ILLUSTRATOR WORKSHOP - ALPHABET SOUP

For our alphabet soup brief, we were taught skills that would help us to create our digital alphabet and to help us with our future modules and work.

We firstly looked at identifying the characteristics of the letter's, including the names of  serifs and shapes. I found interesting and useful, as I didn't know there were specific names for these features.

The first thing I learnt in the Illustrator workshop, was how to use the pen tool in order to create shapes. We where set some exercises that instructed us how to create different shapes. I found this exercise quite challenging as I haven't had a lot of experience in illustrator nor with the pen tool, however the instructions made it easier.

After completing the exercise, we then looked at the letter 'g' and began to trace the letter to create an outline. I set up an A4 document and placed the image of the letter 'g' that my tutor had provided and made sure I had 2 layers so that I could trace over it. On the layers tool bar I had to rename the layer to 'raster image' and changed the opacity to 50% after locking the image into place. For the top layer 'vector image' I had to leave unlock as it was the image I would be tracing the 'g' onto.

Using the pen tool I created outlines around the image following the lines of the raster image underneath. I found this process quite difficult as I had to remember from the pen tool exercises when to click off and on certain parts to make the lines.

After completing the lines I then took away the image from behind to be left with just the vector image showing. I realised there were a lot of parts out of place and it wasn't as smooth as the raster image.

I then learnt how to change and adapt the lines if we went out of place, by using the white arrow tool. I simply had to click and adjust the anchor points until the were in the right place, I found that adjusting some parts where easier than others due to the shapes within the letter. 

I also learnt how to change the settings to create coloured outlines and the weight of them.