Illustrator CS4 How-To Guides

"Loyal Order of Wormwood" Adobe How-To Guide.

As some of you may know I designed promotional art for Adobe CS4 Illustrator called "Loyal Order of Wormwood." Along with that project I also put together a "How-To Guide" for them as well which Adobe has now posted on their web site so I have posted the same blurb below which gives you access to same content and a little bit more. But be sure to check out Adobes page to view other cool promotional art created for CS4.


Promotional Art for Adobe CS4 Illustrator "Loyal Order of Wormwood."

Loyal Order of Wormwood
by Von Glitschka, Glitschka Studios

His inspiration for "Loyal Order of Wormwood": "I never know when or where inspiration will come. Most often it's captured initially via a simple doodle. Then at a later point in time I take that doodle and flesh it out into a refined sketch. Once my drawing is exactly the way I like it, I simply scan it in and start building my vector art."

Read the how-to guide
Download the Illustrator CS4 file
Download Missing "Step by Step" Tutorial

Adobe copyright © and usage limitations of this art are clearly stated within download files.

The 4th Not So Wiseman

"The 4th Not So Wiseman" paper sculpture.

In celebration of the holiday I have designed a paper sculpture called "The 4th Not So Wiseman." I've put together an easy to follow PDF template so you can create one yourself. Download the PDF template here.


You can construct him out of regular bond paper.

I asked my friend and writer Kristen Fischer to write a story about "The 4th Not So Wiseman" and she did a great job. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did creating it.


I managed to use one of my patterns in the design too.

The 4th Not So Wiseman
By Kristen Fischer

You've heard of the three wisemen, but never the fourth. See, he didn't do so well as far as a gift-giving went. Instead of gold, frankincense or myrrh, he stopped at the dollar store for coal. Let's just say that a very special baby in a manger was not so impressed.

And as the years went on, no one talked about the Fourth Not So Wiseman's laughable gift. When that baby grew up, he didn't want the world to know coal existed. When burned, coal releases two harmful greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide and methane. Jesus just wasn't down with that.

Now the Fourth Not So Wiseman is making a comeback bigger than Britney Spears. He's a reminder to be kind to the earth, live a green lifestyle...remember that you, too, deserve nothing more than a lump of coal if you don't!

PDF Template Download


A fun do-it-yourself creative exercise.

The sculpture is easy to construct, just follow the simple directions on the PDF template to create your own character. If you'd like to share this PDF with your friends and family feel free to pass along the link or post the link on your own blog.

You can also find a post about the Fourth Not So Wiseman at Ecopreneurist.com which is very cool!

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Von

Loyal Order of Wormwood

Promotional Art for Adobe CS4 Illustrator "Loyal Order of Wormwood."

For well over 15 years I used Macromedia FreeHand. Along the way I had dabbled in Illustrator in order to convert a file or open a file etc. but never really used it from beginning to end on any project. That changed in 2006 when Adobe hired me to design a poster to promote CS2 and assumed I used Illustrator. Long story short I recognized the hand writing on the wall and switched drawing applications. You can read more about that whole story here.


Detail of Art: New song bird of proclamation.

A little over a year passed and I was using Illustrator for some projects and FreeHand for other projects. I had a hard time cutting the cord completely. That is until I installed Leopard in 2007 and FreeHand stopped working. The cord was completely severed now. I found many things frustrating in Illustrator and posted my experience on my art blog here.


Detail of Art: Vacant worms demise.

Through the magic of the intertubes my blog post some how found it's way into the inner circle of Adobe and before I knew it they were talking to me, addressing my concerns, answering questions, fixing problems and ultimately inviting me to be on their beta team for CS4. To be honest I felt like I was sleeping with the enemy, but their people behind the scenes listened and their integrity was impressive and one thing was obvious they were improving the application.


Detail of Art: Evil worm.

Today Adobe announces the launch of CS4 Illustrator and I am happy to say that it's been a great app to work with and I am proud to be one of the many artists who were part of beta testing it. I think the improvements are incredible and the the new features will no doubt make many users very happy.


Detail of Art: Inner worm and the cup of trembling.

Adobe hired me once again to create some original artwork that will be shipped with CS4 Illustrator. Anyone who buys it will be able to open up my original Ai file and see how I pulled it off using CS4. I think it's pretty cool when a large company hires you to do artwork for them and basically says "Do what ever you want." That simply doesn't happen that often. Thank you Adobe!

My artwork is titled "Loyal Order of Wormwood." The source file that ships with CS4 actually has two pages within the file. One shows the artwork below and the other tells the story behind it. If you'd like print resolution version of this art to hang up in your work area you can download a larger version here. (2.5 MB)

I hope you enjoy the art and CS4 Illustrator.

Sola Fida

This weeks 'IllustrationFriday.com' submission for the topic of 'Sacrifice'. The term 'Sola Fida' is Latin for 'Faith Alone'.

(Click Image to see full frame illustration)