Hi there, I’m Bill the Geek. Welcome to an Introduction to Adobe Illustrator 2020. There are a lot of videos below. If are totally knew to Adobe Illustrator, you should go from one to the next. As you go, have Illustrator open and try the concepts displayed in each video.

Illustrator doesn’t use pixels unless you import an image into it. Everything else in Illustrator is Paths and Anchor points. Before we move on to Paths and Anchor points, we need to understand the difference between a pixel and a vector.

The Adobe Illustrator Workspace can be a help or a hindrance. You’ll see. This video helps you control what you see, what panels are available, where your panels are located every time you open Adobe Illustrator.

When I updated Illustrator, there were many tools that were in the Adobe Illustrator tool bar before that were not there now. I was attempting to make a video using the “Area Type Tool.” It was not there.  Adobe Illustrator Where are My Old Tools

Paths and anchor points involve just a few concepts you need to understand to make you life better. Questions that may come to mind are, “Where are the Paths? Where are the anchor points? How do I select just one anchor point? How can I move an anchor point? What tool do I use to select an anchor point? When I select an anchor point, what are those little lines that show up to the left and right of an anchor point? How do I increase or decrease the curve of a path?”

This video will answer all of those questions. 

Understanding Adobe Illustrator Fill and Stroke is a must. This video cover all of the specifics to get you on the right path as to how this all works.

This video is all about controlling Adobe Illustrator Dashed Lines. This is another Adobe Illustrator time saver and with your artistic talent, you can use this tool to brighten up any design in a hurry, or very slowly if that is the way you would like to work.

Understanding Adobe Illustrator Colors and Swatches is no cake walk. There are many options and none of them are apparent. When it comes to colors there is a lot to be learned to anyone that is knew to the world of graphic design.

When working with Adobe Illustrator Layers, you can name parts of your project so that you can remember what is where. This is important because it makes it easy to edit when you open the file the next day. You may just be working on a project just for today, but after four hours of work, you want to remember what is where. Adobe Illustrator Layers make this possible and layers make your work much easier.

What if after you made all of those parts you could make the bus one object? What if you could make it so that if you click any part of the bus the whole thing would be selected and you could drag the whole thing somewhere else? Not only could you drag it, but you could select the whole bus and make it a little smaller or larger.

This is what grouping is all about.

Adobe Illustrator Importing Images. This is a part that you must have been waiting for. I know how. I have been doing it for 20 years. The thing is that now when I look at how you get it done, I do not think that I could figure it out unless someone told me how to do it.

In this video we show you how to vectorize Images and  there are many benefits. Once you vectorize the image you can scale it down or scale it up and there is no distortion. You can put it on a business card and it will be great. You can put that image on the side of a building and it will be great. No distortion. That is the super wonderful thing about Adobe Illustrator Vectorizing Images.

The world is filled with geometric shapes. Rectangles, Squares, Circles, Ovals, Stars, Polygons and Straight lines. Illustrator covers all of the bases with these tools.

The Arc Tool is hidden under the straight line tool in the Adobe Illustrator tool bar. Simply hold down on the straight line tool and you will see the Arc Tool. You can use this tool in many different ways. If you select the tool and simply click on your Adobe Illustrator Document, then you will see options open up on your screen. In the, “Arc Segment Tool Options,” panel, you can set Length X-Axis, Length Y-Axis, Type (Open Arc or Closed Arc), slope, concave or convex, filled arc or none filled arc.

In this video we will show you how to get into control of the Pen Tool. There are two videos. Part I and Part II. In part one we share with you how to use the pen tool to make basic objects and how to bevel corners of the objects that you create.

Using gradients, you can bring the illusion of light to your artwork.

The Adobe Illustrator Blending Tool was the original Gradient tool. With the Adobe Illustrator Blending Tool you can go from one color to another from one space to another space. It is truly a wonderful tool and only your imagination can hold you back from the many effects that can be accomplished.

The Adobe Illustrator Gradient Mesh Tool is a very different and very precise gradient tool.

In almost every graphics application, there is a very simple button that says, “Flip Horizontal.” In these same basic, and may I say advanced applications there is a very simple button that says, “Flip Vertical.” In all of these applications the process is very simple. In Adobe Illustrator this is not the case.

The Adobe Illustrator Eyedropper Tool is quite the gem of a tool. The thing is that if you have used the eyedropper tool in any other program, you will be very confused. When you try to use the Adobe Illustrator Eyedropper Tool, it will seem as though it does not work at all. The thing is, it is working, but you just do not know what it is doing.

Over the next several videos we are going be Working with Text in Adobe Illustrator CC. We are going to share with you how to type your text. We are going to share with you how you can vectorize your text. We are going to share with you what type of fills you can and cannot apply to text. We will share with you how to put text in objects. You can actually put text in any object but we will do it with ovals and rectangles. We will share with you how to apply gradients to text as well.

Kerning is the space between two letters. Leading is the space between horizontal lines. Tracking is the space between all selected letters.The question is that in Adobe Illustrator, what panel do you use to get this done and in this magic panel, what are the magic buttons that you push to make these things come to life.

Our goal in this video is to have three text boxes with the text flowing from one box to the next. When we make the boxes, they will look like rectangles with text, but no, they are Illustrator empty text boxes that we will fill with text.

When in Adobe Illustrator Placing Text in Shapes is quite a joy. You can place text in circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, stars, polygons and even text.  You can create your own shapes and place text in your shapes.  We can flow text from shape to shape.

You will love Adobe Illustrator Type on a Path and so will your clients. Typing on a path is probably one of the easiest things to do in Adobe Illustrator. When you use Adobe Illustrator Type on a Path for your clients, they will treat you like you invented toilet paper. They are always so happy when they see their logo or their phone number or their web site typed on a curvy path. They will show all of their friends and tell them how great you are and then all of their friends will hire you and you will make lots and lots of money.  Never show them how you do it or tell them that it is really easy to do. Tell them it takes days and days.

In this video, “Adobe Illustrator Wrap Text Around Object,” we are going to do a couple of things. The first thing we will do is wrap some text around an oval and then increase the margin between the oval and the text.

The second thing that we will do is wrap some text around an image. The thing is, both processes are exactly the same. Adobe Illustrator is all about illusion, so it appears that we are wrapping text around the image, but in fact, we are wrapping text around an invisible shape that we are hiding from the world so they cannot see what we are doing.

Making Patterns

Yes, you can Edit a QR Code with Adobe Illustrator. QR Codes are the rave. But they are so bland an unbecoming. The fact of the matter is, you can make them look about any way you want them to. Some of my clients have asked me, “Can You Edit a QR Code Image with Adobe Illustrator?” The Answer is yes.

With Adobe Illustrator CC Brushes you can bring your artistic ideas to life will having lots and lots of fun. There are four types of Adobe Illustrator CC Brushes and we are going to cover each and everyone so that you can understand what each one can and cannot do.

Adobe Illustrator by default starts you out with about five very basic Calligraphic brushes. If you open your brush panel and double click on anyone of them, you will see an options box that reveals the various things that you can do with each brush. By clicking the new brush indicator in the brush panel, you can choose to create your own Calligraphic brush and you can give it a name.

You apply the Art Brush to any Illustrator path, or you can use the Paint Brush tool to paint with your created Art Brush. To create an Art Brush, you simply select a single object, a group of objects or even an image, or an image combined with vector objects. You create your design and then convert your design to an Art Brush and then you start using it.

The way the Pattern brush works is that you create patterns that will be replicated along the lines of the path of your object. You will create specific patterns for the corners and the ends and beginnings of your object.

The Adobe Illustrator CC Scatter Brush is a unique brush as is the Pattern Brush. With the Adobe Illustrator CC Scatter Brush, you can use vector objects of photo images. The Pattern Brush will place objects precisely on a path and on its corners, beginning and end points. The Scatter brush is creative in a different way. From my perspective, the Adobe Illustrator CC Scatter Brush is a bit more crazy, wild, freaky.

In the Polar Grid Tool, you have circles and then you have lines stemming from the middle of the circle. There are keystrokes that let you increase that decrease the number of circles that you have. There are keystrokes that let you increase and decrease the numbers of lines that you have stemming from the middle of the circle. There is a keystroke that allows you to make a perfect circle.

When you use the Rectangular Grid Tool, there is a keystroke to reduce the number of vertical lines. There is a keystroke to increase the number of vertical lines. There is a keystroke to increase the number of horizontal lines. There is a keystroke to decrease the number of horizontal lines.

Adobe Illustrator Business Card Template. You can click below the video to download this Adobe Illustrator or PDF file format template. The template has one business card that had been created. All you need to do is redecorate the one business card. Once that is done, you can duplicate the card as you see me do so in the video.