Diving Into Illustrator

[Temris]

Hi everyone,

I'm a freelance Flash animator and I'm also pretty well experienced with Photoshop. I've recently begun to realize how much I could also utilize this copy of Illustrator CS3 that I have sitting on my computer, but I havent even touched the program in many years, and even then it was limited. I really want to be able to create vector images, and I think if I can just get through the basic methods for doing so in Illustrator, then I could figure it out pretty well just through experimenting. Could anyone suggest to me, either your own methods for creating a basic character design in Illustrator or a heplful webpage that I could reference?

Thanks a bunch!

[Temris]

Thanks Russell. Yeah, I can get the tools down okay and I can make some rudementary images-- I'm just trying to figure out how to get on the fast-track to efficiency with it, you know? I'm a methodical type of person, and this messy experimentation stage doesnt agree with me!

Any links/tips that anyone else might have would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Jennifer Adkins]

http://www.vectortuts.com
http://www.vectips.com
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=38649&pa... has a nice list there.

[Temris]

Thanks Jennifer! Those look very useful.

[Bruno Chekerdimian]

Try this link: http://www.illustrationclass.com/

[Temris]

Thanks for that link Bruno, I'll make use of it!

I also wanted to post my first attempt at using Illustrator, still not completely finished but getting there. I'd love to hear some constructive feedback if anyone has any.

The process was pretty much just tracing a pencil drawing of mine and figuring out how to utilize the pen and brush tools. I know there are a lot of tiny imperfections here and there, but I'm mostly concerned with my use of tools/lack thereof.
And in case you're curious, the girl is a character of mine from a kid's book I made, Kayla. The bird on her head is a character of my Aunt's, who recently discovered herself to be an artist. I made the original illustration for her.

Thanks!

[Temris]

Thanks Sunchirp! And no, I'm not using the auto outline, but this is my first time figuring out the pen tool. And the pixelized lines might be because I exported as a jpeg-- not sure if that's the ideal choice, but it's what I'm used to doing. And I like your tutorial, it gives me a good perspective on using illustrator in a different way. I'll have to play with the divide tool as well.

Thanks for the help!