I am really enjoying my Adobe Illustrator class. Since I took the Photoshop class my brain has now created an Adobe schematic and can organize the information in an efficient manner. That is not to say that this class is not kicking my butt - because it is, but not so hard this time. We have been working with the pen tool for about a month now. It is your main tool so you must make it your friend, and what an odd friend it is! Anyhow, I am really starting to get the hang of it. One difficulty is that drawing with the mouse is kind of like drawing with a bit of lead stuck in a hunk of soap. After careful consideration and lots of research, I decided to buy a Wacom Bamboo Fun digital tablet. It plugs into your computer and the pen takes over the functions for the mouse. It took an hour or so to get used to it. Now I think it is wonderful. I had so much fun that I would not give up the computer and let the kids have a go at it. I had homework to get done. They will have their turn soon enough. My only wish is that I wish I could have gotten a blue one. I could only find the black one for purchase in stores and I was feeling too impatient to order it online.
Here you can see two drawings I did. They were both based off of photos. You create layers in Adobe and draw, color, etc. on the various layers. This guides your creating. It is not exactly tracing since you have to figure out what to include and what to leave out. I got so engrossed when I was doing the bird that I forgot to save often. As a result, I got done, failed at saving and had to go back and redo the second half not once, but twice. Oh well, I like what I've got and I also got a lot of practice. The turtle is from an old botanical illustration from the turn of the century. The bird is based off of a photo I took at the Cherry Creek Arts festival last July. I simplified him quite a bit. He is decorated with found parts like old rulers for wings and watch faces for decoration.
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