Get Started With Adobe Illustrator
YOU’LL NEED THIS
ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR
CC 2020 To view compatibility visit: https://helpx.adobe. com/illustrator/system
requirements.html.
WE’VE RECENTLY FEATURED quite a few Photoshop tutorials, so we thought we’d switch it up a little and give its sister software a bit of love. Illustrator is an equally powerful tool in the Adobe ecosystem. At first glance, all the apps in the Adobe suite look pretty similar. Apart from the names and color schemes, you could easily be forgiven for getting them confused. This, though, is a good play from Adobe; with similar interfaces, it makes switching between the apps a bit easier. We will get on to Illustrator’s UI in more detail a little later.
Essentially, the main difference between Photoshop and Illustrator is that Photoshop uses pixels and is raster-based, whereas Illustrator uses vector-based rastering. In simpler terms, vector rastering creates points to make smoother lines. This makes it perfect for creating logos and graphic design work that can be scaled up without pixelation. If you need to create typography work, Illustrator is perfect for that very reason. Nobody wants pixelated text unless you’re going for a retro 8-bit look. If you are, then use Photoshop—you’ll get it whether you want it or not. Anyway, in this tutorial we’re taking a first look at Illustrator, explaining how to navigate around and get started with this excellent tool. –SAM LEWIS
1 CREATE A NEW DOCUMENT
As we mentioned, Illustrator shares a similar interface with Photoshop, and if you’ve been following our Photoshop tutorials, this should hopefully be a familiar place for you now. The tools aren’t identical and certain things are named differently, but the format of the software is the same. When starting up the app, you are greeted by the opening screen, where you can see previous projects and have the option to open or create a new file. For today’s tutorial, we are just going to open up a blank A3-sized document. Click the “Create new” button. A window opens and along the top are options for various formats. Head to the “Print” tab and select “A3”—we have chosen a landscape orientation [ Image A].
>> A few eagle-eyed readers may notice that when you go from a digital file type, such as a web page template, to a print format, the color mode changes from RGB to CMYK automatically. This is perfectly normal and correct. When we are creating any project for the web or digital media, the color format is always RGB. Digital creations are composed of red, green, and blue color mixes. When it comes to physical artwork, like prints, these are made up of four color combinations—cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black), to make up the colors you have created.
>> Before we get too technical, we need to click the “Create” button at the bottom-right of this window to create our workspace and get into Illustrator’s tools.
2 SET UP YOUR WORKSPACE
The great thing about Adobe software is that the layouts are heavily customizable. If you would like, you can move all the tools around and just keep the ones that you want. There are various presets already created. Toward the top-left of the toolbar, there is a square window icon (for switching workspaces) [ Image B]. Click this to change the workspace layout to find one that suits your needs. We are using the “Essentials classic” workspace, but we have removed the “Libraries” tab on the right-hand side of the screen, and dragged the “Properties” tab to the bottom of the list next to it, just to make things a little cleaner.
>> On the left of the screen, you have your immediate tools. The main ones include the Selection tool, Direct Selection tool, Lasso tools, Pen tools, and Shape tools. There are lots of tools that make an appearance throughout the Adobe ecosystem, so you may be quite familiar with several of them by now. However, this introduces a potential problem: Certain shortcuts are different, depending on the software you’re using. Luckily, you can create custom shortcuts that can be universally used across all of Adobe’s programs. This
customization control from Adobe is what sets it apart and shows that the company really caters to creatives.
>> On the right-hand side of the screen, we can find some more advanced tools, preferences, and effects. We also have the “Layers” tab, just like Photoshop, plus properties, stroke settings, swatches, and more. As we go through a few different tutorials, we will touch base with more of these.
3 FIND YOUR WAY AROUND
Before we go any further, we need to make sure everything is kept simple and organized. Just like when you’ve been using Photoshop, things can get messy, and that makes work or personal projects get frustrating, and you may end up wanting to bash a hole through your keyboard. (For the record, do not attempt this—it almost always makes the situation worse.) Save your new document as an AI file with an appropriate name. This is Adobe Illustrator’s file type. You can export these documents into many different formats.
>> Navigating around the document is easy enough, too. While holding down Space, you can move your workspace by
simultaneously holding down the right button on your mouse and dragging. You can also zoom in and out with the magnifying glass tool on the left toolbar or by pressing Ctrl and the plus and minus keys accordingly. We have already touched on the left-hand and righthand tools, so we just have the top tabs to look at. The “File” tab is an easy one—it’s where all our file information sits; the “New,” “Open,” “Save,” “Print,” and “Export” functions are all accessed from here, as well as “Document setup,” which is great for changing the file size and information about your project. In the “Edit” tab you can find basic commands such as “Cut,” “Copy,” “Paste,” and so on. You also have color profiles, keyboard shortcuts, and spelling options. The next tab along is where it differs from Photoshop. The “Object” tab has lots of different options to alter something you have created, which is known an object. A Shape or a Pen tool drawing comes under this category and can be altered by the settings in this drop-down menu.
>> The rest of the tabs along the top are fairly generic to Adobe, which makes life a little easier. The “Type” tab contains all the typography settings, as the name implies. The “Select” tab helps you to pick out exactly what you want—it sounds pretty obvious, but trust us when we say this is a lifesaver. The same goes for the appropriately named “Effect,” “View,” “Window,” and “Help” tabs. Thanks, Adobe, for being straight to the point here. Now we’ve gone over the basics, we are going to create a little vector illustration, starting off with a polygon shape [ Image C].
4 SHAPING UP
To create this shape, go to the Shape tool on the left-hand side and select the Square tool. Then, using the Direct Selection arrow (the arrow with the white infill), select the bottom-left corner and drag it inward. Do the same on the other side to match. This
should create a plant pot shape, because we are going to draw a little plant as an introductory tutorial. Next, use the Rounded Rectangle tool to draw a small lip on the top of the plant pot. Click and drag to get the desired shape. Don’t worry if it isn’t centered, because you can drag this in the middle and it should snap and align to the center point of the pot.
>> Next, we need to start drawing the plants themselves. These are going to be simple curved Pen tool lines, so fear not. Begin by placing one point on the top of the plant pot, then click a point for the top of the plant, and drag a curve [ Image D1]. Before we connect it to the bottom, hold Alt and click on the top point to end the point there, otherwise you will end up with unwanted lines. As you practice with Pen tool drawing, this will become more obvious. To finish the rest of the leaves [ Image D2], we duplicated the shapes, and vertically reflected them. This was done using “Transform,” by right-clicking the shape.
5 SHADY BUSINESS
To complete this mini drawing, we need to add some color and shading. The style we are after is a form of flat design art, which when made digitally, is usually created using Adobe Illustrator, because it thrives in this area of art. To add shading to the pot, draw another thin rectangle underneath the lip of the pot. When done, use the Selection tool to select the newly drawn shape and the main pot. When these are both highlighted, we need to use Shape Builder tool from the left-hand toolbar (Shift-M). We are using this tool to cut off the edges, so it fits the width of the plant pot perfectly. It should end up looking like the image below [ Image E].
6 COLOR CREATION
Now we need to add some color. We are going to focus on the pot first, choosing an appropriate color. We need to hide the plants, so go to the “Layers” tab and click the eye icon to get rid of these for now. Highlight all sections of the pot and fill them with color. To create the shadow effect, find the rectangle we just created, click in the swatch color, and darken it. The shadow should look like the picture above [ Image F1].
>> After this, draw another rectangle down the middle of the whole shape and to the side. Again, highlight everything, then subtract the bits of shape around the pot using the Shape Building tool. Turn this new shape black and lower the opacity to around 10%. You should end up with a shaded plant pot [ Image F2].
>> Now we will focus on the leaves. Make these visible again in the “Layers” tab and hide the plant pot layers instead. Highlight all the leaves and color them in with a nice green. Using the Pen tool, create a shape that cuts halfway through each plant as equally as you can. Then use the Shape Building tool again to cut out a shape that is half of the leaf. Take this half, click into the color swatch, and darken it by choosing a similar but darker tone. Do this for each leaf and, hopefully, you will end up creating a nice little flat design plant artwork like ours [ Image G]. Keep going through this exercise and try to make it your own by practicing and modifying it however you like. It’s a fun way to quickly build up your skills with the Shape, Pen, and Shape Building tools.