theBlog @reneepearson.com
Holly Shop is on sale!
We’ve lowered the price of Laura Coyle’s Holly Shop to just $15. Holly Shop is the step-by-step Adobe Illustrator project workshop that will help you create personalized holiday greetings while keeping your Illustrator skills sparkling. Like all of Laura’s Illustrator workshops, take Holly Shop at your own pace, you’ll have lifetime access.
When the New Year arrives, we’ll pack up Holly Shop with the rest of the ornaments for another year so get it now!
A Chevron Pattern in Illustrator
We know chevron patterns are trendy right now. Luckily, they’re easy to make too! With Adobe Illustrator CS6 or even CS5 and earlier versions, you’ll be making your own pattern in no time flat, just check out my latest tutorial:
Have fun creating your own and if you’re still hungry for patterns in Adobe Illustrator I’ll have a new class coming next month that focuses on the new CS6 Pattern Mode. Stay tuned!
Heads Up! Adobe Creative Cloud Special Pricing
If your livelihood depends on at least two of the Adobe Creative Suite products, you want to know about this. Since I use Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, InDesign & Acrobat Pro, the Creative Cloud was a no brainer for me.* And, as a registered user of at least one Creative Suite product, I qualified for the 1-year promo price of $29.99 per month. That means I’m getting the CS6 Master Collection for $30 a month! The Photoshop Extended upgrade price alone starts at $399. And Illustrator upgrades start at $249. This special sign-up pricing expires on August 31, 2012.
What is Creative Cloud?
“Adobe® Creative Cloud™ is an ongoing membership that lets you download and install any of the Adobe Creative Suite® 6 desktop applications, plus other applications including Adobe Photoshop® Lightroom® 4. You also get online services for file sharing, collaboration, and publishing. Best of all, you get the latest apps and features as soon as they’re released — giving you the freedom to create anything you can imagine.” Adobe Website.
Who’s eligible for the $29.99 Creative Cloud introductory pricing?
Existing customers who have a qualified registered CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5, or CS6 individual product or suite edition and who sign up for the Creative Cloud annual plan directly from Adobe by August 31, 2012, will receive special introductory pricing of US$29.99 per month for the first year of membership.
Learn more about the Adobe Creative Cloud.
Learn more about the special upgrade pricing.
*Disclaimer: I receive no compensation or financial gain from this post. Just wanted you guys to know before the offer expires.
Laura Coyle: Seamless Repeat Pattern Fills
In this video tutorial I show students in my Automatic Patterns class how to make an Adobe Illustrator pattern fill swatch from the patterns we create in class. If you’re already familiar with the class, you can skip the introduction and go right to 1:30, where the tutorial begins.
In the class, we create seamless repeat patterns using Transform Effects, allowing you to tweak a pattern and see the changes update instantly in CS4 and CS5 — something unheard of before the introduction of the new CS6 Pattern Mode.
The class focuses on exporting png and jpeg images of Illustrator repeat patterns for Spoonflower fabric, blogging, digital scrapbooking and crafting. The tutorial above shows the steps for creating Illustrator fill swatches, so the patterns you create in class can also be applied to any vector art you’re working on in Illustrator.
The tutorial also highlights one of my favorite Adobe Illustrator tools, the Eraser tool. It’s great for working with expanded pattern art, but I’m sure you’ll discover your own uses for the Eraser. Have fun!
Chat Live with Laura Coyle
You’re Invited to Discuss Automatic Patterns With Laura Coyle!
In Automatic Patterns you’ll experience the functionality of the templates right away by working with a collection of Laura’s original design elements.
Tailored to the needs of pattern designers, the lessons guide you through the process of uploading for repeat pattern prints at Spoonflower as well as exporting pattern papers for your web portfolio or digital crafting projects.
Laura will talk about this exciting class during a live video chat.
When: Wednesday, Aug 8th at 9pm EDT
Where: ReneeTV
If you’re curious or have questions about the class or would simply like to bounce a few questions about this class off of Laura, please stop by.
New! Laura Coyle Automatic Patterns Workshop
Want patterns that automatically update in Adobe Illustrator CS4 or CS5? Then you want Automatic Patterns with Laura Coyle.
This self-paced workshop will show you how to reposition, edit and recolor elements within your patterns, then watch them automatically update on your artboard. Your creativity will be freed from the usual methods of dragging art into the swatches panel! If you’ve already upgraded to Adobe Illustrator CS6, this workshop is compatible and offers a pattern editing method that compliments what you can do in the CS6 Pattern Mode.
Experience the functionality of the templates right away by working with a collection of Laura’s original design elements.
Tailored to the needs of pattern designers, the lessons guide you through the process of uploading for repeat pattern prints at Spoonflower as well as exporting pattern papers for your web portfolio or digital crafting projects.
Laura will talk about this exciting class during a live video chat.
When: Wednesday, Aug 8th at 9pm EDT
Where: ReneeTV
If you’re curious or have questions about the class or would simply like to bounce a few questions about this class off of Laura, please stop by.
You can learn more about Automatic Patterns at http://www.reneepearson.com/classes/autopatterns.php.
Pen Tool Paisleys in Illustrator
Learning to use the Illustrator Pen Tool and bezier curves takes time and practice. Practicing with paisleys can help you master smooth curves, S curves, smooth points and corner points. Then, you’ll be on your way to creating a groovy pattern.
While not a complete introduction to the Pen Tool, this video tutorial demonstrates using the Pen Tool to create a simple curved paisley shape. We modify the Pen with the opt/alt key to change a smooth anchor point to a corner anchor point with independent curve direction handles. I also demonstrate editing the anchor points and curve handles with the White Arrow and “borrowing curves” from standard circles and ellipse shapes.
This tutorial was created in CS6, but the Pen Tool works the same in other versions of Adobe Illustrator. Have some fun with the Pen — it’s the drawing tool that gives you the most control over your curves in Illustrator.
Scalloped Borders in Illustrator
In this tutorial, I teach you how to create a shape with a scalloped border, and then I show you how to save that appearance as a Graphic Style so you can apply it to other shapes in your file. All of this is made possible through using the Appearance Panel and a feature introduced in CS5 that aligns dashed strokes to the corner points in any shape you create. Follow the steps in the video to create a few scalloped borders of your own.
Once you’ve got your scalloped style applied to some shapes, you can scale the shape while leaving the scallops at the same size, by unchecking “Scale Strokes and Effects” in Preferences > General.
Take it further: play around with adding another stroke to your shape or add drop shadows to get the hang of working with the Appearance Panel. To fix the shape in the form of vectors that you can edit more readily with the Shape Builder or Pathfinder, select the shape and expand by choosing Object > Expand.
Draw Ribbons and Streamers in Illustrator
In this video tutorial, I show you how to create two custom calligraphic brush tips in Adobe illustrator. Grab your tablet and the Paintbrush tool, and you’ll have the perfect brush for drawing flowing ribbons and flourishes. Drawing with these fun brush tips is a great way to develop freehand skill with your tablet. I also demonstrate how Illustrator’s Smooth Tool allows you to iron out the bumps to make your linework look effortless. (If only it were that easy outside of Illustrator!) I’ll also show you some tips for editing and shading your linework to add to your bag of tricks.
Join Our Adobe Illustrator Community
We’re really excited about what’s going on in our illustrator community. There’s an ever-growing number of self-paced Adobe Illustrator Workshops available from our resident Illustrator Diva Laura Coyle. As an added benefit for her students, Laura conducts regularly scheduled monthly Illustrator live video chats.
These monthly hour-long chats, affectionately called “Laura Time,” are full of Adobe Illustrator demonstrations and tips. They give her students the chance to interact, ask questions, and to stay inspired and engaged in the learning process. As a registered student of any Adobe Illustrator class at ReneePearson.com, you can attend the chats live or watch the recordings later. There’s also a lively Adobe Illustrator forum at ReneePearson.com where you can suggest topics you’d like Laura to cover in the live chats.
Laura has just posted a video of her time-lapse Adobe Illustrator drawing of a Siamese Fighting Fish, condensed from March’s live chat demonstration. This video will give you a feel for her live chat demonstrations. You can watch it and other Illustrator themed videos on Laura’s YouTube channel at YouTube.com/coyleart.
We have a growing community of Adobe Illustrator enthusiasts. Sign up for an Illustrator class and join us! We’d love to have you.