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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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About The Author: admin

Hi. I'm the founder of Vector Diary. Illustrator is my passion and I have written numerous tutorials on illustrator helping people learn illustrator. My most popular tutorial on learning illustrator in 30 days has been a hit. It makes learning illustrator so easy and has benefited more than 20,000 people worldwide. Also, I've revealed some of my secret techniques in the premium tutorials. So don't forget to check it out!

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+Add Comment16 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?

  11. Gravtar for Piyush Agarwal
    Piyush Agarwal January 25th, 2009

    Hey thr…
    thanks a lot, created ones own brush was a great tip…

  12. Gravtar for Tissaka Senarath
    Tissaka Senarath February 28th, 2009

    Awesome.. thank you so very much.. very easy to understand.. thanks!

  13. Gravtar for weza zizo
    weza zizo March 22nd, 2009

    thank u so much , awesome one

  14. Gravtar for the coke
    the coke March 24th, 2009

    Esta muy bueno, muestra lo mas util y practico…paso a paso, no da chance a perderse! Genial, me encanta, que BUENOS tricks!

  15. Gravtar for Manuel Ruperez
    Manuel Ruperez August 8th, 2009

    Thank you very much :)

  16. Gravtar for budi santoso
    budi santoso November 6th, 2009

    ohh very helpful for me as beginer, thank you very much

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