How to Create Wrapped Candy in Adobe Illustrator

In this new tutorial you will learn how to create colorful wrapped candy in Adobe Illustrator. These sweet treats are waiting for you so let’s get started!


Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

How to Create Wrapped Candy in Adobe Illustrator


Tutorial Details

  • Program: Adobe Illustrator CS5
  • Estimated Completion Time: 45 min
  • Difficulty: Beginner-Intermediate

Step 1

Launch Illustrator and go to File > New in order to open a blank document. Type a name for your file and set up the dimensions then select Pixels as Units and RGB as Color Mode. Next, go to Edit > Preferences > General and set the Keyboard Increment to 1 px and while there, also go to Units and make sure that they are set as in the following image. I usually work with these settings and they will help you throughout the drawing process.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_1


Step 2

Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and draw the first ellipse on your artboard. This will be the “body” of the candy.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_2


Step 3

Next, grab the Pen Tool (P) or Pencil Tool (N) and draw a similar shape in the left side (1), then draw a red path over it (2). Now, select the green shape along with the red path and press Divide in the Pathfinder panel and then Ungroup (Shift-Control-G). As a result of this action, you will get two separate shapes.

Use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select only the anchor point indicated (3) and move it inwards a little (4). Let’s name these two shapes “top-left-foil” and “bottom-left-foil”.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_3


Step 4

Select “top-left-foil” and “bottom-left-foil” and Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F), then go to the Transform panel and from the fly-out menu, choose Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical. Move the two new shapes in the right side of the ellipse. Let’s name them “top-right-foil” and “bottom-right-foil”.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_4


Step 5

Fill the “bottom-left-foil”, “top-right-foil” and the “body” with the first radial gradient shown and then use the second gradient for the “top-left-foil” and the “bottom-right-foil”.

The two shapes from the left side should be in front of the “body” but send the other two shapes from the right behind it.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_5


Step 6

Use the Pen Tool (P) or the Pencil Tool (N) to draw the yellow shapes from the next image but you don’t have to be precise here. When you’re done, fill them with the radial gradient shown.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_6


Step 7

It’s time to create all the reflections, add highlights and shading on the foil wrapper.

Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw the black shape from the next image (1). Next, select the “body” and then Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F). Now, select the black shape along with the copy of the “body” and press Intersect in the Pathfinder panel (2). As a result, you will get the thin shape at the top (3).

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_7


Step 8

Draw more random shapes on the candy and following the technique explained above, subtract to make them fit perfectly.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_8


Step 9

Fill the three shapes selected with the linear gradient shown. Select only the thin shape at the top, go to Effect > Stylize > Feather and apply a Radius of 2 px.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_9


Step 10

Fill the three shapes selected with pink, go to Effect > Stylize > Feather and apply a Radius of 5 px.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_10


Step 11

Draw a new shape on the “bottom-right-foil” (1), in the top left side of the “body” (2) and almost in the center (3). Fill these shapes with pink and apply the Feather effect but using different Radius values: 3 px, 5 px and respectively 10 px.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_11


Step 12

Draw a new shape in the right side of the “body” and fill it with the linear gradient shown. Go to Effect > Stylize > Feather and apply a Radius of 5 px.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_12


Step 13

To add more details, draw a few small shapes as in the following image. Fill them with pink and then apply the Feather effect using a Radius of 2-3 px.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_13


Step 14

Continue with the next two shapes. Fill the blue one with purple (1) and the yellow one with the radial gradient shown (2). You can see the final result in the image below (3).

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_14


Step 15

Let’s add shading and highlights on the candy. Grab the Pen Tool (P) or the Pencil Tool (N) and draw a curved path at the bottom of the “body”. Select a 5 pt black Stroke along with the Width Profile 2 in the Stroke panel.

With this path still selected, go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a Radius of 3 px. After that, reduce the Opacity to 22%.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_15


Step 16

Draw other two paths on the “bottom-right-foil” as in the next image. Select a 5 pt black Stroke and the Width Profile 2 again, then apply a 3 px Gaussian Blur and reduce the Opacity to 30%.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_16


Step 17

For the highlight, draw a new path over the “body”. Select a 10 pt white Stroke and the Width Profile 2, then apply a 6.6 px Gaussian Blur and reduce the Opacity to 30%. Move this path behind all the other shapes on the “body” of the candy.

At this point the wrapped candy is pretty much done but we will continue with a few extra decorations. Select and Group (Control-G) all the shapes that compose the purple candy and name the group “plain candy”.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_17


Step 18

Grab the Pen Tool (P) or the Pencil Tool (N) and draw a path following the edge of the “top-left-foil” (1). Select using the Direct Selection Tool (A) the “top-left-foil” and then Copy and Paste in Place (Shift-Control-V). Now, select the path along with the copy of “top-left-foil” and press Divide in the Pathfinder panel (2).

Ungroup (Shift-Control-G), keep only the thin edge and delete the other resulting shape. Fill the edge shape with a Gold gradient that you can find in the Swatch Libraries menu under Gradients > Metals. Set the Angle at -90 degrees (3).

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_18


Step 19

Draw a new path following the edge of the “bottom-left-foil” (1). Now, select the “bottom-left-foil” with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and Copy and Paste in Place (Shift-Control-V). Select the path along with the copy of “bottom-left-foil” and press Divide in the Pathfinder panel (2). Ungroup (Shift-Control-G), keep only the thin edge and delete the other resulting shape. Fill the edge shape with a Gold Radial gradient that you can find in the Swatch Libraries menu under Gradients > Metals. Set the Angle at -45 degrees (3).

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_19


Step 20

Having the two gold edges from the left side selected, go to the Transform panel and from the fly-out menu, choose Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical. As a result, you will get the two gold edges from the right side and you need to arrange them in place.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_20


Step 21

To make the candy even more festive, draw a few little stars with the Star Tool on the “body” and then fill all of them with the radial gradient shown. Also select a 5 pt white Stroke and set the Blending Mode to Soft Light but only for the Stroke attribute.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_21


Step 22

It’s time to recolor and create more candy of various colors. Select the “plain candy” group and first make a copy. Now, go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork, select the Edit tab, select Link Harmony Colors and the RGB mode, and after that you can pretty much choose any color although not all of them will generate a good looking result. In the image below you can see the shade of yellow that I’ve used to obtain the golden candy.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_22


Step 23

Make a new copy of “plain candy”, go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork and use the shade of red indicated to obtain the red candy.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_23


Step 24

Next, select and make a copy of the festive purple candy. To recolor it, select everything except the gold edges and the stars because you don’t want to change those. Type the shade of green indicated in the Recolor Artwork window and hit OK.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_24


Step 25

Make another copy of the festive purple candy. Select everything except the gold edges and the stars, then go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork and apply the shade of blue to obtain the blue candy.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_25


Step 26

The same thing goes for the pink candy.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_26


Step 27

Here are the six different candies. Group (Control-G) all the shapes that compose each candy and name the groups accordingly. In my case, I have: “plain purple”, “plain gold”, ”plain red”, “festive green”, “festive blue” and “festive pink” candy.

Rotate each group 45 degrees with the help of the Transform panel.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_27


Step 28

Select each candy and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Apply the settings shown and hit OK.

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_28


Awesome work!

Here is the final image with all the wrapped candy. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you learned new things today. Now go and eat some candy!

diana_wrapped_candy_tut_final

Diana Toma
Diana Toma

I'm a vector artist, extremely passionate about my work. I discovered Adobe Illustrator a while ago and simply love it. Since then, it has kept me busy. I am trying to address as many styles I can while learning new tricks myself. I enjoy sharing my creations with you.

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