I’ve been meaning to learn Adobe Illustrator for awhile now. Originally it was to help my strengthen my abilities as a freelance video editor, but it was hard to find the time to teach myself the program. I was too busy editing videos to learn how to improve them. Or at least that’s what I told myself.
In truth, I just wasn’t motivated. I could’ve made the time. I made the time to work on my semi-defunct YouTube channel. I made the time to rewatch Game of Thrones. So what was different?
My heart wasn’t in it. My post-production proficiency was adequate enough. No clients ever complained that the commercial for their fireworks tent or the video for their wedding didn’t have enough original graphics.
But then I got the call to create my own comics. The desire to make something for myself. To do something that was for me.
I’m essentially self-taught when it comes to other Adobe products, mainly Premiere, After Effects, and Photoshop. I would experiment with the programs and then Google something whenever I ran into an issue. If I was lucky, I’d find a YouTube tutorial that could help solve my problem. Learning Illustrator is no different.
Jason Secrest is (as his Instagram will tell you) a teacher, artist, cartoonist, graphic designer, and whiteboard animator. His website is filled with great content to help people like me learn the incredibly dense program.
Being a noob, I followed one of his beginner tutorials: Building with Shapes. Using guides he provided, I created this happy little popsicle using just circles and rectangles.
It’s not perfect, but for my first foray into Illustrator, I think it turned out pretty alright. I learned a lot of tips and techniques for when I eventually create my own characters. And while there were times when I felt frustrated, I knew I was making progress.
