Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

Figure 3-3 .

Establishing a Bitmapped

Tracing Template

In the previous lesson, I demonstrated how to draw artwork using a

tracing template based on Illustrator paths. A much more common

way to work is to take a digital image—whether a photograph or a

scan of traditionally drawn pen-and-paper art—and use that image

as a tracing template to recreate the art in Illustrator.

Throughout this lesson we’ll be recreating artwork based on a pic-

tograph I saw at Agawa Rock in Ontario, along the shore of Lake

Superior. The pictograph is of a mishipizheu, or underwater panther,

painted by the native Ojibwe people.

1.

Examine the evolution of the artwork. Open the

Bridge by choosing File➝Browse in Bridge or pressing

Ctrl+Alt+O (-Option-O on the Mac). Conversely, you

can click the icon in the application bar. From the Favorites

panel in the upper left, navigate to the Lesson 03 folder inside

the Lesson Files-AIcs5 1on1 folder, as seen in Figure 3-3. (This

assumes you followed the instructions in Step 10 on page 15 in

Lesson 1.) Inside the Original subfolder, you should see three bit-

Figures are misnumbered from here on Figure 303 is

actually the fi le Figure 3-4. Not a big deal -- David did

this but just fyi

map images: Mishipizheu.jpg, Mishi

sketch.jpg, and Mishi painting.jpg.

The fi rst fi le, Mishipizheu.jpg, is

the original photograph I took at

Agawa Rock, while Mishi sketch.

jpg is a rough digital sketch I cre-

ated in Photoshop. Finally, Mishi

painting.jpg is a digital photograph

I took of an acrylic underpainting

I made, inspired by the original

photo. (I subsequently ruined the

painting, but that’s another story.)

We’ll use this fi nal image for our

tracing template.

2.

Open the Illustrator

fi le. After navigating back

up to the main Lesson 03

folder, double-click the fi le

drawing.ai to open it in Illustrator.

You should see a document with

88

Lesson 3: Using the Pen Tool

two layers, as shown in Figure 3-4. (If you

don’t see the Layers panel, press the F7 key

to bring it to the front.)

3.

Delete the existing template layer. While it’s

great that you have the template layer already

in this fi le, we need to delete it to recreate the

tracing template. Delete the layer by dragging

it to the trash can icon at the bottom of the

panel, or by selecting the layer and choosing

Delete “Template” from the menu. If you

see a warning dialog, click Yes to dismiss it;

you’re sure you want to delete the layer.

4.

Import the tracing template into the

fi le. Choose the File➝Place command;

the resulting Place dialog box is shown in

Figure 3-5. There are a couple of options in

this dialog box that you should note:

•

The Link check box determines whether Illustra-

tor links to the selected fi le or embeds a copy of

the fi le inside the Illustrator document. If you’re

concerned you might lose your original fi le, you

can embed it so a copy is saved with your illus-

tration—but I generally don’t recommend this

option. Doing so increases the document size

signifi cantly and makes it more diffi cult to edit

the embedded artwork. This option should be

turned on by default.

•

The Template check box instructs Illustrator

to automatically perform a bevy of steps when

placing the fi le. Choose Mishi painting.jpg from

the Originals folder, make sure the Template

box is selected, and then click the Place button.

Because you selected the Template check box, Illustrator auto-

matically created a new layer behind all the other layers, placed

the image on this layer, locked the layer, and dimmed the art-

work. Unfortunately, the artwork may or may not be aligned

to the artboard; we’ll fi x that in the next few steps.

5. Unlock the template layer and select the artwork. In the Lay-

ers panel, click the

icon to unlock the Template layer. Then,

using the black arrow tool, click somewhere along the edge of

the artwork to select it.

Figure 3-4 .

Figure 3-5 .

89

Establishing a Bitmapped Tracing Template