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PART I1 THE PAGE
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VECTOR-BASED
ILLUSTRATION
Vector graphics use geometrical forms to represent images. Mathematical equations provide the power of such geometric modeling.
Before I plunge you into the world of Adobe Illustrator, a word of caution: Illustrator is harder to learn than many other graphics applications.
geometric shapes
You’ll do best if you can ease into Illustrator a bit at a time. Fortunately Adobe provides a very robust Help Center with examples, tutorials, forums, and more.
Illustrator creates shapes with what is called the Rectangle Tool. It actually forms a variety of geometric shapes, each with perfect symmetry.
lines with a click
The Line Segment Tool yields straight lines, arcs, spirals, and two kinds of grids—rectangular and polar.
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This tool seems to have an awkward name, until you put it to work. Like most of Illustrator’s tools, tiny icons give a good sense of what it can do. There is great variety in the shape
of the objects you can lay down and once an object is in place you can stretch, twist, color and manipulate it in endless ways.
joining shapes
A good first goal is to become familiar with the interface and the different tools. A second one is learning how to draw with one hand on a mouse or stylus and the other hand on the keyboard, using the hand on the key- board to change the functions of the drawing part of the tool.
You need to be a bit of an engineer when using Illustrator. There is a definite strategic art in arranging and layering the shapes and lines that combine to render finished works. Many instructional books and tutorials offer case studies about how to approach the construction process.
Five submenus are available in Illustrator’s floating tool- bar: Rectangle Tool, Rounded Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool, Polygon Tool, and Star Tool. The sixth menu is for the Flare Tool, which emulates the lens flare you sometimes get with a camera.
If you hold down the shift key while making a new object, it is restrained to a square, circle, or other “pure” form. Polygons can have as many sides as you want, and a pop- up menu lets you set the number of points you want in a star plus the inner and outer radius.
Complex objects are built by stacking simple objects. Many finished illustrations are the result of arranging and layering shapes and lines.
The black birdhouse at right is an assemblage of the shapes shown in pale orange. As your skills with Illustrator evolve, you will begin to consider the alternatives before you actually begin to draw.
Books, magazines, and Web sites with step-by-step directions are very helpful when planning workflow for complicated projects. You will quickly learn how to analyze objects by their component geometric parts. Jamie Kruse