If looking for an Illustrator only solution, and regarding the first image, take a look at Lynda.com courses. Many schools and libraries offer this to their students/members for free. I've also subscribed to Plutralsight and taken courses on Udemy (as well as free YouTube), and in person at our local college and design school; I have found Lynda the best for this type of content.

This drawing is not isometric, but Von Glitscka has a great course on isometric drawings and his process for color combinations and building up his illustrations. This is also another good course on perspective drawing in illustrator. I've watched and done exercises from both of these courses.

Burt Monroy was an early adopter of illustrator for this type of drawing (the first one you included). He shaped out his drawings (e.g. Time Square) in Illustrator and refined them in Photoshop. His book from 2000 is probably still relevant for its process, and he has videos on Lynda.com where he talks about those techniques. He has some great photo compositing courses on the site as well.

However, if you are looking to get a good overall grounding in Illustrator, I could not more highly recommend Deke McClelland's courses. For Illustrator and Photoshop, he has "One-on-one" courses: Intro, Advanced, Mastery. These are fantastic hands on and very practical, and he is probably the best online lecturer I have watched.

As for the second image, that looks like output from 3D software. If you are a student, you can get free access to Maya or 3DS Max from Autodesk for up to 3 years, and you could produce the second image in one of the intro tutorials. The output looks like it might have used a cartoon output type (limited colors, drawn outlines). One face would need a custom UV map; you could instead modify the 3D output in Illustrator or Photoshop afterward. You could also use Blender, which is free. 3D software would also be a great way to output similar to your first image, or at the very least, could create a good template (and guides) for the correct perspective.

Good luck.

Finding out the Color Profile is always a good idea - there are differences between US SWOP Coated and GRACol, for example (the two I most often use), and submitting what looks good in one, when they print in the other, will result in Color Profile Conversions that may or may not preserve the integrity of your colors.

But whether or not they're printing Spot or CMYK should be something you know before you even start designing. Many places don't print Spot colors at all, so you sending them Pantone means nothing to them, they're just RIP'ing it out to 4 color seperations, and whatever happens, happens.

On the other hand, if your client always uses Pantone 123C because that's the same logo color that's always been the case, that's different - and you need to make sure the printer is actually mixing Pantones. OR, if you're using an imprinter (you mentioned printing a design on a piece of kitchenware), it's MUCH more likely they're using Pantone, as they can then mix together some Pantone pigments and end up with a specific Pantone color for screenprinting your pan or breadbox or apron or whatever. You should still purchase the Pantone book - but find out which colors they use, as there are Pantone Home & Interior inks that are different from the paper inks (including being created w/o lead, for safety.)

If they're printing one color (Spot color), then color profiles don't matter.

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Edited to add a quick crash course in CMYK vs. Spot Color.

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (formerly referred to as Key color, hence the K)) are the inks used to print just about everything that appears in full color: Magazines, newspapers, textbooks, etc. Everything that comes off a personal inkjet or color laser printer also uses CMYK (some use expanded colors, for example my photo printer has 8 inks, CMYK + lighter Cyan and Magentas, and 2 grays, but the principle is the same.).

Spot Color printing (you may see this as 1-color, 2-color, or 3-color printing) means printing with 1,2,3 colors that YOU specify. To make sure everyone is talking about the same color, Pantone is one of the (and probably the most popular) industry standard color systems (there are others). With Pantone, you specify a color (from the swatch book, right???), and when you submit your print order, the print shop literally mixes together the various Pantone inks to make that color.

The nice thing about Pantone is that their inks aren't derived from Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, so you can get much richer colors, and colors that aren't part of the normal CMYK gamut (which is relatively small, compared to RGB-what your monitor/cellphone/TVs use, and MUCH smaller than what we can actually see). Pantone colors also include things like metallics and neons with characteristics (reflectivity, florescence) that even the best RGB display can't reproduce.

Another nice thing about Pantone inks is that assuming the recipe is followed correctly (and that you're printing on paper or other material that has the same surface characteristics and color), one printer's Spot color job should exactly match another's. You can't say the same about CMYK (4-color process) jobs, because different presses are calibrated differently, different color profiles have to be considered, etc.

Additionally, when printing Spot color, if printed at 100% coverage, the edges will be nice and clean, and there's no dot pattern. Virtually any color you specify in CMYK (if not pure CMY or K), when printed, will have dots and potentially rough edges, not to mention registration/alignment concerns. Spot color jobs don't have to worry about that.

However, there are also 5-color, 6-color, or more-color jobs - which might incorporate CMYK PLUS 1, 2, 3, or more Pantone colors. Food packaging very often uses this method, as it makes specifying a certain "brand" color easier, and allows the box to stand out on the shelf by using a more vivid ink than can be achieved through CMYK. Go take apart a cereal box and you'll see the registration and color bars - this one has CMYK, as well as Frosted Flakes Blue and Tony the Tiger Orange, making it a 6-color job.

Anyway, it's Saturday night and I've been drinkin' for a while, so I should stop - but feel free to ask any questions/clarifications on the above, and I'll follow up! ;-)

Can you recommend a good thin-and-light? I don't know hardware much at all, but I would love something more carry-able.

I learned Illustrator and Photoshop on this brick. (This was 2015-16) It was a good brick. Like a brick, heavy, blocky, had no battery life to speak of, and was incredibly slow processing images of any size or complexity. Also like a brick, it was reliable and unbreakable - A month after I got it, at the airport, TSA dropped the laptop bag from the conveyor belt onto a concrete floor. You couldn't tell it had been dropped. It was great. I miss that brick.

Then I upgraded to this, I think. It was okay. Mine didn't have the 1tb hard drive listed on that site, but it did have 8gb ram, which was way better. It ran objectively better, but felt less sturdy and reliable. I didn't like or dislike it, particularly.

Now I've got one of these. It is amazing, it runs both AI and PS way better, but it's a bit bigger than feels comfortably portable.


The running theme with my laptops is that they're old, heavy hand-me-downs. Eventually, I'd like something with at least the middle level of performance, but that I can comfortably carry around all day. I have no clue whether this is feasible or affordable.

I think it would be best if you could provide a screenshot showing us where you currently are having issues with creating this stencil.

From what I can understand, though, you'll need to add some white shapes over the text to anchor the insides of your letters. As to where to place these, the best place to start are the thinnest parts of the letter forms, but I'd suggest you use several stencils for reference to get the best result.. (If you take a look at some stencil examples, you'll see what I mean.)

Just to be clear, are you aiming to make a stencil similar to these?

I've had this in my Amazon cart for a while now but haven't bought it yet so take this with a grain of salt. I've read a ton of reviews and watched some on YouTube, it seems like a solid tablet for beginners. I don't hand draw a lot of stuff but the rare occasion I'd want to it seems like a good enough tablet.

I've never gotten a whole lot out of online resources but bought this book vector basic training: A Systematic Creative Process for Building Precision Vector Artwork and it really turned things around for me. Definitely recommend it, although the writer uses a few plug ins I don't use but overall his approach and clockwork method made everything seem so much simpler.

>Intuos S

You are doing better than I can with one of those. I am trying to improve my drawing skills with a graphic tablet I got, but I needed a screen so I could see how my lines are as I draw them.

https://www.amazon.com/XP-PEN-Artist12-Battery-Free-Multi-Function-Sensitivity/dp/B07GNK18VJ/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Artist+12&qid=1551200574&s=electronics&sr=1-3 This is what I got, and I love it. If you ever decide to bump up to one with a screen.

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Wacom is always the way to go.
This is the tablet I use at work and home. So far the best small tablet Wacom has made. Very affordable. Small but great.

https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Drawing-Software-Included-CTL4100/dp/B079HL9YSF/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2VI2I6FI23ME4

If you prefer mechanical keyswitches, this is a good deal. It's fully customizable, and while you have to use Windows to program it, the settings are written to firmware, so there's no driver required. Also, you can use yr fave Cherry MX keycaps to better display the assignments, although the keyswitches are not Cherry.

I started with this guide and it’s pretty awesome

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0134176731/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_VhpMDbT88AVMT

I can't work on any other mouse now that I have had the logitech G502. I have mapped the buttons to zoom in and out and undo and redo and the one right under my thumb is spacebar so I can use the pan tool really easily. I bought an extra just in case they ever discontinue it because I love it so much.

It's Not How Good You Are It's How Good You Want To Be

Wear a half glove. Don't know what they're actually called.

Here's one on Amazon by Huion. It's what I use. Also decreases smudging. https://www.amazon.com/Huion-Artist-Glove-Drawing-Tablet/dp/B00VTHAS00

https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos-Touch-Tablet-PTH451/dp/B00EN27ULS

I personally use a gaming mouse with 9 programmable buttons. I set the right two for undo and redo and the left two as zoom and paste and don't use the rest.

I didn't want to spend much and found this mouse for only $22:https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-G300s-Optical-Ambidextrous-Gaming/dp/B00RH6R7C4