Let us now open our Good Book to Chapter 3, Page 92: Drawing with the Pen Tool. We read: "Drawing with the Pen Tool is the most powerful tool in Illustrator's arsenal because you are dealing more directly with Bezier curves than with any other tool…" And who was Saint Bezier? A Doctor of the Church of Computer-Aided Design. He was a Frenchman who lived from 1910 to 1999, a true saint of the twentieth century. It was Monsieur Bezier, an engineer and mathematician, who came up with the equations that allowed curves to be drawn with four points: two "anchor points" and two "control points" connected to "handle" lines. The math is simple enough that even I can more or less understand it. All computer-aided line drawing programs have their origin in this sort of mathematical discovery.You can see an illustration of the Bezier curve equations at this site.

I sit hunched over my little white Macintosh laptop, pushing my mini mouse around. I am determined to learn Adobe Illustrator. Professional graphic designers do not use CorelDraw on a PC, as I have been doing for fifteen years. They use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on a Macintosh. So here I am with SoyMac, in my usual methodical, step-by-step learning style, going through a book which will teach me to use the professional program. The book actually is named a "Bible." It is the Illustrator CS Bible," by Ted and Jennifer Alspach. I also have a companion volume in the same series (perhaps the Koran? The Avesta?) dealing with Adobe Photoshop. These modern Scriptures, written and perused with as much devotion as a holy text, will teach me, by chapter and verse, how to use the software by which God, the Author of All Mathematics, created the visual world.

I have already learned how to use the Pencil and Pen tools, and am now about to learn how to use the Brush Tools. It doesn't matter that I know how to use a "real" fiber brush. I must now translate that technique into the drier structure of a stylus and digital tablet or a mouse. Illustrator/Photoshop gives you great freedom in what you can do visually, but it also limits my vision to a little screen full of pixels, however high their resolution. I'm still waiting for the Universal Painting Monitor where you can create work right on the screen with an electronic brush. These exist, but are beyond my budget or modest computer power. I have another software program, the impressive Painter 9, which provides more "natural" painting effects that artists in traditional media will recognize. Currently I'm not working with it, because I want to learn Adobe. But when I'm through with my Bible study and am up to speed on the Macintosh, I will return to Painter 9 and upgrade it to Painter 10, which has just been released this week.

Meanwhile I am drawing lots of shapes and lines on the Mac's screen, and filling them with pleasant colors from the electronic palette. Some of these shapes, drawn by the "Pen" tool, can be filled in so that they look like abstract, "jazzy" 50's graphics. Back in those old days, the graphic designer had to draw them all by hand using French curves, bendable ship's curves, and rulers. Now an Adobe user (and a Corel user as well) can toss these off in a few minutes, with the nonchalance of a beret and a swizzle stick. Now I'll try the "Spiral" tool, which is grouped with the Pen, the Straight Line, and the Arc tools. Here's Pythagoras' Golden Spiral, pre-fab on a mystical machine from the Gods. Now I want to try a Chambered Nautilus, or a spinning atom, and I fool with the Spiral parameters….
Suddenly my doodle page disappears, replaced with the Mac desktop and an apologetic message, which says something like, "Adobe has encountered difficulties and had to close." Wait a minute, I thought Macintosh, and Adobe, didn't do things like that. Macs don't crash, they just pout. As a Windows user, I'm used to "restarting." I guess I'll have to restart Adobe, but not right now; I've had enough religion for tonight.

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