My Pencils

     For this project, I began by using the tutorial to learn how to make the pencil.  During the tutorial I started to look away from it and figure out the shapes myself, only checking it to make sure I had the right dimensions.  This process helped me discover more about Illustrator on my own and retain more of what I was learning.  When it became time to make my creative pencil, I remembered how to create it and how to use the live paint bucket tool to customize it.  I decided to make a huge pile of pencils with 2 in the cup because I feel like it represents me well: I am very messy and
unorganized sometimes, but I'm trying to figure it out.

    My biggest takeaways from this project were all about being more comfortable and knowledgeable with Illustrator.  I learned how to rotate a shape to create my flower, and, more generally, how to use the tools and settings in Illustrator to turn basic shapes into really cool objects.  I also learned many shortcuts, such as command+G is how you group something, and also how to create a cylinder using two different pieces in order to manipulate it more easily.