[thelist] good illustrator tutorial(s)?

[John Townsend]

Sarah,

Some web links for you:
   http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/06/02/drawing-in-illustrator-part-1-the-line-tools/
   http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/06/03/drawing-in-illustrator-part-2-the-shape-tools/
   http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/06/04/illustrator-drawing-tools-part-3-the-pencil-tool/
   http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/06/05/drawing-in-illustrator-part-4-pen-tool-straight-lines/
   http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/06/08/illustrator-drawing-tools-part-5-pen-tool-%E2%80%93-curves/
   http://school.tatoland.com/illustrator/
whilst mostly oriented to Photoshop, Jennifer Farley's collection of articles on Sitepoint is a magnificent resource - thanks Jennifer:
   http://www.sitepoint.com/articlelist/568/show-all-blogs/

As others have mentioned http://www.lynda.com/ is a magnificent collection of learning videos (not books) - one of them is Deke McClelland's Illustrator CS4 One-on-One series which is incredibly detailed and thorough (possibly more than you might want!).  If you go this way, do get the 'Exercise Files' option - USD37.50 per month with no long-term commitment.  There is a 7 day free trial of the entry-level product.

Another option is http://www.safaribooksonline.com/Corporate/Products/productsSubscriptions.html - with thousands of books, there's 8 on Illustrator alone, and a small collection of videos (the videos are only available on the Library product).  Any Exercise Files that come with a book are available online.  The Bookshelf product allows you to have upto 10 books on your bookshelf at a time, where each book stays on your bookshelf for a month before you can remove it to put another there.   The Library product gives you unfettered access to all technical books in their library at any time.  The costs are Bookshelf USD22.99 per month & Library USD 42.99 per month.   There is a 10 day free trial of the entry-level product.

I've tried both Lynda & Safari - both are excellent resources - I ended up staying with Safari because of their wider range of material and I found it took longer (for me) to learn via videos than books because its easier & quicker to go back over a book than a video when you want to refresh or clarify a point you have just been through. 

Illustrator is a tremendous program - and a large one as well.  There is a significant learning curve iinvolved, but well worth it.  Pick a quiet month, sign up, put your head down & go for it!
Cheers,
John 
 
>  -------Original Message-------
>  From: Sarah Adams <sarahwbs at gmail.com>
>  To: thelist <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
>  Subject: [thelist] good illustrator tutorial(s)?
>  Sent: 12 Jan '10 07:37
>  I've been asked to learn how to create SVGs (scalable vector graphics).
>  InkScape was suggested, since it's free, but I'm leaning towards
>  Illustrator, since it is fairly standard in the industry. Can anyone
>  share experience with InkScape that might change my mind on that?
>  Otherwise, I'm looking for recommendations for a good tutorial(s) to get
>  me started with Illustrator.
>  sarah adams
>  web developer & programmer
>  http://sarah.designshift.com