This section of the Be An Illustrator site is free information. Doesn’t cost a cent. Basically, it’s the same thing you can get from the Adobe Illustrator Help files, but I’ve put it in my own words. Sometimes that translation is a little easier to use than what the engineers put down. I’m a know-a-lot. That’s like a know-it-all, only I know I don’t know everything. What I do know I share. The free stuff I share will get you over – you can make your way through the program. If you really want to get to the nitty-gritty of graphic design and illustration, then I’m afraid that will cost you a few bucks for one of my courses or projects. The courses start from the beginning, assuming that you know how to open a new document in Illustrator. By the time you’ve finished it, you’ll know enough to be confident to tackle just about any drawing project. Projects, on the other hand, are designed for people who pretty much know what’s going on, but they’d like a little extra knowledge to push them over the top – you know, inside stuff.

But this section is for free stuff. FREE STUFF! If you put it in caps, everyone wants it! So dig in. Help yourself. Seriously, help yourself (you know, feed a man fish for dinner and his belly is full; teach him how to fish and he’ll spend the rest of his life sitting in a boat drinking beer…). If you want more detailed instruction, then check out the other links on the page. Have fun. Life is too long to take seriously! Relax and learn something.

Free Adobe Illustrator tips and tricks:
Pointer tools. Why are there two of them?
Magic Wand? I thought this was Illustrator, not Photoshop!
Lasso tool. Yippie Yi Yay, round ‘em up Roy!
Line Segment tool. Keeping you on the straight and narrow.
Regular Drawing tools. Not just for squares.
Rotate and Reflect tools. The Yin and Yang of distortion.
Scale, Shear, & Reshape tools. This isn’t about weight, cutting, or workouts.
Gradient Blend tool. Shifty use of color. (In progress)
Gradient Meshes. Blends from your own custom blender! (In progress)

If I’ve left something out that you really need, drop me a line.