One of my biggest obstacles is working with “highlights” and “shadows” in Illustrator. This is not an issue with Photoshop. PS, intuitively, is similar to a real life situation, where you can “draw in” the shadows or “erase” the highlights. Whether it is a photograph or an image, shadows and highlights can be drawn in on a “non-destructive” level, mask, or using layer styles, blending modes and even channels.

However, the problem in Illustrator, for me at least, is twofold: First, “highlights” and “shadows” are “objects” and require a different mindset than working in PS or drawing an image by hand, and second it seems like professional illustrators use so many different styles and computer methods for drawing-in their highlights/shadows that I am finding it hard, especially as an Illustrator newbie, to find one that works with my type of image.

My favorite highlight/shadow styles are the following: triangles (see Nick Diggory, http://www.nickdiggory.com), woodcut style (Doug Panton, http://www.dougpanton.com and Daniel Pelavin, http://www.pelavin.com) and the combination of line and triangle style (see Louis Fishauf, http://www.fishauf.com).

These artists and others are featured not only in the Adobe Master Class book, Illustrator Illuminated, by Barbara Obermeier but in the now defunct Illustrator Techniques magazine that has been incorporated into Layers Magazine.

You currently highlight an artist and his/her work at the beginning of each chapter of Layers Magazine, but I would love it if you could share with us through either Layers Magazine or Layers TV those special tips that make Illustrator images go from that flat coloring book look to multidimensional professional images. It would be great if you demonstrated a style (in detail)…maybe once a month(?) Thanks.