Draw a Flat Design Lime or Lemon Slice in Adobe Illustrator FAST

I often create food icons for either patterns, labels or webassets and working efficiently is always on my mind. So in this video I would like to show you how to create a lime slice or lemon slice in Adobe Illustrator with the transform tools and the knife tool. Yes you heard right, there is a good use for the knife tool, believe it or not. First we're going to pick a green for our lime slice and turn the stroke off. Then let's create a circle in the middle. Since I'm a fan of easy steps. Next we're going to use the pen tool, set the fill to a stroke and then create lines. Vertically one in the middle, we'll make sure we select all of it and then line it vertically and horizontally in the center and then we're going to create a copy into the front. So either with the shortcut command or control and c and then command or control and f or you could go to edit, copy and then back, paste into front. Once that is done we're going to use the free transform tool and rotate it by 90 degrees. Then we're going to select both lines, repeat the step, copy and then paste in front and then rotate one more time, this time 45 degrees. Now we're going to select everything and in the pathfinder panel we're going to choose divide. Now don't deselect anything. We're going to do another step back to object, path and choose offset path. We're going to work with a negative value again, so set a negative value for the offset, check the preview and then press ok. Now we're going to move the shapes away from our first and then we can delete the first and then we'll work with the offset shapes. Select all of them and then activate the direct selection tool. This will show you the dynamic corners. If you don't see them go to view and make sure you'll show the corner widgets. Then you can pull them. I'm going to zoom in. Then you can select one and round out the shape. Now you might see that we have quite the distance here in between. Since I'm all about smart transform tips I'm going to give you another one. With the lasso tool from the toolbar create a circle around all of the bottom anchor points of these slices. Then activate the free transform tool. Constraint the proportions by pressing shift and option or alt on the keyboard and then shrink it down. As you can see on the screen it will move the points closer together. Once you're happy with the result let go. Now I'm going to zoom out. We have the first parts of our lime slice. Before we add the circle let's group all of our slices together. Then let's create a circle with a darker green. Send it to the back. Select the shapes and make sure you align them and then you can select the circle, create a copy, paste it in front, shrink it down in size and then give it a lighter green. We could change the size of our slice from the outer circle a little bit and now we've created our lime slice. I would like to show you how you can cut this slice in half. First we're going to ungroup our middle pieces again and then we're going to create the guide. Select one of the circles so you can see the anchor points. Place a guide right onto it. Again I'm working with the smart guide so it's fairly easy to snap it into place. Now I'd like to cut the lemon slice into half. You could go several ways about it. You could use the scissors tool, cut once here on the bottom and then the second circle and then close the shape again because the scissors tool will cut the circle into half but it will be an open path. You could use the eraser tool but this will erase everything in between and I would like to just have equally sized slices. In this case we can make use of the knife tool. Now if you were just to place the knife tool you can see you cannot get a straight cut but there's a trick to it as well and it's called the optional key. I think you figured out now that the optional key is quite important in illustrator. Now with the smart guides on and the guide set, choose the knife tool, press the optional key and hold it and then draw a straight line down along the guide. You could have of course help with the shift key as well. If you press and hold the shift key it will align it along. Once you're on the bottom let go. Now when I zoom in we've cut the slice in half. It might not look like it but if I select my right side and move it out of the way that I have cut our lime slice and I did not have to close any paths. Now I can just group it and I have two lime slices. Now I can create alterations of this, make copies, rotate it, create patterns out of it, elements and other designs and so on and that's why the knife tool in illustrator can be so useful. This way you can save time and effort and that's it. I hope this video has helped you and if it did make sure to give it a like and also subscribe to the channel and hit this tiny notification bell so you won't miss another future tutorial. And one important thing to remember you can make it happen and I'm here to help.