Master Smooth and Glowing Gradients in Adobe Illustrator

Discover the key to achieving smooth and glowing gradients in Adobe Illustrator by understanding the subtle interplay of saturation, brightness, and color harmony. Join me in this tutorial as I guide you through the practical use of the Recolor Artwork tool with gradients, demonstrating how to intuitively adjust colors on the wheel. If you've encountered issues like muddy gradients or harsh lines in your gradients, this video will show you how to refine your gradient colors and give your Adobe Illustrator artwork that seamless, glowing finish. Let's dive in and make those transitions effortlessly beautiful!
Download the exercise file: www.dropbox.co...
0:00 Intro, setting up
1:15 Step 1, add a middle stop to a complimentary gradient and saturate it
5:00 Step 2, adjusting colors individually, using the color picker in Recolor Artwork
7:00 Step 3, desaturating colors to create a glowing pastel gradient
8:30 Step 4, using a gradient as a template to create new gradients in Recolor Artwork
9:30 Step 5, shortening the distance between gradient colors on the color wheel
10:57 Step 6, darkening and desaturating a gradient, using the buttons and slider on the panel
12:20 Dark to light gradients, showing gradual adjustments in saturation and brightness in steps
14:20 Creating a 3 color dark to light gradient, with adjustments on the color wheel
15:05 Using template gradients in your artwork with the Eyedropper tool
15:33 Using gradient colors in a Freeform gradient
16:41 Outro
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All content by Laura Coyle

[@joshuaweber8630]

This was a wonderful tutorial with excellent examples and a great explanation of the hows and whys of the gradient and color tool. Thank you!

[@LauraCoyle]

I'm so glad to hear it was helpful!

[@ellenmillar315]

More amazingness, might not be a word but it should be.

[@LauraCoyle]

Thank you Ellen!

[@TheresaJackson]

Excellent tutorial. I’ll be sharing this with my Illustrator students.

[@LauraCoyle]

Wonderful Theresa, thank you!

[@Rocadamis]

Such useful tips. Thank you Laura!

[@LauraCoyle]

You're so welcome!

[@reddbando7995]

realy enlightnening thank you so much

[@LauraCoyle]

You're very welcome. Glad it helped!

[@jeraldferriol5840]

This feature is all new to me and is really good! Thank you for this!

[@LauraCoyle]

Glad you liked it!

[@valdez_mia]

Súper útil! Gracias Laura!

[@LauraCoyle]

Muchas gracias 🧡

[@filiaikasyilviani408]

Thank you so much!

[@LauraCoyle]

You're welcome!

[@johannesmargarian8710]

Great video! I don't know why I always get smooth gradients in Figma but never in Illustrator.

[@LauraCoyle]

That's interesting, I don't know why that is, but I'm glad you liked the video!

[@SergOsokinArt]

You've clearly shown the problems with color transitions on the color wheel. Adobe has done some work on dirty gradients in Photoshop CC 2022 by adding different color interpolation modes to gradients, but the Adobe Illustrator team is still lagging behind. So I've been looking for ways to automate gradient fixes in Illustrator, and so far I've created the GradientBlender script that I've been talking about on my channel.

[@LauraCoyle]

Very cool script, Sergey!

[@sararosinsky9523]

This is SO GOOD! Thank you!

[@LauraCoyle]

Hey Sara!! 👋 Thank you!

[@renemoreno4595]

Great tutorial!

[@LauraCoyle]

Thank you!

[@dipin3834]

You are awesome ❤❤

[@LauraCoyle]

You are!