There are many different Adobe Illustrator techniques out there today.  Below is a video of a digital artist showing us step by step how to make a vector metal lighting bolt icon on a leather background.

The Adobe Illustrator techniques used in this video can be used in many different ways.

Taking a photo and applying Live Trace to it is a great Adobe Illustrator technique.  This gives you more freedom to manipulate the photo in Illustrator as a vector element.  Try different kinds of photos, like black and white, with different Live Trace settings and see what happens.  This is a great Illustrator technique to practice.

Another Illustrator technique used is creating metal like objects.

This technique makes the viewer feel like they are looking at something metallic. It is great for use in creating logos, icons, text and anything else that you would like to have a metallic feel to.

By combining different Illustrator techniques tastefully you can achieve a higher quality feel to your artworks.

When different techniques are combined in a complementary way, this adds depth and interest to your artwork.  When designing your next project try to combine two or more Illustrator techniques.

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Discover How To Make Backgrounds With Illustrator
Creating Logos With Illustrator

Robyn’s Comment
This video covers some great basic Illustrator techniques. I have used these techniques many times in many different ways in my artwork.