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LinkedIn Learning

Introducing Illustrator

via LinkedIn Learning

Overview

Adobe Illustrator is a powerful tool for creating great artwork, but it can be hard to get started. This beginner’s guide teaches you what you need to achieve great results.

You’ve heard Adobe Illustrator is the most powerful drawing program on the planet. But every time you launch the program, you can’t figure out how to make even a simple drawing. In this course, acclaimed instructor and Illustrator expert Deke McClelland will teach you the most essential stuff you need to know, in the order you need to know it. You can learn how to comprehend the interface, manage artboards, and draw a perfectly smooth curve just to your liking. You can also learn how to make complex shapes from simpler ones, apply your intended color and appearance, and create any text that you need. Illustrator can be fun, and by the end of this course, the program will be your reliable ally for creating the illustration you want.

Syllabus

Introduction
  • A bright and confident beginning
1. Meet the Document
  • Welcome to the Home screen
  • Creating a new document
  • Welcome to the interface
  • Resizing and adding artboards
  • Getting around your document
2. Guides and Shapes
  • Creating snapping guidelines
  • Creating custom margin guides
  • Drawing geometric shapes
  • Drawing straight lines
  • Creating a borderless background
3. Beautifully Smooth Lines
  • Drawing with the Pencil tool
  • Editing a path with the Pencil tool
  • Painting with the Blob Brush
  • Using the Eraser tool
  • Simplifying path outlines
4. Text and Formatting
  • Installing fonts with Adobe Fonts
  • Creating and formatting text
  • Working with point type
  • Creating type on a path
  • Converting type to outlines
5. Fills and Strokes
  • Creating color swatches
  • Introducing the Appearance panel
  • Filling and stroking type
  • Applying variable-width strokes
  • Using the Gradient tool
  • Creating a radial gradient
  • Creating a freeform gradient
  • Using the Eyedropper tool
6. Edit and Organize
  • Using the Shape Builder tool
  • Copy, Flip, and Join
  • Offsetting a path outline
  • Groups vs. compound paths
  • Select and isolate
  • Creating a clipping mask
  • Introducing the Layers panel
7. Rotate, Reflect, and Scale
  • Using the Rotate tool
  • Using the Reflect tool
  • Using a Pathfinder operation
  • Rotating by the numbers
  • Duplicating a transformation
  • Using the Scale tool
  • Drawing a quick and easy penguin face
8. Precise Path Adjustments
  • Reshaping any path outline
  • Copy, Paste, Join, Offset
  • Using the Blend tool
  • Dynamic round corners
  • Adjusting control handles
  • Dragging curved segments
  • Using the Anchor Point tool
9. The Curvature and Pen Tools
  • Using the Curvature tool
  • Introducing the Pen tool
  • Drawing curves with the Pen
  • Smooth points and cusps
  • Drawing real-world paths
10. Dynamic Effects
  • Applying drop shadows
  • Editing a dynamic effect
  • Creating a perfect dotted outline
  • Using the Transform effect
  • Automatically tracing a photograph
  • Expanding a traced image
11. Live Paint
  • Introducing Live Paint
  • Editing a Live Paint object
  • Creating interwoven path outlines
  • Live Paint and gradients
Conclusion
  • Next steps

Taught by

Deke McClelland

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