Creating Chunky Swirls in Adobe Illustrator

Curly swirls are used a lot in vector illustrations. They’re very trendy when it comes to floral pattens and abstract designs. They are fun to draw and they look great. I like to create swirls that are chunky, and slightly off balance to give them sort of a hand drawn feel. Follow the instructions below to learn how to create what I call the “Chunky Swirl”.

This may not be the definitive way of creating swirls in Illustrator, and it may not even be the best way… But it’s how I get the job done, and it works pretty well. If you have an alternative method of creation that you like to use, please feel free to share it with us.

Step 1: Create a Custom Art Bush

Draw a shape similar to the one I created below.

Drag this shape to the Brushes Palette, or click the drop down in the upper right corner of the Brushes Palette and select “New Brush”

In the New Brush window select “New Art Brush”. Leave the Art Brush Options set to default.

Step 2: Create the Skinny Swirl

Now select the Spiral Tool from the tool bar. Click and drag on the art board to create a skinny swirl. A few things to note about this tool… While your dragging continue to hold the mouse button down, and push the up and down arrow keys to add/remove segments within your swirl. Also, hold down the cmd (Mac) / alt (Win) key to change the depth of your swirl.

Adjust your swirl until it looks a little bit like mine.

Step 3: Adding some Chunk to Your Swirl

Now that you’ve drawn your skinny swirl, select the swirl, and choose your newly created art brush from the Brushes Palette. Wha Lah! Instant Chunkiness!

Now that your swirl has put on a little weight… It’s time to really get our hands dirty. Select your swirl, and click Object | Expand | Click OK. This will turn your line stroke into a shape that we can edit.

Now ungroup the shape by clicking Object | Ungroup or by pressing Cmd+Shift+G (Mac) or Alt+Shift+G (PC). Now you can select and delete that line running through the center of the swirl.

Step 4: Adding that Last Touch of Chunky Swirl Goodness

Once you’ve got the chunky swirl looking it’s swirliest… I like to top it off with a circle at the end. This is the easiest part. Simply draw a circle using the Ellipse Tool (L) and position it over the end of your chunky swirl so that it looks seamless.

Once you’ve got it positioned just right. Select both the Chunky Swirl and the circle, and select Add to Shape Area from the Shape Modes on the Pathfinder Palette. Then click the “Expand” button on the same palette. This will combine the shapes into one.

And with that… I believe we’re done. Now you can create a Chunky Swirl with the best of them. And I hope you learned some brand new Illustrator tools and techniques to use along the way.