#adobe illustrator help

Ok so,,,,

I’ve been desperately trying to get myself to do more vector art for the last idk how many years, and finally sat down and tried again yesterday.

AND HOOOO BOYYYYY did I forget how frustrated it makes me .^.

(It’s me being punched by illustrator and affinity)

Everything I make just looks so gd awful and I just feel like I’m probably doing everything in the most inefficient way possible (especially just Line art) :’-)

So, basically:

I would really appreciate some advice / tips on how best to use vector based illustration apps if anyone has any???

Genuinely anything, even the most basic “this is literally common sense but for some reason you might not have thought about this (because you sound dumb)” would be so helpful right now - I am getting so frustrated (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

Any advice at all would be so hugely helpful and I will love you forever

(Honestly, thank you if you’ve even read this far - I’m going to stop rambling now)

Ta!

today was hell on earth trying to figure out adobe illustrator, it was my first time using it as an actual program and. holy shit i'm so glad my boss gave me so much leeway to make this????

i think the features i'm most intrigued about knowing how to use are:

getting BETTER at using shapes (those wheat grains. travesty)

the masking...? it feels like such an important/overlooked tool to me in my process for making these simple logos

the pen tool pisses me off, it should NOT be that hard to figure it out but that swirl in the coffee is making me die inside LMAO

overall, i felt like i really got somewhere today!