Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

21.

Join the bottom two points. Select the two bottom points with

the white arrow tool, just as you did in Step 13 on page 64. Rather

than choosing the Join command, however, we’ll select another

of the buttons from the control panel—in this case, the second of

the Anchor buttons ( ), which connects the selected endpoints.

22.

Join the top points. Join the top points using the same method

you used in Step 14 on the previous page.

23.

Send the lozenge backward. Ctrl-click or -click the icon for

the My Drawing layer. As you can see, the lozenge is now blocking

the seam of the lips; to reveal the seam, choose Arrange➝Send

Backward from the Object menu, or press Ctrl+ (or - ) to

send the lozenge back one step.

And there you have it! The fi nal art is seen in Figure 2-65.

This exercise has only scratched the surface of breaking

apart and restitching shapes, but you’re off to a great

start. You may not be quite at mad-scientist level yet,

but later lessons will help you master the madness

that is Illustrator.

Coloring Your Artwork

Shapes are an indispensable piece of any artwork.

They defi ne your overall composition, like the out-

lines in a coloring book. But just like in a coloring

book, the outlines are empty, hollow, waiting to be

fi lled with vibrant color. Color adds life and character

to an otherwise nondescript illustration. More color is not

always better, however. Color should be used judiciously,

as it communicates just as much as the other elements of

your drawing. An explosion of vivid colors may be perfect for

a child’s birthday invitation but would quickly make a business

card look garish.

Illustrator lets you apply color in several ways: via predefi ned

swatches, a group of colors saved with the illustration itself; through

the color mixers, or sliders, available in the Color panel; and lastly

through the Color Guide panel, which uses mathematical formu-

las (based on color theory) to create swatches on-the-fl y based on

your starting color.

In this exercise, we’ll continue with our tonalpohualli, coloring the

shapes to resurrect our ancient Aztec calendar. Before you begin, you

may want to check out the sidebar “Color in Illustrator: A Whirl-

Figure 2-65 .

66

Lesson 2: Lines, Shapes, and Color