Tutorials

Draw by numbers

by Mordy Golding

For aspiring artists, you can buy a sheet of paper that uses numbers to indicate where colors are supposed to go, taking the guesswork out of the design process. Although being free to create is certainly a good thing, you don’t want to be guessing when you’ve been asked to create a shape to an exact size. Some methods of drawing are purely for those in a creative state of mind. As you create each shape, your mind is saying, “Yeah, that’s about right.” However, there are times when you are required to specify exact dimensions for shapes, and Adobe Illustrator CS2 can be precise up to four decimal places.

To create any shape numerically, select the tool you need, click once on the artboard, and immediately release the mouse. A dialog appears, letting you specify exact values for the shape or path you want to create.

For most shapes, this action uses the point where you clicked the artboard as the upper left corner of the shape. To draw a shape out from its center point from the place that you click, press the Option (Alt) key while clicking with the mouse.