How to Make Sparkles in Illustrator

In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a sparkle vector in Illustrator. Once you have learned how to create this, you could then incorporate it into logos, greeting cards, stickers, patterns, and so many other opportunities.

Compared to Affinity Designer, one thing that Illustrator lacks is a variety of shape tools. For example, check out our guide on how to use the shape tools in Affinity Designer. In this tutorial, however, we will be showing you how to make sparkles in Adobe Illustrator.

Step 1 - Draw a Circle

Start by selecting the Ellipse Tool (L) and drawing one large circle in the center of your artboard. Hold down Shift to keep the circle in equal proportion.

Step 2 - Apply Pucker and Bloat Effect

Select your circle, then select Effect > Distort and Transform > Pucker & Bloat. You will then see the Pucker & Bloat options box appear with a slider. Select thePreviewcheckbox to see your circle change as you move the slider.

To achieve the sparkle effect, decrease the slider towards Pucker. You can define how narrow the edges go of your sparkle. I am going to use -50%. When you are happy with your sparkle, click OK.

Step 3 - Expand Appearance of Your Sparkle

Now that you are happy with your sparkle, we need to expand the appearance of your shape.With your sparkle still selected, go toObject > Expand Appearance.

After it will look like this:

Note: Before expanding the appearance of your sparkle, notice how when your sparkle is selected, Adobe Illustrator still shows a circle outline? This is because currently there is just an effect applied to your shape, so your path is currently still a circle.

When you use Expand Appearance, your path will change to the outline of your sparkle.

You can also create this sparkle shape using the Shape Builder tool. Once you’ve completed these steps, you can then select your design and recolor, duplicate and change the proportions.

If you liked this tutorial, make sure to check out our other guides on making a pastel background, changing artboard sizes, and making line illustrations in Adobe Illustrator.