Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

Endpoints and Closed Paths

Where to begin? Let’s start simply and build our way up. First, we’ll

look at lines, which Illustrator calls open paths because they have

endpoints—points at the end of the lines, points that stop. (The

upper half of Figure 2-2 shows one of an open path’s endpoints.)

They’re out there, on the market. They’re single points. Maybe

they fi nd another point, maybe they don’t. They’re not quite ready

to settle down.

Then we’ll move on to shapes. Illustrator calls these closed paths

because they don’t have endpoints. These shapes aren’t closed in

the sense of “shut down,” it’s just that they aren’t accepting new

points. The points are married, really. Except that they’re binoga-

mous—every point is joined to two other points, so the shape con-

tinues forever and ever, as shown in the lower half of Figure 2-2.

Drawing Lines, Arcs, and Spirals

In these fi rst two exercises, we’re going to be working with a fi le

you fi rst saw in the preceding lesson—the eye of Horus. This time,

however, you’ll get to actually illustrate in Illustrator, not simply set

up guides. The fi rst exercise will focus on draw-

ing paths using the various tools available from

the line segment tool ( ) fl yout menu. Time to

start drawing!

1.

Open an illustration. Choose File

Open. Navigate to the Lesson 02 folder

inside the Lesson Files-AIcs5 1on1

folder, which should be on your desktop. Open ...