16 Illustrator tips, tutorials, techniques & resources
Creating geometric patterns in Illustrator
"It’s just not always simple to create perfectly seamless patterns, especially with geometric forms. Today I’ll show you how to create a geometric pattern shape and fill a background with it using the method I just described."
Wireframing With InDesign and Illustrator
"There are a variety of tools used for interaction design. I’ve used them all and have settled on a framework using InDesign and Illustrator. It will require a series of articles to fully describe the framework I’ve developed. So, in this article, I’m going to focus on what led to the development of this framework and give you a brief overview."
Using the Pathfinder and Align tool in Illustrator
"Whenever I get a question from a user asking me “how did you draw this?”, I often have to answer that I’ve used the Pen tool. The Pen tool is probably the hardest tool to learn in Illustrator. It just takes time to master it fluently, but once you do, you have this freedom to create."
Adobe Illustrator Tutorials - Best Of
"In this post we present a collection of excellent Adobe Illustrator tutorials for beginners and advanced designers. The new selection isn’t enormous, but big enough to provide you with some good starting points."
Adobe Illustrator Tutorials
"As a vector-based drawing program Adobe Illustrator has nowadays become the standard for illustration design. Below you’ll find a list of hand-picked Illustrator tutorials you can use to achieve some special visual effects in your designs."
Illustrator Template for Blueprint CSS Comps
"I created an Adobe Illustrator template for creating comps that work with Olav Bjorkoy's Blueprint CSS Framework. The Illustrator template is simply a document with guides based on the 24 units provided by Blueprint. A layer is provided to show unit numbers if you like, and 2 layers showing the grid dividing into thirds and quarters."
Faster Font Selection
"If you’re anything at all like me, you have a ginormous font collection and scrolling through the entire list to find the one your looking for can be cumbersome at times. Here’s a quick tip to spend less time scrolling and more time designing."
How to create Vector Wings
"In this tutorial I will explain you simple steps in creating those fine-looking wings as included in one of my freebies and those on other designs that you may stumble on all around the web."
Make a political statement
"Create striking imagery in the spirit of past and present propaganda art. Command attention with sharp edges, minimal detail, bold colours, and the misappropriation of familiar iconic details..."
Masking with type
"Illustrator’s masking tools have long been a powerful part of its feature set. Here Martin Fewell shows you how to use masked images with typography to create an eye-catching illustration."
Distressed effects
"Adding a distressed, weathered look to your artwork is very much in vogue these days, and it’s easy to achieve using Illustrator’s Live Trace and Pathfinder features. Mark Mayers explains how"
Retro car vectors
"All you need is Illustrator, some inks and some brushes to turn a photograph of a car into a vector illustration. John Kelly of Joke Art talks you through the process"
Ornate lettering
"Go Media’s Jeff Finley shows you how to create ornate lettering from sketches and vectors in Illustrator, make it three-dimensional in 3ds Max and fine-tune the final result in Photoshop"
65 Adobe Illustrator Tutorials
"Illustrator is Adobe's main software for vector graphics. Here's a series of 65 tutorials that will be your source to learn new techniques, or your source of inspiration and ideas."
Vector Polishing Techniques
"This tutorial includes 9 Photoshop techniques that will show you how to add more depth, color, contrast, and texture into your vector art."
Random Lines Made With Mesh
"Veerle Pieters saves us from the code (the incessant code!) with a dazzling design technique using Illustrator’s Mesh feature. Coders take note! You can make something really pretty by just following a few basic steps."