a rectangle 400 x 100 px and 30px as Corner Radius, set the same colors for fill and stroke as you set for top bun.

Select the bun and apply Arc effect with this settings:

Go to Object menu, expand appearance and use the same technique to draw a shadow for it.

Step 7

Our burger is almost ready. We need to add ketchup and mayonnaise. Select Pen Tool and start drawing ketchup and mayonnaise under top bun, Pattie and cheese. Fill "ketchup" paths with a red (#C42F2C) and give them a bloody stroke (#A82828).

For mayonnaise you can set #FDF8C2 for fill and #DDDD97 for stroke.

Draw some drops near the burger.

Step 8

Draw some highlights on the cheese and lettuce with brighter shades of their fill colors.

Step 9

We need a background now. Draw a rectangle with the same dimensions as our document and apply a radial gradient with any color you like.

Our burger needs a shadow. Draw an ellipse under it 710 x 100 px an apply a radial gradient to it, from a very dark brown to the same brown but with opacity set to 0% and Aspect Ration of the gradient to 20%.

Our burger is now ready! mmm... delicious!

Subscribe to the AiMonkey RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest vector tutorials and articles.