Publish365 039: I'm Gettin' Better!
A few weeks ago, if you'll remember, I was stuck on a project I wanted to do. I needed to do a design in Illustrator with a bunch of curves, and since I suck with the pen tools and curvature tools in Illustrator, I "cheated" by knocking it out in Fusion360 first. Over the past few weeks I've clamped down hard on learning the curvature tool, though, and much to my surprise, I'm getting it! For a tool that has vexed me for years, it's proving to not only be usable, but also REALLY powerful.
Firstly I should mention that the pen tool isn't a new tool, but the curvature tool, as it's constituted today, is relatively new. When I first started learning Illustrator it wasn't a thing. They added it in 2015, but I never really used it and when I did I assumed it was the same as the old tool. It most certainly is not, and in fact it's almost fun to use.
I was working on a take-off on a design that a client sent me and I decided I was going to use the opportunity to work it out in Illustrator and... Well... Here are the results.

The image on the left is the original and the one on the right is the one I was able to come up with by using the curvature tool to trace. I actually did it, and I didn't cheat, cop out, or take the easy route by doing it in Fusion360! It's not perfect, but it's so close that for our purposes it would be just fine.
Always be learning, y'all. Take the opportunities and do the cool things!
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