Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

Drawing Primitive Shapes

So far we’ve been working primarily with open paths, that

is, paths that have endpoints. In this exercise, we’ll be

working with closed paths—simple shapes known as

primitives. A primitive is a basic shape, such as a rect-

angle, a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, a polygon, or

a star. These primitives, along with the basic

line shapes, are the elements that make up every

drawing produced in Illustrator.

For the rest of this lesson, we’ll be working on one fi le

that will continue from exercise to exercise. But this isn’t just

any old piece of art. It’s a stylized tonalpohualli, an ancient 260-

day Mesoamerican calendar used primarily by the Aztecs. In the

fi rst exercise, you’ll create a tracing template and draw many of the

basic shapes that make up the illustration.

1.

Open the tonalpohualli. Navigate to the Lesson 02

folder inside the Lesson Files-AIcs5 1on1 folder. Open

the fi le named, appropriately enough, Tonalpohualli.

ai. You’ll be greeted with a round piece of artwork, replete with

primitive shapes like rectangles, circles, ellipses, and stars.

2.

Examine the Layers panel. Bring up the

Layers panel (if it’s not already visible)

by pressing the F7 key. You’ll see that

this document has a total of fi ve layers.

One issue I have with the Layers panel

as it stands is that the thumbnails are

so small as to be nearly useless. That’s

something you can easily ...