Welcome to One-on-One

- Hi, this is Deke McClelland. Welcome to Illustrator CS6 One-on-One Fundamentals. Part one in a series of four video courses devoted to your ultimate mastery of the world's most powerful vector-based drawing software. Adobe Illustrator recently turned 25 years old. I began using the program when it first came out, back when I was 25 years old. I like to joke, that makes Illustrator and I about the same age. But the truth is I've been using the program, writing books about it and recording videos about it for more than half my life.

Which is why I feel uniquely suited to make you this promise. Give me your time and attention, and I'll mentor you through every facet of the software you need to know in the order you need to know it. No crowded classroom and no scheduling conflicts. It's just you and me, one on one, any time that's it's convenient for you to learn. This course is devoted to project-based learning, meaning, you're gonna make stuff. You'll create professional quality art work from scratch, using nothing more than a Line and shape Tools.

You'll trace a piece of scan line art and scale it to any size you like. You'll paint an elaborate mosaic design, again from scratch using some of Illustrator's simplest tools. You'll create a beautifully formatted text document, and you'll experience the unbridled power of the Pen tool. The result is a contextualized learning program. Illustrator's features will make sense because you'll apply them to a clearly defined task. And you'll leave each chapter with a sense of accomplishment.

I really hope there are moments where you feel, I rule, I did this and I can do more. I'll start by showing you how to open a file in Illustrator by double clicking on it, first in Windows and then on the Mac. Then I'll show you how to make a new document, add a few text elements and save your changes. This may not be the most exciting stuff we'll do, but it's stuff that you have to know. And it's how you get to work in Illustrator immediately.