Folded Paper Heart in Illustrator

For this tutorial, we will use the “Heart Shape” created in the “Heart Shapes in Illustrator” Tutorial.

1 - In Illustrator, create a “New Document” or open the one containing the “Heart” Shapes from our other “Tutorial”. Select or “Paste” (Command/Control + V) the shape you want to use and enlarge it using the “Scale Tool” (S) with a “Uniform Scale” of 200.

2 - Drag a “Guide” from the left and place it in the Center of the “Heart”. Go to View > Guides > Unlock Guides.

3 - Select both the “Heart” and “Guide” and Center them using the “Horizontal Align Centers” and “Align to Canvas” options in the Top Menu.

4 - You can now go to View > Guides > Lock Guides. Select the “Rectangle Tool” (R), use a darker shade of Red and draw a rectangle that covers the right side of the Heart.

5 - Select the “Heart”, make a “Copy” (Command/Control + C) and “Paste in Front (Command/Control + F).

6 - Select the top “Heart” and the “Rectangle” (“Shift” key”), head to the “Pathfinder Panel” and choose “Intersect”.

7 - Fill the new “Heart” Half with a “Linear Gradient” with a 0° Angle going from the dark Red to the Medium Red shades. Drag the Medium Red marker (the one on the right) to the middle (Location 50%)

8 - Create another “Copy” of the Heart, make sure is on top of the original one but under the half filled with the gradient. Fill this Heart with a Medium Grey (30 K). Right-click on top of it and choose Arrange > Send to Back, then move it a couple clicks Up and Left to create a “Shadow”.

9 - With the “Shadow” selected head to the “Appearance Panel”, click on the “Effects Menu” on the Bottom-Left side of the Appearance Panel and navigate to Stylize > Drop Shadow… and use the following values. Once you are done click “OK”.

10 - Select the “Type Tool” (T), choose a Font and type some text (we used “Marker Felt”). Fill it with Black and center it on top of the “Heart”.

11 - Rotate the text a bit, go to the “Transparency Panel” and change the “Blending Mode” to “Multiply” and the “Opacity” to 90%. Duplicate the Text, select the one under and move it a couple of clicks Down and Left and change its “Blending Mode” to “Screen” and the “Opacity” to 80%.

12 - Your Artwork should be similar to this.