The Tilde Technique in Illustrator
This was one of my first "exercises" in Illustrator class. I can't even recall the specific instructions. I think we were supposed to use basic shape/line tools, some color, a little text, and stick to only a few specific themes (I remember choosing the "spring" theme). My teacher showed us this fun little technique using the tilde key (it's that sideways looking "S" to the left of your 1 key). If you hold the tilde key down with a shape tool selected, Illustrator will rapidly repeat the shape as you move your mouse. It can create some complex looking designs in a matter of seconds. I'm probably going to be saying this over and over again, but I love Illustrator. It's amazing. So in the spirit of this entire blog, I am posting some of my "training-wheel" pieces.
It's amazing to look back at the exercises and assignments I did at the beginning of the course and remember how I struggled to get things to look the way I wanted them too, simply because I wasn't familiar enough with Illustrator to know how to do them better/easier.
On this one, I was testing out the tilde technique, the gradient window, the pathfinder window, and text on a path.