Organic Word Balloons in Illustrator
by Matt Razzano

This is a how-to tutorial on making your illustrator word balloons more organic.

Many artists would like to use programs like Adobe Illustrator to letter their comic work but find that the mechanical look of the word balloons and fonts doesn’t match their drawing style.  Either their work is more highly rendered, or has a more hand drawn look that clashes with the perfect ovals of illustrator.  There are a few simple steps that will help correct this problem and give your word balloons a more hand drawn look.

1. The first step in making a word balloon in illustrator is to set your text with the font you want and the size you want on the margin of the page.  Make sure your paragraph is set to center.  You want to try and make sure your text is as compact as possible without it becoming hard to read.
   
2. Next make sure to set your colors to a white fill and a black outline and draw an oval with the ellipse tool.
   
3. Now that that’s done, you can move the text into the center of the ellipse and bring it to the front by hitting ctrl>].  Make sure your text is centered and has enough room to sit in the oval without touching the edges.  The text should be at least one half cap height away from the edge of the oval.  A cap height is the height of a capitol letter in the font you are using.
   
4. Next select your warp tool from your tool bar.
   
5. Double click on the warp tool icon to bring up the warp tool options menu.  Depending on the size of the word balloon you are working on, you may want to adjust the size of the curser used by the warp tool.  Generally most word balloons are big enough to use a curser that is 1.25 to 1.5 inches in diameter.
    
6. If you’re using a Wacom tablet or other pressure sensitive device, select the “use pressure pen option on the options menu.
   
7. With your ellipse selected, gently use the warp tool to make it into a more organic form.
   
8. Now select your Pen tool from the tool bar to start making the tail of the word balloon.
   
9. Choose a point of origin for the tail and click to place a point.  Then click and drag inside the oval or the word balloon to form a gentle arc which breaks the border of the balloon.
   
10. Click on each point once after it has been placed to remove one of the handles.  This will make it possible to form angles.  Now complete the tail of the word balloon using the same method.
    
11. Go back to your selection tool on the tool palate.
    
12. While holding down the “shift” key, click on both the word balloon and the tail to select them.  Be sure that you have NOT selected the text.
    
13. Find the pathfinder window in the “window” drop down menu at the top of the page.  Once you have found the pathfinder select the “Add to shape area” button and click it.  This will make the word balloon and the tail into one shape.
    
14. After performing this function you may notice that the word balloon has again moved in front of the text.  To remedy this simply send it backwards until your text appears by hitting ctrl>[ repeatedly.
    
15. You have now created a word balloon in adobe illustrator that will flow much better with a more organic or highly rendered artwork and will retain the flexibility and speed of digital media.