Introduced to Illustrator CS5 (and new laptop)

With mixed emotions, I invested in a new laptop, a Macbook Pro. I have grown up with PC computers, but because of my need to upgrade to Adobe CS5 I questioned whether or not both my Desktop and laptop would be able to handle the upgrade. Both systems being maxed out in RAM and processor speed, it was best to invest in a new system as well as convert to Macintosh computers. I have spent the better part of two weeks transferring files and learning the differences between the PC and Mac.

Along with learning the Macbook Pro, I have been playing around with the new Adobe CS5. So far, I have not seen too many changes in the formats of the programs I commonly use (Photoshop and Illustrator) that would off throw a regular user. Adobe has added a few more tricks and options, but nothing I see that will revolutionize the way professionals will work. I only hope students of Adobe CS5 will not get lost in the overwhelming clusters of filters and options.

My first project with CS5:

I spent the better part of a day creating an invitation for a Birthday party. My client is a huge fan of dragonflies and therefore requested the invitations be designed with dragonflies.

Despite knowing I could easily create these dragonflies in Illustrator from start to finish. Possibly even saved a little time, as well. I still preferred starting with a pencil and ink with a brush.

My ink drawings converted to vector shapes. I love the Live Trace feature in Illustrator. And Live Trace respected these ink drawings as well and did a very good job.

The finished design.