Add depth and texture in Illustrator

08 Go to Effects>Texture>Grain. Set the intensity to 74, contrast to 50 and grain type to Sprinkles. You can experiment with all these settings until you are happy. Hit OK and, finally, in the Transparency panel drop-down menu, select Multiply. Now place your gradient back over the shape.
 

09 You can experiment with the direction and scale of your gradient by selecting the Gradient tool and dragging the cursor left to right or visa versa. Tweaking the sliders within the Gradient panel will also enable you to control the size of the gradient. Experiment with this process: long gradients lead you into a design; short, sharp gradients create a shadow effect.
 

10 Next we want to add some halftone patterns. Utilising another pre-set panel in Illustrator, open the Swatches drop-down menu and go to Open Swatch Library> Patterns> Basic Dots. We want to customise the colour to suit our colour palette.
 

11 Grab and then drag the pattern swatch you want onto your desktop. Then, with your Direct Selection tool, carefully click the line of the dots and colour it up. Repeat this for all the rows of dots.
 

12 With your black arrow, pick up the group of dots and drop it into your normal swatch panel. Next, copy a section that you want to apply it to, select the swatch and move the element back: you now have a halftone texture.
 

13 Playing around with the colour and intensity of the dots will help create a really interesting effect. However, all these steps will only be a success if the colours are adding to the sense of depth.
 

14 Lastly, start adding in the finishing details. I created snow on the tops of the mountains in my scene, and also a path that is just a single stroke. These extras help guide the viewer through the design.