Open Illustrator and set up a new d

Open Illustrator and set up a new document, any size you like, I’m using 800×600 pixels. Press (L) to select Ellipse Tool, click somewhere on you art board to bring up the Ellipse dialog box and enter values that you see in the image below, 320 pixels for Width and 250 for Height.

Now that we have the base for one of the lady bird’s body paths we can star editing it

Select the Direct Selection Tool (A) and click on the left anchor point , hold down the Shift key and press the down arrow key three times.

Reduce the size of lower handle of the same anchor point to about half of it’s size.

Do the same thing to the lower handle of the right anchor point.

Click on the lowest anchor point of the path to select it, hold down the Shift key and press up arrow key twice.

Use Ellipse Tool to create another smaller (270×175) ellipse like you see in the image

Press Ctrl + [ to send it back under the first path.

Select the main body path and give it a 2pt black stroke. Fill it with a three color radial gradient with the Aspect Ratio set to 80.5%. I used these colors: #E0532A to #E23A2A (position 74%) to #AF2D29.

Now we start working on the head shape. Create an ellipse, the edit anchor points of the path to create an egg-like path. Make sure that it also have a 2pt black stroke.