Illustrator: Coloring Artwork

Course details

Designers and artists spend a lot of time coloring artwork: finding inspiration, searching for just the right hue, applying color, and converting the color of existing artwork. This course shows how to speed up the process and maximize color choice and control in Adobe Illustrator. Theresa Jackson, a graphic artist and instructor, guides you through the three stages: creation, inspiration, and editing. Follow along and learn how to set up your files for color accuracy, mix and save custom colors, use color guides and themes, and color and recolor artwork. Theresa also shows how to build art in a way that allows you to make changes quickly and take advantage of the latest features in Illustrator.

Learning objectives
CMYK vs. RGB
Color harmonies
Mixing custom colors with the Color panel
Saving colors in the Swatches panel
Exploring color guides and color themes
Organizing colors into groups
Creating custom Creative Cloud Libraries
Coloring artwork with the Eyedropper and Live Paint Bucket tools
Recoloring existing artwork
Converting colors: process to Pantone, color to grayscale, and more

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome
02 - New features
03 - Customizing the Illustrator workspace for this course

1. Color Concepts with Illustrator

04 - Which color mode, CMYK or RGB
05 - Understanding the HSB color model
06 - Working with color harmonies

2. Find and Create Colors

07 - Mixing custom colors with the Color panel
08 - Working with the Swatches panel and process colors
09 - Global swatch process colors
10 - Spot colors for special processes
11 - Swatch libraries - Pantone
12 - Swatch libraries - Illustrator preset color groups
13 - Exploring colors with the Color Guide panel
14 - Working with the Color Themes panel
15 - Create and discover color themes with Adobe Color
16 - Create a color theme with Adobe Capture

3. Organize and Share Colors

17 - Organizing colors into groups
18 - Editing color groups and themes
19 - Create swatches and groups from artwork
20 - CC Library colors and themes
21 - Creating custom CC Libraries
22 - Sharing and collaborating with libraries

4. Coloring Artwork

23 - Using the Eyedropper tool to find and paint color
24 - Live Paint Bucket tool
25 - Coloring line art with Live Paint Bucket

5. Recolor Existing Colors

26 - Color Theme Picker
27 - Recolor Artwork tool updates
28 - Tour of Recolor Artwork
29 - Working with swatch tints
30 - Protecting black, white, and gray
31 - Making global color adjustments
32 - Explore color variations with color groups
33 - Recolor patterns and symbols

6. Practical Use Color Conversion

34 - Remapping colors to brand identified colors
35 - Convert RGB swatches to CMYK swatches
36 - Convert process colors to Pantone colors
37 - Find and fix RGB blacks for offset printing
38 - Convert colors to grayscale with control

Conclusion

39 - Next steps

Illustrator: Coloring Artwork

Authors

Theresa Jackson