Trendy Outlines in Illustrator

Making trendy outlines,(which is not a stroked path but a outline which encompasses the whole of the illustration)is very easy in Illustrator, look at the following illustration for the example:


And nowadays, I see it being used too often, so today I will show you how to do that!!

After, your illusrtration is finished, as in my case this lil flower bud, Select the entire illustration with the Selection Tool (V) & Group it via, Object>Group.


Now, Select the illustration that you have grouped as above goto Edit>Copy & then Paste in Front (you actually have to Paste it to Back, but for the purpose of this tutorial, I have pasted it in Front).

Ungroup (Object>Ungroup) the pasted/duplicated illustration.

While the ungroup duplicate illustration is still selected click the Add to shape area at Pathfinder palette & hit Expand.


You should have one big shape right now. I choosed the fill color to be white & applied Drop Shadow, Effect>Stylized>Drop Shadow.After that,. Go to Object > Path > Offset Path & select the setting that you prefer.


Now, your illustration should look something like this (I have the Smart Guides on):


Finally, Select the above Offset Path & Right Click, choose Arrange>Sent to Back to send it back the original Illustration.

And, thats what you get!!


With the same method, you can do this effect for the text as well.

Here is the another example of what I did quickly: