No Smoking Sign: Free Illustrator Tutorial

Topics covered in this Illustrator tutorial:

Fill & stroke, Basic shape tools, Grouping objects, The Layers panel, Working with templates, Saving Illustrator files: options

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

Here you’ll get more practice drawing and creating strokes and fills. You will also learn about the incredibly important and useful Layers panel.

Getting Started

1. Go to File > New to create a new document.
2. At the top of the dialog that opens, click on the Print tab.
3. Double–click the Letter preset.
4. Select File > Save As, naming the document yourname-No Smoking.ai.
5. Click Save. In the dialog that appears, leave the default options checked and click OK.
6. Go to View > Fit Artboard in Window.
7. Go to File > Place.
8. In the Illustrator Class folder, click on NoSmoking.tif to select it, and then at the bottom of the window, check Template (Mac users may need to click the Options button).
9. Click Place.
10. In the tabs at the top right, to the right of the Properties panel name, click on the word Layers to switch to that panel. (If you can’t find it, go to Window > Layers.)

11. In the Layers panel, there are now two layers. The Template NoSmoking.tif layer holds the file you placed and it is automatically locked so you don’t edit it accidentally. You will do the tracing on Layer 1, which is already selected as the active layer.

12. Go to View > Rulers > Show Rulers.

13. From the top ruler, click and drag down a guide into the center of the circle.

14. From the left ruler, click and drag out another guide into the center of the circle.

15. To make sure the guides are locked, go to View > Guides. If you see Unlock Guides, you’re good to go! If you instead see Lock Guides, click that option now.

Drawing the Circle & Slash Line

1. Select the Ellipse tool . If you don’t see it, click and hold on the Rectangle tool  to get it.

2. Hold down Option–Shift (Mac) or Alt–Shift (Windows), and click and drag from the center point where the guides meet to the edges of the circle.

   NOTE: Holding Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) makes any shape (including this ellipse) draw out from the center point. Holding Shift constrains the oval’s proportions to make it a perfect circle.

3. We want to change the stroke to red, so go to the top right and click on the Properties panel name to switch to it.

4. In the Properties panel under Appearance, click on the swatch next to Stroke.

5. Make the color 100m, 100y. (If the Color Mixer panel is not displaying CMYK, go into the panel menu at the upper right of the panel and choose CMYK.) Make sure C and K are set to 0.

6. To close the Color Mixer panel, press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows).

7. With the circle still selected, go back to the Properties panel and in the menu to the right of the Stroke swatch, change the weight from 1 pt to 19 pt.

   NOTE: You can also enter Stroke weight in the Control panel at the top of the screen or the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke).

8. Right now you are working in Preview mode, and you have covered the template by filling the circle. To see the template, go to View > Outline.

9. Go to Select > Deselect.

10. Select the Line Segment tool .

11. Hold down Option–Shift (Mac) or Alt–Shift (Windows) and click and drag from the center point to the edge of the circle, following the template.

    NOTE: Holding Shift constrains the line to a 90° or 45° angle.

12. Keep the line selected and switch to Preview mode by choosing either View > GPU Preview or View > Preview.

    The line should already be the proper red color and thickness because it kept the settings you just used.

    NOTE: Preview on GPU will only be available if you have a supported graphics card.

13. If you have the GPU Preview option, there are two ways to preview (GPU and CPU). The GPU Preview should be faster than the CPU Preview, but it might not look as good. To switch back and forth between the GPU and CPU previews, press Cmd–E (Mac) or Ctrl–E (Windows) a few times. As you switch, look at the smoothness of edges. You can tell which type of preview you’re using by looking in the tab at the top of the window that contains the filename. Use whichever looks better.

14. Go to Select > Deselect.

Drawing the Cigarette

1. Before we start to draw the cigarette, we don’t want to use the big red stroke we currently have. In the Tools panel, click Default Fill and Stroke .

2. Trace over the cigarette using the Rectangle tool for both parts. If you don’t see it, click and hold on the Ellipse tool to get it.

   NOTE: If the Transform panel opens up when you draw a rectangle, click on the Transform panel menu and uncheck Show on Shape Creation to turn this off.

3. With the Selection tool , select the rectangle that forms the tip of the cigarette.

4. In the Properties panel under Appearance, click on the swatch next to Fill.

5. You are going to color the cigarette using color swatches. At the top middle of the Color Mixer panel, click the Swatches button to switch to the Swatches panel.

6. Give it a black fill by clicking on the black swatch in the Swatches panel.

7. To close the Swatches panel, press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows).

8. Let’s change the stroke width. Go back to the Properties panel and in the menu to the right of the Stroke swatch, set the weight to 3 pt.

9. Select the left part of the cigarette and give it a 3 pt black stroke.

10. The next thing we need to do is trace the smoke. However, any lines we draw right now would have a black fill. Deselect all, click on the Fill icon, and choose None .

11. Switch into Outline mode to draw the smoke. The fastest way to do this is to hit Cmd–Y (Mac) or Ctrl–Y (Windows).

12. Zoom in (using the Zoom tool or View > Zoom In) so the smoke fills more of the screen. Just make sure you can still see all of it.

13. Trace the smoke using the Pen tool .

14. Let’s see how things are looking. Hit Cmd–Y (Mac) or Ctrl–Y (Windows) to switch back to Preview mode.

    NOTE: This keystroke will default to the preview type (GPU or CPU) that you last used, although it’s not remembered across files.

15. Make sure both smoke paths have a 3 pt black Stroke and Fill set to None .

Putting It All Together

1. Use the Selection tool to select all parts of the cigarette, including the smoke, by Shift–clicking or by clicking and dragging a marquee around them.

2. Group the cigarette parts using Object > Group.

3. Move the cigarette group into the center of the circle.

   Wait! Alas, the cigarette is in front of the sign! To fix this, you are now going to paste the cigarette in back of the slash.

4. Cut the cigarette group (Edit > Cut).

5. Select the rotated line, or slash. (You have to click on the actual path in the middle of the big stroke to select it. It may be easier to select it in Outline mode.)

6. Choose Edit > Paste in Back.

Adding a Frame

1. To switch back to Outline mode so you can see the template, hit Cmd–Y (Mac) or Ctrl–Y (Windows).

2. Select the Rounded Rectangle tool (if you don’t see it, click and hold on the Rectangle tool to get to it).

3. Hold down Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) and click once in the center of the circle. It’s important just to click (do NOT hold down or drag the mouse) to bring up the dialog box for precise drawing.

4. In the dialog that appears, enter the following measurements:

   Width:	194 pt
   Height:	194 pt
   Corner Radius:	15 pt

5. Click OK.

6. Switch back to Preview mode (Cmd–Y (Mac) or Ctrl–Y (Windows)) and give the rounded square a white fill and 3 pt black stroke.

7. Since the fill obscures the other objects, with the rounded square selected, choose Object > Arrange > Send to Back.

8. It looks pretty good, but the template is still showing. To hide it, look at the Layers panel. Notice the Template NoSmoking.tif layer. As shown below, click on the visibility icon to its left to hide it.

   

9. Go to View > Guides > Hide Guides.

10. Congratulations! You’re done. Save your changes and print it if you wish.