Illustrator CS6 One-on-One Fundamentals 1

Table of Contents
Shortcuts ................................................................................................................................ 1
Making line art ..................................................................................................................... 1
Meet the line tools ....................................................................................................................... 1
Creating custom guides ............................................................................................................. 1
Drawing a heart with the arc tool .......................................................................................... 2
Adjusting control handles ........................................................................................................ 2
Drawing a target with the Polar Grid tool........................................................................... 2
Pasting one shape inside another .......................................................................................... 2
Drawing an arrow with the line tool ..................................................................................... 2
Rotating, filling and stacking ............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.


Shortcuts
V = black arrow
A = white arrow
Cmd + ; = hide/show guides
Cmd + j = join path outlines
Cmd + f = paste in the exact location
Cmd + 1 = zoom out to 100%
Cmd + g = group
Shift + d = alternate between paste options
\ = Line tool
Hold the spacebar to move an object while it is being drawn
Cmd + 8 = make compound path
Cmd + k = preferences menu
Shift + x = swap stroke and fill colour
Making line art
Meet the line tools
Illustrator offers five line tools;
Straight line draw straight lines
A smooth arc quarter ellipses, arcs are great for laying down basic curving shapes
Spiral
Rectangular grid good for laying down guidelines
Polar grid
Creating custom guides
You can locate the centre of an illustration using the Rectangular Grid tool. There are
two ways to change the number of horizontal and vertical lines in a rectangular grid;
2

One is by clicking rather than dragging to create the grid and then entering the details
manually
The other is while dragging, keep the mouse held down. You can press the direction controls
to alter the amount of horizontal and vertical lines.
You may also want to change these path guidelines to Snapping Guidelines. Do this
by clicking View > Guides > Make Guides. The idea is that you can turn anything
you draw in Illustrator into a Snapping Guide.
Drawing a heart with the arc tool
Press the shift key while dragging to create an arc in order to get a perfect quarter circle
While dragging press the f key to flip the direction of the arc
Adjusting control handles
When you select a line with the white arrow, you will be able to see control handles.
They allow you to modify the curvature of a path. If you want to constrain the angle
of the control angle to exactly horizontal or vertical, press and hold the shift key as
you are dragging.
If you want to join path outlines, marquee the path outlines in order to select them,
then go to Object > Path > Join.
Drawing a target with the Polar Grid tool
To draw any shape from the centre outwards, press and hold the alt key when
dragging. If you want to bring up the menu box just click, if you want to bring up the
menu box, but also create a shape from the centre, press alt + click.
To make a polar grid with alternating colours, in the menu box select Create
compound path from ellipses and Fill grid.
Pasting one shape inside another
At the bottom of the tool box there are 3 options;
Paste in front
Paste behind
Paste inside
You can alternate between these options using the shortcut shift + d.
Drawing an arrow with the line tool
To curve the end of lines, select the line, click on Stroke and select the second
rounded cap icon.
Using the spiral tool
Press r to flip. Hold command to edit size of spiral and hold the up or down arrow to
alter the length.
Illustrator CS6 One-on-One Fundamentals 3

Drawing Geometric Shapes
Using the Ellipse tool
Hold command while you are dragging to create the shape in order to have the shape
cut across guide lines.
Creating compound paths
A compound path is a hole within a shape, e.g. the gap in a capital A. Select both
shapes, fill with desired colour. Object > Compound Path > Make.
Drawing a multi-point star
Press the up and down arrows to add points to the star, hold command to increase the
spikiness of the star.
Adding and aligning a center point
Window > Attributes > Up down arrow > Show center
This sometimes doesnt show the exact centre, it acts as f there was a rectangular
bounding box around the shape.
Drawing rounded rectangles
Use the up and down keys to increase the roundness or sharpness or the corners.
Reflecting across an axis
Change rotate tool to reflect tool. Hold down alt and click on the point you which to
reflect across, chose horizontal or vertical.
Modifying the constraint axis
Illustrator > preferences > general > change constrain angle. This will allow you to
extend a line without changing the angle of it.
Using the flare tool
Cmd = holds halo, shift = holds rays. Up and down to add or decrease rays.
Using the top secret tilde key trick
The tilde key allows you to create hundreds to thousands of lines as you draw. ` (to
the left of the z).
Tracing an image
Window > Image trace > Drop down
There are many options here that allow you to reduce or increase the black/white or
noise of the image trace.
The Shape Builder Tool allows you to click and drag two shapes to join them
together.