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Editing and Combining Shapes and Paths in Adobe Illustrator CC (2015 release)

Jan 14, 2016

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In this lesson from Adobe Illustrator CC Classroom in a Book (2015 release), you'll take basic shapes and paths and learn how to both edit and combine them to create new artwork.

This excerpt references lesson files, which are available with the purchased book.

This chapter is from the book 

Adobe Illustrator CC Classroom in a Book (2015 release)

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Lesson overview

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:

Cut with the Scissors tool.
Join paths.
Work with the Knife tool.
Work with the Eraser tool.
Work with the Shape Builder tool.
Work with Pathfinder commands to create shapes.
Create a compound path.
Edit strokes with the Width tool.
Outline strokes.

This lesson takes approximately 45 minutes to complete.

Download the project files for this lesson from the Lesson & Update Files tab on your Account page at www.peachpit.com and store them on your computer in a convenient location, as described in the “Getting Started” section of this book.

Your Account page is also where you’ll find any updates to the chapters or to the lesson files. Look on the Lesson & Update Files tab to access the most current content.

Click to view larger image

Soon after you begin creating simple paths and shapes, you will most likely want to take them further in order to create more complex artwork. In this lesson, you’ll explore how to both edit and combine shapes and paths.

Getting started

In Lesson 3, “Using Shapes to Create Artwork for a Postcard,” you learned about creating and making edits to basic shapes. In this lesson, you’ll take basic shapes and paths and learn how to both edit and combine them to create new artwork.

To ensure that the tools and panels function exactly as described in this lesson, delete or deactivate (by renaming) the Adobe Illustrator CC preferences file. See “Restoring default preferences” in the “Getting Started” section at the beginning of the book.

NOTE

The artwork for this project was created by Dan Stiles (www.danstiles.com).
Start Adobe Illustrator CC.

NOTE

If you have not already downloaded the project files for this lesson to your computer from your Account page, make sure to do so now. See the “Getting Started” section at the beginning of the book.
Choose File > Open. Locate the file named L4_end.ai, which is in the Lessons > Lesson04 folder that you copied onto your hard disk. This file contains the finished artwork.

Click to view larger image
Choose View > Fit All In Window and leave the file open for reference, or choose File > Close (I closed it).
Choose File > Open. If a panel appears, click Open in the panel. You could also choose File > Open again. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the Lessons > Lesson04 folder and select the L4_start.ai file on your hard disk. Click Open to open the file.

Click to view larger image
Choose File > Save As. In the Save As dialog box, change the name to BirdInTheHand.ai (Mac OS) or BirdInTheHand (Windows), and choose the Lesson04 folder. Leave the Format option set to Adobe Illustrator (ai) (Mac OS) or the Save As Type option set to Adobe Illustrator (*.AI) (Windows), and click Save.

TIP

By default, the “.ai” extension shows on Mac OS, but you could add the extension on either platform in the Save As dialog box.
In the Illustrator Options dialog box, leave the Illustrator options at their default settings, and click OK.
Choose View > Fit All In Window.

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