The Adobe Illustrator CS3 Wow! Book [Paperback]

Sharon Steuer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2007 | ISBN-10: 032151842X | ISBN-13: 978-0321518422 | Edition: 9th

The definitive full-color book on mastering Adobe Illustrator — now fully updated for Illustrator CS3

For years, Sharon Steuer and her international W ow! team have been reaching out to the world of professional illustrators to showcase the range and quality of work these artists are doing in Illustrator. In this revised edition of the best-selling and award-winning Illustrator WOW! Book, youll find tips, tricks, and techniques derived from actual projects from more than 100 of these top Illustrator artists. Using Adobe Illustrator CS3, Sharon shows you how to perform magical color changes using Live Color, and prepare animations for Flash. You'll not only learn how to“think in Illustrator”with the Zen of Illustrator lessons, you'll also master the newest, hottest, and most challenging techniques.

This edition is loaded with new lessons on these subjects, and many more:

Using the new Live Color features
Creating animations and integrating Illustrator with Flash
Working with Live Trace and Live Paint
The basics of using layers, templates, the Free Distort tool, and more
"Opacity Mask 101” based on the cover image
Applying blending modes and transparency to raster images
Masking with live type
Simulating ink and watercolor paintings
Working with live fills, multiple strokes, and Live 3D
Basic to advanced blends, gradients, and mesh
Colorizing photos
Demystifying photorealistic mesh

NOTE:
User Level: This book is for Intermediate through Professional-level Illustrator artists and designers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Award-winning artist, author, teacher and digital art guru, Sharon Steuer has been a major force in the digital art world for more than two decades. Her traditional and digital artwork has been exhibited widely, with awards for painting including the national Faber Birren Color Award and Windsor Newton Painting Award. Sharon is a regular columnist for creativepro.com, and is author of Creative Thinking i n Photoshop: A New Approach to Digital Art as well as all editions of the best-selling Illustrator WOW! Book, which has twice received the Ben Franklin Award for best computer book. 

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 9th edition (September 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 032151842X
• ISBN-13: 978-0321518422
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #445,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Adobe Creative Suite > Adobe Illustrator

More About the Author

(Visit her at: http://www.facebook.com/SharonSteuer)
Sharon Steuer loves collaborating with other creatives--and working with the Illustrator WOW! team, and the contributing artists to the Illustrator WOW! Books, provides endless wonderful opportunities for collaboration.

For almost three decades, Sharon has pioneered the merging of traditional and digital art forms. Sharon's recent artwork weaves together her oil paintings, drawings, digital paintings, photographs, and personal artifacts to explore and reflect fragmented memory. Awards for her artwork include the national Faber Birren Color Award, a Windsor Newton Painting award, an Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts; her books have received three Benjamin Franklin Awards for "best computer book."

In addition to being author of 12 editions of the Illustrator WOW! Books plus "Creative Thinking in Photoshop," Sharon is a regular contributor to creativepro.com, and is host and curator for the #DigitalArtistSpotlight at the blog at AstuteGraphics.com. She and her husband, sound artist and SFSU professor Jeff Jacoby, have also collaborated on a number of food and culture posts for the San Francisco portal of UntappedCities.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Is the new CS3 WOW version worth it? October 17, 2007

By D. Klecan

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The main reason I updated to Adobe Illustrator CS3 was for the new Color features. I've always had a hard time with color and I love the new color wheel with all the coordinating color options. I've purchased every past edition of the WOW series, for both Photoshop and Illustrator and I am happy to report that this new CS3 edition features an extensie overview of Live Color, Live Paint etc., and for me that was worth the price of the book.

The book is approximately 30% new material. There appears to be more samples on the DVD which I appreciate, because although authors suggest using your own work, it is always nice to have an actual file to work with.

That's it in a nutshell. If you have the CS2 version and don't plan to upgrade to CS3 don't bother getting this book, keep your old version with the tiger on the cover. If you got CS3 this book will help you learn the new features. All those who have the WOW books, it continues to be a great learning tool. It is geared toward the more advanced Illustrator user. If you are just learning I suggest getting the beginner books and dip into this one as you get more skilled. The section on the Zen of the Pen hasn't changed and remains, to me, the best way to learn the pen tool. If you are willing to patiently go through the Pen excercies both in the book and on the DVD you will be a Master of the Pen and the rest of Illustrator is a piece of cake.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great way to advanced your Illustrator skills December 21, 2007

By Diane Cipollo

Format:Paperback

This is the ninth edition of the Illustrator WOW! book and the author, Sharon Stever, has rewritten and expanded on previous editions, concentrating on the new features in CS3. Some of the artwork has been replaced with new examples to reflect the many changes for Illustrator's latest upgrade. As in previous editions of the WOW! books, the book is sectioned into groups of several short lessons which cover the major features and techniques for this software. The thing that makes the WOW! books one of my favorites is the gallery of artwork which I find not only a teaching tool but also an inspiration.

To be honest, if you have a previous edition of this book, you will find most of the book and the examples are the same, but updated for CS3. Digital artists that are already comfortable using Illustrator, may find that this edition does not have enough new content to justify purchasing a second edition. However, Illustrator is a robust software and if you are a novice who is looking for more of a challenge, the WOW! book is a great way to advanced your Illustrator skills. The book is packed with great examples, tips and step-by-step instructions. The CD contains more tips from Design Tools Monthly, video tutorials, plug-ins, styles, and files for the lessons in the book.

The first few chapters cover the user interface and basic tools such as the pen tool and Bezier curves. Once you make it through that, you begin to draw and color. If you are making the transition from raster to vector digital art, you will soon realize that Illustrator has some really nice features. The author does a great job explaining and demonstrating these features such as the new Live Color and the dual-mode eyedropper tool.

Beyond the basics, the book covers Illustrator techniques including compound paths and the Pathfinder panel. The author also covers Live Trace and Live Paint, new for CS3. The features in Illustrator that I love the most are brushes and symbols. With these tools, you can create digital art that almost duplicates the traditional medium such as pen and ink. The author does a good job of explaining these tools and, more importantly, how to decide which one is best for the job at hand.

Illustrator's type features have evolved to the point where you can design and layout a single-page document and the author dedicates a good section of the book to the many Illustrator type tools such as point, area and path type and converting type to outlines. Another section of the book that has become more important as Illustrator's tools have advanced is the section that covers the blend, gradient and mesh. The book demonstrates several great examples of shading, modeling and working with transparency for print projects. Live Color is one of Illustrator's most popular new tools and the author shows you how to use this feature to experiment with color schemes and recolor artwork.

If you want to explore the world of 3D digital art but you are not ready for a full-blown 3D software, you will enjoy the chapter on Illustrator's live 3D effects including warps, envelopes and Live 3D. I especially liked the examples of 3D artwork which demonstrated mapping artwork onto your 3D objects, which is a good introduction to 3D techniques.

With the release of CS3, these is a major increase in the integration between Illustrator and the other Adobe products including Flash, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat and After Effects. The author covers several aspects of moving art between programs such as working in RGB color mode in Illustrator, image slicing and animation.

Sharon Stever is the originator of the Illustrator WOW! books and has been creating digital art for over two decades.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book! November 6, 2007

By Lindsey Miller

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I liked how this book was in full color and was easy enough that anyone can pick it up and learn. I also liked that it appealed for the more advanced users at the end with tutorials on integrating Illustrator with Flash, After Effects, etc. It pretty much covers everything and the CD is loaded with goodies and plug-ins that are really awesome as well. I like the WOW! series and would definatley buy another again.