Celtic Knots in Adobe Illustrator

Celtic Knots are a complete loop with no starting and ending points. Therefore, it represents eternity.

They are a graphical representation of knots that we will learn in today’s tutorial. We will use the Ellipse Tool, Pen Tool, Shape Builder Tool, and a few other tools to Draw Celtic Knots in Adobe Illustrator.

Launch Adobe Illustrator and create a new document. Now follow the below steps:

Step 1

Select the Ellipse Tool and draw a circle on the artboard. Turn off the Fill color and select the Stroke Color.

Now open the Stroke Panel and select Align Stroke to Inside. Then increase the Stroke Weight.

Step 2

Select the circle and press & hold the Alt key. Now drag the circle towards right and place in such a manner that the left anchor point of the circle touches the center point of the previous circle.

Make sure both the circles are properly aligned.

Step 3

Select both the circle and with the help of the Alt key create duplicate circles and place them as shown in the below image.

Step 4

Select the Pen Tool and press & hold the Shift key. Then click on the left anchor point of the upper circle and while drawing a straight line click on the left anchor point of the lower circle.

Similarly, draw a straight line on the right side.

Select all the shapes and press Ctrl + G to Group them.

Step 5

Select the group and click on Object in the Menu Bar. Place the cursor on Transform and select Rotate.

In the Rotate dialogue box, set the angle to 90⁰and click on Copy.

Step 6

Select all the shapes and click on Object in the Menu Bar. Then click on Expand.

Step 7

Let all the paths be selected and click on ShapeBuilder Tool in the Tool Panel. With the help of the Shape Builder Tool, we will remove the unwanted paths and will merge the remaining paths while creating overlapping and underlapping paths.

After selecting the Shape Builder Tool, press & hold the Alt key and remove the paths which are at the corner. (See the below image)

NOTE: You may also use a reference image to help in deleting and merging paths.

Step 8

Now select the Selection Tool and rotate the whole selection to 90⁰ angles.

Again select the Shape Builder Tool and start merging the paths.

In this way create overlapping and underlapping paths by merging the shapes.

 Step 9

Select all the shapes and press Ctrl + 8 to make it a Compound Path. Then with the help of the Alt key make a duplicate copy of the shape.

Select that duplicate copy and press Shift + Xto swap the Fill and Stroke. Then increase the Stroke Width and expand the shapes. Open the Pathfinder Panel and click on Unite to create a compound shape.

Now place this compound shape over the original shape with the help of Align Panel. Select both the compound shapes and then click on Minus Front in the Pathfinder Panel.

This is how you know How to Draw Celtic Knots in Adobe Illustrator.

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