Friday, July 03, 2015

I suck at Illustrator

It's a shame too. Had a job that felt like it was mine.
But Illustrator is the tool I need to be able to use.
He likes all my illustration, photoshop stuff.
I just have to be able to use illustrator to also do cool stuff.
Everything thus far is completely half baked.
I've learned a lot. It just doesn't translate as good art.


JMG added: That's because (Based on what you did here) your relying too much on FILL and STROKE. You have to break it down to color overlaps. Just as if you were doing coloring line art in Photoshop.


ELG asked-So is your main tool the pen tool?
Do you draw and then trace much? 
I'll try one tomorrow that uses some of Jim and Ben's tips.
Pencil tool drawing with fill, no stroke. I think I can achieve coolness with this technique.
Typical kind of job I'd be expected to do. Find resources on the web and mash them up.



9 comments:

BDMontag said...

Which version are you running? With the advanced pencil tool you can get pretty far with your line work before you have to go back to pen or direct selection to futz around with vector points. I don't like using the Live Paint tool, though have gotten used to it. People who hate Illustrator take to using it. If I had my way, I'd get a job where most of my day would be in Illustrator. I'd defer to JG on advice.

JMG said...

That Illo is a combination of Brush and Pen tool.

JMG said...

The most useful tools to me are Stroke Outline and Pathfinder.

BDMontag said...

I've taken to using the Shapebuilder tool rather than Pathfinder menu.

Ellis, you can draw with brushes and add pressure sensitivity to them to liven up the line. There is also a line widening tool Width Tool which is kind of whacky.

I used this video to catch up on some line-coloring issues when I fell behind on upgrades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btr_o_vgFJw
This shows how to close the shapes that drawing with brushes leaves open and how to color with Live Paint.

I wouldn't work exactly this way, but it is a way to get away from vector point meshugas.

MrGoodson2 said...

Thanks Guys. I'm using pathfinder. I get that. You guys telling me you use drawing tools like pencil and brush gives me permission to do it.

I'm using CC.

Got one of my Academic Superstore emails to take advantage of my teacher discount, which of course should be lapsed by 7 years. 20 bucks a month. Didn't complain about getting a teacher discount for a year. I've got photoshop and illustrator.

BDMontag said...

If you are going to work pencil, no stroke, try the blob brush and your eraser with the wacom (you have a wacom right?) Then use the smooth pencil along the sides of your shape.

MrGoodson2 said...

No, I have a monoprice tablet. But I'll have the cintiq back this week. Fingers crossed.
I will try the blob brush. It's kind of a dynamic pathfinder tool?

Tom Moon said...

Ellis, love these last two drawings of yours, the deep-sea diver and spaceman(?). Wonderful designs!

MrGoodson2 said...

Thanks Tom. I'm getting close to digging illustrator.