Grouped Objects: I decided to group the trees and the stars in this picture. By grouping the objects, I could shift all of them around at once if necessary. I decided to move the trees around a little and having them grouped saved me a lot of time - I didn't have to move them individually.
Arrange Tool: I wound up using the arrange tool a fair amount during this project for the trees and the wildlife. I moved some of the trees to the back and to the front to have them overlap. I also make sure that the wildlife was pulled to the front.
Layers: At the end of the project, I had five layers. Background, sky, masked layer, flora, and fauna. Having a layer for each "part" of the project really helped me to stay organized. I made sure that I hid some of the layers from time to time to make it easier for me to see what I was working on. I love that you can hide the layers - it helped me a ton!
Deco/Spray Can: I used this tool to create the stars in the sky and the dots on the deer. For the star, I used the Polygon tool, used the Free Transform tool to resize the star, then saved it as a symbol. I then used the spray can, by adjusting the brush size, height and width to scatter the stars. For the deer, I made a circle in the color I wanted, resized it, then saved it as a symbol and sprayed it on the deer.
Curved Object: The moon in this picture is a curved object created with the oval tool. I stretched it into the shape I wanted, then rotated it using the Free Transform tool.
Folder Organization: I wound up with four folders. Background, sky, flora, and fauna. Any time I created a new symbol to use in the project, I would save it to the folders right away to keep myself organized.
Mask/Masked Layer Pair: I couldn't really decide what to mask, but I ended up masking the stars. I created an oval shape, then used the pen tool and bezier curves to distort it into a blob shape.
Other Tools: Other tools I used in this project were the polygon tool to make the triangles for the trees, the rectangle tool to make the trunks of the trees, and the gradient tool to add a gradient to my sky.
Managing Complex Graphics: As far as managing complex graphics on a single layer, organization is key for me. Things can get out of hand very quickly if I don't stay organized. Also, grouping like objects together makes it easier for me to keep track of everything.
Preferences: Even though I'm not a great artist, I still LIKE to draw. So my favorite tool is still the paint brush tool. I'm also very fond of the eraser and undo, lol! I'm hoping to get a Wacom pad soon - I think it will help instead of using the mouse. I'm also having a really great time experimenting with adjusting the Alpha in my drawings. He's very hard to see, being so small, but the bunny's face is actually my favorite part of this project. It came out just how I wanted it and I love the way he looks. Too bad he's so small!
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