What am I searching for when looking for tutorials on how to do the following…

[daniel343060330tem]

 

 

 

Hi everyone! 

I am a mosaic artist who wants to design templates for large scale swimming pool designs. I'm the images above I believe the designer is using coraldraw but I want to use AI. 

from my understanding he is placing an ornamental image in to ai and then placing vector lines over the pattern. Can I do this just using a mouse? Or do I need some sort of pen and trackpad? Also I've been searching for tutorials on YouTube and I can't find how to do this style of stuff. Maybe I need to learn different aspects of ai and them merge them all together. 

the end goal is to create large format drawings to then print off in segments then sellotape together to then use as a template to place my mosaics over. 

any help at all to allow me to start learning how to do this would be much obliged as I feel like I'm banging my head on a brick wall!! 

thank you 🙂 

daniel

 

[Monika Gause]

You can perfectly do this with a mouse.

You would use the shape tools (circles, rectangles, lines, spirals etc) for some shapes, then also the pen tool for others and maybe the curcature tool. Apply strokes, apply maybe brushes and maybe width profiles. 

Maybe expand those strokes to get shapes

Then a lot of reflection, rotation, duplicating.

Maybe using the pathfinder panelö to unite the shapes

Maybe the shapebuilder tool or live paint.

[daniel343060330tem]

Thank you! Ive been watching tutorials and learning how to use them tools individually. Its all coming along nicely 🙂

[Monika Gause]

I'm glad you are having success with this!

[Bill Silbert]

One thing that is important to realize is that all of the tools available are just that—tools. What you're looking for is certainly attainable using the features that Monika has listed but it will require a working knowledge of how to use them. In other words, it is a manual process which will require knowledge of how the tools work as well as some drawing skill. To really do this right will require the skill of an experienced Illustrator user. If that is not the case for you then try first taking some of the online courses in using Illustrator in places like Linked-in Learning. 

[daniel343060330tem]

Thanks Bill. Ive been learning how to use the tools slowly via youtube tutorials 🙂

[Ares Hovhannesyan]

This can be helpful I think,

https://youtu.be/JDuolCk3fw4?si=ns8fsaImwxwfoQu-

[daniel343060330tem]

Thanks ill check this out!

Can you help me with this at all... I traced this swimming pool using the 'Distort and Transform > transform tool'. Now though when i hide the original image from underneath im only able to drag a box round the pen lines to the left. Where as i would like to highlight the whole swimming pool and resize etc. Is this an easy fix? 

Thank you 

Daniel

[Jacob Bugge]

Daniel,

It is difficult to see what you mean by looking at the screenshot, but maybe it is because it is an effect, so what happens if you Object>Expand Appeanance?

[daniel343060330tem]

Hi Jacob, 

I dragged a square around the icon and it only grabs the left side. When I Expand>Appearence it doesn't do anything, as far as im aware. 

Also, if you wouldnt mind helping me out here... I cant quite figure out why (see second attachment top left corner) it doesnt give me the option to change the colour of the pen tool... in fact im not able to find colour anywhere and im not able to use brush or live paint tool. Even when highlighting the area i want to paint its just giving me the disabled icon. I got so frustrated the other night i had to walk away from my mac for a few days lol 

Any help is appreciated 🙂

[Monika Gause]

Please take screenshots that include relevabnt information: the objects inside the layers panel. Without that we are lost.

Please embed your images in your post. As of now we have to click on each single one. And as soon as we click on the next one, the first one closes. It's impossible to tell anything about multiple images in that situation.

[daniel343060330tem]

Okay my bad. Im learning all the time. Its a huge learning curve this business.

[Jacob Bugge]

Daniel,

Your Document preview of Screenshot 2024-01-02 at 09.49.13.png makes me believe that you have (re)created one half of the artwork, mostly to the left (with a loop into the right side near the top and a corresponding void in the left side), but I wonder whether you have actually applied the Effect>Distort & Tranfsorm>Transform/Reflect, which could be done with one of the rightmost Reference Points if the loop into the right side was not there, but that would move the non selected effect part to the right so the farthest parts of the loops would coincide.

If you have, you ought to be able to apply Object>Expand.

By the way, you ought to remove the stray points to the left in any case.

If you actually (only) have the first half, all you need is to create a mirrored other half, then you can continue your further work in the way most suitable.

I would suggest the following, using Smart Guides, after removing the stray points:

1) With the first half selected as in your screenshot, Group (Ctrl/Cmd+G);

2) Object>Transform>Reflect a Copy of the Group from 1);

Now you have a mess of the two Groups, the copy on top, until the next step;

3) Deselect the copy Group, then with the Selection Tool ShiftClickDrag the bottommost Anchor Point of it to the right to snap it to the corresponding Anchor Point of the Group from 1) (Smart Guides say anchor).

This ought to bring the copy half into the right position with the centre Anchor Points coinciding, and the loops overlapping, and both Groups selectable individually.

Which way to best continue depends on the structure of the Groups, and the exact way you need the artwork.

This includes whether you need to have each tile within a closed path or have other paths, and whether you need to have stroked paths or outlines ones.

I believe the first step will be to have the whole artwork and have it structured in the right way for the next steps, maybe involving Join/Pathfinders/Shape Builder/Live Paint.