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Day 8: Using Brushes


Using the Brush Tool, you can add styles to your lines. It can also be used to mimic calligraphy, crayon and brush strokes. This will help you add more life to your line works.

Applying Brush Stroke

Select the Brush Tool and draw your object. Then go to your Brushes Palette and select the crayon brush to apply the effect.

pear stroke

Calligraphy Brush Stroke

To apply a calligraphy brush stroke, draw your path and select the calligraphy brush. Increase the Stroke to make it thicker.

Calligraphy Brush Options

To make changes to your calligraphy brush, you can double click the Calligraphy Brush to pop up the calligraphic brush options. Drag the brush to change the angle in the thumbnail. Change the Diameter makes it thicker.

Create a Border Pattern

Draw a rectangle and pick the border pattern. This will create a frame for it.

Creating a New Pattern Brush

To crate a new brush. Draw a Star and drag it to the Brushes Palette. A New Brush selection appears. Choose New Pattern Brush for it.

Applying Pattern Brush

Draw a circle and apply our new brush stroke.

Next draw a line path and apply the brush stroke. Double click the star brush from your brushes and set Scale and Spacing to 20% to get the effect below.

Brushes are very good for aligning objects and creating borders. So experiment with it and have fun!

Next Lesson: Creating Compound Paths »
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3 Trackbacks

Illustrator, aprender illustrator en 30 dias | Illustrator, aprender illustrator en 30 dias
July 29th, 2008 at 1:48 am

Design Blurb » 16 “Sketchy” Illustrator Brushes | Design Blurb » 16 “Sketchy” Illustrator Brushes
August 30th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

Gün 5: Pen Tool ile Çizme | Grafilate - Photoshop Sanat? | Gün 5: Pen Tool ile Çizme | Grafilate - Photoshop Sanat?
October 26th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

+Add Comment10 Comments

  1. Gravtar for ArtConch
    ArtConch August 7th, 2008

    woohoo I can now make my own brushes, another excellent and easy to understand lesson, tyvm

  2. Gravtar for Khawla
    Khawla August 10th, 2008

    Good lesson! Thanks :)

  3. Gravtar for haksma
    haksma August 19th, 2008

    just wanted to say thank you for having this great 30-day tutorial. i have wanted to learn illustrator for a while but it has always seemed too daunting to take on. you have made it really simple and easy to learn. thank you! ^_^

  4. Gravtar for tra my
    tra my August 24th, 2008

    Thank you for the excellent lessons, really helpful!

  5. Gravtar for Leroy Simpson
    Leroy Simpson August 26th, 2008

    blood claat man dis lesson is good to understand. jah love

  6. Gravtar for emily
    emily August 30th, 2008

    i’m not jamacian but i second what leroy says…i’m loving (and learning!) these lessons

  7. Gravtar for Vectordiary
    Vectordiary August 30th, 2008

    Thank you for your support!

  8. Gravtar for Robin
    Robin November 1st, 2008

    This is awesome! Great lessons!

  9. Gravtar for Bassma
    Bassma November 26th, 2008

    Great website and Great way of Explanation….Thank You so much

  10. Gravtar for Jakob
    Jakob December 30th, 2008

    First of. great tutorial. nice organising it and making everything seems easy doing

    but i have trouble. how do you use the brushes on a picture i’ve taken with my camera?

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Vectordiary is a blog on vector illustration. It was created by Tony Soh who is an exclusive vector art contributor to iStockphoto. Tony will be sharing with you some of his techniques on using illustrator for his artwork.

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