Warp grid as curves

Question

I am trying to recreate the following shape in Adobe Illustrator:

But I am failing spectacularly. I can't seem to find the right distortion, despite having tried a bunch of different settings and effects.

I tried the envelope distort options, the effect distorts and warps. I tried the mesh distort, but the result was not good - the lines weren't connected even though I had created a normal grid, and I couldn't recreate the size properly.

Answer 1

I would try to do this an entirely other way. Don't start with a rectangular grid and distort that, as you have.

Check what lines the shape is built out of. In this case, that's horizontal lines and quarter circles.

• Draw a quarter circle using the Arc tool (part of the Line tool);
• Alt + drag it to the right to copy it once;
• Press Ctrl / Cmd+D a few times to repeat the transformation;
• Draw horizontal lines on the fitting heights.