Difficulties with Illustrator

I started working on  my project and it's been really difficult to work with Illustrator partly because I'm not too experienced with it. I feel like a lot of the actions I'd like to do require Photoshop or I just have to google where those action items are. I want to break down a portrait of myself and have different sections be filled with different art mediums. I can do this by layering and using the art effects that Illustrator has. I am hoping to get used to Illustrator since the project is due Thursday and I have to make sure everything turns out the way I want it to.