From sketch to fantastic digital art with Adobe Illustrator

I came across this really cool site called IllustrationClass which offers awesome downloadable tutorials for Adobe Illustrator. The tutorials include notes in English and Spanish, screen captures of each step of the process, as well as the actual Illustrator files. Definitely worth checking out if you use Illustrator.

Excellent

Thu, 02/14/2008 - 05:32 — James

Thanks for the link, Dan. I've already downloaded one of the tuts and it's pretty good.

Inspirational

Thu, 02/14/2008 - 10:59 — Phos....

Nice find, Dan. I've only viewed one of his tutorials so far (The poster for Adobe), and found it inspirational. I really ought to sandblast the rust & dust off my pens and pencils; geez, I'm so out of practice with them. And I could kick myself for turning down an offer for a free light table that was presented to me a couple months ago.

I'm constantly amazed

Thu, 02/14/2008 - 19:47 — James

I'm constantly amazed at what can be done in Illustrator. While I can do anything I need to get done in it without problems, I read through some of these tutorials you find and realize that I haven't even begun to touch on its capabilities.

a hidden gem

Thu, 02/21/2008 - 17:43 — Debbie (not verified)

Anyone interested increasing their Illustrator skill sets should have this site bookmarked. Von Glitska's site is a fantastic source of inspiration, information of all that is Adobe Illustrator. I don't know where he finds the time to write up all the tutorials. Each tutorial is a meticulous documentation, both written and photographed, of the steps he does (from start to finish) for an illustration project. Unlike the bubbly "happiness" and "killer tips" of the Photoshop TV and Layers TV, he actually presents projects that run the gamut from successful ad campaigns to projects that that didn't pan out, working with art directors, issues with pro bono work and how to improve work flow.

My favorites are his endless doodles that keep skills honed and sometimes turn out to be winning projects...he even doodles on recycled styrofoam coffee cups! Another, entitled, Visual tension, is a tutorial in which he demonstrated how the tiniest corrections done to the vectors of an image can make it transform from mediocre work to a professional job.

In addition to his tutorials he features tutorials from 35 other artists. It is a wonderful window into the art and lifes of artist/illustrators working in the digital age.

It takes a more than a few minutes of your time to go through this website, but it is worth the time and effort. I've learned more from a handful of his tutorials than a semester worth of Illustrator class.