Step 1: The Body

Open Adobe Illustrator, and set up a new document 600 by 800 pixels. Rename Layer 1 to “Bee”. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and create a 250 by 290px ellipse by clicking somewhere on your artboard and entering these values.

Press “A” on your keyboard to select the Direct Selection Tool and click on the left anchor point of the ellipse to select it. Hold down the Shift key, and press the Right Arrow key 11 times to move this point 110px to the right.

Now, grab the top handle of this anchor point and rotate it ccw just a little.

The basic shape of the bottom part of the body is ready, now we’re going to color it. Using the Gradient Tool (G) I filled this path with a four sliders radial gradient (#875527 to #E59133 to #E5AD33 and to #E59133 again). The Location of the second slider is 53% and of the third one is 73%. I have also set Aspect Ration to 137% and Angle to -2,6 degrees.

Step 2: Body Details

It is time to draw that cool stripes on the body that make a bee so recognizable. There are many ways to do that inside Adobe Illustrator.

First way:

Draw a much bigger (longer) line across the body using Pen Tool (P).

Select the body path, press “Ctrl + C” and then “Ctrl + F” to make a copy of it. Select this newly created copy and the line path and press the Intersect button in the Pathfinder panel.

Now repeat this step three more times and create another 3 lines like this.

Second way:

This works with Adobe Illustrator CS5 only! Click on the body path to select it and then press “Shift + D” twice to switch to the new “Draw Inside” mode. You will notice that a canvas around this path appeared, which means that this path is now used as a clipping mask.

You can now grab your Pen Tool once again start drawing the rest of the lines.

If you’re using an older version of Adobe Illustrator, you can create all those lines and then manually create a clipping mask from the body path.

Now, let’s add some better colors to these lines. Select them all (if you used Draw Inside mode then select from your Layers panel) and fill them with a linear three sliders gradient from #3C2415 (the darkest brown in your default swatches) to #8E520A (Position 66%) to #875527.

Much better!

Step 3: The Sting

Select the Pen Tool and try to draw a little stinger on the tip of the body path as you see in the image below.

Grab your Gradient Tool and make this gradient fill vertical, or just enter -90 Angle value in the Gradient Panel.

Using the Pen Tool draw a little shadow path near the stinger filled with #8E520A.

With this path selected go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur and enter 3,9px. This will add some extra detail to our illustration.

Step 4: Body (Top)

Select the Ellipse Tool (L) and create a 180 by 180px ellipse as you see in the image, you can fill it with any color for now.

Go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen and enter these settings:

After applying this affect, go to Object > Expand Appearance to make it look more furry.

Fill this path with a linear gradient from #CC6609 to #E5AD33, Angle ~10.

Step 5: Head

For the head, first of all draw an ellipse about 130 by 135 pixels.

Using the Direct Selection Tool (A) move the bottom anchor point 10px to left and the left anchor point 20px to right to obtain a better head path.

Fill the head path with radial gradient from #CC6609 to #E5AD33 as you see in the image.

Good, now we’re going to create all face elements. Let’s start from the eyes. Using the Ellipse Tool again, draw a small black circle.

Select white as fill color and “none” for stroke and draw an even smaller circle inside this one to create a highlight.

Select the eye itself and the highlight at the same time, hold down the Alt key and drag a copy of the eye. Make the second eye slightly smaller.

Just like we did with the shadow of the stinger, draw two little paths near the eyes, fill them with #CC6609 and the give a 3,9px Gaussian Blur.

Use Pen Tool to draw a smile on bee’s face, then drag a copy of the eye shadow near the mouth.

We need to draw two antennas on the forehead. You can use pen Tool to draw a closed path, or if you’re using CS5 you can trace a line and then make it (stroke) thicker on the top. I filled mine with a linear gradient from 100% black to 80%.

Create a copy of it and place it under the head path by pressing “Ctrl + [ ” ten times.

I’ve also place a little shadow under the first antenna.

Step 6: Hands

Now we are going to draw a pair of hands for our bee. Just like with antennas, you can either use Illustrator’s (CS5) beautiful strokes feature or use Pen Tool for this. First of all I’m going to draw the top and the middle part of the hand. After this using the Eyedropper Tool (I) click on one of the antennas to apply the same fill to this path.

Select the Ellipse Tool and draw a small ellipse fully filled with black. Rotate i ccw just a bit and the place it an the end of the hand. This is going to be the palm.

Make a copy of the entire hand, move it to the left and then by pressing “Ctrl + [ ” move its sublayer under the top part of the body, that’s about 15 times.

Also place a bigger copy of eye shadow on the shoulder.

Step 7: Wings

Last thing that our bee needs is a pair of wings to fly. Select the Pen Tool and draw a big wing on bee’s back.

Fill it with a linear gradient from #79D3F7 to #C49A6C (with opacity set to 0%).

Trace a path filled with #C49A6C that will slightly intersect the top side of the wing.

Make a copy of the wing path, select it, and then also select this intersecting path and press the “Intersect” button in the Pathfinder panel.

Reduce the opacity of this resulting path to 30%.

Now we will add some more detail to the wing. Select the Paintbrush Tool (B), set #27AAE1 as stroke color and “none” for the fill, reduce the opacity to 20% and select the Overlay Blending mode (inside the Transparency panel). After setting up the brush start drawing some random paths on the wing.

Select the Whole wing and press “Ctrl + G’ to group all these path together. Create a copy of the wing, scale it down and move to the left. Press “Shift + Ctrl + [ ” to place this group sublayer under the rest of the body.