Graphics Illustrators Books

Thank you for getting this to me overnight! I've waited for my community college for 10 days - all the while falling behind. Great Delivery

If you are completely new to Adobe Illustrator, I wouldn't get this. Take a basic class at a community college. But if you've used Illustrator in the past this is a great introduction to what's really new in the latest version and it revisits stuff from before but you probably forgot cause you didn't know what to do with it. Very practical and exciting. I read it in two days. Not required but it does get you pretty excited about using Illustrator CS3. Now...if only there was an expensive magazine from the UK that specializes in this program....(there ain't).

If you are a fashion professional who wants to learn how to use Illustrator this is the book to get! What I enjoyed the most is that this book teaches real world skills that you would need to know in the workplace not fluff that you wouldn't use.

this is a great book for some one who has a basic understanding of what illustrator and photoshop does and helps them how to apply to fashion

A must-read for those with all levels of expertise. B & H Brody, parents of the author

The illustrations are expertly rendered, and there are many excellent tips inside for those past the novice level. But in many of the illustrations only one or two techniques are discussed, and I found myself wanting to know how the rest of the work was completed. The book would be more valuable if several illustrations were more fully dissected for the reader.

The book is geared more toward experienced users, so novices should stay away. For beginners (and other users as well) I recommend the Illustrator 5 Book by Deke McClelland, also by Peachpit Press. Peachpit Press is an excellent source of computer graphics books.

Finally, the included disk is Mac-only, which is understandable as there is no Illustrator 5 for the PC. The disk has a couple of good filters, the rest of the files I honestly found only mildly useful.

In this 2nd "Slayers" novel in the series, we have the story that made up episodes 3-5 of the "Slayers Next" anime. This may come as a surprise to fans of the anime series who may have been expecting to see Amelia's arrival as seen in the "Slayers" anime. But that's not how Hajime-sensei wrote it. So the story doesn't have Amelia nor Zelgadis in it, which were used in the anime version.

For those who haven't seen the anime, the story tells of Lina and Gourry's arrival in the city of Atlas. Two mages are in conflict to lead the local Sorcerer's Guild after the previous leader disappeared. Tarim, one of the mages looking to take over the guild, looks to hire Lina and Gourry as body guards. The appearance of the two Mazoku (Seigram and Gio Gaia) ensures that Lina takes the job. However, as events progress, the disappearance of the former leader of the guild needs investigation and the results could have dire consequences for Lina and Gourry, especially with Mazoku around.

There was gore in the novel which obviously didn't show up in the anime. I was surprised by this for some reason and by the darker feel to this novel. There were some humor moments, but this is no where nearly as light as the anime put it. This is not a problem, but I note it to the anime fans.

Also, while the principle characters were the same (save the 2nd Mazoku) and the overall elements were the same, the story in the novel plays out much differently to get to a very similar end to the anime. As such, the novel has more interest in that we don't know how things will get to their ultimate end. That is a good thing. However, Lina's great power doesn't come through the novel's pages as well as they do in the anime. And I found it interesting that Hajime-sensei makes Lina more human in that she experiences fear, something she rarely did in the anime.

Bottom line: quite a bit different from the "Slayers Next" episodes, but a good read nevertheless. "Slayers" fans will want to read the novel that was the basis of the "Slayers Next" episodes.

For fans of the anime expecting the novels to continue the general storyline that the TV series took, the second Slayers novel can be kind of a shock. This novel chronicles the general events that take place early in the Slayers Next TV series, but things are so different from the TV series interpretation that you'd hardly recognise them.

But different doesn't necessarily mean bad and the differences are a refreshing change from what might be expected. In some ways this second novel feels like a rather darker novel than the first, though the trademark Slayers humour remains in abundance. Nevertheless, I felt that the novel was darker and more violent and it was an interesting way of viewing the Slayers universe.

I had some Illustrator experience before picking up this book, which is important: this gives you the basics and tells you what to do when you're beyond the basic level. The author doesn't just tell you what to do, but WHY to do it. The book is full of lesson plans covering a broad scope of Illustrator functionality, for example how to use the "divide" command to create nice abstract graphics effects. Similarly, I never really had a good grasp of the usefulness of blends and gradient meshes before completing the lessons. I also got a taste of functions that I don't often use, such as custom brushes and 3D effects. I might not use them more often in the future, but if I ever need them, it's nice to know they exist.

This book is good for quick and easy to understand guide in Adobe Illustrator CS. (Not a quick guide for people who know Adobe Photoshop.) The reference to the tools are very helpful. Tutorials are very straight forward. There are images through out the books. Great buy.

I LOVE this book. I got this one as a gift in pdf format & ended up buying CS2 hardcopy one.
I really love the work by Yukio Miyamoto that is included in book.
Just including his illustration of his niece in book, helped me learn to create amazing things with the mesh tool! I was able to see his mesh lines & practice recreating the illustration. I went from a complete novice to actually being able to create complicated illustrations that look real.....I really can't understand how the poster above (the quick learning, Photoshop certified one) could not find this book useful...I'm NOT that quick of a learner & got tremendous use out of this book! It's exactly what I wanted because they have enough "For Dummies" type books if you just want to learn the program....BUT if you want to create ART,,Then look at this!
CS2 Wow is basically the same but I love it still.
It has lots of good info but I'd still love more on gradient meshes because there aren't enough people writing things on Illustrator :(

Excellent book for beginners to expert. Gives good instruction on basic concepts and expands on the theme with instructions and examples from Artists. The CD contgains excellent material for self study of techniques.

This book (and it's many previous editions... which are less expensive, and nearly identical, except for adding "CS" to the title)... are a good way to learn some fundamental AI techniques. Don't let the negative rant by the Photoshop enthusiast (preceeding this post) totally turn you off to the book.

I'm an Art Director and designer, who also comes to Adobe Illustrator from Adobe Photoshop. I've used Photoshop just about every day for 10 years. And for the record, I was a member of NAPP too, until I learned about all I could after 4 or 5 years (it's really just a magazine subscription). Anyway. If you're coming to Adobe Illustrator from Photoshop, as many of us do... here's what you ought to know:

Illustrator books are not as "cool" as Photoshop books. There aren't nearly as many people writing them... there aren't nearly as many people reading them. The average guy or gal on the street will never have to use a vector based illustration program. So keep in mind the Illustrator Software, and most books which cover it, are intended for a small group of dedicated professionals. Not like Photoshop books which are written to a huge audience (anyone with a digital camera).

We have been, perhaps, so spoiled by an abundance of truly outstanding Photoshop books (and magazines... and videos... and training software... and club-memberships... hello NAPP) that our expectations are bound to fail us, when it comes to learning other software.

All things considered... this book is the closest thing I've found to helpful instruction and eye-opening techniques for beginning and intermediate Illustrator users (I've got 5 or 6 Illustrator books lying around). Where it really excels is in its use of beautiful, full-color illustrations. That said... it's no Photoshop book... it doesn't spoon-feed you the techniques... but I really feel that's because Illustrator is simply a much harder program to learn. This book is good, for what it is. I'd rate it 3.5 stars... but 4 will have to do.

I love this book! Every page is like a golden mine, ready for digging! This is most valuable book for illustrator in my possession. Highly recommended!

This is an excellent Illustrator book. All descriptions and instructions are clear and accurate. It is definitely a book I will keep by my side!

A great book, it helps a lot, a lot of effort was put into making this book, I like the Zen chapter, this chapter helps you think in Illustrator, Highly Recommended.

This is a great and inspirational book on Adobe Illustrator CS3. There are numerous nice examples illustrating how one can achieve effects found in professional work. The book does not go into all the details, and assumes that you already know the basics - or that you are willing to put in the extra effort required to catch up. Adobe's CS3 Classroom in Book is a good way to come up to speed. CS3 WOW does a great job of showcasing what is possible with Illustrator, and is strongly recommended.

I didn't get beyond the first chapter of this book, which is simultaneously too macro and micro to really help a beginner in Illustrator who understands other products, like Photoshop. To quote a recently re-viewed Seinfeld episode, "It's a lot of fluff."

As an Artist, i have had deep respect for Bert monroys craft for some years.....only recently have i traded brushes for a stylus, and having come upon Revision3 and Berts video's...i was compelled to buy this book....i am not disappointed in any degree....having only a few months of illustrator ( self-teaching) i can't begin to describe the asset this book will become as i plug through......Thanks Bert......great book, and for the awesome art you create,.......

Truly, truly awful book. Mr. Monroy should be ashamed. If you know the first thing about art or photoshop you do not need this book. I sincerely regretted buying it .

This is a truly great book but Monroy has made a new book called "Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy" which is essentially an updated version of this book. I bet it would be a better buy.

Although the versions of Photoshop and Illustrator he discusses are much older than what's currently available, this book remains the best for tutorials on creating photorealistic drawings in both programs. I am in awe of his skills!

I picked this book up, looking on how to make more realistic, complex surface maps for my 3D models in LightWave. Should have bought this book when it first came out. Can't imagine were I would be if I had back in January 2000...

This is the first book that I've purchased that's helped me out in less then a week. By just sitting around the house and looking at a few pages, reading the text that goes with the images and I'm actually learn something. After reading the chapter on Metal and wood, then sat down I did a few things, and I have now awesome results.

Bert Monroy and company teaches you how to use tools in ways I couldn't imagine before. Sure, you're going to think to yourself- "I could have thought of that"... much like I did. But fact is, you didn't. He did and he put it in a book. Many books are too vague and get bogged down in theory. Other books are far too simplistic and do a good job of insulting the reader's intelligence. This book is the Goldilocks of PhotoShop How-To books... it's just right.

Illustrator was killing me at my classes at a design school. , the software is so powerful but difficult to master. Then I could buy this book ... and everything started to be clear and easy!

but where are the color pictures. Many of the illustrations comment on differences that can only be viewed in color but all are in black and white. This I will never understand.

This is one of the best tutorial manuals I have ever used. It is written in an easy to comprehend and "chatty" style, which makes you feel that "Sam" is right there with you whenever you switch on Illustrator 9.0 and start learning. I sped through the tutorials, which are fun to do and practice later on and whenever I need a refresher on a specific point I still turn to this definitive teaching manual. The only part that could have been better described was the construction of patterns and tiles. It took me a while to figure it out as the section was glossed over somewhat. The Adobe manual for Illustrator 9.0 comes into its worth only after you have grasped the basics and these are provided by working through this marvelous instruction book. In record time I was able to use Illustrator 9.0 for all our book cover artwork and design/publishing needs. Our finished product is "Accused By Facet-Eyes, A Classic Science-Fiction Novel" (C.B.Don) so you can take a look at what can be done once one has graduated from "Sam's Teach Yourself Illustrator 9.0" school! Highly recommended and essential...thank you Mordy Golding "Sam"!

I have been using Illustrator since version 5.5 and have always had difficulty understanding why it did some things differently from what I was expecting. I should have bought a Mordy Golding book years ago as it alone has given me the insight I needed to make this program do what I wanted it to do.

Once you have this understanding then the other books will help but I've found that most of them don't help you get that basic user experience and understanding of this program.

If Adobe wants users to switch from Freehand, it should be giving this book away with every crossgrade. It really is that good.

I have to say that for someone who has no illustrator skills and needs to learn illustrator for personal or professional purposes; This is the best way to start. It builds up your skills from going over the basic to explaining what every palette/window will do in a smart sequence. Other books are more like user guides that cover things without any order making it difficult to learn. After you read this book( it takes about a week to finish if you sit down everyday for a few hours) you will be able to start exploring how illustrator will benefit your needs. GOOD LUCK AND ENJOY THIS BOOK ITS LOTS OF FUN & EASY READING
SHIRLEY

And that's to say nothing of the inspiring examples that shows just what everyone's favorite PostScript editor can do. Truly inspirational. Worth every penny. If all computer reference books were as solid as this one, the world would be a happy place.

Great information, excellent layout, clear writing, brilliant examples -- this one is truly worth the price.

This is a great reference tool to be used in conjunction with other Illustrator References.

I can't figure out what all the fuss about concerning this book - I'm afraid I didn't find it particularly helpful. Yes, it does contain a large number of excellent illustrations from artists who obviously know how to get the best out of illustrator, but there is very little information on the techniques used to produce such illustrations for the novice user. As someone trying to get to grips with Illustrator, I would recommend Deke McClellands "Real World Illustrator 8" as a far better (and wiser) way to spend your money. It has an excellent hands-on approach to getting to grips with the complexity of Illustrator. Steuer's book will probably end up on my coffee table until I can get up to her level.

Let me start by saying that this is a beautiful book. I drool every time I flip through its pages. Imagine being able to do artwork of this caliber with a software program.

Unfortunately imagining is still all I can do after reading this book. The steps or processes given to accomplish what is shown just didn't help me get there. Some of the steps were outright ridiculous. It reminded me of a joke that went... "3 easy steps to make 5 million dollars: step one - Get yourself a million dollars" I won't tell the rest of the joke; you get the idea.

The odd thing about the book is that every time you pick it up and peruse it, you wish it would help you emulate the artwork shown. Too bad. Mind you, I wouldn't give the book up for anything. I love looking through it.

I guess the bottom line is buy this book if you want to see what can be done with Adobe Illustrator 8. If your already semi-pro at using Illustrator you most likely will gain more "Tips and Tricks" as the cover touts. For the rest of us it's 'too bad, so sad'.

Ilustrator Wow goes into great detail explaining Illustrator tools that an experienced Illustrator user can easily over look. The examples in the book encourage the reader to use these tools.

Many Illustrator users are quoted and have artwork featured in the book. As a cartographer, I was particularily glad to see how other cartographers do things - how David Nelson strokes lines on a map or how Steve Gordon has created a scenic background for one of his maps.

The accompanying CD has lesson plans, so that the book can be used as part of a class. The book really works for me as I try to improve my ability to draw 3D buildings. I can pick a section out of the book and try to recreate the examples or follow some of the extra lessons on the disk. When you have instructions provided in an Illustrator file (such as the ISO Actions sheet), you can recreate the drawing right next to the original step by step example. The book has many examples perspective drawings used for different purposes.

Like another reviewer mentioned, the book has fantastic illustrations, and I think these illustrations inspire the reader to try new techniques. While I ocassionally use a scanner when starting a project, this book motivated me to do more scanning.

I am not an artistically gifted person, so I was excited to see this book. I hoped, by the title, that there would be some good ideas for doing cool stuff with vector graphics in Illustrator and then optimizing them for the web with Photoshop, but I was sadly mistaken. The coolest elements of this book were the "60's Style" Conformed Text and the Text Following Path tidbits, but anyone with much experience in Illustrator probably already knows those things.

Do not get this book if you're looking for inspiration for web graphics.

As someone who's come to Photoshop and Illustrator from a tech background (I started out using them to design graphics for websites I was coding, and I'm now moving into using them purely for their own sake) I bought this expecting something high-brow and fairly abstract. Still, the reviews of past editions were good, so it must be worth a read...

However, on actually reading the book I was very pleasantly surprised to find...a recipe book. Lots of nice, step-by-step, two or three page descriptions of interesting graphical techniques you can apply, either to spruce up something you've already done, or as inspiration for something new altogether. Many of them are applicable to both Photoshop and Illustrator, and where appropriate instructions are given for both applications.

The techniques illustrated cover a wide range of subjects, from applying filters to photos to get a more painterly appearance to the creation of seamless textures, image compositing and the creation of semi-transparent object shadows in Illustrator. You'll almost certainly have seen some of them before (or arrived at your own ways to achieve similar effects) but there's enough in this book that you're sure to find something you'll want to add to your own list of techniques.

In a way this is "Photoshop 7 Down And Dirty Tricks" polite sister. The basic idea's the same (like I said, a recipe book) but the aim's slightly higher (i.e. improving your art, rather than impressing your boss). There's even some overlap in the techniques presented, although generally this book favours aesthetic results over flashy impact.

This book doesn't tell the reader where any of the controls, palettes, or windows are located or how to use them. Its title states "Professional Studio Techniques" and it means that. The book is written for PhotoShop v.5 and Illustrator v.8 and should easily provide inspiration beyond the current v.6 and v.10 of the two programs. Often the technical methods and processes discussed are relevant to achieving visual effects that express a particular mood appropriate for certain image types. Testing the methods in an experimental fashions to images of my own I have always achieve something of a satisfying innovative nature. In one sense the brevity of the authors explanations forces one to experiment and the nature of the illustrative art is meant to suggest creative possibilities. I came back to the book's web page in search of a newer edition I could purchase. Naught, so instead I wrote this review.

I'm not a professional graphic designer. But as a graphics enthusiast, and webmaster by profession, i take my occasional graphic design work quite seriously. As someone who is always searching for ways to use PhotoShop in better, more efficient ways, I found this book to be both helpful and inspiring.

Design Essentials is a very hands-on book, providing basic, short instructions, which familiarize the beginner and novice PhotoShop user with all the little tricks that transform an image from "nice" to "great", as well as providing the necessary explanations and "how-to" information on those tools beginners like myself still need to discover and maximize the full potential of.

Personally, i had a lot of fun both reading the book, and experimenting with its tutorials. I just wish I had a copy of Adobe Illustrator, since it seems like a wonderful tool.

It is an interesting book if you happen not to have the previous edition.
There are not too many new examples, these are added to most that appeared on 3rd edition. Sadly a compact narrow book format has replaced a more suited wide desktop size.
Techniques have not either got to far or up, is still somewhat basic and does not cover transparencies or other Illustrator 9/10 features.
A pity I went on holidays and could not return it on time. If you have have earlier book, look elsewhere.