How to make a Linocut Effect in Illustrator?

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Course info

104 lessons / 10 hours 33 quiz questions 31 projects Certificate of achievement

Overview

Hey there, I'm Dan Scott, an Adobe Certified Instructor with over 16 years of design experience under my belt, I'm part of the Adobe Expert program, and my online and in-person classes have been attended by more than a million people, just like you! Join me as we dive into the exciting world of Adobe Illustrator Advanced! In this course, you're not just leveling up in Illustrator, you're transforming into an Illustrator SuperHero!

In this course you will work on a bespoke brief designed to ignite your imagination, coupled with immersive course videos, you'll be crafting jaw-dropping graphics in no time. Throughout our journey together, you'll flex your creative muscles and construct projects that will elevate your portfolio to new heights. So, let's dive in and unleash your creativity!

You’ll learn:

  • - How to use artificial intelligence to boost your creativity in ideation. 
  • - The quick way to take hand-drawn sketches and vectorize and color them. 
  • - The building blocks needed to set you loose on a huge variety of beautiful effects and techniques.
  • - To make beautiful charts and graphs for your documents. 
  • - Color mastery to make quick color adjustments, Pantones, and blend it all together beautifully.
  • - How to master images inside of your illustrator workflow. 
  • - To harness all the secret gems that'll help you level up your typography skills. 
  • - All the tricks of the trade for drawing complex shapes easily. 
  • - To double your creativity with the Transform and Distort section. 
  • - To speed up your personal workflow to get the most out of your creative day.

Explore the full course outline for a comprehensive list of topics that will expand your Illustrator prowess beyond imagination.

If you're already comfortable navigating the basics but want to  unlock the true potential of Illustrator, then this Illustrator Advanced course is your ticket to becoming a master of Illustrator! So join me and the ranks of design superheroes and let's embark on this thrilling journey together.

Requirements:

- All you need is a copy of Adobe Illustrator, you can get a free trial from Adobe here to get started.
- A basic knowledge of Illustrator is required. I recommend watching my Illustrator Essentials course prior to embarking on this epic adventure.

Who this course is for:

- Creative adventurers who already have a basic understanding of Illustrator.
- Self-taught Illustrator enthusiasts yearning for structured guidance.
- Graduates of my Illustrator Essentials Course, hungry for more knowledge and skills.
- Visionaries who have developed their own unique Illustrator approach but crave exploration of the vast universe of tools, updates, and time-saving techniques.

What you'll learn:

- How to use Text to Vector Ai
- How to use Text to Pattern Ai
- How to use Generative Recolor
- When to use the Scissor Tool, Eraser Tool & Knife Tool
- Advanced Shape Builder Uses
- The differences between the Pathfinder Vs Shape Builder
- How to use the Join tool & Joining Path Ends
- Advanced Pen Tool Tricks
- Width Tool Advanced Techniques
- The Curvature Tool
- How to master corners with corner widget effects
- How to work with Compound Paths
- The difference between Expand & Expand Appearance
- How to create Graphic Styles
- How to make Symbols
- How to use the Smooth Tool
- Advanced use of Simplify Path
- What Live Shape Effects are for
- How to make Repeating Grids & Concentric Circles
- How to make Random Objects
- Advanced Keyboard Shortcuts in Illustrator
- How to add a Gradient on a Stroke
- How to add a Gradient in Text
- How to use the Freeform Gradient tool
- How to use Advanced Color Swatches
- How to use Global Color Swatches
- What is the difference between RGB vs CMYK color modes?
- How to proof colors
- How to use Pantone Spot Colors
- Recolor Artwork & Changing all colors at once
- How to use Blending Modes
- How to work with Images & Blending Modes
- How to make Black & White Images
- Learn Advanced Workflow Tricks
- All the Super Selection Mastery
- How to use the History Panel
- Advanced Fonts Tricks & Tips
- Use Retype to know what Font is being used
- How to put Text Inside a Letter or Shape
- How to use the Touch Type Tool
- How to add a Connected Stroke Around Multiple Shapes
- How to Offset a Stroke with Text
- How to make a Bar Chart in Illustrator
- How to make a Pie Chart in Illustrator
- Layer Power Moves
- Advanced Artboard & Pages Tricks
- How to Unlink vs Embedded Images
- How to Crop Images Rather than Mask
- How to Mask Inside Text & Multiple Shapes
- How to you use the Puppet Warp Tool
- How to use the Distort Envelope Shape & Type
- How to use the Envelope Mesh
- How to blend lines together
- How to make a Linocut Effect
- How to make 3D Gradient Lettering Blends
- How to spin text into a ring
- How to turn text into a 3D donut shape
- How to make a Duotone image effect
- How to make a Roughen Stamp Vector Effect
- How to make a Neon Sign Glow Effect
- How to use a Halftone Effect using Plugins
- Advanced Exporting Assets Tricks in Illustrator
- How to use the Dimension Tool

So what're you waiting for? Let's start the course now!
Daniel Scott

Daniel Scott

Founder of Bring Your Own Laptop & Chief Instructor

instructor

I discovered the world of design as an art student when I stumbled upon a lab full of green & blue iMac G3’s. My initial curiosity around using the computer to create ‘art’ developed into a full-blown passion, eventually leading me to become a digital designer and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop.

Sharing and teaching are a huge part of who I am. As a certified Adobe instructor, I've had the honor of winning multiple Adobe teaching awards at their annual MAX conference. I see Bring Your Own Laptop as the supportive community I wished for when I was first starting out and intimidated by design. Through teaching, I hope to bring others along for the ride and empower my students to bring their stories, labors of love, and art into the world.
True to my Kiwi roots, I've lived in many places, and currently, I reside in Ireland with my wife and kids.

Certificates

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Check out the How to earn your certificate video for instructions on how to earn yours and click the available certificate levels below for more information.

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Transcript

Hi everyone. Uh, we are going to use our blending mode skills  to make this lino cut effect. This is meant to be like a flower bud ready bursting for uh,  summertime, but now I'm looking at, it kind  of looks like a cactus slash watermelon  slash mountain range. But anyway, it's lino cut effect and it looks cool  because I said so let's jump in  and I'll show you how I made it. Alright, uh, to get started,  I've got a file called lino cut open. You do not need it, it's just a background.

I'm gonna use my pen tool to draw my first shape a  and I'm gonna draw something that kind of,  I'm gonna click and drag down. You could use your coverage tool,  you could use your pencil tool. I'm drawing some sort of uh, leafy shape, okay? Now the trick with it is the blend  tool won't work if you'd like. Try and complete this, okay? It needs to be two separate things.

You join up. So I've got this first one. Now separately, lemme use the pen tool to join up this side. I can't obviously join, I can't start up here  because it just joins the line. So what I'm gonna do is deselect command shift a control  shift a deselect, okay? And I'm just gonna start close to it  and get it kind of close.

How many points do I want? Maybe just two. Can I do it with two? Yeah, that looks all right. And then afterwards I'm gonna go to my direct selection tool  and I can get them to look like they overlap. Can you see their snap?

But I don't want it to. I want 'em to be two separate objects. That's what makes the magic happen. Let's select it and  before we make the magic happen, let's change the stroke. The one thing is if you use the width tool,  I love the width tool, okay, grab it  and you kind of like mess around with these. The only trouble with doing this is that if you leave it  as the width tool and then try  and blend it, um, it can sometimes work  but can also cause lots of problems.

So if you are gonna use the width tool first, my advice is  to outline these strokes. So go to stroke, expand appearance, okay? And just make sure they're just shapes  and blend those two together. I'm gonna undo mine and I'm gonna use a cheaper trick  and I'm gonna go to stroke and I'm gonna go down to profile. I'm gonna use this one. Nope, I'm gonna use that one.

Cool. And in terms of the width, not sure yet. Okay, let's crank it up a little bit. Little bit more. Alright, now let's blend them together. Um, we did this in the last video command option D.

And when I say DI mean BI say the wrong letter,  but I click the right letter. Okay? So command option B  or control alt B to blend them together. Let's click them. Let's go to blend options. Let's go to specific steps and let's go to 20  and see how it goes.

Um, I'm not sure what that noise was. It was too many. Let's go to 15. Cool. And you can continue playing around with a stroke width. Okay, depending, you know, it's all still editable that way.

Now where it gets uneditable, I'm gonna rotate mine  around is I wanna put, so basically that's it, right? It's just something a bit more specific we did in this video  than the last one where we just kind of made some cool stuff  and got used to blending modes. And what I'm gonna do is show you how  to build the other parts to that kind  of like acorn flower bud thing. And so one of the tips with it is, is that you need  to really blending mode while it's still on  can cause lots of problems. So what you need to do is kind of expand it, okay? And what I do always, oh, what are you doing over here?

I've already done this video. That's the,  that's the evidence that I've done this video  and I didn't have the microphone turned on  so it was a big blank uh, video. And when I got to this point, I said drag a copy out. That's what I do. Okay? This one's still got the blending mode  so I can come back to it if I need to.

But this one here, I'm gonna rack,  I'm gonna hear you and now object. Uh, blend. We're gonna go to expand. Okay? So now it's just shapes, okay? Remember we can go inside of it now  and move these shapes around, okay?

Uh, it's no longer an active blend. So I want that and I want this other side. So I'm just gonna duplicate it. I'm gonna flip  it up here, okay? And I'm going to line it up kind of how I want it. You can resize it.

You can rotate it. Okay, I'm gonna go something like that. Now what I wanna do is that might be cool go kind  of this um, lattice effect. I want to kind of trim mine along here. Okay? So I want to, what I'm gonna do is I'm going to go inside  of this shape, okay?

And I'm gonna go in here and I want this, I'm gonna use  that like a cutting blade. So I'm gonna copy it, come out, I'm going  to paste it in place, okay? Command F or control F to get it back where you got it. I'm gonna change the color so you can see it. Okay? And I'm just gonna use it.

I'm gonna drag it out here  so it's no longer part of this. It's just gonna be used to trim off all this bottom stuff. And I'm gonna grab both of these. Put it over here, okay? And I'm gonna trim off the bottom bits, okay? And any guesses, what I'm gonna use  to trim off the bottom bits, he's gonna use the shape  builder tool 'cause that all he uses, you're totally right.

Okay, I'm gonna select it all. Grab my shape builder tool  shift M, okay, hold down the option. Counter Mac, oh can a PC and kinda like play the harp. I don't know, that's what it feels like. Okay. And cut all those off.

I'm gonna grab my black arrow,  delete this green thing. So click off, click back on, delete that thing. We get this cool kind of like pointy bit  because the um, you know,  the stroke still has this profile applied. I'm gonna have to play around with the weight, okay? To make it kind of fit. You know, it's, it was a bit  thick compared to everything else.

A bit stubby and yeah, that's how I'm gonna do  and build this thing up. Move it along a little bit. Okay? And I'm gonna do the middle bit and the middle bit's gonna  be the exact same as this. So you are dismissed if you wanna move on to the next video,  otherwise let's go up the pencil tool. The end key.

You're sick of the shortcuts. I know you okay,  I got my smoothing on remember? Okay, Fidelity's right up. So it looks kind of good actually that's not very good. And undo both of these. I want something kind of like that.

Remember just like before they have to be separate shapes. This is where a tablet would be good. I don't use one often  because I'm kind of jumping between programs quite a bit. But if I'm ever doing illustration in Illustrator  for any length of time, I'll go  and pull out a tablet, um, out  of my drawer and get it going. Often though I just kind of fudge it  by using the smooth fidelity. Alright, I'm gonna grab the direct selection  tool and just make sure they're lined up.

Remember they can look like they join  but they need to be separate still. Okay? Remember select both of these. Oh those aren't very good shapes. Uh, we'll see how it goes, eh? So I'm gonna use the eyedropper tool to steal the um,  actually steal that one and maybe  lower it down a little bit more.

Okay? Blend them. Command option B. Control option B. And it is totally not working. That's weird, huh?

It's kind of going, oh, I know why  for people that bother hanging around. I know why. Ooh, ooh, ooh this is a really good,  um, let's see if I can fix it. First of all, um, blend, can we reverse front back? No we can't. Cool.

So the reason this is problematic is  because what I did was the line knows which way you drew it. So if I grab my penser tool again, I drew one doing that way  and one doing that way. So that's the beginning of this line,  but that's the beginning of that line. So it's going, ha I gotta go up there. And that's why it's kind of doing this weird flip. Whereas I do the same thing.

Go top top. The two beginnings of the lines are at the top  and those are gonna try and match, select them both. Blending tool. Aha. There you go. Something I didn't really know.

Yeah, there you go. Um, all right, let's get it kind of looking good  and let's, can you flip these? I think you can actually, you can go to this,  select this line here and I can say, Hey Illustrator,  I'm guessing here you can go to Path, I'm pretty sure  and you can say reverse path direction. I was looking at that for a little while. The editor jumped cutted  to me, looked like, I dunno what I was doing. Okay, reverse path direction.

We did it. Look at that. Me and you. All right, so I don't need that one. I need this one. What I'm probably gonna do is make it a lot  bigger because I want to kind of get it to overlap  and I'm gonna trim it off like I did the other one.

So kind of like that. Maybe a bit wider,  not happy with my drawing. Okay. Alright, it's kind of there. Um, now let's go and add the steps. So again, how many steps?

Um, let's go 15. Um, you don't actually have to click, okay,  you've gotta hit tab. So watch this. I go 10 tab, I just tab down to this thing. Basically you've just leave and click it. Oh, you can't click out.

I tab out  and it will show you the preview. I think that's, no, let's get a 15. Awesome. I'm gonna make mine a bit bigger again,  maybe just a bit taller 'cause I want to trim the bottom. Now I could grab a piece of that  and a piece of that and trim it. Or I might just grab my pen and do a manual trim.

As in I'm gonna just create the shape myself by going, yup,  hold down the option Key Mac t Canna PC to break it  and drag out that one there. That'll be good enough. Nobody's gonna know. So again, I'm gonna select all  of these, drag 'em out this way. Okay. And I'm going to grab my shape builder tool, shift m  and go option key down T canna PC  and just drag across them all.

That's not working. Why doesn't it work? I'm gonna give you a second. You pause the video and have a think. All right, pause over. It's because this is still this blending option.

I kind of just told you at the beginning I was like blending  causes problems as in just won't work now. So I need to probably keep an option over it. Okay? You stay over there and you my friend are going to be uh,  under object blend and we're going to expand. Okay? And now I should be able to select it all.

Shift in,  Sorry, shift M hold down my option key PC  and at that trim, trim, trim, trim,  trim and black arrow. Get rid of you. And now I've got that cool kind  of pointy effect thing. Look at us. We did lino cut stuff with cool kind of depth. I dunno.

I remember thinking, look at me, I'm awesome. Although mine doesn't mean to be a flower. Uh, it looks like a walnut or some sort of hard rock seed. But anyway, it's a cool looking seed. So a couple of things is, you know, uh, that the two lines  for a line of cut or this kind of effect needs  to be two separate lines and that when you are starting  to work with them, you need to expand them. Those are the two big takeaways.

Alright my friend, that is it. We made a giant acorn seed thing from a tree. I'm gonna spend some time now making it look really pretty. And then double back and record the intro  with a better looking one. You watch flip back to the beginning, it'll look he cooler. All right, that's it.

I'll see you in the next video.
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