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home > Tips & Tutorials > Software > Illustrator > ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS & LESSONS : BEGINNERS ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

DRAWING AND ILLUSTRATION ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

OTHER MISC ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

SPOTLIGHT GRAPHIC DESIGNERS FROM OUR DESIGN COMMUNITY

BASIC AND ESSENTIAL ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

COLOR AND ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

3D ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

BRUSHES ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

SPECIAL EFFECTS ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

TEXT EFFECTS AND FONTS ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

WEB AND ANIMATION ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

Huge List of Adobe Illustrator Plugins and Filters - If you are an Adobe Illustrator user, then this mega-list of Adobe Illustrator Plug-ins is just what you are looking for.

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ILLUSTRATOR RESOURCES

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DRAWING AND ILLUSTRATION ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

Illustrator Tutorials - Vector Artwork by Graphic Visuals - Learn how to create this bold effect made famous by The Design Chapel. -

Illustrator Tutorials - Create a 3D Cylinder by Vecpix - You can create three-dimensional effects in Adobe® Illustrator® using a few simple shapes. Scale a one-dimensional object and then add a bottom, sides, and shading to give it a three-dimensional look. The Illustrator Smart Guides and Pathfinder palette help you draw the object accurately.

Illustrator Tutorials - The Anatomy of Vector Illustration - Illustrations created in all major vector drawing programs have a definite anatomy and share a common pattern. Whether you use Deneba Canvas™, Adobe® Illustrator®, CorelDRAW or Macromedia® FreeHand® you will find that this pattern exists even though each program may define the parts differently. The purpose of this section of the web site is to take apart a vector drawing so you can see how it is put together and able to understand it. In the illustration section is a table of equivalent terminology to better help you translate the terms from one application to another. This will clarify the subject and make it less confusing. You will not be bound to a single application once this becomes clear to you.

Illustrator Tutorials - Fine Line Design - Create Fine Line Designs in Illustrator

Illustrator Tutorials - Aqua Balls by Vecpix - Perhaps you're hooked on the "Aqua" look and are just aching to use it in your work. Look no further Trend Boy and/or Girl! Requires Adobe Illustrator 9+. This tutorial teaches you how to create Opacity Masks that lend a photorealistic touch to your work.

Illustrator Tutorials - Organic Tech by ErgoDraw.com - Infuse your work with a high-tech, yet organic look by learning how to make this relatively easy shape.

Illustrator Tutorials - Cartoon Clouds by ErgoDraw.com - Light and fluffy clouds are easy to create in Illustrator and I\'ll show you one way to create them. This tutorial introduces you to a few of the Pathfinder filters and will familiarize you with the Drop Shadow stylize effect in Illustrator 9+.

Illustrator Tutorials - Mod City by Tutorial Guide - Learn how to draw a city in this Illustrator tutorial.

Illustrator Tutorials - Knotworking - Making a Knot in Adobe Illustrator 7.0 - Making intricate knotwork isn't too hard in a vector drawing package like Adobe Illustrator 7. On the other hand, it isn't the easiest thing to discover on one's own. Here's my method.

Illustrator Tutorials - Illustrator Tracing Tutorial - Here you'll learn how to do those nice looking traced images like the one to your right.

Illustrator Tutorials - Create Paths of Least Resistance - Did you ever wonder whether big-time illustrators and cartoonists draw each of those tiny lines individually? Learn how to make Illustrator take your instructions and do the "mousework" so you don't have to.

OTHER ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

Illustrator Tutorials - Creating Crop Marks - When you import vector artwork into a pixel-based program such as After Effects or Photoshop, its edges are determined by the outmost edges of the art. Sometimes, you want to extend the image area to allow new possibilities in your designs. In this article, Lon Clark demonstrates that by creating crop marks, you define a new edge/size for the file and that can open up new design opportunities.

Illustrator Tutorials - Animation and Brushes - Creating an animation using brushes and layers in Illustrator and exporting to Image Ready

Illustrator Tutorials - Creating Views - This tutorial was designed to teach you how to make your navigation more convenient by creating views. If you need help with it, or find it confusing, don't hesitate to e-mail me, the information is at the bottom of the page.

Illustrator Tutorials - Illustrator Logo Design - An important tutorial which will teach you how to create logos that will last for years to come.

Illustrator Tutorials - Symbols Tutorial - Ever wonder, "What's the deal with Symbols?" Steve explains!

Illustrator Tutorials - Illustrator 8 Logo - Learn to create type on the top and bottom of the same circle and slice the circle with the knife tool

Illustrator Tutorials - Making Dashes - Making dashes isn't very hard to do so follow this tutorial to learn how.

BASIC AND ESSENTIAL ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

Illustrator Tutorials - An Introduction to Illustrator - A look at the very basic aspects of Adobe's superb application for vector graphics - Illustrator.

Illustrator Tutorials - Tracking and Kerning? - Tracking creates an even spacing between multiple characters in a line of text, widening it out, or tightening it up.

Illustrator Tutorials - Save Multiple Versions of Artwork in a Master PDF file - Adobe® Illustrator® CS provides expanded support for Adobe PDF, including the ability to save Illustrator layers as Acrobat layers, customize PDF compression settings, and add PDF file security. The ability to bring your layers into Acrobat means you’ll be able to create a PDF file that includes multiple versions of your design. Your service provider can then use Adobe Acrobat® 6.0 Professional to proof and print all of the final pieces from a single master. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to do just that.

Illustrator Tutorials - Blend Layers With Opacity Mask - Do you ever need to combine areas of different layers to construct a composite image? Use an opacity mask in Adobe® Illustrator® to mask an area of a layer to transparency and reveal the layer right below it. You can even apply feathering to the mask to smoothen its edges so the top layer won't look "cut out." Follow along with this tip as we use an opacity mask to place a pink rose on a bed of yellow petals.

Illustrator Tutorials - Brilliant Colors - As with all digital graphics, you need to ensure that your monitor is correctly calibrated before you can start. Use the Adobe Gamma utility to create an ICC-compatible profile. You can check that this is properly installed by accessing your graphic card's Properties/Advanced/Colour Management section.

Illustrator Tutorials - Transition Between Two Objects - If you're looking for a way to create a smooth transition between objects, try blending the objects in Adobe® Illustrator®. You select starting and ending objects, and Illustrator adds a series of intermediate shapes and colors between them, distributed evenly along a path. Then you can edit the blend path using standard Illustrator editing tools. Follow along with this quick tip to learn how to blend two objects, and to curve the path created by the blend.

Illustrator Tutorials - Transform Again - Transform Again is a cool little trick to do in Illustrator.

Illustrator Tutorials - Rounded Corners - Making rounded corners is EASY in Illustrator. Of course you can make rounded shapes in Illustrator but you can convert line path to rounded corners as well.

Illustrator Tutorials - Envelope Distort - Envelope distort is a pretty cool effect you can do in Illustrator for many logo designs, text effects, and other ways to bring your shapes and text in a stylish way.

Illustrator Tutorials - Adobe Illustrator Basics - In this tutorial we will introduce you to Illustrator by explaining the tools you need to create basic artwork and page design.

Illustrator Tutorials - Use Distortion to Transform an Object - Adobe® Illustrator® provides a vast array of filters and tools that can twirl, tweak, roughen, and otherwise transform an object into something completely different. Start with the simplest of objects — you might be amazed at what you can end up with. In this tip, we'll turn a couple of simple stars into a flower in a few quick steps.

Illustrator Tutorials - Manipulating Guides in Illustrator CS - Alignment, distribution and automatic guide creation

Illustrator Tutorials - The Basics - Learn how to work your way around Adobe Illustrator.

Illustrator Tutorials - The Pen Tool In Depth - Learning how to use the pen tool will give you the essentials to draw your heart's desire in Illustrator.

Illustrator Tutorials - Text And Text Manipulation - Creating and working with text in Illustrator will give you the necessary components to become a world-class designer.

Illustrator Tutorials - Exporting Illustrator Layers to Photoshop (version 8) - Adobe expert works with layers in Illustrator 8, which can now export layers to Photoshop 5 and ImageReady 1.0. This tutorial shows you how to do that for a Web GIF animation.

Illustrator Tutorials - Cool Shape Tips and Tricks - Shape tools are core components of Illustrator. Dave shows you how to get the most out of these tools.

Illustrator Tutorials - Layers Tutorial - Layers can help you organize your artwork- and are a must when creating complex images.

Illustrator Tutorials - Cleaning up the Mesh! - For those who want to know what Mesh is all about, don't miss this column buy Peter Bauer.

Illustrator Tutorials - Working with Primitives (Predefined Shapes) - To facilitate faster construction, Deneba Canvas™, Adobe® Illustrator®, CorelDRAW and Macromedia® FreeHand® include a set of predefined object shapes or "primitives"

Illustrator Tutorials - Keyboard Shortcuts For The Pen Buy Graphics & DTP Software! - This tutorial is for applications that use the pen: Adobe® Photoshop®, Adobe Illustrator® and Macromedia® FreeHand®. When drawing with the pen you will inevitably have to stop mid-path and make adjustments to anchor points, control handles or line segments. And Keyboard Shortcuts For The Pen
Examples and Pen Tutorial Practice Templates

Illustrator Tutorials - Creating Multiple Page Documents - Adobe Illustrator does not provide for multiple page documents per se. It only recognizes a single page. However, it does provide for tiling printed output if the page size exceeds your printer's paper size. Page tiling is simply where the printed output is divided up into "tiles". Each tile is the size of one sheet of paper. Essentially, you setup the artboard to be a custom page size whose dimensions are in multiples of a single sheet of paper. Then you tell Illustrator to tile the output when printed. Following is a step-by-step example.

Illustrator Tutorials - Applying a Gradient Across Multiple - When applying gradient fills to objects in Illustrator, each object will have the full range of the gradient applied to it.

Illustrator Tutorials - Clipping Masks - Clipping masks is a feature in Illustrator that enables you to mask out an image that you placed within the Illustrator document.

COLORS ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

Illustrator Tutorials - Soft Proof Your Colors - In a traditional desktop-publishing scenario, you create your artwork using a software program, print a hard proof of the results, and then use the proof as a reference to adjust for color shifts in the artwork. The color management features in Adobe® Illustrator® simplify this process of managing and previewing colors in your artwork. Color management helps you keep colors consistent when they are transferred between different output and display devices and lets you display an online preview, or soft proof, of the printed colors.

Illustrator Tutorials - Brilliant Colors - As with all digital graphics, you need to ensure that your monitor is correctly calibrated before you can start. Use the Adobe Gamma utility to create an ICC-compatible profile. You can check that this is properly installed by accessing your graphic card's Properties/Advanced/Colour Management section.

Illustrator Tutorials - Selecting Custom Colors - The easiest and the fastest way to choose a custom Pantone or Toyo color in Adobe Illustrator without scrolling through a list of hundreds of colors.

Illustrator Tutorials - Global Color Swatches - Global color swatches is an feature in Illustrator that can be very useful when you work on projects that has LOTS of objects and shapes.

3D ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

Illustrator Tutorials - Creating a Cylinder - You can create three-dimensional effects in Adobe® Illustrator® using a few simple shapes. Scale a one-dimensional object and then add a bottom, sides, and shading to give it a three-dimensional look. The Illustrator Smart Guides and Pathfinder palette help you draw the object accurately.

Illustrator Tutorials - How to Create 3D Wireframe Objects in Illustrator - The blend tool can create amazing results in no time. As always no plug-ins required.

Illustrator Tutorials - How to Create 3D Text in Illustrator - Use the blend to add dimension to your text.

Illustrator Tutorials - Turn a Simple Path into a Dynamic 3D Illustration - The 3D effects in Illustrator make it easy to create three-dimensional illustrations. In this tutorial, you’ll learn a technique for creating packaging mock-up with pizzazz.

BRUSHES ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

Illustrator Tutorials - Create Artistic Brushes - There are many ways to create artistic brushes for use in the Adobe® Illustrator® 9.0 Brushes palette. The easiest, of course, is to load the Artistic Brushes Libraries found on the application CD. There you will find quite a selection of artistic brushes. Read no further if you found the brush you need. But, for those of you who might like to customize a brush a bit more, read on. In this tip we will learn how to use Adobe® Photoshop® brushes and paths to create a more organic-looking brush to use in Illustrator.

Illustrator Tutorials - Colorizing Custom Brushes! - Peter Bauer walks you through some of these important features in this month's column.

Illustrator Tutorials - Tasty Tentacles Brush - The simple brush we are going to make can be used for many basic shapes: tentacles, flames, tribal tattoos, trees... ummm... spooky monster tongues?

Illustrator Tutorials - Change the Colors in Your Brush - For some interesting paint effects in Adobe® Illustrator®, try changing the colors in your brushes. You can colorize any Scatter, Art, or Pattern brush in the Brushes palette.

SPECIAL EFFECTS ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

Illustrator Tutorials - Create a Hand-Drawn Look With The Scribble Effect - Creating a colored-pencil rendering from a simple shape is a snap with the Scribble effect in Adobe® Illustrator® CS. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to add depth and surface interest by assigning multiple scribble fills to a single shape. As you experiment with effect settings, you’ll see that the creative options are endless.

Illustrator Tutorials - Create Rounded 3-D Buttons - This tip will help you to create buttons that can be used as title's, menu's or anything else.

Illustrator Tutorials - Geometric Fun with Transform Each - Learn how to use the Transform Each feature to create complex geometric shapes complete with gradients.

Illustrator Tutorials - Crosshatching with a Mouse (version 8) - The new Photo Crosshatch filter in Adobe® Illustrator® 8.0 makes that time-consuming illustration style easy. In this tip, you'll put each crosshatch effect on its own layer so you can select and color different crosshatch stroke.

Illustrator Tutorials - Keeping Color in Crosshatching (version 8) - Adobe Art Director Lisa Jeans Trail adds color to her photo crosshatch using both Photoshop and Illustrator. Between Adobe®Photoshop® and Adobe® Illustrator®, all the color and crosshatching work will be done for you.

Illustrator Tutorials - Revealing the Clipping Paths (version 8) - By embedding the placed image in Illustrator, the clipping path becomes available to edit. In this tip, we will learn how to use the clipping path to make an image look like it's intertwined with type or vector art.

TEXT EFFECTS AND FONTS ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS

llustrator Tutorials - How To Wrap Text Around An Object In Photoshop - If you want to take some text and wrap it around an object there are some complicated procedures using the Shear filter that will yield very precise results, but for most uses the following quick and easy technique will produce the desired effect.

Illustrator Tutorials - Create Headlines That Demand Attention - The 3D effects in Adobe® Illustrator® CS are a great way to add eye-popping dimension to headline text. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how extrude a 2D object, add a bevel, and adjust the lighting. If you’ve never worked with 3D objects before, you will find these controls easy to master. If you’re an old hand at the 3D process, you can enjoy the fact that now you don’t have to leave Illustrator to render in 3D.

Illustrator Tutorials - Format Type with Character and Paragraph Styles - Character and paragraph styles are the latest feature in Adobe Illustrator’s long history of typographic excellence. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how character and paragraph styles can save you time and ensure consistent text formatting.

Illustrator Tutorials - How to Create 3D Text in Illustrator - Use the blend to add dimension to your text.

Illustrator Tutorials - How to Create Spiral Type in Illustrator - Spiral Type is easy to make yet it is one of the most compelling text effects.

Illustrator Tutorials - How to Create Gradient Type in Illustrator - Gradients can create great looking effects when used right.

Illustrator Tutorials - Clipping Masks - Clipping masks is a feature in Illustrator that enables you to mask out an image that you placed within the Illustrator document.

Illustrator Tutorials - Get the Most Out of OpenType Fonts - OpenType fonts include expanded character sets that allow you to substitute one version of a letter form for another. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to view and apply swashes, fractions, ornaments, and ligatures.

Illustrator Tutorials - Customizing Fonts - Customizing fonts for logo type and other typographic solutions is very fun and easy with Illustrator.

Illustrator Tutorials - Type on a Path - Typing on a path can't be any easier than it is on Illustrator. You can type on ANY TYPE OF PATH.

Illustrator Tutorials - Type Wrap - Type wrap works kind of like the AREA TYPE tool.

WEB AND ANIMATION ILLUSTRATION TUTORIALS

llustrator Tutorials - Save For Web - Make sure you read this so that the work you post on IW is optimized for both file size and appearence.

Illustrator Tutorials - A Rainbow of Illustrator® 9 Gel Buttons - This tutorial shows how to make a rainbow of colored gel buttons based on a single master button.

Illustrator Tutorials - Basic Character Animation - Have a character you want to animate? Let Jose show you how to use your Illustrator art to create SWF animations.

Illustrator Tutorials - Animation and Brushes - Creating an animation using brushes and layers in Illustrator and exporting to Image Ready

Illustrator Tutorials - Releasing Layers for Flash - Follow this tip to see how you can create animated text that builds itself up character by character

Illustrator Tutorials - Rounded Corners - Making rounded corners is EASY in Illustrator. Of course you can make rounded shapes in Illustrator but you can convert line path to rounded corners as well.

Logo Design Creation Process from Start to Finish by Expert Graphic Designer - Mark Misenheimer
This article was written by the very talented, Mark Misenheimer of Misenheimer Creative, Inc. Mark is an expert freelance graphic designer who has been in the design business for years. He has documented the design of a logo from start to finish in order to help other graphic designers. I know that you will learn something from this tremendous logo design article.

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Jul 17

Getting a Handle on the Creative Process for Graphic Designers
The Graphic Design industry is very competitive, and trust me, it can certainly get stressful and frustrating at times. However, it doesn?t always have to be that way. Here, I have broken down my design process. This is how I create my design layouts from start to finish. Basically, with some focus, structure, and a little bit of talent, creating rewarding and professional design work can be produced more efficiently and with less stress.

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Jul 5

20 Ways to Avoid Graphic Designer?s Block
As a designer everyone has experienced a point where they just can no longer think of anything worth while. It?s in these situations when you have to reevaluate your perception of what works and what doesn?t. Use the following 20 tips to avoid and get through a tough designer's block.

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Jun 18

Free Online Font Tools - Mega List of Web Based Font, Text, & Type Tools
Graphic Design and Typography are deeply connected. For that reason, I figure that most of you are going to love these free online font and type tools. Most, if not all, of these are very useful and I recommend that you use them when you have a chance. Below you will find the huge list of free browser-based font and type tools.

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Jun 13

List of Graphic Design Podcasts on Topics Graphic Design, Web Design, Typography and More
I have found a load of design related podcasts that I am sure will peak your interests. Just think of it as radio shows geared towards you and your love of design. You will even find Podcasts on Photoshop, Illustrator, Typography, Freelancing, as well as Web Design and Graphic Design.

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Jun 7

List of Vector Conversion Software - 30+ Tools to Turn Photos into Line Art and Illustrations
I love Vector Magic, a free online vectorization tool. It is a really cool browser-based tool that can be used to turn a photograph into an illustration. It doesn't always succeed in getting that look that you might be looking for, but it does a pretty good job. I usually just use it to play around with photos to see what Vector Magic can do with it, but it also can be very useful if you want to convert a photo into an illustration. I started to wonder how many other vectorization tools and software packages there were out there and I was surprised to find out that there are a ton o them. Basically, most of these tools turn Raster / Bitmap / Photo Images into Line Art / Illustrations / Vector Art.

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May 28

Free Photoshop Shapes Downloads - Mega List of Free Custom Vector Shapes for Adobe Photoshop - Part I
I am in love with vector shapes right now. I think they are so handy to have around when you are building a site. The way that you can stretch vectors without creating jaggy edges, makes them incredibly useful. Most of the time I just land up breaking them apart to use a curve that I like. I also love using them for as badges or buttons on web sites. I have collected a huge selection of free custom Photoshop shapes. If you download every single one of these, there are probably close to 15,000 free Adobe Photoshop shapes. There are more to come in Part II. Enjoy.

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May 27

A New and More Accurate Search Engine for Finding Free Clipart
As graphic designers, we are always on the hunt for quality free clipart images to use in our designs. The problem is that often searching for clipart often brings back very inaccurate search results. Well, thanks to one of my friends, I have found a new site called Find Free Clipart which will make my life much easier the next time I search for clipart online.

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May 20

Become a Graphic Designer - Design Careers & Design Education Advice from Professional Designer
Whether you?re right out of high school, a Mom looking for a career she can do from home, recently out of the Military or simply someone who feels they have a knack for design and is ready for a career change, consider that you have a few options on how to gain the skills you will need to pursue your dream job. But first, ask yourself some questions

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May 16

Online Drawing Tools & Free Online Painting & Sketching Tools
As Graphic Designers, we are all creative individuals. I thought that most of you would love to know about all of the fantastic online drawing and painting tools that are available online. Not only are they fun, but they are also quite useful for sketching out some of our ideas. Some of these tools can also be used as design collaboration tools to use with your co-workers, clients, friends, teachers, and family. Enjoy and don't hesitate to send me links to online drawing tools that I might have missed.

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