I can never remember how to make swirls in Illustrator. Every single time I do it, I have to reference this tutorial: http://www.bittbox.com/illustrator/illustrator-how-to-make-custom-swooshes-swirls-and-curls It is, by far, the best tutorial out there on swirls and swooshes in Illustrator. Making swooshes is actually pretty straightforward. Make a circle with the Ellipse tool, then convert one of [...]

HUGELY helpful Illustrator CS4 Transparent Gradient video: Video originally found here: http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/illustrator-cs4-gradient-annotator/