It seems that illustrator is full of new tools and various elements and more i dig into it more i learn . And it seems every time one more hidden tool is revealed .. Have you heard of envelopes . It seems to be a sister tool of mesh tool . Here is a little bit intro into this so practical tool!!

First, place a high-contrasted image (high-key image, in this case my model Iva) into Illustrator work area.

Using bitmap image from tutorial How to create your own custom brush in PhotoShop you can easily create your own vector brushes in few steps:

Let me show you how I created a simple web shop icon (shop trolley). In Illustrator (or similar vector software) make a simplified shop trolley "L" shape (the handle + basis).

Easy :)
First, draw a circle (using Shift tab) and fill it with radial gradient like this:

Wrapping scrolls around illustrations or images are quite popular designers little trick these days. I'll show you how to draw a scroll "easy way".

I received several inquiries on how to draw a swirls illustration. Swirls illustration does not require extensive knowledge, only a little practice and a visit of a "Muse".

In this mini tutorial you will learn the bare bones basics of the pen tool. This is the hardest tool to get used to in Illustrator and Photoshop, but it’s really worth persevering with it.

This tutorial will demonstrate how to create a vector silhouette from a photo using Photoshop plus Illustrator's Live Trace tool. Knowledge of Photoshop channels will help you work through the steps, but is not required.

Illustrator allows you to assign varying levels of transparency to vector-based objects. That's great because, as we'll see, it makes for a remarkably versatile drawing environment. The problem is, PostScript doesn't accommodate transparency.