How to Easily Make a Camouflage Background in Illustrator

Vector Backgrounds

Camouflage backgrounds are a versatile resource, making them a popular choice in various design projects ranging from apparel to digital art. At first glance, they may seem like a very complex task to achieve with all those colors and random overlapping shapes, but today, I will show you a very simple method to create your own camouflage background in Illustrator, in less than 5 minutes and using only the default Illustrator tools.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and make a new file at any size you want, today I will make mine at 600 x 400 px.

Step 2

Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and make a rectangle covering your whole artboard using any color you want, I will set mine to #3B2516.

Step 3

With the rectangle selected, go to Edit > Copy and then to Edit > Paste in Place.

Step 4

Give the copied rectangle any other color you want for your camouflage background. Here, I will set mine to #BCB689.

Step 5

With the copied rectangle selected, go to Effect > Artistic > Sponge. Apply the following settings and click OK.

Step 6

Go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 7

Next, with the expanded object selected, go to Window > Image Trace. Apply the following settings and click the "Trace" button.

Step 8

When the process finishes, click the "Expand" button in the top toolbar.

Step 9

With the expanded shape selected, go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Check the "Vertical"option and click the "Copy" button.

Step 10

Give the copied object any other color you want. I will set mine to #3B432F.

Step 11

Lastly, with the copied object selected go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Check the "Horizontal"option and click the "OK" button.

Some Final Notes:

Now that you know how quick and easy is to make a camouflage background in Illustrator, you can scale, rotate and do any modifications you want without loosing quality, or simply change the camouflage colors as you normally do in Illustrator like in the following examples.