Illustrator From The Ground Up - Part 1: Preferences and Workspaces with Jason Hoppe

This session is exclusively available to CreativeLive subscribers. If you're not yet a subscriber, you can subscribe here.

Every great illustration starts with a well-organized workspace. In this first part of Illustrator From The Ground Up, Jason Hoppe shows you how to set up Adobe Illustrator so it works for you, not against you. You'll customize preferences, workspaces, menus, and keyboard shortcuts, then arrange your tools so the ones you use most are always within reach.

Next, Jason walks you through creating new documents and working with artboards. Then you'll start drawing. You'll create vector shapes and lines, edit them, and refine them with the Stroke panel. Along the way, you'll learn to use Smart Guides to snap, align, and measure your artwork as you draw.

By the end of this class, you'll have a clean, efficient setup and a solid understanding of how Illustrator builds artwork from shapes and paths. That foundation carries through the rest of the series.

This class includes a dedicated 30 minutes of Q&A directly with Jason Hoppe.

What You'll Learn

• Set up Illustrator's preferences, workspaces, menus, and keyboard shortcuts to suit the way you work
• Create new documents and use multiple artboards for different projects and output sizes
• Draw and edit basic vector shapes and lines with confidence
• Control stroke weight, caps, corners, and dashed lines with the Stroke panel
• Use Smart Guides to align and position artwork quickly and precisely

Who It's For

• Beginners who are opening Adobe Illustrator for the first time
• Designers and creatives moving to Illustrator from other design apps
• Self-taught users who want to fill in the gaps and work more efficiently
• Anyone planning to take the full Illustrator From The Ground Up series

How to Join

• The class will be delivered via Zoom Webinars. You'll need access to Zoom through a web browser or the Zoom app in order to participate.
• This class is exclusively available to CreativeLive subscribers. If you're not yet a subscriber, you can subscribe here.
• To reserve your spot, register using the Sign Up form and button above. Space is limited.
• A unique Zoom join link will be sent to registered subscribers, up to the maximum number of participants per class. You'll receive this link one hour before the class start time.

About the Instructor

Jason Hoppe is an Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Certified Instructor with a graphic design background. For 19 years he has taught Adobe software, including Illustrator, at Seattle's School of Visual Concepts, Luminous Works, and Seattle Central College, and he is the founding instructor at CreativeLive. He breaks complex tools down into clear, practical steps, which helps students of every level build confident vector illustration, logo, and layout skills they can put to work right away.

Jason's teaching draws on 20 years of real production work. He has led electronic production departments at Seattle agencies such as Hornall Anderson and Bozell/FCB, and has built design workflows for clients like Costco and Cascade Designs. That experience means his Illustrator lessons go beyond what each tool does: he teaches how professionals use it to work efficiently, avoid production problems, and deliver polished, print- and digital-ready artwork.