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Creating Simple Elements with Shapes in Illustrator

Lesson 5 from: Drawing with Illustrator: Vector Graphics

Stewart Scott-Curran

Creating Simple Elements with Shapes in Illustrator

Lesson 5 from: Drawing with Illustrator: Vector Graphics

Stewart Scott-Curran

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Lesson Info

5. Creating Simple Elements with Shapes in Illustrator

Lesson Info

Creating Simple Elements with Shapes in Illustrator

let's start making some ships. So we go back to the less that we have before, Um, we go back to the sketch, we know that we're gonna need some trees. Eso it's Let's start creating some of those. So there's two different ways where you can really start creating elements you can use The pain to that we described a little bit before are we can use the ship to so I generally take, tend to think in terms off simplified geometric forms. Um, if we're gonna make a tree, there's a couple of different ways to do that. Okay, so the first thing that I'm going to do, we that I like to do it, um, I'm gonna create I'm gonna click the star too. Okay, The start to you think. OK, that's gonna give us five Sade's. You know, that's not gonna helpers create triangle or something that looks like a tree. Well, if I click once, that's going to give us some options. Is going to give a lovers to select number of points. So if I go from five, I'm going to take it down to three, which is going to give us somethin...

g that looks like a triangle. Okay? No, we have some extra anchor points in here that we can drag around. Okay, I'm not gonna use the words. What I'm actually going to do is to use the delete anchor points and get rid of those extras. Okay? And so what I'm gonna do looks upside down. So I'm gonna go in here and use the rotate to I'm gonna hold the shift key to make sure it snaps Teoh 1 80 degrees. And so they would have, like, a simple triangle. OK, no, this is a good thing to think about. What's this scale with the lane skill that we're gonna use? Are we gonna use color blocks? Um, what's the point size that we're going to use for the strokes? Okay, so it may be worth wail going in there and visiting some of those preferences. Okay, so I'm going to go into the when you window menu. I'm gonna click stroke. Let's bring in some of these options. If I click the arrow to save, it's gonna let me to be sure some extra options. Okay. So Well, I think I'm gonna do is I'm gonna were gonna just build like a simple linear Vater illustration, so we don't necessarily need any fellas on that right now, so I'm gonna get rid of the Phil. Gonna have to say that to none. Andi Probably What we're gonna do is, like, select two points. That's like a nace sheep that are losers to lease lane wheat. That Lowe's is to get a lot of detail, but it's not gonna be sort. Then that is gonna be hard to print. There's not gonna be so thick that when we try and have it ease of detail that some of those it is between the lanes are gonna We're gonna fill in, you know? So we're gonna We're going to select two points. Now we can make sure we could have, like, rounded ends. I'm gonna keep these just on, um, like square caps to the ends of the moment. We can We can change those as we go through. Um, but this is generally the in the lane with we're gonna use no something else that we want to make sure that we have in place at the moment, I'm gonna cope a piece that shape, uh, t show you what happens when we skill this shape. OK, that goes for skill. Okay, so usually if I wanna make if we want to skill the shape, let's say we want to take it twice the size. Okay? We're gonna have the preview. Usually the deforestation is that when you skill that size, that skill, this strong web there's gonna skill with it. Okay, so this stroke, we is going to be double the thickness. Now we want to have, like, a nace continuity in an uniformity of the stroke words across the illustration. So what, I'm gonna make sure I'm gonna de select skill, strokes and effects. And when I click that you're going to see that I can skill these elements to any size, but it's still going to remain walked two points, and that's gonna although was to build everything out and the same stroke. We and we're not gonna have to come back later and make sure all of those things are lined up to the same stroke. Wait. Okay. No. Okay. So hard to be How do we start to build a tree? So what I can do is I can I can manipulate this in a couple of different ways. I can just use my selection to to to drag up. Or I can use my direct selection to if you think about the shape of ah, maybe like a fir tree or a Christmas tree is obviously thicker the bottom. So what I can do is that I can I can click the anchor points that I wanna I wanna move, But hold the shift key I can select more than one of the was or I can just click and drag a rectangle around the new words that I want that I want to change. Okay? And so nowhere I click on one of the words on drag. I'm you can see like I can drag that to any shape. If I click the shift key, that's gonna keep everything locked up like a nice in a state like symmetrical shape.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Stewart Scott-Curran - Vector Graphics Illustrator File.ai

Ratings and Reviews

Anita
 

What an absolutely amazing class! I saw Stewart's artwork and it immediately connected with me so I knew I had to register for this class! I LOVE how he guides the student through his creative process from beginning to end...his description of the poem he used for his inspiration absolutely captivated me! Aside from the expert guidance with all the Illustrator tools and working through his composition, his methodology for developing the brief and conceptualizing the artwork from beginning to end held my attention! His second course (Color and Texture) is absolutely essential as well! He inspired me to experiment with Illustrator and get over my fear of it! Thank you Stewart! I hope you'll return to CreativeLive and teach more courses!

Mary Thomas
 

I purchased a companion class to this one by Scott and I was very pleased with the content, so I purchased this one as well. Both classes were very well presented and did not duplicate what was given in the other. I have now purchased seven classes by CreativeLive and am very happy with all of them. I have watched others as well on the free days with equally as favorable results.

user 2b0aa5
 

Great class. Well presented and fun project. Signed up for his second class.

Student Work

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