Question gaussian blur and wacom pen

[Denise351225991ca4]

Hello All,

I am a graphic design student, I have done my first illustration in Ai using a wacom tablet One

I hit a couple of issues, can anyone offer any advise please?

I was trying to apply shading to some areas, using custom shapes created with the pencil tool and applying a gausian blur to soften - it stopped applying after a while...would the effect be eating up my graphics card?

Do you have any better suggestions on a technique to apply shading?

Any suggestion/tip on how to get the hang of the wacom pen, the tip is slightly off the point of contact on screen, thus making it really hard to select anchors and handles.

Appreciate any tips and tricks you can share for an 'L' plate driver.

Many thanks

Denise

[Monika Gause]

Can you tell us which system it is and what graphic card? Also: how much RAM is there?

How large are your shapes? What do you mean with "it stopped applying"?

[Denise351225991ca4]

Hi Monica,

I can't seem to find GC details, this is what I can find, 

I have 8gb of available RAM 29GB of virtual RAM.

I thought it was a pretty decent machine, it's my work laptop which I am using in the interim as my MacBook died and I am getting together the funds for a new one.

I have a top spec ipad pro that I can use but the pencil died. I'm not having much luck with my devices.

I just trying to illustrate something for an assessment.

I drew small freehand shapes to create shadow areas and tried to soften them with effects - the gausian blur was applying fine for the first 5-6 large shadows, then they just stopped appearing/applying to the shapes. No errors, no crashing. I was thinking the effect is taking up a lot of energy and my machine can't handle it? I am new to this.

Appreciate your time in trying to guide me.

[Monika Gause]

8 GB of RAM is just not enough for huge effects. It's just the bare minimum for Illustrator to launch at all. On the iPad there are no shadow effects.

[Denise351225991ca4]

I guess I will have to look to replace my macbook asap. I didnt realise the ipad app doesnt have those features. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Denise351225991ca4,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind trying the suggestions shared in this help article (https://adobe.ly/3ydpynC) and letting us know if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav