Illustrator

dekeAdvice: Getting Your dekeLove On

Submitted by colleen on 9 February 2012 - 12:15am.

It's that time of year, dekeIntines, For some reason, our culture is convinced that sometime in mid-February, when the holiday madness is just behind us and spring fever is on the horizon, that it's suddenly and somewhat randomly the best time to think about love. So to get you in the mood for this arguably arbitrarily designated Day of Adoration, I've gathered together a collection of dekeAdvice gems, all of which are centered thematically around romantic love. Or love in general. Or arguably unnatural love for a software application. No matter. Go with me here. I'm working a theme. To get you in the mood, here is the most tasteful Valentine image in this post:

A tasteful simple heart-shaped declaration of love

Want to know how to draw that perfect heart in Illustrator and other sundry Photoshop-based acts of love? Read on: Read more » 

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Deke's Techniques 056: Creating Great Movie Poster Credits in Illustrator

Submitted by deke on 31 January 2012 - 12:15am.
Deke's Techniques 056: Creating Great Movie Poster Credits in Illustrator

In this week's video, I show you how to create professional-quality movie poster credits in Adobe Illustrator. Now in case you're thinking, "Hmm, gosh, I don't give a crap about making movie credits," well, that's not really the point. And now, in case you're thinking, "No really, Deke, when I say I don't give a crap, I mean, literally, I would not give you an ounce of my own crap to learn how to make movie poster credits," yes, you've made yourself clear. (And crudely so. You're normally so nice. What is with you today?) But here's the thing. Read more » 

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History of Illustrator a la Mordy

Submitted by colleen on 26 October 2011 - 2:00pm.

DekeItarians, you know how it is. You have a system that works. You have deadlines villainously looming over you. And you know there might be a better way to do certain tasks, but you don't even have the context to know what questions you need to ask, let alone time and mental bandwidth to ask those questions. 

Over at lynda.com, our good friend Mordy Golding has a series designed specifically for seasoned users of Adobe Illustrator---Illustrator Insider Training. The latest episode of the series is called Drawing without the Pen Tool, and this particular entry is close to my heart, due to my well-documented bouts of penophobia. The idea of the series is to provide Illustrator veterans a chance to refresh their insider knowledge and workflow habits, without having to start from scratch.  Read more » 

Maybe it's the failed grad student in me, but one of my favorite parts of Mordy's approach to helping rethink Illustrator is to provide each course of the series with a movie that explains historical developments of the software. (I like these movies so much I made sure they were all free to everybody; you can catch the latest one above; links to the others appear after the jump.) This historical context, besides solidifying your graphic software geek education, can really help identify where the learning gaps may have occurred for long-time users of the program. By providing an understanding of where key paradigm shifts might have happened in color, transparency, or drawing tools, Mordy paves the way for you to get back up to speed while maintaining all your hard-won experience and creativity. (You've earned those gray hairs!)
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Deke's Techniques 042: Drawing a Halloween Scareflake

Submitted by deke on 18 October 2011 - 12:15am.
Deke's Techniques 042: Drawing a Halloween Scareflake

Welcome to Halloween! And today's scary technique, in which I show you how to make that vector-based craft that's sweeping the nation: Scareflakes! Here's a detail:

Deke's Techniques: A Halloween scareflake in Adobe Illustrator

They're like snowflakes, in that every one is beautiful and unique. But they scare the poop out of you! (Just look at the image above. Admit it, you're pooping in fear!)

Here's the official poop-free description from lynda.com: Read more » 

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Deke's Techniques 041: Creating an Ambigram in Illustrator

Submitted by deke on 11 October 2011 - 12:15am.
Deke's Techniques 041: Creating an Ambigram in Illustrator

This week marks my favorite Deke's Techniques so far, in which I show you how to create an ambigram, which is a word that reads the same whether the page is right-side up or upside-down. Here's what we're about to make:

Adobe Illustrator ambigram demonstration

Don't you just love animated GIFs that play forever and ever? Me neither, but I figured it was important to employ one in this case. Because the first time you see it, it's like what? The second time, it makes sense. And then after that, it gets very annoying. Consider it a test of your ability to concentrate. From now on, IGNORE THE SPINNING THING!

Meanwhile, a word of warning: Even at nearly 12 minutes long, this video goes by fast. If I had it to do over again, I would have slowed a few steps. But that's the nature of blog videos. Once they're out there, they're out there. Still, it's cool. And you can always pause, back up, and replay.

(Ye gads, my favorite Deke's Techniques so far requires a lot of apologies. I'm so sorry. Ope, there I go again!)

Here's the official description from my video publisher lynda.com, which comes to you entirely without my (come to think of it) idiotic qualifiers: Read more » 

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