At least two layers

1. Layer1: Background created with geometric shapes (could be clouds, stars, flock of birds, or geometric patterns) using procedural/algorithmic/automated methods.
   
   
2. Layer2: Simple neighborhood with couple of houses, trees using simple geometric shapes (ellipse, triangle, squares) as a starting point
   

• Arc tool
  
  
• Spiral tool
  • Hold down the Arc tool to reveal the Spiral tool
  • Click and drag to draw spiral
  • What happens if you hold the shift key and draw the spiral?
  • Hit the up and down arrow keys
  • Spiral useful as part of a more complex shape (shape builder, pen tool, pathfinder).
  
  
  
• Rectangle tool (keyboard shortcut M)
  • Shift-key to make perfect square
  • Option-key to draw out the rectangle from the center. (Useful for alignment)
  • Dots on the corner: corner controls. Click-drag to round off the corner
  • Rounded Ellipse tool. Up/Down key to control roundness.
  • Double-click on corner to get detailed properties of shape.
  
  
  
• Ellipse tool
  • Hold Shift-key to create circle
  • Option-key to draw from center. Useful for aligning. (eg. Creating a target)
  
  
  
• Polygon tool
  • Up/Down key
  
  
  
• Star tool
  • Up/Down key
  • Cmd-drag
  • Option-key to reset angle
  • Shift key to constrain rotation

• Fill color
• Stroke color

(In photoshop, foreground and background)

Duplicating objects

• Copy and paste -- don't know where things get pasted!
• Option-drag: duplicate
• Option-drag THEN shift: to add constraint when duplicating
• Cmd-D: repeat previous action (in this case, copy)

Scaling tool

• As an interactive tool, scales from reference point
• Double-click and scale at specified percentage.
  • Copy option allows you to make scaled copy. Then Cmd-D to repeat.

Rotating tool

• rotates around the reference point
• Opt-drag to make copies while you rotate

Object -> Transform -> [...]

Free transform tool

Sheer

Object -> Transform -> Transform Each

Object -> Transform -> Blend

Option-drag with pen tool to bend lines

Objects -> Arrange to change ordering of objects

• Shape Builder tool (Shift-M, or in the toolbar)
  • draw straight line to combine into single shape
  • hold the option key to subtract shapes

To cut out shapes from another.

1. Select two objects.
   
2. Objects -> Compound Path -> Make
   

Window -> Pathfinder

Simple shapes into more complex shapes

• Unite: into one shape
• Minus Front: subtract the front from back
• Intersect: leaves only intersected area
• Exclude: exlude overlapping areas. (Opposite of intersect)
• Divide: divide shapes into pieces where they intersect.
• Trim: similar to divide but based on visible areas
• Merge: acts as a single shape
• Crop: crops foreground using the background
• Outline: converts into outline
• Minus Back: subtracts back from front