Drawing with Basic Shapes

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 with 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, 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 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 another object.

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

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

So, first one up is a basic
selection tool,

it is 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,
it can be 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.