This Illustrator Introduction course is a great first step into the world of illustration. Over the two days of training you’ll get to grips with the Illustrator interface, understand how the most frequently used features work and leave with the skills to create logos, infographics and more.

Illustrator Introduction Training  – Online Course Objectives

Our Adobe certified training team will take you through the journey of understanding the Illustrator interface, including how to create new images, adjust colour on existing images, combine text and imagery, plus more.  You’ll leave the course with the skills to professionally edit and create images for web, print and mobile.

Day one – Understanding basic Illustrator concepts

Essential Illustrator concepts

• What are vector graphics?

The Illustrator interface

• Exploring panels and workspaces
• Using the control panel
• Navigation
• Preview options
• Setting up your document
• Managing a custom workspace

Creating new documents for print or web

• Advanced document controls
• Modifying your document
• Changing units of measurement
• Working with grids
• Working with guides
• Smart guides

Working with colour

• Adjusting Illustrator colour settings
• Process or global swatches
• Basics of the colour guide panel
• The colour panel
• RGB v CMYK
• Defining swatches
• Working with gradients

Selection essentials

• The selection, direct and group selection tools
• The lasso tool
• Magic wand
• Select same
• Editing anchor points
• The bounding box

Basic Shapes 

• Exploring the various shape tools
• Understanding fills and strokes
• Compound shapes
• Pathfinder options
• Duplicate objects
• Fill and stroke attributes
• Grouping

Transformation Tools

• Scale
• Rotate
• Shear
• Reflect

Alignment, distribution and spacing

• Aligning, distribution and spacing to selected objects
• Aligning, distribution and spacing to artboard
• Aligning, distribution and spacing to key object

Understanding the layers panel

• Visibility and locking
• Selecting via the layers panel
• Sub-layers
• Deleting layers
• Grouping and naming layers
• Changing the stacking order
• Moving objects from one layer to another
• Copying objects from one layer to another
• Adjusting layer previews

Object transformations and duplicating

• Moving and copying objects
• Rotating and scaling objects
• The transform panel

Basic text editing

• Creating point text
• Creating area text
• Text formatting
• Creating text threads

Day two – Developing the understanding

Placing images

• Working with images
• Using the links panel
• The basics of image trace
• An introduction to live paint

Working with artboards

• Working with different page sizes
• Re-sizing and modifying artboards
• Creating new artboards and copying artboards
• The artboard panel

Working with paths and the pen tool

• Understanding vectors – paths and anchors
• Drawing straight segments
• Adding curvature
• Working with open and closed paths
• Joining and averaging paths
• Adjusting control handles
• Using pathfinder

Working with brushes

• The calligraphic brush
• The scatter brush
• The art brush
• The pattern brush
• The bristle brushes

Graphic styles

• Exploring the appearance panel
• Creating graphic styles

Working with symbols

• What are symbols?
• Using the symbols libraries
• Using the symbol sprayer tool
• Creating new symbols
• Breaking the symbol link
• Redefining symbols

Working with type

• Creating a grid with guides
• Working with point type
• Working with area type
• Formatting text
• Tracking and kerning
• Saving time with keyboard shortcuts

Working with images

• Embedding images into Illustrator
• Masking images
• Deeper into image trace
• Using live paint and fixing problems
• Clipping masks

Saving, printing and exporting

• Saving to legacy formats
• Saving templates
• Saving for the web
• Creating bitmap images
• Using Illustrator files in InDesign and Photoshop
• Creating PDF files

Illustrator Introduction- Online Course Details

This is a two-day introductory course running from 9:30 am – 4:30 pm.

Prerequisites

To gain the maximum benefit from this course an attendee should have a basic knowledge of Windows and be able to use the mouse.

Online Course

This course is delivered live online. Course delegates will need a reliable internet connection and a PC or laptop with audio and video capability with the relevant software installed for the training.  Delegates see, hear and interact with the tutor.

Qualification

An Adobe authorised training centre certificate of attendance will be emailed after your training course.

What Next? Illustrator advanced

This Illustrator advanced training course is the natural next step for those that have previously attended the Illustrator introduction course or for those with prior Illustrator experience

The more you learn, the more you earn