drawing :

To clear your mind and warm up your hand/wrist, create a spiral.

• If possible, hold your paper at a 90 degree angle.
• Hold the pencil as shown in A. Try not to let your palm rest on the paper.

Fill half the paper with marks similar to those shown above. Include following variations:

• use the tip and then the side of of the pencil lead
• vary the pressure
• try soft curves and hard angles
• create deliberate shapes and random, organic lines

Now hold the pencil as shown in B and fill the other half of the paper.

Seven basic marks or strokes

On a new page, recreate the marks above

1. light (value) : vary pressure to create both light and dark lines
2. direction : change angles to suggest how an object sits in space or it’s direction of movement
3. depth : converge lines to give the illusion of depth
4. scale : vary thickness to vary size
5. overlap : draw overlapping forms to create depth
6. form : add straight, curved and angled lines to define an object’s form
7. movement : use curving lines to direction or movement

illustrator :

exercise : 

create at least five artboards; rename them

use a new set of brushes from the library for each page

on each page, try each of the following at least once:

• close a shape (hold down option when you get near the beginning)
• restrain horizontal or vertical with the shift key
• double click on the brush tool and work with different levels of accurate -> smooth
  

on one page, do the following:

• use the selection tool to organize your strokes
  by moving and rotating
• use the direct selection tool and edit
  some of the brush strokes
  

save your file as brush.ai

assignment :

 

This assignment will challenge you to recreate an image from art history using only the brush tool in Adobe Illustrator. There will be several images to choose from at the bottom of this assignment page. Each image uses contour line to illustrate a subject. Using only the brush tool, you will redraw two of the drawings. Consider how line changes direction, curves, ends abruptly, or creates angles. Pay attention to the detail present in the image you selected and trace as much of it as you can. Use only black line on white ground.

• click on image bellow and get full-screen version before dragging to your desktop
• create a new file in illustrator
• place the image on the page; scale it to fit full page
• redraw the image
• save

To complete your work, hide your source image and then save as drawingYourName.pdf file for submission on canvas.

need more help?

Lynda.com Using the Illustrator Brush