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Source:

Some material for this page was gleaned from Illustrator’s Help files.

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Illustration of Repaired Photo

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You'll need to learn the following skills for this assignment:

• Flatten Layers in your repaired photo
• Import the photo into Illustrator CS
• Use the Pen tool with strokes
• Use the Pen tool with fills
• Use gradients
• Organize your work on Layers
• Design and draw a colour palette
• Use the Appearance Palette

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Preparing your Photo

Before you can begin re-tracing the photo, you need to prepare it for importing into Illustrator. To that end, make a copy of it in a new folder for this project. Open this new copy in Photoshop. You need to make sure you are working in the right colour mode for printing.

• Go Image >Mode >CMYK

This divides the image into four colour channels (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black), rather than three (Red, Green & Blue). CMYK are inks widely used in commercial printing. RGB is best used for work dedicated to the screen.

The final step is to save the file in a file format which will ensure it can be imported into Illustrator properly. To do so:

• Go File >Save As
• Choose a location to save the file (Not the Desktop)
• From the "Format" pop-up select "TIFF"
• In the next dialog, select "None" under "Compression"
• "Byte Order" is "Macintosh"
• "Layer Compression" is "Discard Layers and Save a Copy"

Your repaired photo is now ready to import into Illustrator.

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Importing your Photo

We need to create a new Illustrator document and import the photo. To do so:

• Launch Illustrator CS
• Go File >New
• In the dialog, choose "Letter", "Inches", "CMYK" and name your file.
• The orientation of the page depends on your photo.

To import your image (Adobe calls it "Placing" not importing.):

• Go File >Place
• Navigate to your new TIFF file.
• Select it
• Make sure the "Link" check-box is checked.
• Click Place
• Save your document in the same location as the TIFF file.

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About Style

The basic point of this exercise is for you to learn the basic drawing tools in Illustrator. An illustrated version of your photo should be the outcome. Any style you may add to it is great, but not required. I'd rather see a conservative, well-executed illustration than an ill-conceived attempt at style which sacrifices the basic requirements of the exercise.

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About Layers

If you use Layers to organise your work, they must be named.

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Re-tracing the Photo

The goal of this project is to learn how to use the basic drawing tools in Illustrator. Most of the work is done with the pen tool. Do not use the Paint Brush tool.

You need to visualize the photo as masses of colour. See it as if you were going to assemble it using "collage". As if you were cutting out pieces of construction paper to make up the photo. Try to trace them in the order in which you would glue the pieces of paper. This will help you later, as you fill the shapes with colour. Make sure you close all the paths which will require filling with colour.

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Filling with Colour

Use the tools above to fill your shapes with colour and gradients. Go easy with the gradients. They can often make your photo look artificial.

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Applying Colour Gradients

You use the Gradient palette, the toolbox, or the Swatches palette to apply a colour gradient to an object's fill. You can use the Gradient tool to apply a gradient across multiple objects.

To fill an object with a gradient:

1. Select the object.
2. To apply a gradient, do one of the following:
3. • In the Gradient palette, click the Gradient Fill box in the upper left. (Choose Show Options from the Gradient palette menu if needed.)
   • Click the Gradient button at the bottom of the toolbox.
   • Click a gradient swatch in the Swatches palette. (To display only gradients in the palette, click the Show Gradient Swatches button.)

• To apply a gradient across multiple objects:
• Fill each object with a gradient.
• Select all of the objects.
• Select the Gradient tool.
• Position the pointer where you want to define the beginning point of the gradient, and drag across the objects in the direction you want the gradient to be painted.
• Release the mouse button where you want to define the endpoint of the gradient.

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Linked Vs. Embedded

Linked artwork remains independent of the Illustrator document, resulting in a smaller Illustrator file. You can modify linked artwork using transformation tools and effects; however, you cannot select and edit individual components in the artwork. A preference you set for updating links determines whether the artwork in the Illustrator document changes when the linked file changes outside of Illustrator.

Embedded artwork is copied into the Illustrator document, resulting in a larger Illustrator file. If the artwork contains multiple components, you can edit them discretely. For example, if the artwork contains vector data, Illustrator converts it to paths, which you can then modify using Illustrator tools and commands. Illustrator also preserves the object hierarchy (such as groups and layers) in artwork embedded from certain file formats.