Step by Step Adobe Illustrator Tutorial for Beginners
Adobe Illustrator Tutorial for Beginners
In this Tutorial, we will be going through how to apply and edit Brushes in Adobe Illustrator. The Tutorial will be a part of our Resource Guides for our Brush Libraries. If you have not gone through our Brushes Guide, we will go through how to save Brush Libraries. I would like you to apply these concepts to your own artwork.
GATHERING PHOTOS: Start with your own photography or a properly licensed stock photo — never a random image pulled from a search engine, since you won't actually know its usage rights. A single, clearly-lit subject with a simple background gives the AI the cleanest signal to work from; a busy, cluttered photo forces it to guess at what in the frame actually matters. Higher-resolution source photos consistently produce better results than anything compressed or blurry, since detail that isn't in your original photo can't be recovered afterward.
PREPPING YOUR SKETCH: A clean scan or photo of your sketch matters more than a perfect drawing. Even lighting with no shadows or glare across the paper, and real contrast between your pencil lines and the paper itself, makes a genuine difference in how accurately the AI reads your linework. Photographing with your phone instead of scanning is fine — just shoot straight-on rather than at an angle, and crop out everything except the actual drawing before you attach it. A rough, loose sketch works completely fine, since the AI is built to clean it up, not judge your draftsmanship — but a sketch it genuinely can't see clearly will produce a result that drifts from what you actually drew. → DRAWING GUIDE
"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. → ARTBOARD SIZE FINDER
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.
DOWNLOAD BRUSHES: Many of you are jumping over from YouTube looking to download our Adobe Illustrator Brush Libraries. Once you have downloaded and extracted the folders, Brushes are ready to be used in Adobe Illustrator. Start with our Resource Guides to understand how to download, save, and open Brush Libraries in Adobe Illustrator. Download Cartoon, Comic Strip, and Vintage mascot Brush Libraries. → CARTOON BRUSHES / COMIC BRUSHES / MASCOT BRUSHES
CARTOON BRUSHES: Cartoon Brushes are my go-to for Professional Logos, Cartoons, Mascots, and Branding. Use Cartoon Illustrator Brushes with the Pen, Pencil, or Paint Brush Tools to Apply different Line Variation to your Vector Artwork. Download Cartoon, Cartoon 2, and Original Cartoon Brush Libraries.
COMIC STRIP BRUSHES: Hand Painted + Comic Strip Brushes to get a lived in feel back into your Vector Art. Comic Strips and Hand Painted are painted based on some of my favorite artists and cartoonists. These brushes are designed to look ready for the Sunday Paper. Download Comic Strip, Hand-Painted, Paintbrush, and Fine Liner Brush Libraries.
MASCOT BRUSHES: Jittery Hand, Caffeinated Cartoonist + Rough Ink Brushes to Mimic Paper Bleed and Caffeine. Designed to be a little less stiff with your vector art. Use these Brush Libraries to get more of a distressed look or ink bleed back in your own Vector Artwork. Download Caffeinated Cartoonist, Rough Ink, and Jittery Hand Brush Libraries.
SAVE BRUSHES: Open All of the Brushes Libraries in Adobe Illustrator. (File - Open). Have your Brushes Panel Open. Under Window - Brushes. In the Brushes Menu, select "Save Brush Library." The Default Save Location is "User Defined." Repeat this step for each Brush Library.
OPEN BRUSHES: Under Window - Select Brushes. In the Brushes Menu, drop down to Open Brush Library. Hover over it and select "Other Library." A Normal Open Dialogue Box will appear to select any Brush Library to use in Illustrator. Almost all Tutorials use this method.
COLOR SWATCHES: Use Color Swatches from your Library or save them from Adobe Color as an .ASE File. Open Swatch Library from the “Other Library” Option. Most Color Themes will use Hues as the Base Color. We will be using Live Paint to create our Basic Fills or Flat Color Layer.
LIVE PAINT: Coloring will be extremely easy using Live Paint Bucket. The goal of Live Paint is to create Shapes that we can color using Fills. Once you have completed the Live Paint Group, it is important to Expand and Upgroup. We will leverage these shapes for our Values and Gradients.
KNIFE TOOL: After using Live Paint, Expand and Ungroup. Use a Duplicated Flat Color Layer for your Value Layers. The Knife Tool will cut Shapes. I recommend cutting out all of the shapes first before deleting them. You can use this technique for Highlights, Shadows, or Cast Shadows.
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.
NEW: START HERE
PENCIL TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Tablet Workflow using Pencil Tool and Live Paint Bucket. Understand the Building, Variation, and Advanced Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PENCIL TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Tablet Workflow using the Pencil Tool and Cartoon Brushes. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Comic Strip Brushes and Live Paint. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Workflow using Pen Tool Shapes, Halftones, and Knife Tool. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Value Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Live Paint Bucket. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Shapes and Cartoon Brushes. Understand Building, Applying, and Editing Brush Libraries. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
SHAPE TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Shape Tool Workflow using Fills and Brushes. Understand the Building, Variation, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Cartoon Brushes. Understand Building, Applying, and Editing Brush Libraries. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Live Paint and Knife Tool. Understand the Building, Live Paint, and Advanced Value Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Live Paint and Knife Tool. Understand the Building, Variation, and Advanced Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Beginner Pen Tool Workflow using Live Paint and Knife Tool. Understand the Building, Variation, and Advanced Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
PEN TOOL WORKFLOW: Advanced Pen Tool Workflow using Pen Tool, Blend, and Live Paint. Understand Building, Variation, Editing, and Basic Coloring Methods. VIEW BEGINNER GUIDE
