- Hello, I'm Deke McClelland.
Welcome to Illustrator One-on-One Fundamentals,
Part One in a series of three video courses
devoted to your ultimate mastery of the world's
most powerful vector-based drawing software,
by which I mean the one, the only, Adobe Illustrator.
Illustrator is the number one drawing program on the planet.
Look at any logo, any product packaging,
any marketplace signage, any web button, any line graphic
on any screen, anywhere in the world,
and you're likely seeing Illustrator at work...
smooth, crisp, pristine vector-based art.
Learn how to use Illustrator
and you become a master of the visual world.
And this, what you're watching right now,
this is Illustrator One-on-One, the most comprehensive
video training on the topic.
If Illustrator is a magical sword
of graphic art, and it is,
then I'm the guy who's going to show you how to wield it.
I started using Illustrator in 1987, the year it came out.
In fact, this is it, actually, right here,
the first Adobe program I ever bought, which means I've been
using the program for more of my life than I haven't.
I wrote my first book on Illustrator the very next year,
when I was 26, and I did so out of love.
There we were, listening to The Bangles, and suddenly...
Wang chung! Illustrator comes out of nowhere.
And it was so streamlined back then, the whole thing fit
on a single floppy disc, so it's no surprise
that I've been writing books and recording videos
about this program ever since.
Year in, year out, I've never missed an update.
I like to think that I'm that guy who's going to teach you
both from the mind and the heart.
I get excited about some features.
I get disappointed by others.
Regardless, we're going to take what Illustrator gives us
and make great artwork.
As you watch these movies,
I'll show you some amazing things.
But my real purpose is to infuse you with every bit
of knowledge that I have, so that you can go out
and make amazing works of art and design on your own.
I promise you, I'm going to turn you into the best
Illustrator user you know, but I'm going to need your help.
Give me your time and attention, and I'll show you
everything you need to know,
in the order you need to know it.
No crowded classroom, no scheduling conflicts,
it's just you and me, one on one,
anytime that it's convenient for you to learn.
If this is your first time using Illustrator,
welcome to the club.
If you're an old-timer, forget everything you knew before.
Trust me, Illustrator has changed a lot
in the last few years, and very much for the better.
It's a whole new ball game.
This course, One-on-One, is project-based learning.
You learn by doing.
In the following movies, you'll create
professional quality artwork, often from scratch,
using nothing more than Illustrator's
most basic line and shape tools.
You'll learn how to create multi-page documents
using device-independent artboards, and you'll learn
how to draw anything you could possibly want, using
the pencil tool, the curvature tool, and the classic pen.
One-on-One is also contextualized learning.
Regardless of your background, Illustrator's features are
about to make crystal-clear sense, because
you'll apply them to a series of clearly defined tasks.
If I've done my job, you'll leave each chapter
with a sense of accomplishment.
I sincerely hope that there are moments when you feel,
"I rule!
"I can do this, and I can do more."
One last but very important item...
Now that Illustrator is part of
Adobe's ever-expanding creative cloud,
the old self-contained version number updates
of the past have been supplanted
by a continuous stream of frequent and nimble enhancements.
And, just as Illustrator is a fluid application,
One-on-One is a fluid course.
The entire One-on-One trilogy,
Fundamentals Advanced in Mastery,
every last movie is altogether new,
complete with new projects and brand new exercise files.
As time goes on, I'll sprinkle in new movies
to address new features, as well as new ways to work.
So, be sure to come back and check for new movies
the next time you see your copy of Illustrator update.
So, please join me one-on-one.
Let me show you Illustrator
as I truly hope you've never seen it before.