Session 2 [Mon 180110] - Review of Drawing Homework/ Partial Briefing on the Heads Project - Examples & 50 Heads Homework/

Homework [4 hours worth!]

• You were commissioned to make your 50 heads today for next Monday [250110]. Good luck with that!
• Also, find time to continue your Illustrator training. Explore the Basic Shapes Tools, Fill and Stroke, Color and Swatch Panels, the Pencil, and the Selection [Black Arrow] Tool [There are additional tips on Illustrator below].
• There will also be a quiz next session which will include what we have covered so far as well as any extra info there might be on the blog posts.
• Welcome Greg and Alpa - please complete your biography and accompanying drawing for next session [Wed 200110].

Help Resources
Before a recap on today's introduction to Illustrator, a mention of some of the Mac Help resources is warranted. These are available to you for gaining further understanding of the rudimentaries of the Mac and the creative Adobe applications.

1. In the Finder there is the Help Menu at the end of the Main Menu Bar - use this to help you search for further information on getting started - using the keyboard, the mouse, managing and customising windows, using the System Preferences, etc.
2. On starting Illustrator you are presented with the Welcome Screen giving you access to video tutorials to guide you around the program and the new features of Illustrator CS4.
3. Finally, Illustrator has its own Help Menu that takes you to a rich source of Online Material.

Vectors and Rasters
Also, remember before you continue that Illustrator is a Vector based application and deals with Hard-Edged graphics for the most part using mathematically described vector shapes, unlike Photoshop which deals in photographs or Raster based graphics. This is a very important distinction. Mark it well.

Intro To Illustrator 1 – Setting Up

• Opening Illustrator -choosing the Essentials Workspace
• Creating a New Artboard [Artboard is the work surface metaphor for Illustrator]
• Make the document A3 [European Paper sizes A4, A3, etc]
• Save the file with a sensible name to a logically named folder within your Heads project folder [an example of deeper folder Nesting]
• Make sure to use the .ai extension to your file name [Native file formats for the Adobe CS Applications - AI for Illustrator, PSD for Photoshop, INDD for InDesign, FLA for Flash].

Intro To Illustrator 2 – Anatomy of Vector Objects/ Selecting & Copying

• The Illustrator GUI - Introducing the collapsible Tools Palette and Panels
• Different Views [Apple-Zero fits the document to the screen]/ Zooming [Apple +/-]
• Stroke and Fill [ x to toggle the Stroke and Fill]
• Colour Panel/ Swatches Panel [Routine - mix colours in the Colour panel and store them by dragging to the Swatches Panel]
• Use the Black Arrow [Selection tool] to select and drag shapes. Copy objects by holding down the Alt key and dragging a copy to a place on the Artboard. Shift click to select multiple objects and copy them in the same way.
• Try using the White Arrow [Sub-selection tool] to drag individual points on a shape.

Intro To Illustrator 3 - Shape Control

• The Shift key can restrain to perfect square or circle as you drag out those particular shapes. Also, by holding the Alt key you can drag out a shape from the centre for additional placement control. Also, use the spacebar to move the shape as you are drawing it. Use all three keys together as you drag for ultimate control!
• You saw how, as you are drawing with a shape tool, you can use the Up and Down Arrows on the keyboard to change the properties of an object on the fly - rounding off corners on a round corner box, changing the number of sides of a polygon, or the points on a star.
• Try holding the Tilde key [the wavy line key to the right of the Shift key] as you drag out a shape to create amazing Spirographics. Wow!

Hands-On Illustrator
You finished the session with some hands on head-making. You all seem to be getting a handle on the program.

Some of you enquired about more advanced aspects of the program - using Pathfinders, Making Colour Backgrounds, altering the Smoothness/ Fidelity by double-clicking the Pencil tool, Arranging the Stacking Order of objects, taking care to make Closed shapes when you need them. All good stuff to learn!

Whew! That's a fair amount of information for one session. Thanks for your concentration, much appreciated!