How to Create a Christmas Winter Background Design With Mesh in Adobe Illustrator

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

In this simple tutorial, you will learn how to use the Mesh Tool in Adobe Illustrator to create a winter background!

If you want to skip the tutorial and just use this background in your work, you can purchase the Christmas Holiday Background from GraphicRiver!

1. How to Draw the Houses and Trees

Step 1

Let's start off by drawing the house with Gradient Mesh.

Create a brown rectangle—the color is #A27A68.

Next, grab the Mesh Tool (U). Click to create nodes, which in turn create a Mesh Grid. When you have a thick enough mesh grid, grab the edges of the rectangle and move them to modify the shape as seen below.

Once you're done with the shaping, select the middle cluster of nodes (they are already colored differently in the screenshot) and color them with #B18E7C.

Next, select the nodes that are darker (they're selected below) and proceed to change their color to #7C5546.

Always make sure to select the nodes that are selected in each screenshot below and apply the corresponding color to them!

Step 2

Draw snow for the roof using Mesh in Illustrator. Use these colors:

#F0F3EE
#C1C9C4
#DBE2DD

Step 3

Draw another Mesh element.

#F0F3EE
#C1C9C4
#DBE2DD

Step 4

Draw a #4C311B object.

Step 5

Draw another wall for the house with Mesh in Illustrator.

#A27A68
#B18E7C
#7C5546

Step 6

Draw another snow Mesh item.

#CCD4CF
#F0F4EF
#B0B9B3

Step 7

Assemble the house out of the Mesh objects.

Step 8

To create the windows, draw both the cutouts and the solid frame.

Next, place the cutouts on top of the base, select both, and use Exclude in the Pathfinder panel to create the window frame.

Color it with #DDD2CA.

Step 9

To add light to the windows, fill an ellipse with a Radial Gradient from white to #FFB500 to black.

Place it behind the frame, and set the gradient's Transparency Mode to Screen.

Step 10

Place the windows onto the house.

Step 11

Draw another house. Use these colors:

#A27A68
#003036
#7C5546

Step 12

Place the windows and a modified roof onto the new house.

Step 13

Draw one last house with Mesh in Illustrator.

#A27A68
#B18E7C
#7C5546

Step 14

Add #DDD2CA windows using Pathfinder.

Step 15

Create a village out of the houses.

Step 16

Make a pine tree with different shapes. Use these colors:

#36494B
#879F8D
#FFFBC9

Change the yellow shapes' transparency mode to Screen.

Step 17

Make snow out of different-sized white dots. Set them to Screen with 60% Opacity.

Step 18

Draw another tree using #465C5A and #5A7572.

Step 19

Add one more layer of #B8C1BC trees. Place the other pine trees around the village.