5 More Basic Tips for Illustrating
Hello, Iām Al Power! You might remember me from such patronising articles such as ā5 Basic Tips of Illustrating...ā and āI want a Portfolio but Iām too lazyā¦ā
So, Iām back with another semi-patronising article outlining a few more basic tips that will hopefully help you along the way. So, in my previous article I broke down some really simple tips. For this article, Iām going to move it a step further and outline some tips that are a little more complex, (but not overly complex, donāt worry). Iāve got to call out again, Iāve learned how to illustrate myself, so some of my techniques might be a little funky, but itās how I do things so feel free to ignore me! Also, this article will only work for Adobe Illustrator, so any of you crazy Sketch illustrators, scram!
1. Copying & pasting into the same positionā¦
I donāt know if this is a standard process, but itās something that is so vital to understanding how to move fast with Illustrator. Generally itās āCommand+Cā to copy. Which is fine. But itās when you try to paste, when you run into trouble in illustrator. If you press Control+V, it seems to have a mind of its own (for me anyway), but it pastes the object in random places on the artboard. Very frustating.
Key takeaway: Hereās the tip. Control+C to copy, and Control+F to paste into the same position on the artboard. This is so useful when you want to add shading on top of a specific element as itāll place it exactly over the area you want it to be, or if youāre adding components across multiple artboards. Itāll let you replicate the element in the exact same place over and over across artboards.
2. Blobs. That is allā¦
Ok, so this next one is pretty trendy. Everyone loves blobs right? Obviously you can just draw them pretty easily but when I do that they always end up looking a little forced and weird. Well, this is how I go about it.
Draw a square, go to the top nav, Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen. Then play around with the settings to let you come up with the right blob. Generally using āSmoothā gives you a curved style. Once youāve created the shape, use āflatten transparencyā to solidify the shape.
Key takeaway: I know blobs are all the rage at the minute, but this approach will let you create generic, random shapes, aka blobs. Adding more anchor points or scaling the object will also add more randomness to the object so go knock yourself outā¦
3. Creating curved corners from obscure shapesā¦
This is something I only discovered recently, and again, maybe everyone know this, but Iāve found it so useful and really speeds up the process. Actually, Iām not sure this is possible other then the way Iām going to show you.
If you create an object, no matter how itās obscurely shaped it is, highlight it, and at each corner youāll see a small circle. If select the circle, then pull it in, youāll curve that individual corner. Likewise, if you just grab it and pull it in youāll curve every corner on the object. Again, this might be really basic stuff, but itās something I didnāt realise until recently, so just thought Iād call it out. For some reason this doesnāt work on all corners, no idea why, but works on most.
Key takeaway: This allows you to create corners on a specific object, and it will let you only apply it to individual corners too. Give it a go. Iāve found it so handy allowing you to create specific unique rounded corners.
4. Flattening objects to paste to Sketchā¦
Ok, this can be a risky business, but Iāve found it very useful when copying an illustration into Sketch. You copy and paste a file from illustrator into Sketch, youāll find that Sketch doesnāt deal very well with strokes and opacities. The strokes wont scale properly and the opacitiy will come through at 100%.
Key takeaway: If you flatten the object using āObject > Flatten transparencyā and copy and paste it into Sketch youāll be golden. Itāll transform all opacities into flat colours as well as outline strokes. There are a few more settings for flattening type etc. too so have a look and try it out.
Note: Just be sure to undo the flattening once youāve copied it over. Youāll lose complete control of the object if you donāt undo it. Youāll be stuck with outlined strokes and no opacities, not good.
5. Understand how to push and pull shapesā¦
The one thing that a lot of people are confused about when using illustrator, is that you donāt draw objects the same way you would on a piece of paper. You create a basic shape, then manipulate it by adding or manoeuvring anchor points with the help of the pathfinder tool and other effect tools to get it into the shape that I need it to be. Itās obviously easier said than done. Here is a small process video I created that outlines the approach of how you push and pull shapes, then send them to the front or back of the layer pile to order them.
Key takeaway: There is no quick fix to understand this tip. Itās something that you will learn the more you practice. The more you play around with the program, the more youāll understand what I mean.
Hopefully this will help explain what I mean.
I know the tips above range from basic to very specific, and Iām aware that there may be different ways of tackling some of the effects, but I just felt Iād try pass on some of my knowledge. I probably reiterate this in every article I write, but if you practice enough, youāll eventually find your own way of growing within the program.
If you have any thoughts on the above, or if you want to just say hi, please just holler!
Feel free to pick my brain (or whats left of it) over at:
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Illustrations from article used for Qstream Illustration project.
