Make Creative Assets in Adobe Illustrator Masterclass

A quick overview of how to study this course. What everyone should watch and, if you want to dip in and out of lectures, how you can do this.

The first skill to master is how to create a new file in Illustrator. In many cases it won’t matter too much what size document you create because you are creating vector art which can be scaled as big or as small as you need it to be.

But (and this is a big BUT), if you want to make it easy for yourself to export images direct from Illustrator to a jpg file that you can upload to your website, or blog, or sell on Etsy, then sometimes it helps to be really accurate with the size document you will working with.

In many of the projects in this class, notably those which show how to make scrapbook paper, you will benefit from making a document which is the correct size so you can output it direct from Illustrator and so you won’t have to adjust its size or resolution later on.

I’ll explain in the lectures when it is important to start with a file of a particular size. This lecture shows you how to make a file of a known size. You will also learn how to select RGB as your color mode. This is the best choice as some effects only work in RGB color mode and it’s the most commonly used color mode for online sales of printables, scrapbook papers, and embellishments.

Once you’ve created a design in Illustrator you'll need to save your file. In this lecture you will learn to save your file as an Illustrator .ai file.

Illustrator’s own .ai format is the best way to save your work so you can come back and edit it again later on. It’s not the format to use when sharing your designs with others and it's not the format to use when you are selling them (in most cases), but it is the best ‘working’ format to use.

The Illustrator .ai format retains all your shapes, fills and text in a way that lets you edit them easily in future.

It’s important to be able to open Illustrator files that you have previously saved.

In this lecture you will learn how to open a file that you have previously saved so you can continue to work on your design.

If you have never used Illustrator before now is the time to take a look around to learn where everything is.

I won’t spend a lot of time showing you how to use the tools right now because we’ll do this when we actually need to use them. For now, it’s important to learn how to find and select tools and where the various palettes are—note that these might also be called panels.

If you already use Illustrator you probably know most of what we cover in this lecture. However if you are new to Illustrator it is worth watching this lecture a couple of times to familiarize yourself with where everything is.

To create a sheet of scrapbook paper we will start by creating a document and make it the right size for use for scrapbook paper.

We will focus on making the document a size that will make it easy for us to save the scrapbook paper design direct from Illustrator.

This will save us having to use another program to do any final adjustments such as to adjust the document dimensions or its resolution.

The ideal size for scrapbook paper is 12 x 12 inches at 300 dpi resolution.

If you want your design to have a colored background, you have to make a rectangle and fill it with the color to use. In this way Illustrator behaves differently to other programs that you might be familiar with such as Photoshop.

In this lecture you will learn to make a background to use for your paper. You will also learn some techniques for viewing and selecting colors, for aligning objects to the artboard, and for locking shapes so they don’t move unexpectedly.

There’s a lot of learning packed into this lecture!

In this (long) lesson you will learn to create a pattern of uneven dots. This is a fun process and it’s a great way to make elements for papers where you want everything to have an unstructured and uneven look.

Even if this paper design isn’t to your taste, you should try making it as this lecture covers many techniques and tools you’ll be using throughout this course for all sorts of designs.

In this lecture you’ll learn to draw shapes with the pencil tool, to apply Fills and Strokes, and to resize and move shapes. You will learn to zoom in and out of the document, and to make multiples of a shape using a Repeat and Transform effect.

There are also handy tips for entering values in dialog boxes, for expanding effects, and for working with Groups of objects. As well, you’ll learn how to get Illustrator to change shapes randomly.

In this lecture you will see how to add strokes to the dots we’ve made so that they stand out on the background. You will learn why we didn’t do this earlier—this is an important concept when you are working on your own designs—sometimes the order in which you do things is the difference between them working and not!

You will also see how to make the background a gradient rather than a solid color so the design looks a little more detailed. You will learn how to edit a gradient and rotate it to get the effect you desire.

We’ll finish up by saving the design as an .ai file so we can edit it again in future—for example you might want to recolor the design to make a selection of similar papers all of which are different colors—you can do this easily by recoloring a design so you don’t have to recreate it each time.

Now it’s time to learn how to save your design as a file that you can sell or give away. The best format file to use is jpg and in this lecture that's the format we will use. You will learn the best choices to make at each step of the saving process so you can save your own designs in future.

While this first design might have taken quite a time to create—with practice you should be able to set up and save your designs very quickly so you will spend most of the time actually making your original art.

In this lecture you will learn how to make a pattern by hand. We will use this technique shortly to make a very large pattern swatch, but for now, let’s use it to make a small pattern so we can learn the basics.

Unlike the pattern we made earlier, this pattern will be a seamless repeating pattern. So, while we are using it to make a sheet of scrapbook paper we could use it to make anything at any size.

As we make this pattern you will learn to use the Transform dialog and get some practice with making sure everything is positioned exactly where you want it to be.

Once you have created a pattern and filled a document the size of a sheet of scrapbook paper with the pattern you may want to make some adjustments to it. In this lecture you will learn how to resize a pattern to make it larger or smaller. You will also learn how to move a pattern inside a shape to even it up and how to rotate it.

Also covered in this lesson is the situation where you may see fracture lines (thin white lines) in your pattern. I’ll show you how to identify these and how to fix this problem which you must do before you can share designs with others.

To ensure that you are able to use your patterns again in future you will need to save the patterns in an external .ai format file. If you don’t do this you won’t have easy access to your patterns at a later date.

In this lecture you will learn how to remove unnecessary elements from the Swatches panel and how to save the patterns that you have made as a separate file that you can then access again in future.

Of course, once saved you will also learn how to access these saved pattern swatches.

These saved pattern files are also something you can sell online or share with others.

In this lesson you will learn how to use the Pattern Make tool which first appeared in Illustrator CS6 and which is also included in all the Illustrator CC versions.

This lesson also addresses some issues in making patterns including making patterns which include white elements and in making patterns which will be used for scrapbook paper.

The Pattern Make tool is a key tool for making patterns quickly and easily in Illustrator. If you plan to make a lot of patterned scrapbook papers this will be a tool you will use frequently.

Up until now we have been making patterns with just one or two objects. It is time now to see how to make a pattern from a larger number of elements.

To save time, I’ll be using some downloaded elements so we can focus on making the pattern and not the elements. You can download these here from Vecteezy.com:

https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/149757-free-doodle-candy-vectors

In the lecture you will see how to get access to the elements in the downloaded vector set and how to make a large pattern swatch out of them. You will also see how to test a design and how to make changes to it to perfect it.

Once you have completed this class you will have the skills you need to be able to make your own patterns from elements you design yourself.

In this lecture you will learn how to make a sheet of scrapbook paper which incorporates two patterns. These pages will be designed to mimic wainscoting —a wall treatment used in older houses which combines a timber half wall with wall paper or a plain painted wall above.

We will divide our page unevenly in two and fill each part of the page with a pattern to create a different style of scrapbook page.

This lecture shows how to make a pattern using a Transform effect. This pattern isn't made using the Pattern Make tool as it’s simply easier to make it by hand.

The pattern is one of rotated triangles. The main tool used to create it is very powerful and you’ll find a lot of ways you can apply it to making things in Illustrator in future. This style of pattern is simply one of them.

In this lecture you will learn how to create a pattern of overlapping shapes. First we’ll make the shape to use and in this case we’ll do so using multiple offset strokes on a single shape. We’ll do this using the Appearance Panel. It is a technique you can use in other projects in Illustrator in future—not just when making patterns.

Then, once the shape is made, you’ll see how to turn the shape into an overlapping repeating pattern in the Pattern Make tool. You will see how different overlapping options can result in different patterns.

This lecture finishes up our look at how to make patterns for now.

This first journaling/text box is made from shapes joined together to make a larger and more interesting design. It has details around the edges—lines both inside and outside the shape including a set of lines which are a series of dots.

You’ll learn how to make these—they are a technique you can use on practically any shape any time. You will also see how to make writing lines which are evenly spaced and formatted to match the remainder of the design.

When exporting these designs to sell or use yourself you will need to export them as .png files so they have transparent backgrounds—this ensures you will be able to see through the edges of the design to the image below.

Scallop edge objects are huge in scrapbooking and card design. They are easy to make once you understand the process. In creating this circular text box shape we’ll take the basic scallop edge one step further and make holes in it so it looks a little like a lace edge on the circle.

You can choose to use just the scallop or go the one step further and make holes in it—you’ll be able to choose which effect to create as we go along.

Like the other text boxes, this one also has lines for writing on. These too are optional—use them or not as you choose.

Now you’re on your way making text boxes, I’ve got an extra fun one for you—one that has edges like curly brackets. In fact that’s a big hint as to how we’re going to make this one—we’ll use actual curly bracket characters from a font—after all, why take the time to make your own when there are literally thousands of them that you can ’borrow’ from fonts on your computer?

You will learn how to pull apart a curly bracket to get the pieces you want from it and how to join them to make a text box with cute edges on it. This text box has lines around the edge and dotted lines for writing too.

Watercolor is on trend right now and you can create cool watercolor text effects in Illustrator without having to get out a brush and paints. I’ve found a couple of great fonts for you to use which are drawn in a brush text style and which can be used commercially. I’ve also located a great watercolor background to use.

In the lecture I’ll explain how to put the two together to create a watercolor text in Illustrator.

You’ll also see how to add some unevenness to the text so it looks less ‘perfect’.

Once you’ve done the basic design work, just select the text and type another word—it’s all 100% editable and lots of fun to do.

Find clickable links to download these resources for this lecture in the Resources section:

Lemon Tuesday Font: https://www.dafont.com/lemon-tuesday.font

Salmela Font: https://www.behance.net/gallery/55501823/SALMELA-FREE-CALLIGRAPHY-FONT

Watercolor background: https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/116611-green-watercolor-free-vector-texture

This overlapped text effect is a great way to create interesting headings. You could make these overlapped text headings for months of the year, seasons or any other collection of things. The trick is to combine two very different fonts and layer the words over each other with a little bit of breathing room.

In the lecture you’ll learn how to do this, and how to add a stroke to the filled text word to separate it from the word behind (Hint: there’s a trick to getting this right—it’s not as easy as it seems!).

To help you, I’ve found two handy fonts to use for this effect, there are clickable links to download these in the Resources area for this Lecture:

Archistico Font: https://www.dafont.com/archistico.font

Lemon Tuesday Font: https://www.dafont.com/lemon-tuesday.font

This stitched font effect is a fun one to create. Each of the font letters has a row of faux stitching inside it. This is a great type treatment for scrapbooking and card making. In the lecture you’ll learn how to create this effect and you’ll learn a bit about miter corners which will help you ensure your stitches look good.

I’ll also show you one of my favorite font sites: 1001fonts.com that is great for finding fonts by characteristic such as rounded, bold, handwriting, narrow, wide, eroded and so on. It also has a special feature for finding fonts which you can use for commercial purposes—that’s important when you’re making elements to sell.

To help you create this effect I’ve found a great font you download and use - there is a clickable download link in the Resources section:

Rounds black regular: http://www.1001fonts.com/rounds-black-font.html

The first photo overlay we will create will be designed to be used on a square image making it suitable for photos for Instagram and other social media sites. The overlay comprises a cutout circle and some additional circular elements which will showcase an image where the subject is in the center of the image.

I’ll also show you how to save the overlay as a .png file that has transparency built into it and how to use this overlay in Photoshop. While you may not use the overlays yourself, it always helps to understand how your buyers might use the images so you can help them if they get stuck.

The final overlay is a geometric one which uses hexagons as the basic element. The pattern of shapes is created manually and does not rely on using the Pattern Make tool so it can be done in any version of Illustrator.

You will learn to make the overlapping pattern from two transform effects and, how to center the final design over the artboard so it will be centered on the final image. You will also learn about the Clip to Artboard option which ensures you save only the content on the artboard and not the entire document when saving the overlay.

Text quotes layered over photos are on trend right now. They are fun to make as they let you combine creative flair with your Illustrator skills. You can create your own overlay using a quote you love and a photo of your own and share it on social media. Or you could make these overlays, save them as .png files and package them to sell, or use as giveaways on your blog. They are great for cards, scrapbooking, and social media.

I’ll show you how to choose fonts, to choose the words to highlight from your quote, and how to create a text quote overlay with an additional decorative element. With these skills mastered you will be able to make your own quote overlays any time.

One option you have for working with hand drawn sketches is to get the lines from the sketch. Once you have the line work extracted you can do something with it.

In this lecture I’ll show you how to extract lines from a drawing and how to edit those lines. You will learn how to join separate lines, how to smooth uneven lines and how to use the pencil tool to draw in any lines which did not trace neatly.

In the next lesson you will learn some things you can do with your traced image.

To follow along with this lecture, download a file containing all the drawings I have used in this section from the link in the Resources section.

Once you have traced your image it’s time to color it and add some detail to the lines. In this lecture you'll learn to color the line art using the Live Paint tool. You will see how to find a palette of colors to use and how to configure and use the Live Paint tool to color the art.

You will also learn how to make a ’scribbly’ brush and apply it to the lines in the image.

The final step is to create an ’off register’ effect with the colored elements in the image—so they look like they’ve been printed with printing plates that haven’t been lined up correctly—this gives the final artwork a unique look.

To follow along with this lecture, download a file containing all the drawings I have used in this section from the link in the Resources section.

There are multiple ways to trace images in Illustrator and we’ll look at a second method of tracing line work. This method adds a lot of interest to the lines and can be used on a low quality scan to produce a very artistic and interesting trace.

Once traced, we’ll again use Live Paint to recolor this artwork. When you compare the original scan with the finished art you will be surprised at the high quality result.

To follow along with this lecture, download a file containing all the drawings I have used in this section from the link in the Resources section.

The final tracing option we’ll look at is to trace a piece of line art by hand. You will see how to use the Pen tool to trace a piece of art. We’ll focus on how to make straight and curved lines with the pen tool and how to edit lines to improve the accuracy of them.

Once the scan is traced you will learn how to apply one of the brushes shipped with Illustrator to the hand traced image to give it the look of a pencil drawing.

To follow along with this lecture, download a file containing all the drawings I have used in this section from the link in the Resources section.

There are a number of file formats that you can use which are ’native’ file formats for Illustrator. PDF is one of these. Some users prefer to receive files as PDFs and this video shows you how to save your work as a PDF. The most important setting is whether or not you preserve the ability for recipients to edit the file. Often when delivering files I’ll disable this because I don’t want to give away my original work in a format that would allow someone else to change it. Once saved as a PDF, the file can be opened by anyone with a PDF reading application.

Always be aware, however, that it is a good idea to also save an .ai version of your file so you have it in case you need to work on it again in future.

There are some tasks that are easier to do in Photoshop than in Illustrator. One of these is adding texture effects to your art. In this lesson you will learn how to take an image from Illustrator to Photoshop and to add a texture to it. You will see how to copy an image from Illustrator and how to create it as a new document in Photoshop. Once there, I’ll show you how to add a texture image over the top of your Illustrator image and how to blend the texture into that image.

You will also see how the image you have in Photoshop remains linked back to Illustrator and how it is possible to edit the image back in Illustrator but without changing your original art.

You can find textures free to use for commercial and non commercial purposes at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/skeletalmess/sets/ and there is a clickable link to this site in the Resources section of this lecture.

Photoshop has a custom shapes tool that lets you use custom designed shapes such as arrows, flowers, animals and objects to create art in Photoshop. Unfortunately, Photoshop’s tools for creating shapes aren’t as easy to use or as powerful as those available in Illustrator. So, in this lesson you will learn to make a shape in Illustrator which you can then take to Photoshop to use there.

I will also show you how you could create an entire shapes collection for Photoshop (but using Illustrator) and bundle it up to sell or give away to your blog readers. Shapes collections like these can be used by scrapbookers and other crafters for a range of purposes.

Shapes are a popular item to download and, at the end of this lecture, you will know exactly how you can create your own shape collections working between Illustrator and Photoshop.

In earlier lectures in this course you saw how to make scrapbook papers and how to make supporting elements such as text boxes and images traced from hand drawings. In this lesson you will learn to create a themed collection of elements ready for sale or to use as blog giveaways.

I’ll show you how to make an ocean themed collection from some of the patterns and other elements which we have made in this class. You will learn how to find and use color schemes and how to export and organize various elements that will, together, form a themed collection of elements ready to distribute.

Once you have gathered together a range of items into a collection, it’s time to create your marketing materials. These marketing materials are used to show your buyer what they will be buying.

In this lecture you will see how to create a marketing image for a collection of scrapbook papers and ancillary elements. You can use this as a guide as to what they might contain and as a sample of a layout. While you will probably want to design your own layout in time, this lecture will help you get started by covering the basics that you should include in your image and the skills you need to create it.

Once you have all your files ready—the elements you will be selling or giving away, and the marketing materials—you are ready to put everything together into a single file for distribution.

In this lecture we’ll look at how to create a simple adaptable license agreement and a document describing the work you are distributing which you will include in your upload. You will see how to save these documents in formats that are easy to read and how to package everything (license agreement and all the objects themselves) into a single zip file ready to upload to a website or online service.

I’ll also show you how I organize my files to make it easy to find elements in future if they need updating or altering, for example.

To help you, the two files mentioned in the videos are available to you in the Resources section of this lecture.

In response to a student who had difficulties with fracture lines in patterns, here is another solution which, in part, uses Photoshop to create a document filled with a pattern. The solution also shows how to extract the actual pattern swatch element which is what you would use to, for example, upload a pattern to Spoonflower to print onto fabric. You can also use this swatch for any site which requires the actual pattern swatch itself rather than an object filled with a pattern.

There is a possible bug in Illustrator CC 2018, 2019 & 2020 on the PC which affects making a no fill no stroke rectangle which, you appreciate, is fundamental to making patterns in Illustrator. In this bonus lecture I show you what the problem is and how to solve it so, if you encounter it, you know what to do.