Illustrator beginner here. How's this for my first time? Any help or advice would be appreciated.
>>462943Is fine, the first one I did was way worse. there's just not that much to critique just a lot of beginner mistakes but you'll get better if you trace stuff everyday for a week or two. some tips:For illustration any tablet is 10x better and faster than a mouse, even a $100 wacom or a chinese one, also pay or pirate the astute graphics bundle plugins, you'll save so much time is crazy, for example the tools I use a thousand times on every project are: one that smooths lines just by sweeping on top of lines, one that cleans and removes unnecessary points by sweeping again, and the dynamic corners tool.
>>462946Thanks. Here's another crack at it with pencil and that wedge tool.I do use a tablet, so it's a little easier for me. I don't know where to get plugins to pirate from. I know CGP exists, but I keep hearing these guys are stringent on invites and their torrents are often compromised.
>>462947The best place to get creative stuff is vk (russian facebook) but don't just download everything, try to curate and develop a setup for making stuff reliable and fast, with files made for presentation too, like t-shirts or poster mockups (I mostly download or pay for True Grit Supply or high quality stuff). for example you can just search on google like this:site:vk.com astute graphics>Astute Graphics Bundle + Pro Texture Packs (Windows) (641.08 MB) tested only on Illustrator v26.0.3 CC 2022>Download:https://workupload.com/file/QxAY7sVNQLG
>>462948This is highly appreciated anon. True Grit Supply does seem to offer a better deal than Astute Graphics considering the latter is charging a subscription to use their assets.I downloaded the link you showed me and I'm a little surprised to see an .exe for plugins. Is this normal or just their way of DRM?
>>462950Also, I forgot to add, any recommended channel or tutorial to get a hang of Illustrator? I know my way around Photoshop a bit, but I'm still new with this.
>>462950True Grit is the best for brushes and textures in specific styles, for example they have: 50s atomic age, 60s psychedelic, 70s groove funk, 80s pop art, 90s grunge, retro comics, woodcut, vintage halftones, 2000s printing textures, t-shirt distress textures etc. You use them mostly if you plan to work with some form of print in those artstyles, or for selling t-shirts, posters, books, etc.Astute Graphics, is mostly used to speed up your workflow for example if you use a tool more than once you should make a keyboard shortcut for it, also they both have channels with tons of tutorials but I only watched maybe one or two videos.https://www.youtube.com/@TrueGritTextureSupplyhttps://www.youtube.com/@astutegraphics/videos
>>46295190% of Illustrator is just the pen tool and you learn it by tracing your own drawings, after you do 10 or 20 you'll get used to it. and later on you can trace on illustrator but a lot of people trace on paper and take a pic with your phone, or some sketch on photoshop and use the image as reference in illustrator.The most used things to learn for illustrators are the basic stuff, like how to place and edit the points and handles, how to use the pathfinder panel, and other tools like cutting, grouping/ungrouping, bring layers to the front or back, lock layers, etc. (you should have shortcuts for those).These are the channels where I learned the most useful stuff from, the last one is a podcast so you can just leave the sound on but you can learn a lot about the business side, is just interviews with some illustrators and designers who are successful:https://www.youtube.com/@TheVectorLabhttps://www.youtube.com/@RetroSupplyhttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAtkH02dHIUKLtn7djPbduhnLxx9EzRnhhttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1kftJGcwTVr5-zWlPwPklmybWVAagLDZAnd finally these videos are pretty inspirational and helpfulhttps://vimeo.com/55846250https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oww7oB9rjgwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHWnQOlX7Cw
