Adobe Illustrator Beginner (2023): Drawing

Name: Adobe Illustrator Beginner (2023): Drawing
Author: Stephen Steinbach

Explore the drawing tools in Adobe Illustrator 2023

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 6 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, my name is Steven Steinbach, and in these lessons, we're going to look at some of the drawing tools in Adobe Illustrator 2023. So let's begin by creating a rectangle. And we're just going to slide this out. And let's go ahead and give it a fill color. And I'm just going to give it a blue color like so. So I want to modify this shape a little bit for demonstration. And to do that, let's select this tool here, the Curvature Tool. And with the Curvature Tool selected, you can select anywhere on here, click on it, and then click on it twice. And what that does is it makes it linear. So if I come this way and. Double click again and let's do another one here. Double click, you want to round it. You can go that way. Okay, so now we have some shapes. We can start to round these corners out manually. So one way to do that would. Be with the Curvature Tool. You could actually click on here, but you have some control. But it does sort of change other shapes as well. So if you don't want that, let's leave everything linear. And let's now click on the direct selection tool. And now you can see that we. Have these vertexes here, and we have these little corners adjusters here. If you select one and move, they're. All going around out equally. Probably don't want to do that. So undo that. So what you want to do is. Click on one time and then you. Can click on it again. What's it going to do? It's going to split this into two corners here. So we'll round it out here. And if I bring it up, it. Will make it a little bit tighter or looser. And then here again. I can select this one and round that one out. And this one here, I can round that out here. So it's a quick way to get additional corners. Now, there is another tool that I like a lot that I want to show you. And the first one is the anchor point tool. And what this does is it actually. Resets the bezier curves. If you click on that and rotate. It, you can actually drag out the beziers this way. You can also select one of these and break the tangent. And if you don't like that, you can just reset that as well. Be careful not to do that. So you want to go this way with it. It's a very flexible and handy tool. And I'll just do that again, and. I can just move these around as needed. And I can always reset other ones. Too, is if you want to delete some of these. For instance, if I want to delete this point right here, this would be. The delete Anchor Point Tool. And you can delete points as needed here. We can reset that as well. And coming back to Anchor Point Tool, also, with this tool, you make a bezier. You can use the arrow tools to nudge the curves up and down. In the next lesson, I'm going to cover the new curvature tool. Thanks for watching. Bye.

Beginner Provider : Stephen Steinbach 6 Lessons · 24m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

In these lessons, we will explore drawing tools in Adobe Illustrator 2023. We will start by looking at the shape corners tools. This tool allows you to take a hard corner and round it out in a predictable manner. Next, we will explore the curvature tool, which was introduced recently in Adobe Illustrator 2023. This tool is a simplification of the pen tool, and it allows you to create complex curves without diving into more advanced Bezier curves.

You will learn how to import a reference image. Then, we will draw an animal using the shape drawing tools. In addition, you will use the shape builder tool to create more complex objects from simple primitives. Later in these lessons, we will create an illustration of a plant as a demonstration of some of the core concepts of the course. Finally, you will explore how to create a repeated, seamless pattern, like wallpaper.

What You'll Learn

Edit shape corners to round hard corners in a predictable manner using the shape corners tool
Use the curvature tool to create complex curves without advanced Bezier curves
Import and place a reference image to draw from
Draw an animal and a plant using the shape drawing tools
Combine simple primitives into complex objects with the shape builder tool
Design a repeated, seamless pattern such as wallpaper

Key Takeaways

The course covers drawing tools in Adobe Illustrator 2023, beginning with the shape corners tool for rounding hard corners.
The curvature tool, introduced in Adobe Illustrator 2023, simplifies the pen tool to let you create complex curves without advanced Bezier curves.
The shape builder tool is used to create more complex objects from simple primitive shapes.
Demonstrations include drawing an animal and a plant to illustrate core concepts of the course.
Learners create a repeated, seamless pattern like wallpaper as part of the lessons.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will explore drawing tools in Adobe Illustrator 2023, including the shape corners tool, the curvature tool, importing a reference image, drawing an animal and a plant with shape drawing tools, using the shape builder tool, and creating a repeated, seamless pattern.

Do I need advanced Bezier curve knowledge for this course?

No. The curvature tool is a simplification of the pen tool that lets you create complex curves without diving into more advanced Bezier curves.

What version of Adobe Illustrator does this course use?

The lessons use Adobe Illustrator 2023.

What lessons are included?

The lessons are Editing Corners, Curvature Tool, Placing an Image, Demonstration: Drawing an Animal, Demonstration: Drawing a Plant, and Creating a Custom Wallpaper.

What skills does this course build?

It builds skills in Adobe Illustrator, drawing, sketching, digital sketching, and works toward Adobe Illustrator Certification.