So I wanted to do a bit of a Q & A on everything Adobe Illustrator, but instead of doing a generalized Q & A I am going to focus on how you can learn Adobe Illustrator and What you need to learn. I have chosen 5 general questions that I feel will be the most helpful to beginners learning Adobe Illustrator. Throughout the questions, I have also included links to some of my favorite videos on the topics discussed in these questions for those of you who want to start learning right away.

Let’s get started! 

Why should you learn Adobe Illustrator?

The common misconception about Adobe Illustrator is it is only useful for those wanting a career in an arts-related field like graphic design or illustration. In reality, Adobe Illustrator can be useful in a multitude of ways. If you have a blog or a website that you want to create unique graphics for, Adobe Illustrator is a great way to accomplish this without having to pay someone to make you graphics each time you need them. You can also use Adobe Illustrator for presentations when you need to illustrate something with graphics or charts. 

What are someone resources for learning Adobe Illustrator?

My two favorite tutorials for learning Illustrator are “Learn to Draw Anything with Adobe Illustrator CC” (free on YouTube) and “Mastering Illustrator: 10 Tips and Tricks to Speed Up Your Workflow” (you need a subscription to skillshare to view this one). Once you have mastered basic Illustrator skills you can then move on to more focused tutorials that teach you specific tasks like how to draw people, animals, etc. A great website for those specific tutorials is tuts+.

Where should you begin? 

So I would start out by mastering the pen tool. Once that has been done, you can experiment with other mediums of drawing in Illustrator like the paintbrush, blob brush, and pencil tools. I would also learn the shape builder tool and learn how to use the pathfinder panel. This is a great place to start to perfect the basics of how to draw in Adobe Illustrator and then you can go more in-depth on how to color your artwork when you feel more confident with your drawing skills. 

Do I need tools to help me learn Adobe Illustrator?

In the future, you might want to purchase a design tablet or an iPad to help you with drawing your designs. When you are starting out, however, a design tablet is unnecessary. Before you start spending money on fancy equipment you should see if you are going to stick with learning digital design before you shell out someone money for a design tablet. In the meantime, you can check out my post on “How to Master Adobe Illustrator Without a Tablet.”

I have mastered Adobe Illustrator so now what? 

Once you feel like you have gained a full understanding of everything Illustrator has to offer, I would then experiment with how Adobe Illustrator works with other mediums. I really like the look of gouache and watercolor so I might start there. You can also experiment with creating textures for your artwork. I wrote a post on that here if you are interested in learning to create your own textures.

Adobe Illustrator is a great tool to add to your skillset. What are some questions you have about Adobe Illustrator? Leave a comment down below and I will try to answer them. Also, I am starting to compile a list of all of my favorite tutorials in Adobe Illustrator. If you share Adobe Illustrator tutorials on your website or YouTube page that you think would be useful for beginners, leave a comment down below so I can add them to the list. 

If you liked this post, why not share it! It lets me know what posts you like so I can make more posts like this.

Shop My Designs