Adobe Illustrator for Jewellery Design and 2D Technical Drawing

Adobe Illustrator is a long-standing graphic design tool that works with many of the same basic principles as the 2D elements of most CAD packages. It’s only natural, then, that it makes an ideal supplement for drawing 2D lines to be later turned into a 3D model, or even using it as a design tool in its own right for precise technical illustration or laser engraving images.

In addition, it contains tools for automatically making lines from existing bitmaps, making the transition from scanned image to 3D model even more efficient.

Adobe Illustrator for Jewellery Design –  Advantages and Weaknesses

Adobe Illustrator has been the gold standard for vector line design since the late 1990’s when it took market share Freehand and Corel Draw. part of the reason for this is that not only are the vector line tools stupendously fast (Indeed, there is no faster program you can use for vector line work), but many of the advanced curve attributes the program adds make illustrating certain types of jewellery wonderfully easy, such as anything involving chains.

All that being said, ultimately Adobe Illustrator is a 2D software package. While you can import and export vector lines to other 3D CAD programs, Illustrator sits in its separate category from the other tools discussed here. It’s the best in the business for 2D designers or jewellery draftsmen. But for most 3D CAD designers, it mainly serves as a design visualisation aid or a secondary CAD program.

There’s more to it than just that. Contact me to discuss the advantages of Adobe Illustrator relative to other jewellery CAD programs (and 2D design software), and whether Illustrator is the best 2D design software package for you.

To Learn More About Jewellery CAD/CAM

If this whets your appetite for learning more about how to use Adobe Illustrator for your jewellery design work, I can provide you with two options:

1. I offer one of the world’s only bespoke Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop courses for Jewellery Technical Drawing and Digital Painting, taking many of the elements of the standard Illustrator and Photoshop courses and tailoring them to suit a jewellery designer’s particular needs. Contact me to find out more about upcoming short courses or bespoke private tuition in Adobe Illustrator to suit your business needs and timetables.
2. You’ll find below a series of tutorial videos I’ve collected which can both help you get a feeling for what Adobe Illustrator is like to use, and also how to perform certain key tasks in the software.

Adobe Illustrator in Action

Selected Tutorial Videos

Tutorial Videos of My Creation

• Building a Chain Using the Pattern Brush

Tutorial Videos From Other Users

• Drawing Vector Lines with the Pen Tool
• Tracing a Basic Key Shape (part 1)
• Tracing a Basic Key Shape (part 2)
• Basic Uses For the 3D FX Filter – Making a Simple 3D Wedding Band
• Making Type Along a Curve
• Using the Gradient Mesh Tool

Valuable Non-Video Tutorials

• 15 Tutorials for Isometric Drawing and Projections in Illustrator