Bridget Butler-Sullivan 

To begin creating your icon, you must first have the correct dimensions in place. See step one of “Create a web icon” for sizing and instructions. By making these adjustments, it creates an appropriate screen to begin the icon making process.

 

As mentioned before, I find that having the Adobe tutorials available on a separate monitor is the most time effective option for creating these shapes. Further, being able to see the already created shapes on Adobe makes it easier to understand how yours should look throughout the process. If this is not an option, have the video preloaded on your computer for when needed.

           

The four main tools we will be using in this process are (in order) as follows: the rectangle tool, curvature tool, the shape builder tool, and the selection tool.  

(Figure 1)

 

           

 

 

 

Because the technical resources provided above effectively describe the process of creating these shapes, this section primarily deals order and tips and tricks that make this process as simple as possible.

           

To ensure you don’t overload yourself with information, make sure that you are focusing on one task at a time rather than learning multiple different aspects of Adobe at once. For example, after adjusting dimensions, your next task should focus solely on creating shapes. Make sure you have your sketch/example available, and then identify which are the core shapes to the piece. For the snowman, first create three circles, each a little larger than the last. Do not bother placing the three on top of each other yet; this will come at a later step.

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As described in the video tutorial, to create a circle you must use the rectangle tool. To access the ellipse (circle) version of this tool, right click on the rectangle image. To create repeated shapes (e.g. the circles), copy and paste. To do so, select the shape using the selection tool. Once this is done, press command (+) c, followed immediately by command (+) v. Then move on to creating your triangle and lines for the arms.

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When this step is complete, you then have some creative freedom. Although it is likely that you want the three separate circles to be distinct from one another, you may wish for them to blend together to create a more cohesive shape. To do so, you then need to use the ellipse  tool. Because this is also a more complex tool that the others, it may be better to combine two circles to begin with, and then combine that shape with the remaining circle as its own step. When this is done, go ahead and place your nose, eyes, hat, etc. on the body and: Walah! Your icon is complete. It should look something like this:

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One thing to remember throughout the icon creating process is to make sure that when you go to create a shape,

you are using the correct tool. One of my most common mistakes throughout this process was not switching

back to the selection tool after creating a shape, something which led to unnecessary frustration. After you have

completed an action, make sure to click the selection tool as a rule of thumb.

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Also keep in mind that perhaps your greatest resource throughout this process is the undo button. Although

seemingly simple, this is not an easy tool to find in Illustrator. However, come the beginning of this process,

you should be well-versed on its location. This process will likely take more than one try; be prepared to utilize

the undo button.