How to Vectorize - Illustrator Question

[Alphabetguy]

Erica,
A stroked path will  have more points than the original path. This happens every time a open path is offset or outlined. The way to deal with unwanted points is to place the pen tool over the point. The pen tool cursor will change to an "x-" symbol. Clicking  the point will delete it from the path. A point can be added to a path by placing the pen tool cursor on the path. The pen cursor will change to a "x+" symbol. Click the path to add a point.

I added another update to the blog post.  Four additional images to show an alternate method to add thick strokes to a letter.

As with  any lettering technique, many hours of practice are the norm. You are doing fine with the latest image you posted. This is an excellent achievement to learn Illustrator.

Alan

[Estefa]

Hi Allan, so nice to see your process, thanks! Your work is beautiful!

The second technique you showed with the p is very similar to the way that Martina Flor (lettering artist in Berlin, I took a class with her last year) showed us. She also recommended (what I also saw in your first example) to use as few points as possible (what I knew from logo design) and to keep all the anchor paths strictly horizontal or vertical (except for end points of course). To find the right spot for these points it helps to figure out which is the most outward point of a curve. I hope I explained that so it is to understand, my "design english" is not so great;)!!. I found this tip very helpful, because it makes corrections so much easier to control (to change only one side of a curve when pulling on a point).

Each one of us did one capital, one day with calligraphy (with Giuseppe Salerno), then pencil lettering variations (with Martina), the next days we went on with refining the sketches, some started digitizing. I did the actual final design in Illustrator later at home, I needed many hours for that!



My process with the H can you see here here, if anyone has questions, you're welcome! You can see that I changed the curves a lot, compared to my original layout / template, because I realised on screen that they were akward, and I didn't have the skill to write them better before in the sketch. Also the thicks and thins, I would do a lot different now because I know much more about writing with pointed pen!

Erica, I hope you are not too frustrated … as Alan said, also in my experience, working with Illustrator can be as much tedious and slow as "the real thing" with ink and paper! And of course also a lot of practice is needed to get it right. That looks good what you did there!

[Erica McPhee]

Thank you very much Alan and Stefanie! Alan, I will view the additional posts and work some more this afternoon. Thank you!

Stefanie, your H is beautiful!

The one difficulty I had was keeping the curve smooth where the point was placed. I could curve well on either side but the point itself would sort of stick out. It took much work to get the point area as a smooth curve. Is this the nature of it or am I doing something wrong? Perhaps where I am placing the points.

Also, Alan, if doing the stroke creates additional points that we don't want, why do we do the outline? It helps me make sense of something better if I understand why I am doing it.

Again, thank you for all the help! I appreciate it is learning a new skill/tool. I didn't learn calligraphy overnight so I shouldn't expect to learn this so quickly. 

[Briana]

The one difficulty I had was keeping the curve smooth where the point was placed. I could curve well on either side but the point itself would sort of stick out.

Erica, I think that's totally normal until you can get the "feel" of how the bezier handles work. I can spot a "kink" in a curve on Illustrator or in AutoCAD without thinking about it, but that's because I use it for hours and hours every day! Try to think about circle, ovals, and tangent points when you're placing your anchors and with enough playing around you'll do this intuitively.

To help with the bump problem, try making cusp points (they only have on handle instead of two). After drawing a curve, hold shift to temporarily change the pen tool to the "convert anchor point" tool. Click the anchor, and the second handle will go away. Your next path segment will be a straight line. Let me know if this doesn't make sense. You can create smooth compound curves this way.

Here's a nice summary of pen tool basics: http://krankykids.com/cheatsheets/illustrator/pen_tool_basics.html

[Alphabetguy]

Also, Alan, if doing the stroke creates additional points that we don't want, why do we do the outline? It helps me make sense of something better if I understand why I am doing it.

Erica,
Creating a path outline is just one of the many methods to draw vector letters. I often use this approach to setup consistent hairline thins of letters. The process of deleting or adding points on a path will become intuitive with practice. The information Estefa posted is excellent reference for point placement with curves.

Alan

[Alphabetguy]

working with Illustrator can be as much tedious and slow as "the real thing" with ink and paper!

Estefa,
Very beautiful cap H including your preliminary sketches at Flicker.

Alan

[Erica McPhee]

You are all a great help! Thank you for guiding me! 

[Estefa]

Thank you very much, Erica and Allan! I actually kind of like the sketches more then the final thing . I don't have a tablet and as you said earlier that makes working with such "flowing" designs like lettering not very comfortable. If I really start doing this I must invest in a tablet, I guess.

I just wanted to show that there is no right or wrong way of working with Illustrator (though surely some which help get faster / better results). I mean I know designers whose I. files are such a mess, I couldn't figure out how to work with that, but apparently it works for them!

I also remember when I started working with bézier curves (with Freehand), it really helped me to understand the different path tools just to create simple shapes after a drawn template. Like PicklesNVodka said, these basisc forms like circles, ovals, spirals help you to develop a feeling for where the points are placed best to get a "smooth" result (without the distraction that you want to create a beautiful lettering). It's really a bit like calligraphy drills .