After you create a path using the Pencil tool or other drawing tool, you can use the Live Paint command or the Live Paint Bucket tool to convert the paths into a Live Paint Group that you can paint. Before you start using the Live Paint Bucket tool, it’s important to select the painting options that you want to use beforehand.
With the Live Paint Bucket tool, you can recolor a Live Paint Group. When you click an area formed by intersecting lines in a Live Paint Group, the Live Paint Bucket tool applies fill and stroke paint attributes. When you apply fill or stroke attributes, you’re actually recoloring faces (fills) and edges (strokes) and not the path itself. With the Live Paint Selection tool, you can select faces (fills) and edges (strokes) in a Live Paint Group. Before you start using the Live Paint Selection tool, it’s important to choose the selection options that you want to use beforehand. If you create a gap in a closed path in a Live Paint Group, the face (fill) of the object disappears. With the Gap Options dialog box, you can specify gap detection options to avoid this problem.
The Brushes panel allows you to draw with different brush tips, creating free style lines, shapes, patterns, and textures. There are four main categories of brushes: Scatter, Calligraphic, Art, and Pattern. You can use brushes that come built-in with Illustrator in Brush libraries or you can create your own. Illustrator’s paintbrush tool was designed to reproduce the visual effect of applying paint to an artboard. When you use a stylus and a pressure sensitive drawing tablet, the Paintbrush tool is pressure-sensitive too. You select brushes from the Brushes panel or other Brush libraries to use with the Paintbrush tool.
IL 2.6
The Pencil tool is exactly what its name implies...a pencil. If you like to draw freehand or sketch objects, especially with a drawing tablet, the Pencil tool is right for you. You can use the Pencil tool in several ways. You can draw new line segments to create a path, reshape a path, or add to a path. You can customize the way the Pencil tool works by setting preferences in the Pencil Tool Preferences dialog box.
Select the Pencil tool on the Tools panel.
Select a stroke color and weight and a fill of None on the Tools and Stroke panels.
Click the View menu, and then click Pixel View to view the drawing with attributes or click Outline View to view the drawing as lines (wireframe).
Use any of the following methods:
New Path. Drag in a blank area to create an open or closed path. To create a closed path, hold down Alt (Win) or Option (Mac) while you finish drawing.
Reshape Path. Drag along the edge of a selected open or closed path.
Add to Path. Drag from an endpoint of an open path.
Double-click the Pencil tool on the Tools panel.
Drag the slider or enter a Fidelity value (.5-20). Fidelity determines how far the mouse (or stylus) must move before an anchor point is added. A higher value creates fewer anchor points and a smoother path while a lower value creates more anchor points and a rougher path.
Drag the slider or enter a Smoothness value (0-100). A high value creates a smoother curve, while a low value creates more bends.
Select or deselect any of the following check boxes:
Fill New Pencil Strokes. Select to fill new paths with the current fill color.
Keep Selected. Select to keep pencil paths selected after you draw them.
Edit Selected Paths. Select to enable Reshaping for the Pencil tool within the specified pixel range (2-20).
To revert settings back to the defaults, click Reset.
Click OK.
IL 6.6
Live Paint allows you to fill open or closed paths by creating Live Paint Groups. After you create a path using the Pencil tool or other drawing tool, you can use the Live Paint command or the Live Paint Bucket tool to convert the paths into a Live Paint Group that you can paint. You can also convert a traced object from a raster graphic into a Live Paint Group, and then paint it. The Live Paint Bucket tool allows you to click an area formed by intersecting lines to apply fill (known as face) and stroke (known as edges) attributes. As you reshape the Live Paint objects, the paint attributes also change.
Create a drawing using any of the drawing tools or use the Live Trace command to create a path from a raster graphic.
For the best results, use a drawing with multiple intersecting lines that you can fill.
To create a Live Paint Group from type, click the Type menu, and then click Create Outlines to create path outlines.
To create a Live Paint Group from a symbol or blend, click the Object menu, and then click Expand to create paths.
Select all the paths using selection tools on the Tools panel.
Click the Object menu, point to Live Paint, and then click Make.
You can also click the Live Paint Bucket tool on the Tools panel, and then click the selected paths.
The paths are nested together into a Live Paint Group, which appears in the Layers panel.
Open or place a raster graphic in an Illustrator document.
Select the graphic that you want to trace.
You can also select a Live Trace object to change it.
Click the Live Trace button on the Control panel. If prompted, click OK.
Select all the paths using selection tools on the Tools panel.
Click the Live Paint button on the Control panel.
You can also click the Object menu, point to Live Paint, and then click Make.
You can also click the Live Paint Bucket tool on the Tools panel, and then click the selected paths.
The paths are nested together into a Live Paint Group, which appears in the Layers panel.
IL 6.6
With the Live Paint Bucket tool on the Tools panel, you can recolor fills and strokes in a Live Paint Group. Before you start using the Live Paint Bucket tool, it’s important to select the painting options that you want to use beforehand. You can quickly set Live Paint Bucket tool options by double-clicking the tool on the Tools panel. In the Live Paint Bucket Options dialog box, you set options to paint fills and/or paint strokes in a Live Paint Group. To make it easier to paint fills and strokes, you can also select the Cursor Swatch Preview option to display a color strip above the Live Paint Bucket pointer with the current or last color used along with two adjacent colors. In addition, you can specify a highlight color to make it easier to identify fill and stroke areas.
Double-click the Live Paint Bucket tool on the Tools panel.
Select the Paint Fills check box to paint fills with the Live Paint Bucket tool.
Select the Paint Strokes check box to paint strokes with the Live Paint Bucket tool.
Click OK.
If only Paint Fills or Paint Strokes is selected, you can Shift-click with the Live Paint Bucket tool to switch between painting fills and applying stroke colors and weight.
Double-click the Live Paint Bucket tool on the Tools panel.
Select the Cursor Swatch Preview check box to display a color strip above the Live Paint Bucket pointer with the current or last color used, along with two adjacent colors.
Select the Highlight check box to change the highlight color, and then select a color and specify a width.
To get helpful tips, click Tips.
Click OK.
IL 6.6
With the Live Paint Bucket tool on the Tools panel, you can recolor a Live Paint Group. When you click an area formed by intersecting lines in a Live Paint Group, the Live Paint Bucket tool applies fill and stroke paint attributes. When you apply fill or stroke attributes, you’re actually recoloring faces (fills) and edges (strokes) and not the path itself. Each edge can have a different color (even None) and weight. You can customize the way the Live Paint Bucket tool works by setting preferences in the Live Paint Bucket Options dialog box.
Select the Live Paint Bucket tool on the Tools panel.
Make sure the Paint Fills option is set in the Live Paint Bucket Options dialog box. Double-click the Live Paint Bucket tool.
If only Paint Fills or Paint Strokes is selected in Options, you can Shift-click with the Live Paint Bucket tool to switch between painting fills and applying stroke colors and weight.
Display a Live Paint Group object.
Select a fill color on the Swatches, Tools, or Control panels to use with the Live Paint Bucket tool.
If the Cursor Swatch Preview appears above the pointer, you can press the left or right arrow keys to select or display the next or previous color from the Swatches panel.
Point to the face that you want to fill. The face becomes highlighted.
Click an individual face or drag multiple faces.
Select the Live Paint Bucket tool on the Tools panel.
Make sure the Paint Strokes option is set in the Live Paint Bucket Options dialog box. Double-click the Live Paint Bucket tool.
If only Paint Fills or Paint Strokes is selected in Options, you can Shift-click with the Live Paint Bucket tool to switch between painting fills and applying stroke colors and weight.
Display a Live Paint Group object.
Select a stroke color, weight, or other attributes on the Strokes, Tools, or Control panels to use with the Live Paint Bucket tool.
To remove colors from stroke edges, select None.
Point to the edge that you want to change. The edge becomes highlighted.
Click an individual edge or drag multiple edges.
Double-click an edge to apply the current stroke attributes to all contiguous edges that have the same color and weight.
Triple-click an edge to apply the current stroke color and attributes to all edges that have the same attributes.
IL 6.6
With the Live Paint Selection tool on the Tools panel, you can select faces (fills) and edges (strokes) in a Live Paint Group. Before you start using the Live Paint Selection tool, it’s important to choose the selection options that you want to use beforehand. You can quickly set Live Paint Selection tool options by double-clicking the tool on the Tools panel. In the Live Paint Selection Options dialog box, you set options to select fills and/or to select strokes in a Live Paint Group. In addition, you can specify a highlight color for the selection. It’s a good idea to select a different color than the Live Paint Bucket tool; they are initially set to the same color.
Double-click the Live Paint Selection tool on the Tools panel.
Select the Select Fills check box to paint fills with the Live Paint Selection tool.
Select the Select Strokes check box to paint strokes with the Live Paint Selection tool.
Select the Highlight check box to change the highlight color, and then select a color and specify a width.
Click OK.
Select the Live Paint Selection tool on the Tools panel.
Display a Live Paint Group object.
Click a face or edge.
Shift-click to select or deselect additional faces or edges.
Do any of the following:
Fills. Select a fill color, gradient, or pattern.
Strokes. Select a stroke color, weight, or other attributes. Select None to hide stroke edges.
Delete. Press Backspace or Delete to remove the selected faces or strokes.
IL 6.6
After you create a Live Paint Group, you can use Isolation Mode to reshape, move, and add to the group. To make your group easier to select and modify, you can show a bounding box with star-filled selection handles around the path. If you no longer want a selected path, you can remove it using the Delete key. When you modify a path in a Live Paint Group, colors automatically refill and line segments reshape.
Select the Selection tool on the Tools panel.
Click the View menu, and then click Bounding Box.
Select a path or area in a group.
Click the Isolate Selected Object button on the Control panel.
Do any of the following:
Select the Selection tool, and then drag a handle to modify it or drag the path to move it.
Select the Direct Selection tool, click an anchor point, and then drag to modify the segment.
Click the gray bar above the document to exit Isolation Mode.
Select the Selection tool on the Tools panel.
Click the View menu, and then click Bounding Box.
Select a path or area in a group.
Click the Isolate Selected Object button on the Control panel.
Draw the path that you want to add to the group using drawing tools on the Tools panel.
Click the gray bar above the document to exit Isolation Mode.
You can also draw a path on a layer, select the new path and the Live Paint Group, and then click Merge Live Paint on the Control panel.
Did You Know?
You can expand a Live Paint Group. Select the Live Paint Group, and then click Expand on the Control panel. Now, you can edit individual components of the Live Path Group path.
You can release a Live Paint Group. Select the Live Paint Group, click the Object menu, point to Live Paint, and then click Release. Now, you can edit individual components of the Live Path Group path.
IL 6.6
If you create a gap in a closed path in a Live Paint Group, the face (fill) of the object disappears. With the Gap Options dialog box, you can specify gap detection options to avoid this problem. You can select a predefined gap size or enter one of your own along with a gap preview color.
Select the Direct Selection tool on the Tools panel.
Select a Live Paint Group.
Click the Gap Options button on the Control panel.
Select the Preview check box to view your changes as you set options.
Select the Gap Detection check box to enable the feature.
Click the Paint Stops At list arrow, and then select a gap option.
Select the Custom check box to specify a custom size.
Click the Gap Preview Color list arrow, and then select a color.
Click the Close gaps with paths button to apply these settings to the document.
Click OK.
IL 6.4
The Brushes panel allows you to draw with different brush tips, to create free style lines, shapes, patterns, and textures. There are four main categories of brushes: Scatter, Calligraphic, Art, and Pattern. You can use built-in brushes that come with Illustrator (stored in Brush libraries) or you can create your own. Sometimes it’s hard to find a brush. To make it easier, you can use the Options menu to change the panel views. Brushes are live, which means that any previous use of a brush can be updated when you change the brush.
Select the Brushes panel.
Select a path with any of the selection tools.
To change the Brushes panel view, click the Options menu, and then select any of the following view available options:
Show Calligraphic Brushes, Show Scatter Brushes, Show Art Brushes, or Show Pattern Brushes
Thumbnail View
List View
Click the Brush Libraries Menu button on the panel, point to a brush category, and then select a brush library.
Click a brush in the library panel to add it to the Brushes panel.
You can also drag a brush from any brushes panel onto a path to apply it.
Click a brush on the Brushes panel to apply it to the selected path.
IL 6.4
Illustrator’s paintbrush tool was designed to reproduce the visual effect of applying paint to an artboard. When you use a stylus and a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet, the Paintbrush tool is pressure-sensitive too. You select brushes from the Brushes panel or other Brush libraries to use with the Paintbrush tool. You can customize the way the Paintbrush tool works by setting preferences in the Paintbrush Tool Preferences dialog box.
Double-click the Paintbrush tool on the Tools panel.
Drag the slider or enter a Fidelity value (.5-20). Fidelity determines how far the mouse (or stylus) must move before an anchor point is added. A higher value creates fewer anchor points and a smoother path while a lower value creates more anchor points and a rougher path.
Drag the slider or enter a Smoothness value (0-100). A high value creates a smoother curve, while a low value creates more bends.
Select or deselect any of the following check boxes:
Fill New Brush Strokes. Select to fill new paths with the current fill color.
Keep Selected. Select to keep brush paths selected after you draw them.
Edit Selected Paths. Select to enable changing an existing path with the Paintbrush tool within the specified pixel range (2-20).
To revert settings back to the defaults, click Reset.
Click OK.
Select the Paintbrush tool on the Tools panel.
Select None for the fill color.
Select the Brushes panel.
Select a brush on the panel.
You can also click the Brush list arrow on the Control panel, and then select a brush.
Do any of the following:
Open Path. Drag to draw a path that doesn’t connect.
Closed Path. Drag to draw a path, and then Alt+drag (Win) or Option+drag (Mac) to close it.
IL 6.4
Scatter brushes disperse copies of an object along a path. You create a scatter brush from a path, compound path, type character, or type outline. When you use a scatter brush, the brush is applied using a fixed or random method along a path. You use a similar method to create and edit a Scatter brush. You use the Scatter Brush Options dialog box to set the options that you want.
Select the Brushes panel.
Do one of the following:
Create. Select one or more objects, click the New Brush button on the panel, click the New Scatter Brush option, and then click OK. Enter a name for the brush.
Edit. Deselect any brushes, and then double-click a Scatter brush.
For the Size, Spacing, Scatter, and Rotation options, click the list arrow, and then select one of the following options:
Fixed. Enter a single fixed value.
Random. Drag sliders or enter a range for variable value.
Pressure, Stylus Wheel, Tilt, Bearing, or Rotation. Drag sliders or enter values when using a drawing tablet.
Specify the following options:
Size. Determines the size of the scatter objects.
Spacing. Determines the spacing between the scatter objects.
Scatter. Determines the distance between the path and the objects.
Rotation. Specifies the rotation range relative to the page or path.
Click the Method list arrow, and then select an option:
None. Retains colors from the Brushes panel.
Tints. Changes black areas in the brush stroke to the current stroke color.
Tints and Shades. Changes colors in the brush stroke to tints of the current stroke color.
Hue Shift. Change the current stroke color to the Key color and change other colors to hue colors. Select the Key color that you want.
Click OK.
If the brush is being used, an alert appears.
Click Apply to Strokes to apply the modified brush option to existing strokes or Leave Strokes to apply the modified brush only to new strokes.
IL 6.4
Calligraphic brushes resemble strokes you create with a Calligraphy pen. When you use a calligraphic brush, it applies the brush to the center of the path. You use a similar method to create and edit a Calligraphic brush. You use the Calligraphic Brush Options dialog box to set the options that you want. The options include Angle, Roundness, and Diameter.
Select the Brushes panel.
Do one of the following:
Create. Select one or more objects, click the New Brush button on the panel, click the New Calligraphic Brush option, and then click OK. Enter a name for the brush.
Edit. Deselect any brushes, and then double-click a calligraphic brush.
For the Angle, Roundness, and Diameter options, click the list arrow, and then select one of the following options:
Fixed. Enter a single fixed value.
Random. Drag sliders or enter a range for a variable value.
Pressure, Stylus Wheel, Tilt, Bearing, or Rotation. Drag sliders or enter values if using a drawing tablet.
Specify the following options:
Angle. Enter a value (−180 to 180) to specify the angle of rotation for the brush.
Roundness. Enter a value (0-100%) to specify the roundness of the brush. Drag a black dot in the preview away from or towards the center.
Diameter. Drag a slider or enter a value (0-1296 points) to specify the diameter of the brush.
Click OK.
If the brush is being used, an alert appears.
Click Apply to Strokes to apply the modified brush option to existing strokes or Leave Strokes to apply the modified brush only to new strokes.
IL 6.4
Art brushes create artistic strokes when painting. When you use an Art brush, it stretches a brush shape or object shape evenly along the center of a path. You use a similar method to create and edit an Art brush. You can use the Art Brush Options dialog box to set the options that you want. The options include: Direction, Size, and Flip Along or Flip Across.
Select the Brushes panel.
Do one of the following:
Create. Select one or more objects, click the New Brush button on the panel, click the New Art Brush option, and then click OK. Enter a name for the brush.
Edit. Deselect any brushes, and then double-click an art brush.
Specify the following options:
Direction. Select an icon to specify the direction of the artwork in relation to the line.
Size. Enter a width relative to the original width. Select the Proportional check box to keep the artwork scaled.
Flip Along or Flip Across. Select to change the orientation of the artwork in relation to the line.
Click the Method list arrow, and then select an option:
None. Retains colors from the Brushes panel.
Tints. Changes black areas in the brush stroke to the current stroke color.
Tints and Shades. Changes colors in the brush stroke to tints of the current stroke color.
Hue Shift. Changes the current stroke color to the Key color and changes other colors to hue colors. Select the Key color that you want.
Click OK.
If the brush is being used, an alert appears.
Click Apply to Strokes to apply the modified brush option to existing strokes or Leave Strokes to apply the modified brush only to new strokes.
IL 6.4
Pattern brushes paint with a pattern. Pattern brushes work the same way as Scatter brushes; however, they follow the path exactly, while Scatter brushes don’t. You use a similar method to create and edit a Pattern brush. You use the Pattern Brush Options dialog box to set the options that you want. The options include Scale, Spacing, Tile Buttons, Flip Along or Flip Across, and Fit.
Select the Brushes panel.
Do one of the following:
Create. Select one or more objects, click the New Brush button on the panel, click the New Pattern Brush option, and then click OK. Enter a name for the brush.
Edit. Deselect any brushes, and then double-click a pattern brush.
Specify the following options:
Scale. Enter a value to adjust the size of tiles relative to the original size.
Spacing. Enter a value to adjust the spacing between tiles.
Tile Buttons. Select to apply different patterns to different parts of a path.
Flip Along or Flip Across. Select to change the orientation of the artwork in relation to the line.
Fit. Select an option to adjust the size of the tile.
Click the Method list arrow, and then select an option:
None. Retains colors from the Brushes panel.
Tints. Changes black areas in the brush stroke to the current stroke color.
Tints and Shades. Changes colors in the brush stroke to tints and shades of the current stroke color.
Hue Shift. Changes the current stroke color to the Key color and changes other colors to hue colors. Select the Key color that you want.
Click OK.
If the brush is being used, an alert appears.
Click Apply to Strokes to apply the modified brush option to existing strokes or Leave Strokes to apply the modified brush only to new strokes.
As you create and edit brushes in the Brushes panel or add them into the Brushes panel from other brush libraries, it’s important to save them in a brush library if you want to use them again in the future. You can create your own brush libraries by using the Save Brushes command on the Options menu. The Save Brushes command saves all the brushes currently in the Brushes panel, so you need to delete the ones that you don’t want in the library. In addition to deleting brushes in the Brushes panel, you can also remove brush strokes from objects.
Select the Brushes panel.
Do any of the following:
Delete from Object. Select the objects with brushes that you want to remove, and then click the Remove Brush Stroke button on the panel.
Delete from Brushes Panel. Deselect all objects, select the brush you want to delete, and then click the Delete Brush button on the panel. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
If the brush is currently being used in objects, click Expand Strokes to convert the brush to paths or click Remove Strokes to remove them from the objects.
Select the Brushes panel.
Display the brushes that you want to save in the Brushes panel. Remove the ones that you don’t want.
Click the Brushes Libraries Menu button, and then click Save Brushes.
Enter a name for the brushes library.
Click Save.
To open the brush library, click the Brush Libraries Menu button, point to User Defined, and then select the saved library.
Illustrator provides Liquify tools on the Tools panel that allow you to distort a path quickly and easily with the click of a mouse. The Liquify tools include Warp, Twirl, Pucker, Bloat, Scallop, Crystallize, and Wrinkle. All the tools are grouped together in the same slot on the Tools panel. The tools work the same way, they each apply a different distortion effect. You can change the way each tool works by selecting options in the tool’s Options dialog box, which you can open by double-clicking the tool on the Tools panel. Some of the common options you can change include brush dimensions.
Select the liquify tool (Warp, Twirl, Pucker, Bloat, Scallop, Crystallize, or Wrinkle ) that you want to use on the Tools panel.
To change tool options, double-click the tool on the Tools panel, specify the options that you want, and then click OK.
The options vary depending on the liquify tool
Position the cursor (which changes to a circle with a crosshair in the middle) over the path that you want to change.
Click and/or drag to apply the distortion to the path.
