The 3 Different Ways to Draw Digitally: Adobe Illustrator Crash Course

Once you know the background of illustrator and decided it's the right fit for you, it's time to figure out how to actually use the program. So, the first question you probably have (aside from the overwhelming “What do you do with all these buttons do?”) is how do I actually draw on here? The good thing is, there are three totally different ways to draw things on illustrator, and so regardless of your experience level, you can find one that works for you.

Tracing

Picture it: Riverside High School 2016 and a younger me is almost overly eager to learn to use Adobe Illustrator. My art teacher told me she’d teach me to use it after school, but when I got there she taught me to use Photoshop instead. She told me to go over all my Princess Pretend and The Not Knight illustrations with sharpie (P.S if you're outlining I highly recommend saving yourself the trouble and using anything but Sharpie) and then scan them onto Photoshop to add color. To a point, she was right. This was a way of getting my illustrations to be digital, but the results were really underwhelming. My original Sharpie outline showed up dully on the computer screen – especially in contrast to the colors I was using to fill the outlines. I asked her if there was anyway to fix that and she said to trace all the outlines on computer. This brings us to the first option you have when illustrating on Adobe Illustrator: you can take a picture of something you drew by hand, upload it to Illustrator, and go over it with the brush.

How I recommend doing this:

1. Draw a picture

2. Upload it to a computer

3. Load picture onto Illustrator (ctrl+O and then select the file)

4. Lock the layer (under the layers panel on the right side, click the empty space next to the eyeball of the layer you’re on)

5. Start a new layer

6. Select the brush tool (keyboard shortcut B. If the brush appears with a prohibited sign next to it, go to the top bar and find the “brush definition drop down”. Select the icon that looks like library books and pick any of the brush sets. I usually use the Artistic>Artistic_Calligraphic>5pt. Round)

7. Trace your picture

8. When finished, hide the image layer (click eyeball) to see results.

This is probably the easiest of the three options you have for basic illustrating an Adobe Illustrator. If you've yet to master how to control drawing on the computer; this might be a good starting option. Keep in mind that all of Illustrator’s brush strokes are editable. If you click on them (keyboard shortcut A) there a series of anchors and handles you can use the shape each aspect of your illustration to your liking – but more on that in a few weeks.

Image trace

To continue the saga from above, let's just say I was not happy with the idea of tracing all of my illustrations by hand, again. I thought there had to be a function that automatically traced things for you; and I was convinced that this function lay with the ever illustrious Adobe Illustrator that I still had my eye on. My teacher told me no such function existed, but I'm a stubborn person and I was not taking no for an answer. I scoured the Internet and sure enough, this magical automatic trace system already existed in Adobe Illustrator: Image trace. Image trace is exactly what it sounds like and what I described. It takes pixel images and traces them into vector graphics. This is how I did on my Princess Pretend and The Not Knight illustrations.

How I recommend doing this:

1. Draw a picture on paper (you can add color if you want, or do it on the computer later)

2. Outline the picture. Make sure your lines are clean and you don't have that much gray area. (For outlining, I recommend Faber-Castell PITT pens)

3. Scan the Illustration. From my experience, taking a picture instead of scanning ends up being a total disaster because there's too much fluctuation with the light. However, scanning doesn't require a crazy expensive art scanner. I use the phone app CamScan to scan my work.

4. Set image settings to be as clear and contrasting as possible

5. Upload your picture to a computer

6. Load to illustrator (ctrl+O and then select the file)

7. Click on the picture (keyboard shortcut “V”)

8. Select image trace from top bar.

9. Wait patiently and don't panic when you see the initial results

10. Under “Preset:” tab at the top, select whatever setting you think looks best. I like high and low quality image for things with color, but depending on the thickness or style of your lines you might have a different preference.

11. Hit expand to make the pathways edible

This option is usually pretty accurate and good if you don't want to worry about fiddling with the brush tool. It allows you to maintain the level of skill you have on paper without having to adjust all that much to a new program.

Freehanding

This is generally the goal of using Adobe illustrator- to be able to do the illustration process solely on the computer. And while this is perhaps the simplest of the methods, it's the one that requires the most practice.

Here's how to do this:

1. Select the brush tool (keyboard shortcut “B”)

2. Move the brush to the way you want.

That’s it. It's really that easy. However, don’t be fooled by how easy this sounds. Drawing on the computer is much different than drawing on paper – there’s less resistance which makes it more difficult to keep your hands steady – there's really just less control in general. Now, if you’re still interested, there are several ways of doing this method. The first one that comes to mind is using a computer mouse to draw. In theory, this is a great idea, and it utilizes a tool most people already have; but before getting locked onto this idea, go ahead and try it. Long story short, a 2 x 3 inch mouse is not as nimble and easy to move as a pen/pencil, but if you’re planning on making some simple shapes, a mouse tends to work just fine. You could also try using touchscreen if your computer supports it. This is exactly like how Adobe Illustrator Draw works and so it could be a good way to transition. However, not all computers have touchscreen; and your fingertip tend to be less accurate than the tip of a pen/pencil. Therefore, it's harder and almost frustrating to try to get the lines going where you want. The third option is using a pen tablet. A pen tablet is like paper that's connected to the computer. When you draw something on the tablet with your pen, it shows up on the computer screen almost exactly the same as it would on paper. That makes this option one of the most convenient and accurate ones; and once you get adjusted to the slight difference between drawing on paper vs. a computer, it makes it one of the quickest as well. However, these tablets range in price from around $80 to 500+ dollars, so if you aren't that serious about this yet, maybe wait and try some of the other methods first. If you are serious about graphic design though, I highly recommend getting one of these. I have a Wacom Comic and it's all sorts of convenient for my work.

Well, hopefully this is helped you to figure out how to begin to use Adobe Illustrator. Next week we’ll be going over some of the keyboard shortcuts that help you maneuver around the software quicker.

Additional Resources/Sources Used:

http://www.wacom.com/en-us?gclid=Cj0KCQiAhrbTBRCFARIsACY7MW38fhanYgteZRJnCWysOq55bGVTe63VEMLkekYc0JLv9yY-Op5KBhQaAvPlEALw_wcB

https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator.html?sdid=KKQML&mv=search&s_kwcid=AL!3085!3!196928852571!e!!g!!adobe%20illustrator&ef_id=WAgRYgAAALrDyqPd:20180129031850:s

https://www.camscanner.com/user/download

http://www.fabercastell.com/art-and-graphic/artist-products/pitt-artist-pens