Drawing with Basic Shapes

Prof Vaughn: Let's keep thinking about
how we're going to use illustrator,

to make our, basic drawings.

So when we think about drawing, it is

perfectly fine if you have zero drawing
skills.

Most people think, that you need to have,
um, this like very fluid ability to use

a pen or a pencil or charcoal to make
something hand drawn, with hand to paper.

When we're thinking of illustrator we're
gonna start in a slightly

different format.

We're going to think about the way
vectors, so here's a vector image,

the way vectors are really just made of
basic shapes.

So the first way to tackle the idea of
drawing in illustrator is to just break

apart any image, or any idea, into its
most fundamental shapes.

So this is actually a really lovely
drawing here, done in illustrator.

Uh, very nice sort of vector based
portrait, we could call this.

I want you to see what this is.

What is this made of?

At its most basic form, we could think
about this in terms of

basic, basic, basic, shapes.

So, we'll start at the bottom.

We've got this kind of, uh, black shape
here.

We've got a blue one.

Basically got a soft kind of round
triangle.

We've got some half circles, here's some
more half circles.

Y'know the mouth is some sort of a circle
with a layer of white over it.

Our hair is basically a circle that's
broken up into some wavy shapes.

Our background is just one square of pink.

So we're thinking about sort of looking at
illustrations and breaking them down

into their most basic forms.

From there, we can use our basic shapes

in illustrator to start drawing these
objects.

Now this one has some, sort of complicated
shapes that we'll get to.

We can do the same with any logo.

So think about how a logo looks.

I want you to start sort of
diagnosing it.

Here we've got a circle of, a light, kind
of mid-orange color maybe?

We've got a white circle,

and then we have these petal shapes,
with some little white yellowish oblongs.

Our straw here is basically just like a
line or rectangle, we have our leaf shape.

It's all about basic shapes layered
on top of each other, to give the illusion

of a three dimensional object.

Here, water drops, it's all about the
application of

color, shading, highlighting, but
essentially,

these are all pretty basic shapes.

So, start to look at things for what they
are, in terms of their most basic shape.

When we're in illustrator, I'm gonna go
over the basic shapes today,

how we use them.

Um, you're gonna start practicing, and I'm
gonna give you a practice file to work

with, where you end up drawing something
using just basic shapes.

But let's start looking at our tools, so

here I have a single artboard document
still.

You can zoom in or zoom out.

We're gonna do all of the work, on this
white document.

So starting at the top, of illustrators
tools, we have a selection tool,

and a direct selection tool.

These are gonna be important, we're gonna
come back to them in just a minute.

These are the tools that we will use to
edit, our shapes.

So in illustrator we're working with real
basic shapes,

we're gonna start with the given tools.

So we got a rectangle tool here.

If you click and hold, we have rectangle

ellipse, that's a circle, polygon, star,
line segment.

So let's just start with our basic
rectangle tool.

As you use your tools for shapes, you're
simply gonna come into your document,

and click and drag.

Whatever shape you drag to will be the
shape that is drawn, now,

automatically, you see this blue bounding
box.

Might be a different color depending on
your layers, but, each shape in

illustrator is considered to be live.

Unlike photoshop, where we would have
something, and we would have to

transform it, with edit transform,
menu option.

In illustrator, they're sort of just
always live.

So they're kind of always ready to be
edited.

And we know that because we can see the
bounding box, all these blue lines,

and white boxes, indicate that we can
edit the shape, in a number of ways.

When we're thinking about, drawing a shape
and using color,

we have two opportunities.

We have the fill color, which is the
entirety of the object,

as if a paint bucket has been dumped
on it.

Or, we have the edge color, which we're
gonna call stroke.

We can edit these colors, from a few
different places,

we have our properties panel
right in the middle.

The appearance is dedicated to how
this object looks.

So if I click on the fill-
here is my color panel,

I can choose a different color.

You have different kinds of
swatches here.

You have color, gradient,
pattern, color, etc.

So you can open up
different swatches.

We can talk a little bit more
about this panel later, um,

but all kinds of opportunities here.

If you don't like the swatch panel
where you are sort of seeing

these little boxes of color,
then you can use your little

palette where you pick
from the color spectrum.

And you can always move
these around too.

So two different opportunities there.

Now again, we are in the fill color.

If we choose the stroke color,
we are talking about the outer edge.

So, lets pick something really
noticeable here.

Lets pick this orange color.

And I am going to increase the weight.

So this is the point --
10 point, stroke weight.

That is that outside line.

If you don't want to stroke,
click back on that and

use the none.

Take that stroke off.

We also have opacity here,
you are familiar with this.

So if we lower the opacity of this object,
you are going to see-through,

especially if there was another
shape behind it.

So that is our basic appearance opportunity.

We can also edit the color
from our tools panel.

So here, same opportunity.

There's that fill, double click,
you can choose another color.

If you want to use the stroke,
double click the stroke,

choose a color.

Okay, now here, that stroke is set
to one point so I would still

have to come over here and
make it a little bit bigger

if I wanted to see it.

So there is a way to change things.

You also have an eye dropper.

I am going to make another shape
really quickly here and

change its color just to give us
an idea.

Okay, so if I wanted to pick up a color
from somewhere else in the document

and apply it to this object,
it is very important that first

I select this object.

So I have used my black arrow,
which is a selection tool,

and clicked on it.

I know I have it because
of the bounding box.

Now if I wanted to use the eye dropper,
middle of the tools panel,

to select another color,
lets say I really want this

same exact blue that I have here,
I can just click on that blue

and all of the apperance properities
of this blue box will be transferred

to my other box.

So that is another way
to apply color to an object.

Okay, I am going to command Z, back us up,

close up this little color window
and lets talk about our selection tools.

So, first one up, basic
selection tool,

it's a black arrow.

This is the tool you are going to use
to grab your objects.

Notice, as I click on each object,
I have selected it,

and now I can move it.

It also opens up the opportunity
for the bounding box.

So the bounding box
acts like the transform tool

in photoshop.

I can scale it up or down,
make it bigger, smaller,

taller, wider.

I am sort of free form scaling right now
from this corner.

If you want to scale proportionally
hold shift on your keyboard.

This will keep it in proportion,
so same ratio but bigger or smaller.

Otherwise, you are sort of just
free form, re-sizing objects

to fit your need.

As you are using this tool,
the selection tool,

if you come over to the middle area,
you are not on a bounding box,

you are just moving your object --
moving your object.

Other opportunities with our black
selection tool.

If you zoom in --
I am going to zoom in real close

to one of these corners.

You can use your zoom and your pan.

You have a little white circle
with a blue center on the corner.

This is a corner widget.

The corner widget controls the
look of the corner.

So this softens or hardens.

If I click this and drag in,
notice I have created a rounded edge.

So my hard edge rectangle now has
a softer corner.

Zoom out and you will notice this has
actually done all of the corners at once.

So when you are working
with a selection in Illustrator,

we are thinking about vector paths.

These vector paths determine the shape.

We have points.

So this is end point,
this is an end point,

this is an end point,
and path.

Points are connected by paths.

These are the algorithms that
Illustrator uses to make these connections.

Anything with the black arrow tool
is working on the entire selection,

the entirety of the object.

Okay, if, what we want to do instead
is work on one portion of

the object --
lets move to a different object.

Zoom in.

If we want to target just one corner
or one point of the path to make

an edit, then we are going to use
our direct selection tool.

White arrow, second tool down.

So you are always going to be
going back and forth between these.

Eventually you will get quick enough
you can use the keyboard command.

Selection tool is V.

The direct selection too is A.

So if I hit A on my keyboard,
I automatically go to that

white arrow tool.

So white arrow tool.

Look at the difference.

Remember black arrow,
we have got a got a

certain type of bounding box.

White arrow, it changes.

Now, we actually just see the
four points that compose the path,

that make up this rectangle.

So now, if I click on one of these,
I have targeted just one point.

Notice it has gone blue and
the other ones are white.

I have selected just this path.

Now as I move it,
I am only editing that one point

which of course is determining
the difference in the path

but this is how I have taken a basic
rectangle and started to edit it.

If I want to target this corner,
lower left,

click on that point, again,
with the direct selection,

and drag it in.

So already I have sort of
begun taking a basic shape and

making it more complex.

When I am done, I can simply click off.

If I wanted to move this or
scale the entire thing,

back to that selection tool
where I have got the entirety

in a bounding box.

Other opportunities,
if we want to use the corner widget

only on one corner,
use that direct selection tool.

Here, lets soften this.

Notice before, oops,
it is actually doing it again.

Command Z.

I need to grab just this corner,
so I have now clicked on it once

to select just this one
and now drag it in.

So now I have edited one
corner with a corner widget

by using direct selection just
on that one particular corner.

So I am starting to get more complex shapes.

Now again as always,
you are thinking about

your layers panel,
you are thinking about layer order.

Lets look at our layers over here.

Layer one has both objects.

Path and rectangle.

Same kind of thing,
if you want to edit them,

remember you need to target them.

You can target by simply clicking
in your document or

over here.

If I target on the right,
it gives me a little blue box.

That means I have selected it.

Now you can see I have selected it.

If we need to re-order,
we can change the layer order.

Notice, I can tell I have selected
this object and it is targeted,

this blue one.

I can see its path,
it's sort of hidden behind this,

that is layer order.

So always thinking about layer order.

When we are targeting our objects,
we can also thinking about our

other transformations,
we can rotate from the corners,

very easy,
scale up and down.

We, um, can think about how to
fill the background with color.

A lot of times people say
'how do I make a background layer?'

You could make a new layer if you
want to create new layer,

bring it down to the bottom,
then simply think

'well, how would I make it?'

All I need to do is actually
have a shape that fills the entirety

of the space.

So lets make a shape.

Rectangle tool.

I am just going to click and drag,
I am going to go a little bit over

the boarder and that is fine
and it is filling to that default color.

So, if I want it I can double click it
over here and bring it back.

Lets say I want it to be
kind of a light blue, a purple color.

That now is my background color.

So background color is simply
a filled shape, often a rectangle.

Okay, so we have started to build
up our ideas here.

Let's continue looking at the
properties of our basic shapes.

I am going to turn the visibility
off of these for now.

Remember, layer of visibility
is the same,

we've got this little eyeball icons.

If you want to work on
a layer make sure you go to it.

I am going to keep working on this
layer one.

Layer two lets rename background color,
so we just know.

Okay layer one.

So we have got our rectangle,
we explored that one.

A couple other things to think about-
we have quick commands.

If I hold shift while drawing an object,
it will keep it perfectly one to one

ratio proportional.

So, perfect square.

That is how I make a perfect square.

Now look, I can't really see this shape
because it is being drawn in the same

color that I last used for the background.

Lets go to properties,
change the color.

Okay, so, shift gives you a
one to one ratio.

I am going to delete this.

You can also delete your objects by
simply clicking on them and

hitting the delete button.

Your other option is to use
the ALT or option key.

Notice when you do that you
get this sort of targeted appearance.

Look at the way its drawing,
it is drawing out from the center point.

So if we want to draw out
from the center point

hold ALT or option.

Lets do that again.

Normally you would draw from
a corner.

Notice I have drawn left,
I could draw right,

but it is drawing out from the corner.

ALT, option, draws from the center.

If you want it to be proportional
hold that shift key.

Now it is proportional.

Okay, I am going to delete this object.

So selection tool, grab it, delete.

Other shapes.

Here is our circle, ellipse, same idea-
click and drag.

If you want it to be a sort of oblong,
draw that.

If you want it proportional,
shift key.

There is the way to go.

Same, direct selection vs selection.

Our selection tool grabs the
whole thing.

You can scale it up or down.

Whoops, see there, be careful,
you can always grab your

other objects very easily.

So make sure to grab the object you want.

You have this little tool
right here, this is an angle tool.

If you didn't want a full circle,
that can be interesting for you.

Lets back up.

You also have the ability to
kind of squash it or squish it.

This is taking it out of proportion
by using the left or right

bounding box areas.

Lets look at the direct selection
on an elipse.

So here is my direct selection,
I am going to zoom in so

we can get a closer look at
this object.

Here are the points that
make up this path.

We have got four points-
left, right, top, bottom.

Clicking on a point reveals the
way the path is working.

We are going to talk more
about this but we have handles here.

These handles control the curves.

So if I edit this handle,
notice I am changing

this circular shape.

So maybe I really want something
that is kind of funky, I don't know,

strange, amoeba like shape.

You can draw things in, out,
and you can affect the rotation.

So that is how the shape of a
circle is made, four points

with handles, using your direct
selection to edit it.

Okay, lets use our selection, delete,
and move on in our tools.

Polygon, just like it sounds, multi sided.

So when you are thinking of a polygon,
you need to think of

'how many sides do I want?'

The first time you click with
a polygon, it is going to ask you

'how many sides?'

So if you want a triangle,
click three.

If you want something else
-- lets do it again.

Remember every time you click
with the shape tool it's going

to draw a shape.

You always need to make your shape
and then go to a selection tool

if you are ready to move it.

Lets do something with six sides.

Okay, there is my six sided.

Now again, every time you click
and draw it is going to draw another one.

So I don't want that.

Actually what I want to do
is edit this one.

So I am going to go in
my selection tool,

make it bigger,
maybe I want to change the color of this one,

maybe layer order is more important
or I want to play with opacity.

I can lower the opacity and
see through the blue object

to this orange one.

Remember if you are trying to
move something and

you can't move it,
pay attention to your layer order,

you might have to come in here
and take a look at what's happening.

So now I have got a triangle.

Same thing- I can edit it on its
individual points.

I can edit the softness, the corner
widgets.

Or, I can use my tool to grab just one.

Maybe I want one to be hard
and the rest to be soft,

same kind of corner widgets here
if I want to edit just this one.

Target it with that direct selection tool
and make your shape.

The only other shape tool that
we, um, might be interested in using

right now is the star tool.

Line segment draws a line
that might be useful

but most often we are drawing
more complex shapes.

Our star tool is as it says.

When your using your star tool,
if you want to change the number

of shapes, I am sorry,
the number of, ah, points,

you have to use that ALT option key again.

So before drawing it,
hold ALT option and click.

That opens up the dialog box
for changing the number of points.

You could have many, many points.

To a star.

Let's add some color so we can see it.

Let's do yellow.

Now look at that path, it's a pretty
complex path.

We can still move it, make it bigger
or smaller.

We've got many, many points.

If we needed to edit an individual
point, or the softness of the corner,

the curve.

We would use our direct selection tool.

Remember you need to target one point
first, then edit.

Target, edit.

If you want the corner widget, inside, or
outside kind of corner.

Target it, edit.

Click off, and you can see your shape.

So now we've got the ability to work
with basic shapes, layer order, color,

corner widgets, and sizing.

Your task, is, to get comfortable using
basic shapes.

Filling them with color.

Your, practice assignment looks like this.

So you're going to use this template, to
draw a robot.

You're gonna start by drawing the most
basic shapes.

We're gonna look at our layers panel, and
you're gonna make a new layer for you

to work on.

Call it something you'll remember.

I'm gonna just call it jen robot.

You're gonna leave these locked.

My guides and drawings are locked.

So you won't be able to really edit them.

And you can't draw on something that's
locked.

You can't use a locked layer.

So make sure you're working on a new
layer before you start attempting this.

So the goal is to draw this shape, this
shape, these shapes,

using this dashed, sort of template.

Think about the way our shapes can be
layered to give an illusion.

So all of these shapes really, as they
increase in complexity,

are still just made up of the most basic
shapes.

The illusion is complete when they are
layered over each other.

Because then your eye can't tell the
difference.

So you're gonna make a square, with soft
corners.

Use your rectangle tool.

Come over here.

Draw it approximately the same size.

It's filling with white, which is great.

If you need to see through it, so you can
see my edges, remember we don't need a

stroke right here, and let's turn that
off.

You could lower this temporarily if you
want to see the template.

And then, you wanna edit your corners.

We're gonna edit all of them at once.

So will use our regular selection tool.

Black arrow.

And just pull those corners in.

Okay, so that's about the right size.

Now you could increase the opacity.

Great, you're gonna use your polygon,
with the three side, to make a triangle.

Then you're gonna get a little bit more
complex.

We've got a small circle.

A sort of, elongated triangle.

Two rectangles that you're gonna draw.

Just layering them so that they create
this illusion.

And then you're gonna do the real deal.

You're gonna come over.

You're gonna eventually have a robot that
looks like this.

Pretty complex little drawing, but pretty
simple to make.

So let's think about how we can make this
ro-little robot.

We know our basic shapes.

Let's look at like the eyeballs and these
sort of shoulder joints.

What would you do to make this?

We actually have a couple options, right?

We could have a red circle, filled,
with a white circle filled, over the top.

Alternatively, think about the way you
could have a circle,

that is maybe just a filled, stroke edge.

So let's look at that.

Ellipse tool, I'm just gonna draw off to
the side here.

So right now it's filled with color,
white.

But really if you look at the eye, you
could see this as just a red outline,

so let's do, no fill, and, a red stroke.

Now this is where the eyedropper will
come in handy.

If I use that eyedropper.

I'm gonna select this red background, and
just clicked on that background.

Notice it's kind of gone in the wrong
order, I need to flip the fill and stroke.

So I'm gonna use this little flip, or
swap.

Now the red is applied there.

I'm gonna, really increase that.

I can't see it because it's on the red
background so I'm gonna use the direct

selection, and move this shape.

Now, there it is, it's actually a
little bit big.

Again, you're gonna wanna draw the face
first,

but if I move-let's see, sometimes it can
be really hard to grab your objects.

C'mon, you got to kinda click.

And if illustrator gets-illustrator I will
say is a little bit more, um,

It can have more bugs, than photoshop.

So, save your work often.

Um, if it starts to freeze or something,

then you're gonna wanna just restart your
program.

Okay, I'm gonna put a shape behind it
so we can see it.

Off to the side.

This one I want to be, actually, in white.

No stroke, and then let's reorder those
layers.

So I want that, on top.

Okay, So it's a little bit too big but you
get the idea.

That is, an object that just has a
stroke on it, right here.

We could lower that size, and then also
probably hold down that shift key,

keep it constrained, and that would work,
also, as your eyeball.

So you're gonna diagnose how to draw this.

Use the template if that's easier for
you.

Remember, once you have a shape, if you
need a duplicate version of it,

you can use your layers panel, just like
photoshop,

drag this down, to the duplicate
button.

You can also use quick commands.

So now that I've selected this object, I
can do command C, command V.

So that's edit copy, edit paste.

From your edit menu, there it is,
edit copy, edit paste.

And, it gives me that same object.

So if you have multiple parts that are
exactly the same,

think about copy and pasting, so you're
not making them over, and over again.

These are all the same here.

This is all the same.

Once you've drawn your adorable little
robot,

you are going to, give it a different
color.

So I don't want your robot to be white,
like mine.

Give him a different color.

You could change all the parts to a
different color.

You could, put a new rectangle, behind,
that has a different fill color.

Let's say we want this to be, we want
a nice kind of green background.

And perhaps your robot, is going to be,
um, let's make him, uh, a yellow robot.

Play with your layer order so you get it
in the right order.

You can start building on top.

Perhaps the last step is to, put a new
background color.

So I would draw all the pieces, and then
use your properties panel to change them.

So that will be your practice task, let me
know if you have any questions

or if you get stuck, using basic shapes
to draw.