This tutorial will teach you how to draw a snowflake pattern in Illustrator
Turn the rulers on using Ctrl/Command+R. Drag out 2 lines from the Rulers to form an intersection. This is going to be the middle point of the snowflake. To create a Hexagon, choose the Polygon Tool and click the intersection point while holding Alt/Option+Shift. Make a thick stroke and set the Fill to none.
Choose the Rounded Rectangle and click on the canvas once. The Options window will appear. Set the Corner Radius to 2mm. Then, delete the shape.
Draw the stem of the snowflake using the Rounded Rectangle as shown above.
Draw another branch as seen above. Rotate it to an angle of 30 degrees. Duplicate 3 more branches from the first branch using Alt/Option+drag.
To form the snowflake pattern, adjust the individual branches. Then select the 4 pieces and go to Pathfinder and click Add to Shape.
Make a rectangle using the Rectangle Tool to cover the areas protruding from the centre of the branch. Choose the 4 branches and the rectangle. Click Minus to Shape to delete the protruding shape. Then, click Expand to expand the shape.
To reflect the pattern, choose the Reflect Tool and Alt/Option click the horizontal guide. An Option window will appear. Set Vertical for axis and click Copy to duplicate a mirror of the pattern.
Choose both the pattern and hold Alt/Option and click on Add to shape from the Pathfinder.
2. Creating the Snowflake Pattern
Choose the Rotate Tool and Alt/Option, and click at the centre of the snowflake. Enter 60 for the Angle and click Copy. Click Cttrl/Command+D a few more times to repeat the rotation until you got 6 branches.
This is the snowflake effect.
Choose the pentagon at the centre and navigate to Object>Expand to expand the stroke. Triangle points will appear at the corners. To solve this, click Merge once in the Pathfinder.
To combine the shapes, choose all the shapes and click Merge while holding Alt/Option.
3. Glowing Snowflake Effect
Draw a background with a radial gradient fill. Set a dark blue to bright blue in the middle of the background. Choose the snowflake and fill it with white.
Navigate to Effect>Stylize>Outer Glow. Set Mode to Screen and colour to white. Set Blur as you prefer.
Now you have the final snowflake with glowing edges.
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