Adobe Illustrator

Practicing with the Pen Tool

Before today's induction into Adobe Illustrator I had used the software, but I only had a very basic knowledge of it and I was interested to learn some more and see what it could do. When we first opened it up the layout was incredibly similar to that of Photoshop, and as someone who has used Adobe Photoshop relentlessly in the past I immediately felt comfortable navigating around and knowing where certain functions were. The way Adobe keeps that basic layout and functionality between different pieces is software is something I'm happy about. One of the main differences I noticed and was informed about at first between Illustrator and Photoshop is that in the Illustrator software you don't have to, or aren't confined to the canvas, you can work outside of it and that is something I found very interesting and fun to work with. It's like a space for note taking or doodling or sampling whilst you work, an is a very simple and interesting concept.

The main focus of the session was learning to use the pen tool. The pen tool has a number of useful applications, and is very versatile. The most useful application in my opinion is the ability to produce line and trace with it, the lines that can be produced are very good and consistent, it's also fairly easy to use after a few uses, though at first maybe quite difficult to grasp. However, with practice can be quite an effective method of tracing images for example. Something I learned that was quite important about the software, is that it produces image not as a bitmap graphic but as a vector graphic, meaning it can be stretched and re-sized without affecting the quality of the image. The overall diversity of the tool is something that really allows it to be useful in a bunch of scenarios, that way you can change the width and type of line whilst manipulating it also, using various features means you can create some really interesting graphics using this tool alone. 

Overall, learning about the potential that Illustrator has, has opened me up to another viable option of software if I ever want to use something different to Photoshop. I think that Illustrator would be better to draw in digitally that Photoshop because of the countless options you have to manipulate and alter the lines you have drawn. But at the moment, I'm still tied to Photoshop because I know the software so well at this point. 

Tracing with the Pen Tool, Totoro