How to Draw Display Panels in Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a powerful graphics editing program that allows designers and artists to create logos, brands, sketches, Web comics and more. The program uses paths to create simple shapes and combine them into more complex ones. Making an image of display panels in Illustrator-- if, for example, you need a sketch of what a presentation room may look like--is a straightforward process that can be done within 30 minutes.
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Instructions
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Open Illustrator and choose a CMYK basic document from the "Create New File" window. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key, or black, the easiest fundamental colors to work with while designing for print or Web applications. Choose a name for your new file and press "OK."
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Note the toolbar on the left side of the screen. Click on the rectangle icon and draw a rectangle on the art board, the canvas for your illustration. Make the rectangle taller than it is wide.
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Select the rectangle that you drew and click on the "Edit" button in the menu at the top of the window. Click on "Copy" then "Paste." This creates a copy of the original rectangle and pastes it onto the art board. Repeat this step to create a final copy of the original rectangle, giving you three rectangles of equal size to work with.
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Select and drag the two rectangle copies to place them in a series next to the original rectangle. Place the two rectangles so that all three rectangles form a triptych, that is, a row of three panels in which the horizontal sides of the panels connect.
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Click on the Direct Select icon, which looks like a white cursor, in the toolbar and select the anchor point at the left top corner of the left-most rectangle. Click on and hold that corner, dragging it upwards slightly to create a three-dimensional effect. Repeat this process on the right top corner of the right-most rectangle as well as on the corresponding bottom corners for these rectangles.
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Select the Line tool in the toolbar and draw a line over the left-most line of the display panels. Hold down the "Shift" key while drawing the line to make it perfectly vertical. Select this line and press the down-arrow key, sliding the line downward. Do this until the line looks like the stands of a display. Repeat this process until you have a total of four stands.
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Select all four stands by clicking on each one while pressing the "Shift" key. Click on the "Stroke Panel" on the panel buttons at the right side of the window. The Stroke Panel looks like three horizontal lines. Change the thickness of the four lines by increasing the width using the Stroke Panel. Make the lines wide enough to look like stands. Right-click on the stands and choose the "Arrange" button then the "Move to Back" button. This action makes the stands look more realistic.
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References
- "Adobe Illustrator CS4 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques;" David Karlins; 2008
