Creating symbols, gradients and blending modes.

Matching colours in a subtle way, going for good blending - for gradients

Use symbols of round rectangle etc

Use effect --> convert to shape\

path - the same as those under object path

Effect --> warp - very useful for industrial design.

Distort and transform are the most useful. Free distort is like free transform in photoshop.

Preferences - scale stroke - go into -object --> path and outline stroke

Roughen - very abstract

Pucker and bloat - pucker changes anchor points

Gradient - can be radial or linear - this is good for the colour of the eye.

Remember for eyes, not to go too round - don't forget the eye lids!

To change colour of gradients, double click and change, decide how many tones you want to blend between. To get rid of a colour, just click and drag. Gradient sliders indicate the amount of colour.

If you want a highlight, use white in the middle and make it a sharp gradient

Blending modes - 2 shapes, select both - object --> blend --> make. This blends one shape to the other. This can be released in the same place. Can got to blend modes 0 go to smooth, can decide how many steps you want - more steps is smoother.