The jagged edges maybe be "charming," but they kind of drive me crazy too. Maybe I'm OCD about it, but I try to challenge myself to use the least number of points while working in Illustrator too!
Please keep us updated if you take one of these classes! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Linda, haha, me too! And I will definitely keep you updatet if I take this class! Also thanks for posting the names of these other lettering artists, I will look at their work too! – And what is OCD
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As I mentioned, I've been taking Laura Coyle's course which is awesome! But unfortunately no longer available through reneepearson. So I am hoping she will offer her courses through another venue because the instruction is top notch. She has her own webite which is great:
Illustratoring
So is one problem that you didn't learn how to manage the path / drawing tools in the class you mentioned? I checked Laura's website and found this tutorial
http://www.illustratoring.com/pen-tool-illustrator-tutorial/where Laura explaines the use of anchor points, curves etc. quite in detail. Have you seen this or something similar?
I took Sean McCabe's Illustrator class on skillshare. Sean is a very generous, skilled instructor. However, I didn't feel like I really learned how to do Illustrator! I basically got to the live trace part and felt like, 'been here, done this, not what I need.' Not a reflection of Sean's class - just not what I was looking for.
Live Trace may have improved but I need to learn how to do it manually. And unlike some of the other calligraphers who like the charm of the imperfect lines, I am all about perfect lines! So if there are any, I don't want the imperfections after I've gone through vectorizing. However, I also still want it to look like calligraphy, not a font.
I am not discouraging anyone from taking a skillshare class. In fact, just the opposite. We are all at different places, need different things, etc. And the instructors are all top notch, the price is great, and the feedback from peers and instructors is a great piece of the learning. I'm looking forwarding to hearing further feedback about the newer courses.
I hope I understand correctly what you mean by that you "still would want it to look like calligraphy and not like a font"! I guess what you would have to do then is manually trace the letters, like I described above (maybe not very good, sorry my english isn't that great when it comes to talking about these technical things), but this will result in something, well maybe not exactly like a font, but something with super clean lines - like for example in the "Love Your Letters" class.
One other thing, I was wondering... I saw Alan Ariail vectorize his lettering using a pencil sketch! And his final was AMAZING! I wish I could find it to share. His blog is a gold mine: The Art of Hand Lettering
Anyway, my point -- his process seems to be equal parts skill in hand lettering and Illustrator. His sketches (which reflect his masterful lettering) are not finished by any means. However, he can work magic with his skill in Illustrator. Is this different from starting from calligraphy?
It seems like it is but doesn't have to be. Meaning, the original is more important if your goal is only to vectorize the calligraphy you have done v. using Illustrator to continue the lettering and/or refinement process of your calligraphy. Do you know what I mean?
I want to be able to do both which I think is a very different skill set than just learning to vectorize your calligraphy.
I had a look at Alan Ariails Blog (amazing!). I did a quick search and found this:
http://custom-lettering.blogspot.de/2013/06/my-lettering-entry-for-typism-book.htmlDid you mean something like that what you want to achieve as a look? (This is more or less also how Martina Flor works, although her work is very different.) Here you can see this lettering process quite good. He uses the underlying pencil sketch to draw the vectors with the path-tools (if you enlarge the second picture, you can see he has selected the little arrow). You cannot see single points, because he hasn't selected any, but the lines are smooth (not made by tons of corner points like you get from auto-tracing).
But also although he uses a seemingly rough sketch to vectorize, he already has a very good concept about the overall look and the composition of the piece. He is not "layouting" in Illustrator, like he says "I basically use vector lines to draw what I see in the preliminary rough and remain true to the sketch."
What I am trying to say: yes, auto-tracing can be done by anyone with the software and a good digital bitmap or greyscale file. The better the file, the better the auto-tracing, and you need obviously to know some tricks about the exact adjustments, but the skill here lies in the creation of the original drawing / calligraphy / whatever, not in the vectorization. If the picture or calligraphy is not so great, no auto-tracing will make it better aesthetically. I think it is very very valuable for me at least to know this process better in cases where I want to keep the hand-made look of an artwork.
And no, I think this is not different if you do it with calligraphy. Just keep in mind that to create such complex lettering like this from Alan takes a lot of practice, and when I remember how I learned Freehand (also back in 1998) and then later Illustrator this can be a long and complex learning process … I don't want to sound like a know-it-all, I just mean that there is no magic button in illustrator that makes everything beautiful and smooth - it means also really a lot of work and experience. But it is definitely worth it!!
Correct me if I am wrong with any of this! Maybe vector lettering is much easier and faster with a tablet ( I am one of these old-fashioned mouse users).
So, sorry again for the long post … I am curious to hear your thoughts on this!
