Illustrator Crash Course
Since Illustrator is widely used in the Graphic Design industry, thanks to it's vector graphics based painting and object creation tools, it's only essential that I delved into the program and learned how to use the tools at my disposal. Now, I have already had some experience with Adobe Illustrator as I have used it for other units in the past, however, most of the time I had a tutor helping me use the program, so this was my first time using it on my own. I was already acquianted with the pen tool and object tools, not to mention the text function, so I had a head start in that respect. The first thing I focused on learning abotu was the pen tool, easy to use, but it takes patience to master the tool. I found that curves are the most difficult thing to master, as you have to know which way to drag the pen tool, and which way to position it so that you gain the curves you want. I also had a lot of trouble making one big path, instead of creating one path, deselecting the pent tool, and then going in again.
The next thing I decided to focus on was the pencil tool and the brush tool, which are a lot easier to use, but not as clean-cut or organised, especially as I have been using the mouse with my right hand, and not my left hand with which I usually use a pen tablet for design work and at home.
I watched a lot of tutorials on Illustrator online, and I have watched videos on how to add color, fill and stroke, gradient, use the pen, pencil and brush tools and stroke weight, size and brush styles. So far I have practiced using the pen, pencil and brush tools, adding colour and gradient and using stroke weights and brush styles. I have learned that while the pen tool is good for more "vector" and geometric shapes, the brush tool works better for more organic and free flowing shapes,or shapes that have a lot of curved angles.
The next thing I decided to focus on was the pencil tool and the brush tool, which are a lot easier to use, but not as clean-cut or organised, especially as I have been using the mouse with my right hand, and not my left hand with which I usually use a pen tablet for design work and at home.
I watched a lot of tutorials on Illustrator online, and I have watched videos on how to add color, fill and stroke, gradient, use the pen, pencil and brush tools and stroke weight, size and brush styles. So far I have practiced using the pen, pencil and brush tools, adding colour and gradient and using stroke weights and brush styles. I have learned that while the pen tool is good for more "vector" and geometric shapes, the brush tool works better for more organic and free flowing shapes,or shapes that have a lot of curved angles.
Straight Paths
The first tool I began using was the pen tool, the pen tool is the most widely used tool in Illustrator, as it allows you to do many different things and has many different possibililties and styles. It is also one of the most powerful tools too. The first exercise was to create simple, straight paths using the pen tool, to do this I simply had to click where I wanted the beginning of my line to be, and click again wherever I wanted to create a line, I also sometimes held down the "Shift" key on my keyboard to create a perfectly straight line. The next thing I moved onto was creating diagonal lines, I also sometimes used the "shift" key to create perfect diagonals too. However most of the shapes and templates were not "perfect diagonals" so I simply clicked where I wanted the diagonal to be, and clicked again to determine the length and end or point of my diagonal line. I also used the pen tool and straight and diagonal paths (or lines) to create the triangle and star shape below, as you can see the star shape isn't a "perfect" star shape, as none of the angles or points are exactly the same, this is because I am generally bad at drawing geometric shapes like star shapes anyway.
Straight and curved paths
The next exercise was to create lines with curves in them or on the end points of a path (line). Drawing curves is one of the most difficult things to master in Illustrator as the tool is sometimes unpredictable (unless you know the program well). As you can see below the image tells you how to create the curved paths using a template, the template isn't showing on this image because I saved the image as a JPEG, and doing so (if you have created paths over the template) hides the templates. Creating curves within a straight line is surprisingly more difficult than creating a curve all by itself. I found the exercise a little bit more difficult, but I still managed quite easily. Creating curves with the pen tool works by first clicking where you want to create a curve, and then clicking and holding the mouse button down and dragging either up, down, left, or right, depending on what direction you want the curve to be in or how tight or large you want the curve to be.
Curved Paths
I then moved onto creating curved paths, the most difficult thing about this was trying to make multiple curves, like the first shape on this image. You can also create a "perfect" circle by connecting two curves together. Creating the perfect circle was the thing I found easiest within this exercise. The idea is the same, simply click, and click, hold and drag, but as I said in the section above this, creating curves isn't easy, and requires some good practice to master it.
Editing Paths
This exercise focused primarily on editing curves or lines you had already create, by either making them into curves or angles. The tool you use for this is in the Pen Tool menu, and is called the corner point, or edit path tool. The process of this is that you use the add point/corner tool first, to split the straight line into two connected segments, then use the edit path tool and create a corner or pyramid shape, you then click the corner point (indicated by a small red dot) hold, and drag very similar to how you would create a curve.
Template Practice
This template put everything I had just learned to the test and into practice. The first template I focused on was the Umbrella, I had no difficulty with the handle and the lower curves on the umbrella, but the top large curve proved a little bit challenging, I just couldn't seem to get the curve to fit the template correctly, although in the end with a bit of experimenting I managed it. I then coloured it in using stroke and gradient. The next template was the Seashell, this was the one I had the most difficulty with, the top corners/curves were easy to do, but the little flick/curve on the bottom right hand side proved to be difficult, because it was such a small curve, creating it was really fiddly and difficult to grasp, in the end I decided to just leave it alone. I then coloured it in using stroke and gradient, I had a little problem with getting the gradient to be subtle, but I managed to compromise. I then moved onto creating the car, the wheels were what I have the most difficulty with, curves again I guess. I also had difficulty making the wheels "connect" with the car body, but I managed with the help of my tutor to make the wheels perfect circles and connect them to the body. I then moved onto making a palm tree, I only used two curves for this, as most of the leaves were basically lines, I coloured it in with a green, tropical feeling gradient and left the stroke black for a more striking effect, I also made the stroke thicker using the stroke weight menu. As you can see the cloud shape didn't go as planned, because the shape was mostly curves I had some issues with it, as I do not have a lot of experience creating curves. I left the stroke black and gave it a blue and grey gradient. Then I moved onto creating the ship, this was very easy as most of it is made up of lines, and there are only four curves in it. I kept the stroke black and coloured it in using the gradient tool.
Pencil PEn and Brush Tool Practice
I then moved onto a practice sheet that tested everything I had just learned, and also taught me about the Pencil and Brush tool, the pencil tool allows users to create free form shapes with an effect similar to traditional art. The tutorial also should me how to edit the stroke (width) of the shape you have created, which is a very handy tool as it allows you to create a more traditional effect, and mimic brush strokes. After this I moved onto using the brush tool, the brush tool is very similar to the pencil tool, however instead of directly showing you what you have drawn, the brush tool interprets it in the brush style you have selected, this is extremely helpful for drawing calligraphy and chinese characters as pictured in this sheet. However the pencil and brush tools are a little unpredictable compared to the pen tool as you have complete and direct control over the shape you are creating which can be difficult if you aren't experienced in drawing.
Compounding Shape vectors
I then learned about compounding and grouping shape vectors, I found this really easy to do and quite fun, I had a good time trying out all the types of compounding. When compounding shape vectors, you use the Pathfinder tool. Compounding shapes allows you to create totally new and interesting shapes, by grouping, slicing and inverting selections. I also learnt a really good shortcut, which is holding the ALT key to create a quick copy of a selection or object.
TYPE
Then I moved onto experimenting with type and the effects you can give it in Adobe Illustrator, the thing I found most interesting about this is that Illustrator makes it a lot easier to use type creatively, you can easily change the fill and stroke of type using the type tools, and the touch-type tool comes incredibly handy when trying to edit and warp type quickly. Other tools, like the text space tool, allow you to quickly type into a shape or closed path.