Use boolean tools to add ornaments

1 Creating the old iMac ornament

Switch to the Pen tool and use it to create an outline of a first-generation iMac. Once you’re happy with its shape, make sure it’s not stroked and has a gradient. You can give the gradient any colour you want – we decided to make ours Bondi Blue, which suits the watery theme!

2 Giving the iMac a facia

We need to give our iMac a white facia. Do this in the same way you drew the outline in step 1, this time giving it a very slight grey-to-white gradient. If you want to, you can add a little bit of depth to the iMac by creating the inside of the facia – this is up to you but it can be very effective.

3 An iMac needs a screen

Use the Rectangle tool to draw a shape (of any colour) big enough to fill the iMac’s screen area. Move the pointer just past one of the rectangle’s corners so the cursor changes, then drag to rotate it to fill the area. Use the Pen tool to draw a rough shape around this, with a glassy elliptical gradient.

4 Apply your first Boolean

Next, we’ll apply a Boolean operation to the shapes made in the previous step. Select the two layers that were created, then click on the Intersect tool near the right end of the toolbar. As its icon suggests, this will create an intersection of the two layers. This will be our iMac’s screen.

5 Finishing touches on the iMac

To make our iMac complete it needs speakers (well, the one that will be visible) and a CD drive. Draw them using the Pen tool and give both of them the same sky blue to dark royal blue gradient – although if you’ve decided on a different colour of iMac, the gradient will need to match that.

6 Fishing with an apple as bait

We need a line to hold the bait. Draw a straight line with the Pen tool, set its stroke to 0.9pt and, in the Brushes palette, set the brush type to Image and choose Rope - Thick. Add the bait in the same way you created the iMac: draw an apple and a leaf, and give both a greenish radial gradient.

7 Taking a bite of the apple

Our apple needs a bite taken out of it. Create two overlapping circles, the right one a little larger, on separate layers. Colour the smaller one like an apple’s flesh. Select them and use the Divide tool. This creates three layers. Delete the right and middle bits to leave the crescent-shaped bite.

8 Like a fish out of water

One of our fish is hungry and has jumped out of the fish bowl to try to eat the apple. Create this fish in the same way we made the others in part two. This time, though, give the fish some teeth to hold onto the apple. Adding a shadow from the teeth on the apple makes it more realistic.