how to use

by Michael StartzmanADOBE IDEAS

I love to draw. For years and years I drew on paper of all shapes and sizes, carrying sketchbooks, pens and erasers wherever I went. Eventually, I began drawing comic strips for the local newspapers. Back then, getting a three or four paneled comic strip ready for print involved hours of tracing sketches over light-boxes, white-out in various forms, mechanical tint for coloring, and many, many curse words. I began to dread the process and the looming deadlines. I bought a computer and a scanner, taught myself Photoshop and over time learned the proper way to scan and clean illustrations. After a while I started drawing digitally, utilizing a Wacom tablet and Illustrator. And a while after that, nearly all of my art was created digitally; combining drawings from Illustrator and coloring from Photoshop.

I loved the clean lines and the infinite resolution Illustrator provided me coupled with the unlimited colors and painting possibilities of Photoshop. The only thing I didn’t like was having to have these tools with me every time I wanted to create “finished” art rather than sketches. Then along came the iPad.

Sure, I thought the device was cool with its Internet and email capabilities, photo galleries, games and applications created from anyone and everyone. But it wasn’t until a friend, knowing my love of drawing, showed me the vector-based Adobe Ideas (Ideas) on his iPad that I knew I had to have one. And a big freelance job later, I did.

Originally, Ideas was free and only had one Photo layer and one Drawing layer. I worked with that for awhile because I was so close to everything I wanted in a portable drawing application: vector art work and a simple, uncluttered tool set. Eventually, a new app update introduced nine additional Drawing layers. From then on, I was set. With multiple layers, I could create in Ideas the same way I did in Illustrator: layers for line art, colors, shadows, highlights, and more.

If I could have only one application on my iPad, without a doubt, it would be Adobe Ideas. I’ve tried many different drawing apps, but none of them is as easy or more like natural drawing, than Adobe Ideas. The user interface is clean and allows me to draw with one hand and utilize the Tool Bar with the other.

Also, drawing in Ideas is entirely vector based, which means not only can I zoom in on my art for detailed work, I can also print my drawings at ANY size without loss of clarity!

In this eBook you’ll find useful information on each of Ideas settings and tools, as well as tips and techniques on how to get the most out of Adobe Ideas.

-Michael Startzman

The Pen tool is the only tool for making marks in Adobe Ideas.

Change the width of the pen’s mark by touching the Size tool and sliding up to increase width or down to decrease.

The Pen tool creates consistent width lines with rounded ends.

However, when zoomed-in on the Art Board and using a very small pen tip (.5), the lines will have some fluctuation in width.

The Pen tool creates vector marks which are based on mathematical expressions.

Vector images can be scaled by any amount and never lose clarity.

Users export their Ideas as vector based PDFs which are suitable for printing at any resolution.

Photos however, are raster images and can not be scaled larger without loss of clarity.

PEN TOOL

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Start a Draw layer with the opacity set around 50.

I use blue because in the olden days, blue pencil lines weren’t picked up by a copier or scanner which made it easier to remove the lines after they were inked. Use whichever color you like best!

On a new layer, above the sketch layer, ink or trace over the transparent lines with a thicker line.

I use a thicker line for a subtractive method of drawing; see the Tip on the next page!

TIPTECHNIQUE: USING MULTIPLE LAYERS While in the Pen tool or the Eraser tool, move around the Art Board by touching two fingers to the screen. This saves having to switch between tools to continue working.

Pinch to zoom out, move fingers apart to zoom in.

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Drawing is defined by solid outlines, usually black. Painting omits these lines and is created with blocks of color.

The painting technique has nearly the same layer set up as before, only there is no inked layer.

Start with a flat color layer and approximate the shape of the subject.

TIPAfter manipulating an Idea in a photo app, create a new Idea with the manipulated Idea as the photo layer.

On a new drawing layer, add unmanipulated content. In this example I added the moon, stars and fog.

TECHNIQUE: PAINTING

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Wood cut prints are created by taking a solid block of wood and carving out the illustration. So that’s how we’ll do it too.

First fill your Art Board with black.

On a new layer above the black layer, roughly sketch the design.

TIPTECHNIQUE: WOOD CUTS

Try drawing with a white pen. Use white to add details in dark areas and break up the uniformity of other colored markings.

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