Adobe Illustrator CC Tutorial using Pathfinder
Adobe Illustrator Tutorial for Beginners using Pathfinder.
In this Adobe Illustrator Tutorial for Beginners, we will be using shapes to practice building using the shape tools and the pathfinder panel. Shapes are a great way of building your characters especially as you gain experience with blend, warp, shape builder, and pathfinder to create unique shapes. Shapes are an easy and effective way of building in Illustrator. Use the align panel to align to selection and the artboard to make symmetrical designs. This tutorial will focus on Building Tools, Editing Options, and Basic Coloring Techniques.
STOCK PHOTOS: For your own artwork and designs, I recommend using (Unsplash / Pixabay / Pexels) for Free Stock Photos. BEGINNER: Bookmark websites or sign in to your Adobe Creative Account for Assets, Templates, Color Swatches, and Font Families. ADVANCED: When you are creating your own artwork or design projects, gather and organize resources within the same project folder (Stock Photos / Sketches / Thumbnails / Color Swatches / Font Families).
DRAWING OR TRACED PHOTO: If you are new to Adobe Illustrator, it's best to avoid starting from a blank artboard, a full-color photo, or a super sketchy drawing. BEGINNER: For your own artwork, create a "Traceable Path" to align with the Building Tools in Adobe Illustrator. ADVANCED: Prepare your drawings for Specific Tools (ex. Ellipse, Pen, or Pencil) or Steps in your Workflow (ex. Building, Brushes, or Values).
"BUILDING" ARTBOARD: I will recommend a (1080px by 1080px, 300PPI, RGB) as your Initial Artboard Size. The Initial Artboard Size can be changed at any point without ruining your own artwork. Use the Properties Panel to Scale Artwork and Artboards. LEARNING TARGET (1): Create a "Building Template" that includes Artboard Size, Resource Type, and Template Layers. LEARNING TARGET (2): Pick a "Building" Artboard Size you can use for your own Artwork and Social Media Postings.
FILE - PLACE: File -Place in your own Drawing, Sketch, or Traced Stock Photo. I recommend starting from a Clean Line Drawing or a simple Traced Stock Photo for your artwork and designs.
SCALE TO FIT: You can modify the size of the artwork using the Bounding Box or Scale Tool. Scale to Fit Artbaord. Align the your Artwork to the center of the Artbaord using the Align Panel.
TEMPLATE LAYER: In the Layers Panel, drop down in the menu for Template (50%) or double click on the layer for properties (Dim 10-30%). Lock Layer. Create a New Layer above for Building.
GENERAL PREFERENCES: All of our initial preferences are designed to gain more control over what you are clicking on. The more you can zoom in and see your anchors and handles the better. You can adjust the size of your Anchors and Handles under Selection and Anchor Display. Under your General Settings, make sure that Disable Auto Add/Delete is Selected.
SELECTION TOOLS: The Direct Selection Tool can grab and adjust the Anchors, Handles, and Paths. It is worth having your Smart Guides Path Labels Turned On so you know what the tool is selecting before dragging. The Selection Tool will move and select objects. I like using the Bounding Box for my Transform Tools, Turn On under View. I recommend this for Quick Scaling.
PRIMARY BUILDING: I will use Shapes, Pencil, and Pen Tools in Adobe Illustrator as my Primary Building Tools. Notice I have simplified my drawings and sketches to make this step feel like tracing.
VARIATION + EDITING: I will apply Brush Libraries for my Line Variation. Notice I am using Expanded Editing Tools to clean up my Paths before moving on to the Coloring Step.
ADVANCED COLORING: I will use Live Paint and the Live Paint Bucket to create my Basic Fills. Notice I have duplicated out the Flat Color Layer for Highlights, Shadows, Gradients, and Effects.
PRIMARY BUILDING: As I create my artwork, notice I am aligning the Building Tools to the Shapes and Lines within my Sketch or Drawing. Many of you will be using Shape, Pencil, and Pen Tools as your Primary Building Tools. BEGINNER: Understand the Building Tools and Options in Adobe Illustrator. ADVANCED: Align the Building Tools (Ellipse, Pen, and Curvature Tools) to the Design Elements (Shapes, Lines, and Curves) in your own drawing or sketch. BEGINNER GUIDES / ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS
COLOR SWATCHES + THEMES: Download or Save Color Swatches (Adobe Color) for your own artwork and designs. I recommend gathering and organizing resources within the same project folder (Stock Photos / Sketches / Thumbnails / Color Swatches).
SAVE OR DOWNLOAD SWATCHES. You can save Color Themes for your own artwork and designs. If you have CC, click add to Library. You can also download Color Swatches as an .ASE File to open through "Other Library" in the Swatches Panel Menu.
FILE + PLACE. Place a BMP Texture over your finished vector artwork. Simple File-Place. I recommend scaling the texture to fit over your completed artwork before you export or save. Simply scale the texture file using the Bounding Box or the Properties Panel. You can scale the texture to fit over the asset or the entire artboard.
TRANSPARENCY PANEL. Adjustments to the texture file can be made in the Transparency Panel in Adobe Illustrator. Blend the Pattern toward your Background Color, you can simply click on a Color Swatch to Change the Color of the BMP Texture. Use the Transparency Slider to adjust the opacity for subtle texture overlays.
