Reality. Reborn.
Turning inspiration into art with Adobe Illustrator CC.
CSGD 458 Illustrator II
Illustrator II provides students the opportunity to expand their working knowledge of Adobe® Illustrator® CC 2014 Release (version 18x). Tips and techniques using gradients, masks, styles, brushes, symbols & patterns, color, blending & transparency are just a few of the topics that will be explored. Students will learn how Illustrator files are exported and used in other applications such as Photoshop and InDesign. Adobe Illustrator CC 2014 new features and best practices will be discussed, investigated and utilized throughout this course.
Prerequisite: CSGD 306 Illustrator I or equivalent experience
Students should bring a USB Flash drive to class.
Adobe® Creative Cloud™ Mobile Apps
New & FREE Creative Cloud mobile apps – Adobe Brush CC, rebranded Adobe Color CC (formerly Kuler), Adobe Illustrator Draw, Adobe Illustrator Line, Adobe Photoshop Mix, Adobe Photoshop Sketch & Adobe Shape CC. Now, you can get your creative on anywhere!
Creative Cloud Pen & Digital Ruler
Introducing creative hardware that makes sketching and drawing more natural and fluid. Designed to be used with the iPad, Adobe Ink is a fine-tip, pressure-sensitive pen built using Adonit Pixelpoint technology to give you greater creative control and unprecedented precision. Adobe Slide is a digital ruler that lets you draw any shape on your iPad — including straight lines, perfect circles, classic French curves, and more. (Adonit is Adobe's partner for Ink. Find even more styluses at Adonit.)
Paper is where ideas begin! An incredible, award-winning App for tablets that lets you capture your ideas and share them on the Web, add them to your photo library or print in book format. And it's free with in-App purchases for additional tools.
Pencil is a stylus inspired by a carpenter's pencil designed to work seamlessly with Paper. Your fingers can get the job done too!
Moleskine journals, re-imagined for limitless creativity, productivity and passion. The look and feel are classic Moleskine; the digital capabilities are inspiring. Enjoy all the things you usually do with your Moleskine journals, and send your creations out into the world, page after page. Another free productivity app for creatives.
Schedule at a glance (subject to revision)
February
03 Introduction: overview of syllabus, required materials, discuss Adobe® Creative Cloud™ and project and exam schedule. Review Illustrator basics and workflow strategies.
10 Lecture/Lab: review vector graphics (resolution independent objects) & raster images (resolution dependent bitmaps). Exploration of drawing tools, paths, segments & anchors. Investigation of menu commands & tools to modify paths. Using the Brushes panel to create unique lines & marks.
17 Critique/Lecture/Lab: working with color, gradients, blends and the Gradient Mesh tool. Protecting Your Assets (adding metadata). Student presentations and digital file collection.
24 Critique/Lecture/Lab: continue working with gradients and color for creative fills and strokes. Review Clipping Masks and introduce Opacity Masks.
March
03Class canceled due to inclement weather.
10Critique/Lecture/Lab: more about typography in Illustrator. First look at the Touch Type tool, threading text and styles. Student presentations and digital file collection.
17Spring Break: enjoy the Holiday!
Don't forget the sun screen! Send a postcard, better yet, create a postcard!
24Critique/Lecture/Lab: continue working with typography. Student presentations and digital file collection.
31Critique/Lecture/Lab: exploration of the Perspective Grid and drawing in perspective.
Working with three dimensional effects, filters and more.
April
07Critique/Lecture/Lab: Illustrator and the Creative Cloud – Photoshop. Working with Live Paint and custom brushes. Student presentations and digital file collection.
14Critique/Lecture/Lab: Illustrator and the Web – image preparation techniques for digital display. Student presentations and digital file collection.
21Lab:
work session with hands-on assistance, individual student reviews.
28Class Cancelled: Out of abundance of caution, classes will end today at 4 p.m. No classes will begin after 3 p.m. Evening and continuing and professional studies classes are canceled. Non-residential buildings will close at 5:30 p.m.
Notes & Projects
The Birth of Venus
Take a look at the history of Adobe Illustrator.
The Adobe Illustrator Story
When Adobe Illustrator first shipped in 1987, the new product not only altered Adobe's course, it changed drawing and graphic design forever. See how Adobe Co-Founder John Warnock first conceived of Illustrator as a PostScript drawing tool and how PostScript's Bézier curves could be applied to the shapes illustrators painstakingly created by hand. – May 2014, video, 19:01
Learn more about the history of Adobe Illustrator
Knock Knock – Multi-screen Animation
Brunettes Shoot Blondes: Knock Knock – Slick animation using Apple devices and a whole lot o' creativity. Looks like a whole lot o' Illustrator too!
Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign?
Time Matters – InDesign has a rich feature set of tools, menu commands and panels that are identical to Illustrator – draw shapes and lines, gradients, convert text to outlines, Pathfinder panel and more. At times, it's simply easier to create art and illustrations directly within InDesign since you're already working with it. You can always export your work to PDF format to make additional edits in Illustrator. Drag & drop objects from InDesign to Illustrator and vice versa. The old 20th Century technique, copy & paste between apps works too!
Project One
10 Digital Drawings (Let's see what you can do!)
Due: February 10th
Project Brief: Warm up and explore Adobe Illustrator's tools, panels and menus while creating 10 vector illustrations. Anything goes, be creative and have fun!
Specifications: custom profile, RGB color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe Illustrator format.
Follow your passions with Adobe Illustrator!
Click for larger image.
Project Two
Put Your Heart Into It! (Valentine's Day for All)
Due: February 17th
Project Brief: Use Valentine's Day as a theme and create an illustration (or two…). Continue exploring Adobe Illustrator's tools, panels and menus. Just like Project One, anything goes, be creative, have fun and make something exciting!
Specifications: custom profile, RGB color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe Illustrator format.
I Speak Fluid Colors
Graphic designer Maria Grønlund recently demonstrated the imaginative Adobe Illustrator CC techniques behind her I speak fluid colors series. Here, you can watch a recording of the live demo, and get to know Maria in her home in Denmark. Click for larger image.
Project Three
Blends & Gradients
Due: February 24th
Project Brief: Blends & gradients are incredible tools for creating art in Adobe Illustrator. Blending objects like pickets of a fence, jewels, stars and more allow you to quickly create complex illustrations. Gradient fills and strokes can be used to add realism to your art. See what you can create this week using blends & gradients.
- Illustrator Help / Gradients
- Illustrator Help / Blending Objects
- Inspire by Adobe – Inspire Magazine brings you profiles of some of the world’s most innovative artists—shining a spotlight on amazing work in photography, graphic design, film, type, illustration, architecture, and more.
Specifications: custom profile, RGB color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe Illustrator format.
Project Four
What a Mesh!
Due: March 3rd
Project Brief: Now that you've warmed up to Illustrator's tools, panels and menus, try your hand at creating dimensional imagery with the Gradient Mesh tool. Feel free to use additional tools, including masks, text and anything else, while creating two or more vector illustrations.
- Illustrator Help / Meshes
- Illustrator Help / Clipping Masks
- Learn the Gradient Mesh Tool – video, 9 mins
- How to use Opacity Masks – video, 8 mins
Specifications: custom profile, RGB color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe Illustrator format.
Project Five
Poster Design
Due: March 24th
Project Brief: OK, by now you're cruising through Illustrator's tools, panels and menus! We've worked with Illustrator's type tools and various techniques. Create a poster about your favorite subject matter. Start with a new file, 24 x 36 inches and get creative! Explore all that Illustrator has to offer and be sure to include text (don't forget to include your copyright information)!
- Illustrator Help / Creating Text
- Illustrator Help / Creating type on a path
- Design tuts+: Rendering short hair in Adobe Illustrator
Specifications: custom profile, RGB color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe Illustrator format. Include metadata.
Special Chracters
Copyright symbol (Option + G), Registered Trademark symbol (Option + R) and Trademark symbol (Option + 2) can all be easily typed on a Mac.
Bonus Tip
Twelve Must-know Mac OS Keyboard Shortcuts for Special Characters
Digital imaging pros know their computers inside and out, including their keyboards and important keyboard shortcuts for special characters to get the job done! The following 12 shortcuts are part of everyday keystrokes, worth memorizing to allow you to be productive and type like the pros!
| Name | Symbol | Keys |
|---|---|---|
| Acute Accent (résumé) | ´ | Option + E (followed by key press for vowel) |
| Bullet | • | Option + 8 |
| Cents | ¢ | Option + 4 |
| Copyright Symbol | © | Option + G |
| Degree Symbol (90 ˚F) | ˚ | Option + K |
| Ellipsis (She said she was a dancer…) | … | Option + ; (semicolon) |
| Em Dash (long dash—width of an M) | — | Option + Shift + - (hyphen) |
| En Dash (wide dash, width of an N: Monday–Friday, 6–9 pm) | – | Option + - (hyphen) |
| Eñe (Spanish character with a tilde over n: año, El Niño) | ñ | Option + N (followed by N) |
| Italicized f in ƒ/stop | ƒ | Option + F |
| Registered Trademark (officially used to mark one's property) | ® | Option + R |
| Trademark (unregistered, used to mark one's property) | ™ | Option + 2 |
Double-bonus Tip: Links to additional Apple and Windows special characters.
Triple-bonus Tip: Use the menu, > System Preferences… and select Keyboard in the second row to enable the Keyboard and Character Viewers in menu bar. You'll be able to use the Keyboard Viewer to see where special characters live on the keyboard so you can type them and the Character Viewer to select and insert special characters into your documents!
Quadruple-bonus Tip: The Apple icon () can be typed using Option + Shift + K (not available in all fonts).
About Printer’s Marks
When preparing a document for printing, special marks called printer's marks are used to help the print shop determine where to trim the paper, align separations and measure color data.
Project Six
The Bleeding Edge…
Due: March 31st
Project Brief: Continue working with Illustrator's tools and text to create a greeting card. Your card should contain text/art on the front that extends to the document's edges and text/art on the back. Be sure to include bleed. Save your file as a PDF with printer's marks. Be creative with the content and precise with the production.
- Illustrator Help / Character & paragraph styles
- Illustrator Help / Text Enhancements
- Illustrator Help / Touch-based tools & enhancements | Illustrator CC
- Intro to the Touch Type Tool – video, 2:40
- Inspire / 8 Type Tips
- Illustrator Help / Printer's marks & bleeds
- Ionicons: free symbol font
Specifications: custom profile, CMYK color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe PDF format, high quality print option.
Project Seven
Art to 'Die' For
Due: April 7th
Project Brief: Art for creative business cards, post cards, coasters, stickers, magnets, tags, packaging and more are created in Illustrator everyday. Die cut lines are easy to add to a layer to aid the print vendor in preparing the metal die for the cut outs. As always, be creative with the content and extremely precise.
- Die lines are usually 1 point strokes and can be any color. Creatives usually select a favorite color from the Pantone swatch library that contrast the colors in their art.
- Duplicate shapes to a new layer to create the die line.
- Combine shapes together using the Shape Builder tool to create the die line.
- Name the layer "Die" so the print vendor clearly knows which layer is to be used to make the die.
Specifications: custom profile, CMYK color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe PDF format, high quality print option.
Project Eight
Perspective
Due: April 14th
Project Brief: Illustrator CC allows you to easily draw artwork in perspective, using features based on the laws of perspective drawing. Perspective in drawing is an approximate 2-dimensional representation of imagery as seen by the eye.
Create two drawings in Illustrator – use the Perspective Grid Tool (Shift-P) and Perspective Selection Tool (Shift-V) in one drawing; use creative perspective (as explained in class) in the other. This project will really test your patience and fortitude!
- Illustrator Help / Perspective Drawing
- Illustrator Help / About Perspective Grid
- Illustrator Blog: Drawing in Perspective
- Defining Perspective Grids – video, 07:55
- Mapping Artwork to Perspective Grids – video, 09:26
- Perspective Drawing – PDF 1.2 MB
Specifications: custom profile, RGB color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe Illustrator format. Include metadata.
Project Nine
Live Paint & Custom Brushes
Due: April 21st
Project Brief: Adobe Illustrator features Live Paint, an intuitive way to create colored drawings by painting objects similar to filling in a coloring book or using watercolors to paint a pencil sketch.
Illustrator also features a suite of brushes that let you stylize the appearance of paths. You can apply brush strokes to existing paths, or you can use the Paintbrush tool to draw a path and apply a brush stroke at the same time. Illustrator has five different types of brushes: calligraphic, scatter, art, pattern, and bristle. Custom brushes can be created, allowing for endless possibilities in creativity!
Create two new works using Illustrator – explore Live Paint and creating custom brushes to use in your artworks. Be expressive and don't worry about making mistakes!
Specifications: custom profile, RGB color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe Illustrator format. Include metadata.
Venus Revisited 2014
Learn more about Orlando Arocena's commission to design the Adobe Illustrtaor CC 2014 splash screen – proudly made without using the Gradient Mesh tool, additional plug-ins or tracing… impressive!
Project Ten
Personal Expression
Due: April 28th
Project Brief: Adobe Illustrator CC is the worldwide industry-standard vector graphics software used by artists and designers of all types who want to create digital graphics, illustrations, and typography for all kinds of media: print, web, interactive, video, and mobile. We've covered a lot of ground with this incredible app. It's time to express yourselves and show your Illustrator chops!
Create three new elaborate works using Illustrator – explore all that Illustrator has to offer to create your art. Feel free to work with placed images if necessary – it's all good! Get your creative on!
- Illustrator Help / Create efficient Illustrator files | Improve print performance
- Illustrator Help / Optimize Illustrator performance on Mac OS X
- Illustrator Help / Troubleshoot damaged Illustrator files
- Adobe Illustrator CC Tutorials – From Novice to Expert
- Orlando Arocena on Behance
- Malika Favre – illustrator
Specifications: custom profile, RGB color, raster effects: 300 ppi, Adobe Illustrator format. Include metadata.