You seemed to enjoy my post on how I “sketch” within Illustrator, so today I’m sharing my top three favorite Illustrator tools.
If you’re an old pro when it comes to Illustrator, you’ll probably know all about these tools. But, if you’re newer, I hope these three tools will make the software even more fun for you.
Check out the video below to find out what I use most within Illustrator:
Now it’s your turn! What’s your favorite tool in Illustrator?
Happy holidays!
Thanks April! I am a long time Illustrator user and I learned something new! I never knew how to make patterns like that and edit them, that was awesome! Thanks. And I almost didn’t watch since you said if you have used illustrator a while not to watch! 🙂 Thanks for sharing, as always.
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Oh yay! I’m glad that you learned something new. That makes me very happy!
Nice post and topic!
There are so many tools i love in Illustrator! I LOVE the pattern tool. Even though I do make patterns the “old school” way, it is really helpful for editing patterns and seeing how the pattern will look as a whole in a real time way.
One of my favorite tools is the Blob Brush. It is so easy to draw with.
Also I use Image Trace a lot to vector my hand lettering and line drawings — you can adjust the settings to fit your needs and save these settings so you can access it any time you open a new file. 🙂
Thanks for sharing Melissa! I don’t use the blob brush tool that much–only when I use my Wacom tablet which isn’t very often. I tend to gravitate towards using my mouse and the pen tool. I’d love to know the settings you use for your hand lettering image trace. I’ve tried using the image trace for my hand lettering and it never looks quite right.
Great tips April. I have been learning Illustrator and love learning new tools and tips! Thank you for sharing!
You’re so welcome! 🙂
Hi April I am a beginner and self taught Illustrator user. I have struggled along and learnt alot through trial and error. I love the color palette you created from the photograph. Thank you for sharing!
Oh my gosh, April! It’s like you have read my mind! I’ve been fiddling with Illustrator, and have been rather lost. I used it many, many years ago, but it’s different now. I’ve also forgotten what I did back then. My big goal for the new year is to get my back log of patterns published, and I need to use Illustrator along with InDesign to do the work. Thanks for sharing some of your great tips on how you use it.
So Fun to see how you use this program, Thanks for making the video April! I have a plan to get more into pattern making next year and learn more!
Just a tips: mark all the squares and drag them to the palett at once to make the swatches at the same time, that saved time. 🙂
Happy new year!
Thanks April! I’ve been a bit rusty in Illustrator and these are either new tips or ones I’d forgotten. I’ve been doing a lot of this the hard way. Love the duplicate spacing trick! The one college course I took in Adobe seems ages ago and I’ve been mostly using PS until last year. 🙂 There are so many different ways to do things I always love hearing people’s favorites.