Jakubs | November 4, 2022

How to draw symmetrical shapes in Illustrator

Would you like to know how symmetrical shapes can be drawn in Illustrator? It can be a little challenging to draw symmetrical shapes in Illustrator, but if you get the hang of it, you can use the method repeatedly.

What we aim to accomplish

We're going to draw a heart in this example. It will turn out like this in the end.

Once you comprehend how it functions, you can apply this method to any symmetrical shape you desire to draw.

Creating the shape

To see the center of your shape or where the reflection will be, first give yourself a ruler. The ruler menus will display at the top and left of the screen when you press Apple + R (CTRL + R on Windows). Place a ruler on the canvas by clicking and dragging while your cursor is over the left ruler. Then, create your shape using the pen tool.

Reflect the shape

After that, we'll mirror the shape. Make sure your course is chosen (use the selection tool if not – shortcut V). choose the reflect tool next (shortcut O). A tiny blue target icon will surface. The reflection will take place at this point. Click once on the blue line to shift the target—we want the reflection to be on the line.

Click, hold, and drag to the upper left of your path to create the reflection. Holding down SHIFT while dragging will limit the rotation, and ALT will copy the shape. You have forgotten to hold ALT, which will duplicate the shape and create a mirror, if the shape goes to the opposite side.

Join the paths

Here comes the really difficult part. We currently have two distinct paths. If we wish to fill the shape, copy it, or use it as a sign, these are not very useful. Therefore, we must combine and average the trajectories. Prior to joining two end points, two end points will be averaged. When you do this, this ought to make sense.

To average and combine the pathways, press Apple + SHIFT + ALT + J (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + J on Windows). Check to see if there are any additional anchor points that have blue squares rather than white squares, as this is a typical mistake, and it signifies that you have selected other anchor points rather than just the end points (blue means they are selected and will cause the error.)

You now have a finished, linked route that, if everything went according to plan, you can fill, use as a symbol, or use as a pattern swatch.