Adobe Illustrator Training Course

Vector drawing is one of the important techniques in producing and creating graphics and designs on the computer. It’s not only used for drawing, design, and printing, but also for engraving, cutting, and many other applications.

Vector graphics are the foundation of 3D design programs as well as engineering drawing software.

In this course, we will learn what vector graphics are and how to create them using Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator, developed by Adobe, is one of the most popular and essential programs for creating vector graphics and designs.

Before we start drawing, we need to choose the size of the artboard we’ll be working on, in other words, the dimensions and properties of the file. This is determined by the purpose of the file in the end.

Is this artwork or file intended for printing, publishing on social media, or perhaps for use with a cutting machine?

In this video, we will learn the basic unit of vector drawing, which is the path.
A path is made up of points that connect to form lines or curves between them, and together they create a shape in the end.

Vector graphics are characterized by very high flexibility. After we learned how to draw a path and understood that it is the basic component of vector drawing, we will now learn how to change the properties of the path and its colors. We’ll also learn how to color the path’s content (the Fill) and its outline (the Stroke) in different ways

After we learned how to draw a shape and color it, we’ll explore how to create color gradients. We’ll also see how to manage multiple shapes, how to group them together so they act as one single shape instead of separate ones. We’ll learn how to create a “mask” to fill a shape with other shapes, or hide part of a group inside a main shape to achieve diverse results in our designs. For example, placing an image inside a circular or hexagonal frame, or adding patterns inside a T-shirt illustration to make it look decorated. Many other possibilities exist.

We’ve learned how to draw shapes, color them, arrange them, and coordinate them together. Now let’s apply what we’ve learned by drawing a human face using simple shapes and coloring them. We’ll also explore another drawing method using the Pen Tool, which gives us more flexibility and freedom in drawing

When we have many shapes, we need to organize and align them. We’ll learn how to align and arrange shapes with each other, and also how to create new shapes by combining or subtracting existing ones.

Often, we need to add images to our designs in Adobe Illustrator. Other times, we need to import our own drawings to redraw them in vector style. We’ll learn how to place images into Illustrator and prepare them so we can accurately trace and redraw them.

To share our graphics and designs, we need to know how to export them as images from Illustrator. We’ll learn the process and choose the right file type or image format depending on the purpose of the design.

There’s a difference between exporting a single artwork from Illustrator and exporting an artboard or multiple artboards. We’ll learn the difference and the correct method of export in this lesson.

In the Object Menu, we’ll find many options and tools we can apply to our graphics, from modifying paths to transforming and distorting shapes so they can be used more effectively in design. For example, drawing a flag and adding a wave effect to make it look like it’s fluttering, or generating new shapes from two combined shapes with gradients in both shapes and colors. Many other tools are available.

The Type Tool is a powerful feature that offers many ways to write and format text content in a design. Let’s explore how to use it in this lesson.

Previously, we learned how to combine and subtract shapes using Pathfinder. Now we’ll learn a faster and easier tool that gives quick results: the Shape Builder Tool. We’ll also learn Gradient Mesh to create attractive color gradients, and how to apply Styles to shapes. A single shape can have multiple strokes and fills at the same time, and we can save this as a Style to apply to other shapes.

If we have graphics that we use repeatedly in our designs, Illustrator allows us to build a library of Symbols that we can reuse anytime. The same applies to brushes, we can easily design custom brushes. Finally, we’ll explore the Perspective Grid tool, which makes it easy to draw in perspective.

I’ve mentioned Live Paint several times. In this lesson, we’ll see how it works in practice. We’ll also take a deeper look at Layers and learn how to use them to organize the file we’re working on.

The Select Menu makes it easier to choose shapes when our artwork is crowded. And since each of us works differently, sometimes we need to customize and arrange the program’s interface in the way that suits us best. Illustrator is very flexible in this aspect. Finally, we’ll see what artificial intelligence can offer us and how we can use it inside Illustrator.