Schooling: the Illustrator pen tool

The pen tool in Adobe Illustrator is the entire reason I am addicted to that program. I don't think any other tool is as versatile as and broad reaching as the pen tool. Sometimes it can be overwhelming or even frustrating with all it's little points and handles all over the place, but fret no more! You can master the pen tool! Here's three of my favorite resources for learning new techniques or just brushing up on your mad skills.

1. Zen of the Pen: If you've never picked up the pen tool, start here. Sharon Steuer's Zen of the Pen is a PDF that walk you through every thing you need to know. It's a few years old but all the information is still relevant and helpful.

2. Veerle's Pen Tool Exercises: The Dutch designer, Veerle Pieters, has a knack for beautiful illustrations that always include sweeping patterns all created with the pen tool. Her Pen Tool Exercise includes a downloadable AI file where she walks you through some of her favorite techniques. Check back to her site regularly for new, fabulous tutorials.

3. The Comprehensive Guide: Now that you're feeling more comfortable with the pen tool you can start to layer the keyboard shortcuts and various cursors associated with different functions. VectorTuts put together the down and dirty pen tool essentials in this great tutorial. Try it out, that's how you learn!

Every little bit helps

I'm still on my kick of learning new stuff. As I said before, I didn't do much design work for about three years and I spent the better half of my first year of freelancing just trying to get comfortable with the Adobe applications again. With my confidence back up, my brain has time to design again. I've found my mind wandering on to bigger and better designs while I'm still layout out my first idea. I know that was supposed to be happening all along, for all the clients I've had, but it just wasn't. I was too focused on the how-to to let my mind create. Now in my spare time I've been watching tutorials online and I also subscribed to Layers Magazine.

Layers touts itself as "the how-to magazine for all things Adobe." It has tons of articles and tutorials about every Adobe product. InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, DreamWeaver, it's all in there. Their website also has a bunch of video that combine two or three applications in one lesson.

I also picked up a couple issues of Photoshop User. It teaches me to love this big beast of an app again.

Do you have any resources you like? Share with me.

Five iPhone apps I can't live without

These are my favorite apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. What are yours?

1. Google Mobile - Google is my life. I use Google for searching, gmail for email and even Google Apps to host my website. Plus there's Blogger, Calendar and Google Docs. I love them all. The Google iPhone app lets me get to all those services and then some. The voice search is just cool. And locating business near your current location is so helpful and quick. [iTunes store link]

2. Remember the Milk - The best online task management service I've ever tried. In combination with the website, rememberthemilk.com, Remember the Milk stores tasks with due dates, priority, repeats and time estimates. It can also be seamlessly integrated into your Google Calendar. Use of the website is free but the iPhone app requires the purchase of a Pro account for $25/year. I think it's worth every penny for keeping my business and personal tasks organized, easy-to-use place. [iTunes store link]

3. Twitterific - I love reading Twitter when there's nothing else going on in the world. (Twitter is the online social network where you post short snippets of your life.) Twitterific makes flipping through Tweets simple and fast. It even has a built in web browser to make life easier. [iTunes store link]

4. Chess with Friends - Want to play chess with your best friend but can't because they live on the other side of the country? Chess with Friends is the answer to all life's problems. Challenge a friend to a game and your move shows up on the opponent's phone in a matter of seconds. My dad taught me to play chess when I was about 10 but then I didn't play much through high school and college. This app has renewed my interest in chess and it's also renewed my husband's interest in whooping someone's ass at chess. [iTunes store link]

5. WikiTap - Sometimes Google just isn't enough. Sometimes I want to know the answer to a question right away. That is why I love WikiTap, it searches the giant wikipedia.org. Look up words in the dictionary, bizarre topics of conversation or just read random articles for fun. [iTunes store link]

Photoshop Trainee

I have never been a huge fan of Photoshop. My favorite graphic design concepts are type, text and paper. Don't get me wrong, I love photographs but I prefer not to alter them too much from their original state. I like to boost the color, crop a little here and there, but extreme manipulation and surreal dreamscapes are not in my repertoire. But whispy landscapes are not the only thing that Photoshop can create. It is, of course, the most powerful photo engine on the market, and I have lost the slight edge I used to have on it.

When I was in college I didn't focus on the Photoshop classes that were offered to me because I chose marketing and management courses instead. Then in my first job I was only required to do minor photo editing. In my second job, no graphic design. Now as an independent graphic designer I find I really, um, must know how to use it better.

I have a couple of books but I find it hard to follow along to those with any devotion. What I did find that works are these videos of PixelPerfect hosted by Bert Monroy on Revision3 Internet TV. The guy is amazing. He goes click, click, and a throws on a filter or two and there you have it! A fabulous piece of digital art. They call him the Bob Ross of digital art. Remember Bob Ross? The old, odd art guy from PBS. Bert Monroy has the same gentle, encouraging tone. I love his videos, and I'm learning tons of new stuff!

Here is a quickie watercolor lesson. We recreated a photograph with brushes and then gave it the texture of watercolor paper. Below is my version followed by the original photograph.

Perfect palettes

I'm working on a new design for a client and it a project that is an unusual challenge for me. I have to design a label for a product that is used for children but marketed at adults. The client wants something sophisticated but still reminding the customer of babies. I am working on various type treatments but the thing that is really hanging me up is the color palette. The product comes in a variety of baby colors so I need to find something that doesn't compete with the product but compliments it. In a case like this I turn to kuler.

kuler is a powerful color palette creator invented by Adobe.

You can create a palette based on analogous colors or various other color rules or just get crazy with a custom creation. The web app then lets you rearrange the colors, view the color palette small and large and also download it to use in all Adobe design applications.