Hey Ho, David—

The biggest stumbling block, and I think I speak for several talented artists, is that vector graphics is unlike physical drawing, and it's unlike physical and digital painting.

The moment I started getting something out of a vector drawing program I felt was eye-pleasing was the day that:

1.) I stopped thinking about a mouse as a pencil. It's not. It's a point and click targeting device for the screen, and I'll tell you something—I'm left-handed and when I use a computer, I do so right-handed, holding the mouse in my right palm. But when I got back to a draughting board, I'm left-handed again. I think this is proof that there's a marked diffeence in approach between drawing and using a computer to design vector artwork.

2.) I stopped thinking of Pen and Pencil tools as their real world equivalents. They're not and if you try to design onscreen using the same approach as in the physical world, you're sunk. Vector art consists of a direction for a vector, how many segments it has to determine curve flatness, it can have a fill if it's a closed path, and the outline can have a width and color...and those are the basic parameters. All the other elegant tools in Xara—some of them draw bitmap effects to the screen, updating on the fly, while other tools are entirely bitmap in coding—Xara holds a bitmap copy of your work in memory or in a temp file, and then applies a bitmap Live Effect, and will update and change it based on your original art. Damned clever, but the more you know of the simplicity of vector design, the less Intimidation Factor, and ultimately, the more productivity and pleasure in designing cool stuff.

I'm glad you're using the forum as a defense against the Boredom Doldrums!

I can't afford to retire. Ever. And my greatest fear is I'll croak in the middle of writing a tutorial, and no one will be able to get to the final Step 7.

I'm kidding.

Cheers,

Gary