Graphic & Web Design Archives

December 2011

The Pen tool is a tool that needs patience, and a lot of practice until you really master it. Though this tool is really essential if you want to be able to draw anything, and don't want to be dependent on shape tools. Back in 2007, I wrote an article about it and provided people with an Illustrator document. This was a great success, and so today I thought of giving this document an update, including a few different exercises…

Illustrator Pen tool exercises

It has been a while since I last posted an interview with a talented illustrator, and I thought it's high time to change this. So today I have the absolute pleasure to introduce you to Astrid Yskout, a 26 years old illustrator that lives in Antwerp, Belgium. She combines her illustration work with two part-time jobs. She works in a secondhand bookshop, and teaches children & teenagers at an art academy. I got to know Astrid's work through Flickr, and later on I encountered some of her marvelous illustration work in a Belgian weekly magazine that I'm subscribed to. I immediately fell in love with the beautiful spontaneous sketchy style, and felt the urge to ask her for an interview. Lucky for me she said yes…

After having read 'HTML5 For Web Designers' by Jeremy Keith, and A Book Apart's N°. 3, 'CSS3 For Web Designers' by Dan Cederholm, I finally found time to read N°. 4 of the list 'Responsive Web Design' by Ethan Marcotte. I know I'm seriously behind in my reading, as this book was launched months ago, and there are already 2 new ones waiting to be read. Still, the topic of the book is pretty hot and we're just starting to see this web design approach in action. I'm pretty sure there still are many people who haven't heard of this technique… high time for a review of this book.