Best way to re-create or draw swirl / spiral shapes

Question

I am trying to recreate a shape similar to the one in the attachment below, but I can't seem to get it right. I have run into this type of shape once or twice before, and last time I retraced it by hand which was not perfect and time consuming.

I have tried the spiral tool, but the shape is off. So far the best method I have it to cut a circle and drag the bottom out, but I still end up having to make corrections and some of the curves are noticeably off. Does anyone know of a better way to recreate something like this?

Answer 1

Looks like a few circles might do the trick for this.

I just made mine up so it's not perfect but the technique should work all the same.

Once you have the circles where you want them, you need to add new points to the paths where the lines intersect (or you can also use Divide in the pather finder)and then delete what you don't need.

Use the join and join average commands, and then use the smooth tool if you have any line transition issues.

Answer 2

I can also see the width tool working well for this. First you draw a line roughly through the middle of the spiral shape with roughly the width of the thickest part of the spiral. Then set the stroke end to round, have it taper to zero on the outer point, and adjust the width where it needs to be wider or narrower along the spiral.