Skip to main content

Test driving & Review: Abode illustrator 2023 release by Brian Wood: 5 Lesson TRANSFORMING ARTWORK

5 Lesson TRANSFORMING ARTWORK


This is my result image and of course I changed some stuff to make it less boring. I do feel some options have changed even since the book is for Abode illustrator 2023 and I'm using version 2024. However I'm using the essential classic workspace which means tools don't change. 

picture of a caravan in a sunny place

This was the lesson menu and I have no idea why its blurred but this lesson was mostly about learning skills.
  • Add, edit, rename, and reorder artboards in an existing document. 
  • Navigate artboards. 
  • Work with rulers and guides. 
  • Position objects with precision. 
  • Move, scale, rotate, and shear objects using a variety of methods.
  •  Explore the mirror repeat. 
  • Work with the Puppet Warp tool.

Most of it was boring because I was working with demo files and just learning where things where and now they worked rather than doing much. I think it's a good reference chapter incase I wanted to do anything complicated. 

At this point, I feel the book is just more or less demonstrating the software or showing the functions rather giving solid projects. Does that make sense? I mean I would have liked to create this project from scratch, using all the tools to draw the images but  it's more getting a lesson file with images and using the functions on them to create the final project. 

lesson file



This is has been the case from lessons one to now. And looking at the lesson folder (zip file), I downloaded it seemed all the lessons are going to be like that. So I'm a little disillusioned with the process because I thought I would be doing projects from scratch, rather than just alternating images here and there. It means every lesson I start afresh rather than build on.

But given there are 16 lessons plus the extra tour one, and I'm only on lesson 5 I think I need to just keep focused not discard this book. But I do like working with projects from start to finish since that is now I learn. 

I would say it was a good reference book but it's a bit hard to use as a reference since it's based on lessons. Maybe it's too early to say and I need to keep on but also look for projects I can do- which kind of defeats the point.

I had bought it with an ebook cover project in mind for my book, but because of the way it was formatted, I just freestyled my book cover which I shall show when it is published - it is in review now. 

Overall 

I think it depends on your learning style. I would have preferred to have one large project which the book would have covered from start to finish rather than having different lessons for me to apply functions. 

These books look great but just ensure they cover your learning style in a way you can reapply otherwise it's just learning a bunch of functions. 




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Had coffee with a fellow writer, went to an exhibition on West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song at the British Library.

There was a massive Disney Christmas tree at St Pancras Station.  I thought I'd start with that picture. Implemented Accounting Guru Genius (AGG)  method this morning. I mentioned yesterdays she showed me her way of planning. Well it's kinda like project management critical path and working back but in AGG's way.  Well the results where what I sort of knew but it's official. I do too much. I've got so much on that I have make very slow progress with anything then end up procrastinating. So I really need to learn and get this planning and time management method under my belt. The only reason is that it's kinda the only thing I actually got. When AGG first did it, I was amazed. It was so impressive. I kinda forgot about it but it's coming up to the end of the year, and I've made great progress with some goals and projects but others are still hanging. Anyway after putting in all my hours I realised I only had a certain amount of free time. Not a...
1 comment
Read more

The Scale (Martha's Way 1) by Mika Jolie

  This is one of the of the best romances I've read in a LONG TIME. I loved it! It's brilliant and even writing a review will not give it justice, but I'll try. Just get it because it's that good, positive and uplifting with a good ending. It’s also funny at times. About the story Most women (or me) can all relate to Minka, the main female character, who like most of us, defines herself by her flaws/issues - a few pounds overweight, insecurity about her body, confidence issues (which thanks goodness doesn't stop her from jumping into bed with Jason) and loves her glass of wine with a nice dessert, and likes to feel sorry for herself at times. And she is supposedly in love with an old college crush - the one she thinks that got away (you’ll need to read the book for more details). So we can all relate to her in one way or another, including her stubbornness in clinging to those issues and using them as an excuse not to get on with her life or even make the way...
Post a Comment
Read more

Problems with revising my novel and adopting the Chuck Wendig Plan of how to revise your novel.

So I'm still struggling with editing my novel. I took some time out to have a break doing other things. One of them was moaning about editing on this blog and other was looking at ways to tell the story. Now I realise the problem with my story is I have nothing to say. It's as simple as that.  I don't really have anything to say give I've completed a novel. To write something you must have something to say - well I don't really. So there lies the problem. You can only revise and edit something if you have an aim in mind. All I want is just to complete the novel which I have. So maybe now I just have to figure what the novel is about. So I discovered Chuck Wendig a novelist and games designer  ( Terrible Minds blog ) who swears like a trooper in his blog however has given freely valid and great advice on how to edit a novel. His post called How To Karate Your Novel And Edit That Motherfucker Hard: A No-Foolin’ Fix-That-Shit Editing Plan To Finish The Goddamn Jo...
Post a Comment
Read more