Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

6.

Align the artwork. From the control panel, shown in Figure 3-6,

make sure the align to artboard icon ( ) is selected. A series of

icons will now appear on the right; click the

icon and then

the

icon to align the artwork to the artboard by horizontal

and vertical centers respectively.

7. Lock the layer and change its options. Click the empty box to

the left of the Template layer name to relock the layer. Double-

click the layer name to bring up the Layer Options dialog box

shown in Figure 3-7, and rename the layer “Template.”

You’ll see a few other options in the dialog box. The Template

check box was set automatically by Illustrator, and as we’ll see

later, it ensures that the layer will be visible in both preview and

outline modes. The Dim Images setting specifi es the percentage

bitmapped images should be dimmed to. (It has no effect on

vector-based shapes.) Change this value to 35% and click OK.

That’s it! You now have a tracing template, ready to use to create

your illustrated mishipizheu—which you’ll start in the very next

exercise. Save your fi le as “Mishi tracing.ai” or something similar

before moving on.

Making Free-Form Polygons

and Spline Curves

Now that you’ve seen how to create a tracing template, it’s time to

put it to good use. In this exercise, you’ll use the pen tool to trace

the strange-looking canoe (or is it a giant comb?) at the far left of

the image. The pen tool launched Illustrator more than 20 years ago

and is arguably still the most powerful and essential tool in Illustra-

Figure 3-8 .

Figure 3-6 .

Figure 3-7 .

tor today. Although using the pen tool requires patience, it

affords you the most control over your artwork—you cre-

ate each path one point at a time. You’ll start by drawing

the simplest shapes the pen tool offers: free-form polygons.

1. Open your tracing template. If you have the

fi le open from the last exercise, great; if not,

open the fi le you saved at the end of the last ex-

ercise or the Mishi drawing.ai fi le in the Lesson 03

2.

Zoom in on the canoe. Select the tool from the

toolbar (or press the Z key). Click a few times on the

canoe to zoom in closely on that part of the artwork,

as shown in Figure 3-8. Make sure the Drawing layer

is active before proceeding.

90

Lesson 3: Using the Pen Tool