I remember the joy - and the realization of a thousand things - that went off in my head that very first time I did the pen tool thing correctly and seemed to realize "oh...ah, okay...I get it!". And I was off and running. But it took a book (
The Illustrator 5.0 Bible by Ted Alspach(!), which I still have somewhere) and reading (see?) how to use that.
No Internet, no YouTube, etc. You went to Waldenbooks or somewhere like that (uphill, in the snow, both directions, etc.), desperately sought out a book about Illustrator (or QuarkXPress*
), hoped it was the same version you were using, and paid $23.99+ for the privilege.
It's much easier/nicer now.
Off-topic (click to toggle):
*I talked (okay, lied) my way into my very first paying graphics/DTP gig back in March 1994. I'd used PageMaker in school, moved to California, applied to work at an office/business supply place, doing flyers and other documents using QuarkXPress. Lied my ass off that I'd used it and was "proficient" with it - never even touched it - got hired (hey, they should've tested me...their fault!), was told to come in/start Monday, immediately left there and went to Fry's Electronics in Orange County and bought the biggest QuarkXPress book I could find and spent the entire weekend "learning" it, just from reading (I didn't have QuarkXPress on my brand-new Quadra 610 Mac). Between that book, and about a week or so of "trial by fire", on-the-job learning, I never ran into any problems and my ruse/bullcrap was never discovered. In fact, I wound up showing/teaching my co-worker things about the program that she didn't even know or use.
Once I realized the person "training" me knew even less than I did, I relaxed and knew I was safe.
And that's when I realized how far being full-of-shit, and confidently so, can carry you. I talked myself into a job I was in no way qualified for, at first, making twice as much as anything I'd ever earned back in Tennessee and surrounded by three absolute vixens eight hours a day! I loved the 90's.  |