2 Ways to Use the Blend Tool in Adobe Illustrator

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You can use the Blend Tool or Blending Options to make a lot of things easier and faster. For example, creating 3D text effects, making a color palette, or blending shapes together are some of the cool things that the blend tool can make in just a minute.

There are two ways to find and use the Blend Tool in Adobe Illustrator, from the toolbar or overhead menu. They function the same way, and both effects can be adjusted by changing the blending options.

So it doesn’t matter which method you use, the key to making magic happen is by adjusting Blend Options and a couple of effects that I’ll guide you through.

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to use the Blend Tool and what are some cool things that you can do with it.

Note: the screenshots are taken from Adobe Illustrator CC 2022 Mac version. Windows and other versions can look different. If you’re using keyboard shortcuts, Windows users change the Command key to Ctrl.

Method 1: Blend Tool (W)

The Blend Tool should be already on your default toolbar. This is what the Blend Tool looks like, or you can quickly activate it by hitting the W key on your keyboard.

For example, let’s use the Blend tool to blend these three circles together.

Step 1: Select the objects you want to blend, in this case, select all three circles.

Step 2: Choose the Blend Tool from the toolbar, and click on each of the circles. You’ll see a nice blend in between the two colors you click.

If you want to change the blend color direction, you can go to the overhead menu Object > Blend > Reverse Spine or Reverse Front to Back.

You can also blend a shape within another shape using the same method. For example, If you want to blend the triangle within the circle, select both and use the Blend tool to click on both.

Tip: You can make gradient-style icons using this method and it’s much easier than creating a gradient color from scratch. You can also use it to fill a path that you created.

All you have to do is choose both the path and the blended shape, and choose Object > Blend > Replace Spine.

The original path stroke will be replaced with the blend you created.

So the Blend tool from the toolbar is good for making a quick gradient effect. Now let’s see what Method 2 has to offer.

Methos 2: Object > Blend > Make

It almost works exactly like method 1, except that you don’t have to click on the shapes. Simply select the objects, and go to Object > Blend > Make, or use the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + B (Ctrl + Alt + B for Windows users).

For example, let’s make a cool blended text effect.

Step 1: Add text to your Illustrator document and make a copy of the text.

Step 2: Select both texts and hit Command + O to create a text outline.

Step 3: Choose two different colors for the text, resize one of the outlined text, and send the smaller text to the back.

Step 4: Select both texts, and go to Object > Blend > Make. You should see something like this.

As you can see that the fading effect doesn’t look convincing, so we’ll adjust the blending options.

Step 5: Go to Object > Blend > Blend Options. If your Spacing isn’t set to Specified Steps already, change it to that. Increase the steps, because the higher the number, the better it blends.

Click OK once you’re happy with the result.

You can also use the Specified Steps option to create a color palette. Create two shapes and choose two base colors and use either of the methods above to blend them.

If it comes out like this, that means the Spacing option is either Specified Distance or Smooth Color, so change it to Specified Steps.

In this case, the number of steps should be the number of the color you want on your palette minus two. For example, if you want five colors on your palette, put 3, because the other two colors are the two shapes you use to blend.

Conclusion

Honestly, there isn’t a huge difference between either method you use, because the key is the Blend Options. If you want to make a nice gradient blend, choose Smooth Color as Spacing, and if you want to make a color palette or fading effect, change the Spacing to Specified Steps.

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In this tutorial I will show you how to create a abstract sort of flower using the Blend Tool in Illustrator then playing with it in Photoshop to produce a very colorful wallpaper.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and create a new document, then with the Arc Tool create an arc. Duplicate the arc and rotate it to create a sort of leaf. With the Direct Select Tool (A) select the to 2 top vertices and Join them, go to Object>Path>Join. Repeat the same thing for the 2 bottom vertices and you will have a nice shape.

Step 2

Duplicate the shape and rotate it 90º. Then select the Blend Tool (W). Click on one shape then on the other one to create the blend. After that with the Ellipse Tool (L) create a ellipse holding shift. Then with the Direct Select Tool (A) delete 3 segments of the circle.

Step 3

Select the path of the Blend Object and the arc you created and go to Object>Blend>Replace Spine. That command will replace the line SPINE, that is the Blend Object default path with any path you want.

Step 4

To edit the Blend Object just double click on the Blend Tool icon or go to Object>Blend>Blend Options... Change the Spacing to Specified Steps and use the number of steps you want. Also for the Orientation use Align to Path. You will have to rotate the 2 shapes because the Blend Options will automatic rotate the shapes. So double click on the Blend Object to edit the Blend and rotate the 2 shapes. Use the image below for reference.

Step 5

Change the color of the 2 shapes you used for the blend. I used red and yellow. The go again to the Blend Options and increase the number of steps. Use 4 or 5. You will notice that the Blend Tool will create the tone colors from red to yellow.

Step 6

Duplicate the blend object, rotate, and align it with the first blend object. Also replace the colors to yellow and green and send ir to back, go to Object>Arrange>Send it to Back.

Step 7

Duplicate the blend object, rotate, and align it again, now with the second blend object. Replace the colors to green and blue. Also send ir to back, go to Object>Arrange>Send it to Back.

Step 8

Duplicate one object one more time and close the flower using blue and red. Again send it to back.

Step 9

Go to Object>Expand. Then with the Direct Select Tool (A) select the red, yellow, green, and blue shapes. Delete them because they are duplicated from the blend.

Step 10

Ungroup the objects, go to Object>Ungroup. Then select all elements and go to Window>Transparency. Change the Opacity to 75% and play with the Blend Modes. Below you can se some of the Blends I tested.

Step 11

Just an experiment trying to create a typeface, my cousin said it looks like a caterpillar, so I named it catypellar.

Step 12

Copy the flower from Illustrator and paste it in a new document in Photoshop as Smart Object. I used 1900x1200 pixels. Also the background has to be black. Position the flower at the bottom of the document like the image below.

Step 13

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Bevel and Emboss. Use Inner Bevel for the Style, 1% Depth, Direction Up, Size 1px and soften 0px. For the Shading use 90º for the Angle. For the Highlight Mode use Color Dodge in white and 100% opacity. For the Shadow Mode use Color Burn in Black and 15% Opacity. Also change the Blend Mode of the layer to Screen.

Step 14

Duplicate the layer and resize it, make it a bit smaller, like the image below.

Step 15

Again duplicate the layer and resize it, make it a bit smaller than the previous layer. Use the image below for reference.

Step 16

Repeat the same thing as the previous step, this time however change the Blend Mode of the layer to Darker Color.

Step 17

Again, duplicate the layer and resize it. Use Multiply for the Blend Mode and also add a Color Overlay. Use black for the Color and 100% Opacity.

Step 18

Once again duplicate the flower, not the one with the black color overlay. Resize it and change the Blend Mode to Normal. Then duplicate the layer again and just change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge.

Step 19

Add another layer on top of the others and with the Gradient Tool (G), select Radial for the type and black and white for the color. Then fill the layer with the gradient, start from the center and bottom of the page exactly where the flower starts to grow. After that change the Blend Mode of the layer to Multiply.

Step 20

Add another layer again and go to Filter>Render>Clouds, make sure that you had black and white for the colors. Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 5 pixels for the Radius. Change the layer's Blend Mode to Multiply as well.

Conclusion

You can add a bit of noise or more elements if you want. The idea is play with the blend modes and of course Illustrator, where all the magic was done. If you want to create a version with a lighter background you will have to change the blend modes. Instead of Screen, use Multiply and play with the opacities like I did in the lighter version in the image below. It's just a nice tecnique, inspired, again, by the incredible Andy Gilmore.

Click here to view the Light version and here for the Dark version.

Download the Photoshop File

Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial