In this lesson, I will show you how to create an Illustrator file. Once Illustrator is open there are several presets to choose from for document size. Here we have Letter, Postcard, Common, iPhone X, HDV/HDTV 1080, and more. The preset that we will be using today is Common. As I click on it, the preset opens for the document size. Today, we are going to be looking at using layers to create a bird. This will be a fun exercise to learn more about layers and the tools. This file we will use to import into Photoshop. Getting started, heading over to the right hand side, we have layers. Layer 1 is currently empty. To create the body of the bird, in the tools panel, navigating to the rectangle tool, if you click and hold that tool, you will see the Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool, Polygon, and so on. Today, I wanna get started with the bird's body by selecting the Ellipse Tool. To change the color of the body, I'm going to head down over to the fill. We have Fill and Stroke. Clicking on this button right here, I can now pick a color for the bird's body. You can pick any color of your choice and then press okay. Now, with the Ellipse Tool selected and the color has been selected, I can now click and drag like so. For the bird's body, I'm not going to use all of the shape. I need to cut it in half. To do so, I'm going to navigate to the Pen tool. Clicking on the Pen tool, I can click on the outside of the ellipse, clicking on the opposite side, immediately heading over to the selection. As I click on selection, I wanna select both the line which was created with the pen and the ellipse. To do so, I just click and drag to select both shapes. To divide this in half, I need to go to Properties, navigating down to Pathfinder, look for the three dots, which is called More Options. Now we want to click on the divide button. The shape has been divided but if I click with the selection tool it's still together. In order to take the shape off on the top, I need to access the inside of the group. To do so, I just double tap and you can see here I am inside the group. If I click now, this shape here is separated. I can tap delete on my keyboard. Double tapping anywhere on the canvas, I can access outside of the group. With the Selection tool still selected, clicking on the shape, I can now bend the shape as well as rotate it. This will be the start of my bird's body. Heading over to Layers. I need to lock Layer 1. Making a new layer, I can navigate down to the bottom and click on Create New Layer. Layer 2 is now activated. In this layer, I want to create the head using the Ellipse tool. Notice that the shortcut for the Ellipse tool is the letter L, as in left. Choosing the color of the head, I can select on the fill button. I'll choose black for the head and press OK. From here, just clicking and dragging to create the shape of the head. To move it, you can actually click on the Selection tool. Then you can just move it and place it where you wanted to go. Locking this shape, navigating down to create a new layer, I now want to work on the wing in this layer. Using the Ellipse tool and changing the color, we can use this button here, but you can also change the appearance under Properties. Here's the appearance and you can change the fill from here as well. Choosing a color, I'll pick the color gray. You can pick any color that you like. With the Ellipse tool selected, clicking and dragging to create a shape. Again, I need to divide this in half for the wing. I'm going to navigate to the Pen tool. Notice that the shortcut for the Pen tool is the letter P. As I click on the Pen tool, I can click on the outside of the ellipse, click on the opposite side, and immediately navigate to the Selection tool to deselect the Pen tool. Then I can click and drag to select both shapes. Be sure not to accidentally select multiple shapes outside of that area. Clicking and dragging to select both shapes, I can now go to Properties, navigating to More Options, selecting Divide. It has been divided, but like before, I need to access the group. We don't see that the group name is up here. To see the name, I can just double tap and the group has been accessed for the layer. Clicking on the top shape, I can hit delete. Double tapping anywhere outside, I can now go to the shape and place it. It's too big. With the Selection tool still activated, you can now use these points and move it around as well as rotate it. What I wanna do next for this bird, is I want to put the head on top of the wing. Navigating to Layers, I can now move Layer 2, which contains the head, and place it on top of Layer 3. As you can see, it is now placed on top. If you want to move the head again, you have to unlock it to move it around. Now for the beak. What I want to do is select the Pen tool again. With the Pen tool activated, I can go to Properties and choose a color for the beak. If this accidentally happened to you, what you can do is change it back. Navigating to Layers, we need to create a new layer. From here, locking all the other layers, we are now in Layer 4. Under Layer 4, you can click and drag like this. To change the color of the beak, I'm going to go inside of Properties and change the fill. You can now move it on top, as well as place it on and rotate it. Now, what I wanna do is create the tail. One more layer to go. Clicking on the plus sign below, I am in Layer 5. I can lock Layer 4. You pick the tail color that you want. From here, clicking on the Pen tool, I can now click and drag like so. Navigating to the Selection tool, I can now place this on. I need to place a tail behind the wing. To do so, I can drag it all the way down to the bottom. And now it's underneath. In the next lesson, I will show you how to rename your layers.
