This is a introductory tutorial for beginner level users of Illustrator. I am using Illustrator CS2.

If you are not familiar with the definition and use of symbols, you may want to refer back to PART ONE of this series, “Simply Symbols PART ONE: An Intro to Illustrator Symbols”.

There are several symbol tools in your Illustrator toolbox. They can be found midway down on the left hand side of your toolbox, as seen to the right. These tools let you create and modify SYMBOL SETS. Once you have a set of symbol instances, you can change color, size, location, transparency and style of the symbols within that set. If you click on the small black triangle in the corner of the symbol tool button and hold it down, a flyout menu containing the whole collection of symbol tools is visible. You can pull the tool set away from the toolbox by dragging your cursor out to the little black triangle which should now appear on the outside edge of the tool set.

The Symbol Tool Set can be seen below:

I will go through the tools one at a time, providing an example of what the tool does.

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Symbol Sprayer
You create a SYMBOL SET using the Symbol Sprayer tool. Simply spray the desired amount of symbols onto the artboard in the general shape that you want them to appear. You can spray them one at a time or as dense coverage. The entire symbol set is a single object.

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Symbol Shifter
The symbol shifter is used to move the instances in the symbol set.

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Symbol Scruncher
The symbol scruncher moves the symbol instances closer together or farther apart.

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Symbol Sizer
The symbol sizer resizes symbol instances.

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Symbol Spinner
The symbol spinner rotates symbol instances.

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Symbol Stainer
The symbol stainer changes the color of symbol instances.

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Symbol Screener
The symbol screener controls the opacity of symbol instances.

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Symbol Styler
The symbol screener applies styles to symbol instances.
           

This is a Illustrator tutorial for beginner level users of Illustrator. I am using Illustrator CS2.

Symbols are a very handy tool in Illustrator and can make the life of a designer quite a bit easier. This introductory tutorial will go over Symbol basics and show you where to find the menus and commands you will need to start using symbols in your artwork.

1. What is a symbol?

A SYMBOL is basically a prepackaged art object that is stored in the Symbols Palette. Symbols can be used multiple times throughout your artwork without having to recreate or duplicate the object. Each time a symbol appears in a document is considered an “instance”. Each instance is linked to the same object in the Symbols Palette. Similar to style sheets, this allows you to edit the symbol within the palette and all instances of that symbol will be updated. This can save loads of time and reduces file size greatly.

2. Locate the Symbols Palette

In the default workspace, the Symbols palette appears bundled alongside the Color Swatches and Brushes palette. To open the Symbols palette, go to Window > Symbols. While the palette shown below does not contain any symbols, the default palette will usually contain a few standard symbols.

3. Finding Symbols in Illustrator

Illustrator comes with pre-loaded Symbol Libraries containing a wide variety of art objects that you may find useful. To access the Symbol Libraries go to Window > Symbol Libraries > Pick a Library. For the purpose of this tutorial I have chosen the Flowers library.

4. Adding Symbols to your Symbols Palette

Clicking on a symbol in the Flower Library will automatically add it to my Symbols Palette. You can also select mulitple flowers and select Add to Symbols from the drop down menu at the top of the library window.

5. Placing Symbols onto the Artboard

There are a few ways to add a symbol to your document. The easiest way is to select the symbol in the Symbols Palette and drag it to where you want it to appear on the artboard.

You can also place the symbol by selecting it in the palette and click on the Place Symbol Instance button at the bottom of the Symbols Palette.

The last way is to select the symbol and choose Place Symbol Instance from the Symbols Palette menu.

6. Using Symbols in your Artwork

There are lots of benefits to using symbols in Illustrator. For instance, by using symbols and the symbol tools you can:

Create detailed illustrations rapidly

Make revisions and changes quickly and easily

Reuse artwork again and again

Build custom art object libraries

Reduce file sizes

The subsequent parts of my “Simply Symbols” tutorial series will go over each of these benefits and how to effectively use symbols. Some of the most important reasons to use symbols are listed above, but as you become more familiar with these powerful tools and how to use them you will likely find you own reasons to dig symbols!

Look for part of “Simply Symbols”  2 coming next week!

This is a fun tutorial for beginner level users of Illustrator. I am using Illustrator CS2.

First, using your Ellipse Tool, create an elongated ellipse like the one shown below. This is the first petal of our flower.
The Ellipse Tool looks like this:

Next, with the petal selected, click on the Rotate Tool in your tool box.
The Rotate Tool looks like this:

Once you have clicked on the tool icon, hold the Option(mac)/Alt(pc) keyas you move the cursor to the point you want your petals to rotate around and click. You will see the light blue rotation point on your artboard as shown below.

Once you select your rotation point, the Rotation dialogue box will appear.

Select the angle at which you want your petals to rotate around the rotation point (I am using a 30 degree angle) and hit COPY. Do not hit OK as this will simply rotate your original petal rather than adding a new one.

Next, add the rest of your petals by hitting Command(mac)/Control(pc) and D keys as many times as necessary. You can also repeat this step by going to Object > Transform > Transform Again.

Now that you have all your petals in place, create a circle (or a shape of you choice) and place it on top in the center.

There you have your quick and easy flower.

Once you get the hang of the steps, you can get a little more elaborate with your flowers. A few samples of flowers I made using these steps can be seen below.

Have fun with it!