Santa Hat
1. Hat
Start your hat by drawing 2 basic
paths and filling them with Linear gradient
(red to darker-red).
2. Shadow
Make a path (shadow path) like the
image on the left. Select the top part of the hat, Copy & Paste
in Front (Ctrl+F). Now, select the copied
path and the shadow path, hold down Alt key and select Intersect
shape areas in Pathfinder pallate.
Your path should looks like the
image on the left. Repeat this step to make another shadow path for the bottom
part of the hat. Then fill these 2 shadow paths with Linear gradient
(red to darker-red), in your Transparency pallate,
select Multiply.
3. Fur
With your Pen Tool, roughly
draw a path like the image on the left and fill it with grey color. Go to Effect
> Distort & Transform > Roughen
Roughen
Options
In your Roughen window, enter
the following setting: Size=8%, Detail=95/in, select Corner
points. You may click on the Preview check box to preview your result.
Make a copy of the grey path by
holding down Alt + drag (you may use Copy & Paste if you
like) and fill it with white. Scale it down a bit and bring it up slightly
above the grey path. Select the top part of the hat and its shadow, bring them
to front by Object > Arrange > Bring to Front (Ctrl+Shift+]).
Use the Ellipse Tool to make
the circle and repeat the previous step to make the furry ball.
Final
Your final illustration should looks
like the image shown below.