Addicted to Adobe Illustrator CS5

If you want to be a serious designer, Photoshop can't be your one and only friend. Au contraire, I believe that Photoshop should only be used for photo retouching, resizing, and other manipulation and just-for-fun kind of projects. My increased use of the more powerful tool in the Adobe Creative Suite, Illustrator, has increased my productivity tenfold and has yielded better quality products.

I learned this programme in the past for more graphic design and layout based projects. Now, however, I am concentrating on honing my skills in creating vector art.

In my opinion it is better to learn a programme by drawing these things from scratch, before using shortcuts like the amazing powerful "live trace" feature that I have only recently begun using.

This image to the left was one of my first vectors, made to be incorporated in this logo:
 

I have also been "playing." I've practiced my skills by challenging myself with the creation of a peacock feather. This image is so involved, with so many little details and layers. I would consider this only half finished. I took a screenshot for you in case you are curious to see the CS5 workspace.

I am also working on an image for a friend of mine from the gym, Mike. He is a student of the Muay Thai Masta known as The Elephant. He asked me to take the image you see below and do a version as an elephant wearing thai shorts. Instead of tracing the image, I drew each shape individually as I often prefer to do things the hard way when learning, because practice makes perfect. I am using the images you see below as references rather than images to copy.

This screenshot was taken yesterday, and since then there have been significant changes in shape and proportion, and boxing gloves and colour blocking have been added. Working on this image has been quite fun, it is hard to walk away from the computer. I am anxious to turn out a finished project!