Webster Web Design

Adobe Illustrator
Resume:Interfaces:URL's:Flash:Photoshop: Illustrator :inDesign

Adobe Illustrator is a very powerful program for creating digital graphic art. It's power comes from the fact that it creates graphics with vector points, instead of pixels. In Photoshop you have to plan your project around the resolution (pixels per inch), but in Illustrator you can create resolution free graphics that will look good anywhere, from your web site or business card up to and including the side of a building.
    Sadly, Illustrator has a steep learning curve. Most people, myself included, began creating digital art on computers with Photoshop. When I first opened Illustrator, I went looking for my favorite Photoshop tools (airbrush, filters and layer styles) but they aren't there. Creating artwork in Illustrator is very much like creating an old fashioned montage with scissors and colored paper. If you want to draw an apple, you cut out an apple shape from your red paper and paste it down. If you want to draw a shadow on the apple, you cut out the shadow shape from your darker red paper and paste that in place.
    To use the analogy, in Illustrator your scissors is the pen tool, and your paper is the color picker. Where it gets exciting is in the huge collection of colored paper Illustrator ships with, and the ability to create your own custom colored paper. Of course Illustrator is much deeper than just a tool for creating digital art, it has a strong suite of type formatting tools and is extremely useful for creating business stationery such as business cards, letterheads, posters, CD covers and maps.

Black and White self portrait
My students are always certain they can't draw a portrait. I created a lesson plan demonstrating just how easy it is to go from an instant digital photo to the finished Illustration over the course of a 2 hour lecture. This has become an extremely popular lesson as students discover the power of this amazing program while "illustrating" their self portrait. Because of the popularity of this lesson, I will shortly be filmed by the College Vision crew demonstrating the process for cable TV. Look for it soon on "Click!" channel 89. One of my older Flash lessons can also be seen on College Vision from time to time, look for the "Flash Animation/Quicktime" show.

5 1/2" x 8" notepaper
I used the logo below to create this notepaper as a demonstration for my students on the power of Illustrator.

Logo
This logo project began life as a photo taken on a canoe trip. I brought the photo into Photoshop, posterized it then brought it into Illustrator where I traced out the essential black and white shapes ending up with a vector based logo which I have used in several other projects involving Illustrator and inDesign.

computer guitar illustration

Illustrator Guitar
Several of my students drew guitars for their final project in Illustrator. I drew this guitar as a demonstration of what you can do when you master the program. We were all inspired by a magnificent guitar an earlier student (Brent R.) had created. I thought it would be easy to copy Brent's guitar, but was surprised to find that the smooth wood tones of the body were impossible to achieve until he explained the secret: draw the body horizontal, not slanted. Make a very simple 3 row, 3 column mesh using 4 mesh points. The rows and columns must follow the contour of the body. Rotate the body AFTER the mesh is applied. There is also a "lighten" layer mode on the reflection, which is also a mesh. Project time: 20 hours.

Glass drawn with Illustrator 10

Illustrator Glass
This drawing began as a 12 hour pencil drawing. I needed a challenge in Illustrator and decided to draw it again using vector tools, with surprising results. I almost like it better than the pencil version.

Because I exported this Illustrator file as a Flash file, or .SWF, you can maximize the window, and/or 'Right Click', and zoom in on the pop up window to see the detail work.

Plant Bulb

Illustrator Plant Bulb
I created this plant bulb while creating a Lesson Plan from the "Illustrator 10 WOW Book" by Sharon Steuer. It takes advantage of Illustrator's ability to blend shapes. The roots and skin were drawn with one of the many custom brushes.

Illustrator fish

Illustrator Fish
From the same WOW book mentioned above, I found this excellent tutorial on how to draw a fish. I love the way the Gradient Mesh tool allows me to control the flow of color. While I was creating this fish, I was also painting a still life at my easel with traditional media in the evenings, and I found myself longing for the ease of "edit>undo". Computers make it easy.

Illustrator Hot Air Balloons

Illustrator Hot Air Balloons
I was looking for a new class project for the Intermediate Illustrator class I teach at CPTC when I received a greeting card in the mail featuring hot air balloons. I looked at it and thought, "This would make a great exercise for my students!". The strokes on the seams were the most challenging part to draw.

What's fun about the balloons is once you finish one complete balloon, the time consuming detail work is done. Creating a new balloon is as easy as dragging out a duplicate and playing with the colors.

Illustrator Manikin

Manikin
Like many artists, I have a little wooden manikin on a stand. About a year ago I set him down by my computer, and with the aid of a nearby desk lamp providing clear directional light, I drew him with the pen tool and simple gradients. I have a 9x12 Wacom tablet, without which I would hesitate to tackle a project of this nature.

Because I exported this Illustrator file as a Flash file (SWF), you can maximize the window, and/or 'Right Click', and zoom in on the pop up window to see the detail work. This illustration was accepted at http://www.istockphoto.com/ . You can download the *.ai file there for a fee if you search for "manikin vector".

Note: I have also drawn this little guy with traditional pencil and paper, but I prefer the Illustrator version.

Manikin sitting Sitting Manikin
Same manikin as above, but he had to sit down to rest. Similar to the balloons above, once all the basic shapes were drawn and colored with gradients, it was relatively simple to redraw him in a different position. Drawing these manikins from 'life' was when I began to understand why the software is called Illustrator. You do not have to be a classically trained artist to create digital art, although it helps. If you spend the time learning Illustrator's toolset, especially the Pen tool, it's only a matter of time until you create something lovely.
Rolling Hills Rolling Hills
I created this landscape while preparing a lesson plan using the "Illustrator 10 WOW Book" as a guide. The WOW series of software manuals are outstanding, however they don't make especially good step by step instruction manuals. For example, the Plant Bulb illustration at the top of this page was explained on one page in the WOW book. When I taught the Plant Bulb project to my students, I expanded the instructions to 6 pages.
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Resume:Interfaces:URL's:Flash:Photoshop: Illustrator :inDesign

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