How To Draw Half Circle In Illustrator

Use specialized tools and simple commands to alter your artwork in Adobe Illustrator.

Schoolgirl walks in front of brick wall painted with fish mural

Download the sample file and follow along to learn a few ways to edit your artwork. Open Start.ai.

Yous tin cutting artwork in a few means. Scout Cutting and erase artwork to learn the nuts. We'll take it a bit further in this tutorial.

Choose View > Zoom In to magnify the artwork if necessary.

Let's add some lines to the semicircular shape and turn it into a frilly fin. Click and hold the Eraser tool and select the Knife tool.

Press Alt (Windows) or Pick (macOS) and drag a series of straight lines. Beginning exterior the border of the semicircle and release your mouse anywhere inside the semicircle to brand a direct cut.

Tip: Press Alt+Shift (Windows) or Selection+Shift (macOS) to constrain your cut to 90° or 45°.

Press A or select the Direct Choice tool in the Tools console. Drag one of the live corners to curve all the live edges as shown.

Triangles and semi-circles are arranged to create fish. The knife tool creates detail on the fin, and the corners are rounded

We'll add a small oral fissure by cartoon with the Knife tool again. Draw a continuous, freeform line along the base of the larger triangle as shown. Select the Direct Choice tool in the Tools panel. Click away to deselect, and so click just the directly-line segment to select the pocket-sized triangle. Press Delete to create an open up rima oris.

The knife tool is used to cut a mouth shape on the fish

Now, you'll add some stylized bubbles. Press L to select the Ellipse tool. Printing Alt+Shift (Choice+Shift) and drag out a medium-size circle. Fix the stroke width to five pixels in the Properties panel.

Choose Edit > Copy, and and then choose Edit > Paste in Identify. This creates a duplicate in the aforementioned spot. Press Alt+Shift (Selection+Shift) and drag a point to make a smaller, perfect circle.

Bubbles are created using the Ellipse tool

Click and concord the Knife tool in the Tools panel and select the Scissors tool. Click in two places on the inner circle as shown. Select the cut segment with the Selection tool and press Delete to remove it. Echo this pace to cutting and delete a small segment from the outer circle.

Next, you'll round off the sharp edges on the circles. With the Pick tool, depict a choice rectangle around both circles. In the Properties panel, click Stroke to open the Stroke panel. Select the Circular Cap choice.

The knife tool cuts segments into the bubbles. Portions of the circle are deleted to stylize the bubbles.

You can duplicate, scale, and rotate your bubble to create a stream of bubbling. Press Alt (Pick) and drag a copy.

Tip: First release the mouse button, and then the Alt (Option) key after dragging.

Click Options (…) in the Transform section of the Backdrop console and select Scale Strokes & Effects. Press Shift and drag a corner of the bounding box to resize information technology proportionally.

Move your cursor slightly away from a corner of the bounding box to admission the curved arrow and drag it to freely rotate your bubble. Repeat to create more bubbling.

Tip: Alternatively, you tin apply the Properties console to resize and rotate artwork. Blazon the values you want in the Transform section.

The bubbles are duplicated and transformed using the bounding box handles, or by the Transform menu in the Properties panel

You'll be using the ii overlapping circles to create a large fundamental fin. With the Selection tool, describe a option rectangle around both circles. In the Properties panel, in the Pathfinder department, click the Minus Forepart icon (second icon from the left). This operation subtracts the circumvolve in front, giving you exactly the shape you need. Elevate the fin and place information technology on your fish as shown.

Tip: Use the arrow keys to nudge the shape into position.

The Pathfinder tool, Minus Front option subtracts portions of overlapping circles to create a crescent shaped fin.

Now practice this technique by creating a modest notch in the tail fin.

Hint: Use the Ellipse tool to describe a circle overlapping the fish tail. Select both shapes, and click the Minus Front Pathfinder icon in the Properties panel.

A tail fin is made by subtracting a circle from a triangle using the Pathfinder tool.

Next, you'll create the fish eye. Printing V and elevate a selection rectangle around the overlapping circles labeled Centre. In the Pathfinder section, click the Intersect push button to create the center shape.

Movement the circle over the eye shape. Select both shapes, then select the Shape Builder tool in the Tools panel. Press Alt (Selection) and click in the circle to delete information technology from the combined shape. Select the centre and move information technology into place.

An eye is made by intersecting two circles using the Pathfinder section. The iris is made with the Shape Builder tool.

Select the black circle labeled Chimera on the artboard. Catch its centre bespeak, press Alt (Option), and drag up to indistinguishable it. Utilise the magenta Smart Guide to stack it so they're touching. Press Command+D (Windows) or Command+D (macOS) a few times to repeat the last action to create a alpine cavalcade of circles.

Select the Line Segment tool in the Tools panel and click once to place a indicate directly higher up the circle column. Press Shift and drag a straight line down over the column. Align information technology with the heart of the circles using the magenta guide as a reference.

Choose Object > Path > Dissever Objects Below. This operation cuts the circles below the line into separate half circles. Press Five to switch to the Selection tool and click outside the circles to deselect. So click every other one-half circle and press Delete. Elevate a selection rectangle around the seaweed, and then indistinguishable or reposition it in your design.

A stack of circles is divided, and every other half-circle is deleted to create seaweed for the fish mural.

Now that you've experimented with cutting, trimming, and dividing shapes, try it on your own projection. In no fourth dimension, you'll be instinctively reaching for different tools and techniques to use in your ain stylish illustrations. View the Finish.ai file you lot downloaded to get inspired.

Details and colors added to the fish outline as finishing touches.