How to Make a Colorful Blurred Background

Vector Backgrounds in Illustrator

Colorful blurred backgrounds are everywhere these days. Fortunately there are tons of different techniques to make them in Photoshop. You can start with a single picture or just make them using plain colors and the Liquify filter. But today I'll show you how to make a Colorful Blurred Background in Illustrator to use at any size and any resolution, and to beat all that, that's easy to edit.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and make a new RGB document with any dimensions that you want. In this case, I will make mine with a size of 900 x 630 px.

Step 2

Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a rectangle that fits the entire canvas.

Step 3

With the rectangle selected, select the Mesh Tool (U) and click once inside the rectangle to add a new point as shown.

Step 4

Again, add a new point as shown.

Step 5

Finally, add one more point to complete our mesh grid.

Step 6

Select the Direct Selection Tool (A), and click on the top left anchor point to select it.

Step 7

Hold Shift on your keyboard and click once over these 3 anchor points to select them.

Step 8

Go to Window > Color to show the color window and set the color to #e9cee3.
Note: you can use any color that you like.

Step 9

Click anywhere on the document to deselect the points we selected. With the Direct Selection Tool selected, and while holding the Shift key on your keyboard, click once over these 3 anchor points to select them.

Step 10

In the Color window, set the color for these 3 points to #e5e87c.
Note: you can use any color that you like.

Step 11

Again, click anywhere on the document to deselect the points we selected. With the Direct Selection Tool selected, and while holding the Shift key on your keyboard, click once over these 3 anchor points to select them.

Step 12

In the Color window, set the color for these 3 points to #6e53a2.
Note: you can use any color that you like.

Step 13

Again, click anywhere on the document to deselect the points we selected. With the Direct Selection Tool selected, and while holding the Shift key on your keyboard, click once over these 4 anchor points to select them.

Step 14

In the Color window, set the color for these 3 points to #a95ea5.
Note: you can use any color that you like.

Step 15

One more time, click anywhere on the document to deselect the points we selected. With the Direct Selection Tool selected, and while holding the Shift key on your keyboard, click once over these 8 anchor points to select them.

Step 16

In the Color window, set the color for these 8 points to #e390bd.
Note: you can use any color that you like.

Step 17

Finally, click anywhere on the document to deselect the points we selected. With the Direct Selection Tool selected, and while holding the Shift key on your keyboard, click once over these 3 remaining anchor points to select them.

Step 18

In the Color window, set the color for these 3 points to #9b8ec4.
Note: you can use any color that you like.

Step 19

Again, click anywhere on the document to deselect the points we selected. With the Direct Selection Tool selected, pick one anchor point and drag it to another position.

Step 20

Repeat this process for all those anchor points you want to move to give the background a bit more of movement.
Quick Tip: try to also move the handles of some anchor points to give the background even more movement and form new transitions.

Step 21

Here is a sample grid with the anchor points that forms our grid, but moved to another position.

Step 22

With the same procedure of moving the anchor points, this grid also has the same amount of anchor points and uses the same colors we assigned.

Some Final Notes

As you may see, making a blurred background in Illustrator is easier than you think. One of the great advantages of making these type of backgrounds in Illustrator, is that you can easily edit it. To change the colors, just select any of the anchor points with the Direct Selection Tool and give it any color you like in the Color window. Changing the mesh grid is also a breeze, just select an anchor point as you normally do, drag it, and see how your background changes giving you infinite combinations.