Lesson 5, "Drawing with the Pen tool" will expose you to the proper way of using the Pen tool to draw straight lines, use Template layers, End path segments and split lines as well as the drawing of curved lines. The pen tool was one of the hardest tools for me and it is explained very well here. Lesson 6, "Color and Painting" will instruct you on how to paint with, create, and edit colors using the Control panel and short cuts. You will also learn about the Color Guide panel, Live Paint features as well as how to save your file as a PDF.
Lesson 7, "Working with Type" is all about type and type layout. You will explore importing type, creating columns, change text attributes, wrapping text around a graphic and creating text on paths and shapes. Lesson 8, "Working with Layers" will show you how to work with the Layers Panel, move objects between layers and merge layers into a single layer. You will also find out how to create, rearranged and lock layers, nested layers and groups. Lesson 9, "Blending Shapes and Colors is all about gradients and blending colors and shapes.
Lesson 10, "Working with Brushes" will tell you how to use the four brush types, change brush colors, how to create new brushes and work with the scribble effect. Lesson 11, "Applying Effects" you will learn how to understand the differences between Filters and Effects, how to use Warp effects to create a banner logotype and create 3D objects from 2D artwork. Lesson 12, "Applying Appearance Attributes and Graphic Styles" introduces you to creating an appearance attribute; this is a technique to alter the look of an object without changing its structure. You will also learn how to save an appearance as a graphic style and apply a graphic style to a layer.
Lesson 13, "Working with Symbols" teaches you how to apply symbol instances, create, modify and redefine a symbol. Lesson 14, "Combining Illustrator CS3 Graphics with the Creative Suite, will show you how to differentiate between vector and bitmap graphics, place embedded Adobe Photoshop graphics in an Adobe Illustrator file and export a layered file to Adobe Photoshop.
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