Getting Started With Adobe Illustrator

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Getting Started With Adobe Illustrator

Author: AndrewWhiteman | Total views: 44 | Word Count: 752 | Category: Information Technology | Date: Feb 9th 2008

Adobe Illustrator is often the least used member of the graphic design trinity which also includes InDesign (or QuarkXPress) and Photoshop. Its main use is the creation of print graphics, anything from a corporate logo or a map of directions to your office. It can also be used to build website layouts and web graphics include Flash animations. There are also several functions relating to page layout, such as the ability to link paragraphs of text and run text around images.

Illustrator is often the final member of the Adobe Creative Suite that people will get around to learning. Delegates coming on our Adobe Illustrator training courses will often complain that the program seems less inviting and exciting than Photoshop. And, although Photoshop is a complex package, they find themselves using it for all their graphic work, even things which would much easier to create in Illustrator. Part of this difficulty in getting started with Illustrator is the fact that it often appears to new users that the program is hard work: you create a new file and you're presented with a blank page. You have to create your drawing entirely from scratch.

Adobe Illustrator training courses need to do more than simply teach delegates how to use the various tools and techniques. Delegates also need to learn how to get past that intimidating blank page they see when they create a new image. We've identified four main techniques for curing "Blank Canvas Syndrome". Firstly, to identify precisely what type of artwork you need to create. Secondly, to use Illustrator's Live Trace facility to generate useful vector content. Thirdly, to use scanned images as background elements within your drawings which can act as guides and points as reference for the artwork you create. And, finally, to base new elements you create on elements that already exist within your drawings.

The most successful Illustrator training courses that we run are for people who know exactly what they want to use the program for. It could be cartographers, technical illustrators or fabric designers; as long as they have a specific brief, we can show them the best techniques to solve their particular requirement. However, for a lot of delegates, Illustrator is something they feel they could and should be using but they don't really know where to start.

When we are dealing with users who don't have such straightforward uses for Illustrator, we try to emphasise to them that there are ways of avoiding having to draw every single stroke of your artwork from scratch. We show them how bitmaps and scanned artwork can be used as starting points for their own vector drawings, how they can trace images and keep images on background layers as points of reference as they create their own artwork.

Illustrator's Live Trace utility was developed from a standalone program called Adobe Streamline and is extremely powerful. It can be used to convert any scanned or bitmapped image into a vector. Naturally, the nature of the resulting vector image depends on the original. However, it's very fast and the results can be extremely impressive; so it's always worth trying it out if your feel that it may create something you can clean up and use.

Bitmapped images can also provide useful visual reference points as you create your own artwork. You place the image on a background layer and, optionally reduce its opacity down to around 45%, so it doesn't clash with the elements you are creating. As you draw, you can then make constant comparisons between your own art and the content of the background reference images.

Another way of getting past Illustrator Blank Canvas Syndrome is to base new elements that you create on elements that already exist within your drawing. The program has a rich range of tools and techniques for doing this. You can create simple copies of an original element and you can also create transformed copies of the original. Illustrator also has the facility of applying multiple attributes to the same object. For example, you can give the same circle, say, five borders rather than creating five overlapping circles.

In short, that blank Illustrator page can soon be filled with lots of funky stuff. The trick is to realise that, once you decide what it is you want to create, your can accelerate the process of drawing by tracing elements from bitmapped images, using images as points of reference and basing new items within your drawing on elements that you've already created.

Article Source: OrganizingWeb.net

About the Author

The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Solutions, an independent computer training company offering Adobe Illustrator training courses at their central London training centre.

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Adobe Illustrator is often the least used member of the graphic design trinity which also includes InDesign (or QuarkXPress) and Photoshop. Its main use is the creation of print graphics, anything from a corporate logo or a map of directions to your office. It can also be used to build website layouts and web graphics include Flash animations. There are also several functions relating to page layout, such as the ability to link paragraphs of text and run text around images. 
Illustrator is often the final member of the Adobe Creative Suite that people will get around to learning. Delegates coming on our Adobe Illustrator training courses will often complain that the program seems less inviting and exciting than Photoshop. And, although Photoshop is a complex package, they find themselves using it for all their graphic work, even things which would much easier to create in Illustrator. Part of this difficulty in getting started with Illustrator is the fact that it often appears to new users that the program is hard work: you create a new file and you're presented with a blank page. You have to create your drawing entirely from scratch. 
Adobe Illustrator training courses need to do more than simply teach delegates how to use the various tools and techniques. Delegates also need to learn how to get past that intimidating blank page they see when they create a new image. We've identified four main techniques for curing "Blank Canvas Syndrome". Firstly, to identify precisely what type of artwork you need to create. Secondly, to use Illustrator's Live Trace facility to generate useful vector content. Thirdly, to use scanned images as background elements within your drawings which can act as guides and points as reference for the artwork you create. And, finally, to base new elements you create on elements that already exist within your drawings. 
The most successful Illustrator training courses that we run are for people who know exactly what they want to use the program for. It could be cartographers, technical illustrators or fabric designers; as long as they have a specific brief, we can show them the best techniques to solve their particular requirement. However, for a lot of delegates, Illustrator is something they feel they could and should be using but they don't really know where to start. 
When we are dealing with users who don't have such straightforward uses for Illustrator, we try to emphasise to them that there are ways of avoiding having to draw every single stroke of your artwork from scratch. We show them how bitmaps and scanned artwork can be used as starting points for their own vector drawings, how they can trace images and keep images on background layers as points of reference as they create their own artwork. 
Illustrator's Live Trace utility was developed from a standalone program called Adobe Streamline and is extremely powerful. It can be used to convert any scanned or bitmapped image into a vector. Naturally, the nature of the resulting vector image depends on the original. However, it's very fast and the results can be extremely impressive; so it's always worth trying it out if your feel that it may create something you can clean up and use. 
Bitmapped images can also provide useful visual reference points as you create your own artwork. You place the image on a background layer and, optionally reduce its opacity down to around 45%, so it doesn't clash with the elements you are creating. As you draw, you can then make constant comparisons between your own art and the content of the background reference images. 
Another way of getting past Illustrator Blank Canvas Syndrome is to base new elements that you create on elements that already exist within your drawing. The program has a rich range of tools and techniques for doing this. You can create simple copies of an original element and you can also create transformed copies of the original. Illustrator also has the facility of applying multiple attributes to the same object. For example, you can give the same circle, say, five borders rather than creating five overlapping circles. 
In short, that blank Illustrator page can soon be filled with lots of funky stuff. The trick is to realise that, once you decide what it is you want to create, your can accelerate the process of drawing by tracing elements from bitmapped images, using images as points of reference and basing new items within your drawing on elements that you've already created. Article Source: <a href="http://www.organizingweb.net" target="_blank">OrganizingWeb.net</a> About the Author: The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with <a href="http://www.macresource.co.uk">Macresource Computer Solutions</a>, an independent computer training company offering <a href="http://www.macresource.co.uk/courses/illustr.htm">Adobe Illustrator training courses</a> at their central London training centre.