Tutorial: How to draw a banner (scroll) in Illustrator

August 23, 2007 | by bsilvia | Tutorials | adobe, banner, draw, drawing, how to draw, how to draw a banner, illustration, illustrator, retro, sample, scroll, tutorial

Wrapping scrolls around illustrations or images are quite popular designers little trick these days. I’ll show you how to draw a scroll “easy way”.

Step 1
Assuming that you know how the scroll (banner) looks like, draw just one half of it (start left or right from the center). I am using the Wacom tablet and usually I use the “Pen tool”, but I think that drawing with the “Path tool” is easier for those of you who use a mouse.

Step 2
You can modify the shape as you wish, just keep in mind that you have to draw a folded part on the side.

Step 3
Now draw the folded part, which will “fly on the wind”.

Step 4
The folded part of the banner must be placed just bellow the main part, now you have to follow the path between the main part and the folded part and draw another folded part between them.

Step 5
That connection should look like this:

Step 6
Now copy+paste these three parts, and mirror them horizontally. Join middle anchors and the banner is finished. Color them as you wish. Add some cracks and you’ll get the “old-world” style.

I’m using banners (scrolls) in my “emblem” designs

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Tags: adobe, banner, draw, drawing, how to draw, how to draw a banner, illustration, illustrator, retro, sample, scroll, tutorial

20 Comments

« Previous 1 2

Steve
August 30, 2010 at 2:46 pm

Great tutorial! I never thought this is just like this. I used to have difficulty figuring it out on my own, but thanks to this I can make my own banners now that easy. Very helpful!!!
bsilvia
July 28, 2010 at 12:20 am

Hi! I used Illustrator CS here. I do not have CS3 or CS5…
Messiah
July 27, 2010 at 9:15 pm

Which version of illustrator are you using? I am using CS3 and it tells me that I can only “join” two open paths. In CS5 can you join two “non-open” paths, means can you join one anchor to a different anchor while they are on the path? any help would be great. I have the shapes I want, I just can’t get them to connect properly.
Newillustrator
December 2, 2009 at 11:03 pm

Thanks! I’m new to Illustrator and found this tutorial very helpful.
Interbred Monkey
September 5, 2009 at 2:21 pm

Amazing.

I have to say I have not touched illustrator before and I have found this tutorial amazing. Thanx so much for taking your time to write it.

All you negative n00bs need to learn to use a mouse and a computer. Maybe it was you that is in error and you should be appreciative that someone has taken teh time to write something.

Thanx Again!!
holmster
June 22, 2009 at 1:24 pm

Not sure how to add the “cracks” you are talking about. Can you explain further?
Proff
November 13, 2008 at 5:36 pm

to huff:

try harder. I got mine to work fine.
Proff
November 13, 2008 at 5:35 pm

To Rise:

The pen tool is one of the harder tools to master. It takes some time… and just playing with to really get it all down. Play with it some, copy the picture that they give you here, paste it into illustrator on a new layer, lock that layer, make a new layer and draw on top of it, try to match it line for line. This type of thing will strengthen your pen tool skills.
HUFF
September 25, 2008 at 8:20 am

Sorry, doesn’t work.
Every time you try to click a point on a drawn shape Illustrator just removes it. If you try holding shift it just draws a straight line – major pain to try to move lines close together at a max zoom and then group – need to draw precise.
Rise
July 1, 2008 at 8:34 pm

I’m just starting out with Illustrator and this tutorial was SO hard. It was in the “basics” section on Good-tutorials.com.

Not saying this is a bad tutorial, but it’s not basic in that it doesn’t explain how to do things.