How to draw a picture like this with Illustrator?

[Jonopen]

In Xara what I would do (and I'm no expert!) is:

1. draw a circle
2. draw a straight line from the centre to the circumference
3. move the rotation point of the line to the middle
4. clone the line (Ctrl-K)
5. rotate the line by 72 degrees
6. repeat until you have 5 lines
7. select all the lines and circle
8. combine shapes --> intersect all shapes
9. draw another circle centred to the original one
10. create the interlocking shapes by either adding or subtracting small circles from the first one
11. colour, stroke and fill as required

See attached quick example files. The .ai file was exported from the .xara file.



Good luck with your learning journey.