Bayrunner.com BLOG

Illustrator is great for creating sharp clean graphics. I used to rely on Photoshop for creating simple seamless textures for typography, web, and illustration projects. Since the updates to the Appearance panel in CS4 and the updated crisp graphics for web in CS5, I create these textures solely in Illustrator and actually, it’s really easy! Tutorial Details Program : Adobe Illustrator CS5 (You should be able to create this tutorial in CS4 but some of the tutorial images might look different.) Difficulty: Beginner /Intermediate Topics Covered: Appearance Panel, Effects, Pattern Fills, Graphic Styles Estimated Completion Time: 15-20 minutes each Adding Texture in Illustrator If you have been working with illustrator for a while, you probably know that you can easily drop in a texture image, set it to multiply, and you are good to go

See the rest here: 
Creating Seamless Textures

The Perspective Grid Feature is a nice addition to Illustrator CS5 .

View original post here:
Quickly Toggle a Perspective Grid’s Visibility