A Comprehensive Guide_ Illustrator’s Paintbrush Tool and Brush Panel _ Vectortuts+

basix

Rype on Jul 15th 2011 with 54 Comments and 0 ReactionsThis entry is part 4 of 12 in the Guides to Illustrator Tools Session - Show All« PreviousNext »

A few times a each month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history ofVectortuts+. This tutorial by Ryan Putnam was first published on September 20th 2008.

Illustrator’s Paintbrush Tool (B) and Brush Panel are some of it’s most powerful tools. With the PaintbrushTool (B) and Brush Panel you can dress up your vector paths into compelling flourishes, patterns, taperededges, and more. In this tutorial, I will break down the basics of the Paintbrush Tool and Brush Panel andshow you how to create your own brushes.

Basically, the Paintbrush Tool (B) functions like the Pencil Tool, allowing you to click and drag to create apath. The difference is the Paintbrush Tool (B) applies predefined vector art to the paths you create. Thismight seem like a simple distinction, but using brushes will greatly improve you Illustrator productivity andhelps you create artwork you never thought possible.

Illustrator has four kinds of brushes. These various brushes offer a different kind of behaviors when appliedto a path.

A Comprehensive Guide: Illustrator’s Paintbrush Tool and Brush Panel |... http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tools-tips/a-comprehensive-guide-illus...

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The Calligraphic Brush creates a brush stroke that looks like it was scribed by a ink pen or paintbrush.With a Calligraphic Brush you can define a nib or pen point.

The Scatter Brush will define vector art as a brush. The Scatter Brush will then scatter copies of the artacross a path when applied to a path.

The Art Brush will define vector art as a brush. The Art Brush will stretch the art across a path whenapplied to a path.


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The Pattern Brush allows you to specify five defined patterns to a brush and then distribute along apath.

There are two ways you can use Illustrator Brushes. You can draw them with the Paintbrush Tool (B) or youcan apply them to an existing path.

Brush Tool: To draw a brush stroke with the Paintbrush Tool (B), select the Paintbrush Tool (B), chosea brush from the Brush Panel and start drawing.

Apply to Existing Path: Select the path and then select a brush from the Brush Panel.


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Double-click on the Brush Tool in the Tools panel to bring up the Paintbrush Tool Options. Below is abreakdown of the options.

Fidelity: Setting a low Fidelity will add more anchor points to your path. Conversely, having a higherFidelity will generate fewer anchor points in a path.Smoothness: Setting a higher percentage than 0 will smooth out paths.


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Fill New Brush Stroke: This option will fill the path once finished.Keep Selected: This option keeps the brush stroke selected after drawn.Edit Selected Paths: This option will let you edit a path on top of a created path within a certain pixelrange. The pixel range can be changed from the slider bar below the Edit Selected Paths checkbox.


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Keyboard Shortcut (B).Hold Shift to constrain movements to 45°, 90°, 135°, or 180° when creating brush strokes.Hold Option (Alt) to show the Smooth Tool.

The Brush Panel is where you can access the four brush types. The Calligraphic and Scatter Brushes will bedisplayed is a small thumbnail box, while the Art and Pattern Brushes are displayed in a horizontal rectangle(as long as the thumbnail view is selected from the drop-down menu of the Brush Panel). If your Brush Panelisn’t opened, go to Window > Brushes (F5) to open it.

Brush Panel drop-down menu: In this menus you can change the view of the brushes, select unusedbrushes, open other brush libraries, and more.Brush Libraries Menu Button: Click this button to open a drop-down menu to open other brushlibraries on your computer or save a set of brushes.Remove Brush Stroke Button: Click this button when a path with a brush is selected to remove the


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stroke.Stroke Options: Click this button to open the Stroke Options dialog for a particular selected brushstroke.New Brush: Click this button to create a new brush from the New Brush dialog.Delete Brush: Click this button to delete a brush from the Brush Panel.

Illustrator already has several preset Calligraphic Brushes, but you can use the following steps to create a newCalligraphic Brush.Unless you are working with a tablet, don’t change the settings for the Variations of the Angle and Diameteroptions. I won’t go into the pen tablet settings, but If you are using a drawing tablet, you can refer to my poston Vectips, Wacom Setting in Illustrator.

Click New Brush from the Brush Panel and select New Calligraphic Brush from the New Brush dialog.This will open up the Calligraphic Brush Options.

1.


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Change the name of the brush if you wish.2.

Angle: Type a value in the angle box. This value will determine the angle of the brush.3.


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Roundness: Entering a lower number than 100% will produce a flatter brush. Setting the Variation toRandom with a high value will create more variation in the roundness of the brush.

4.

Diameter: Entering a high value will create a larger diameter brush.5.

Click OK to save your new Calligraphic Brush.6.

To edit a preexisting Calligraphic Brush, double-click on the particular brush in the Brush Panel to bring upthe Calligraphic Brush dialog.


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Create some artwork for the Scatter Brush. Gradients and Effects cannot be used when creating aScatter Brush.

1.

Select all the created artwork and drag it into the Brush Panel. When the New Art Brush dialog opens,select New Scatter Brush from the options to bring up the Scatter Brush Options.

2.


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Size: Use the slider to define a fixed or random size of the art in relation to the original. If you want todefine a random size, select Random from the drop-down menu next to the Size sliders. You will needa pen tablet to utilize the other options from the drop-down menu. Again, you can refer to my WacomSetting in Illustrator article on Vectips.

4.

Spacing: Use the slider to define a fixed or random amount of spacing between instances of theartwork. If you want to define a random size, select Random from the drop-down menu next to theSpacing sliders. Again, refer to Vectips for pen tablet integration.

5.


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Scatter: Use the slider to define how far the artwork will scatter from the path the brush is applied to.Use the same option for Random settings and pen tablet setting as the Size and Spacing.

6.

Rotating: Use the sliders to define how much the art will rotate as the brush is applied to a path. Usethe same option for Random settings and pen tablet settings as the Size, Spacing and Scatter.

7.


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Rotation Relative To: Change this option so the art is relative to the page or relative to the path. Use thesame option for Random settings and pen tablet settings as before.

8.

Colorization: Set the colorization to None, Tints, Tints and Shades, and Hue Shift, depending on howyou want color added to the original stroke art color.

9.


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Click OK to save your new Scatter Brush.10.

To edit a preexisting Scatter Brush, double-click on the particular brush in the Brush Panel to bring up theScatter Brush dialog.

Illustrator already has several preset Art Brushes, but you can use the following steps to create an new ArtBrush.

Create some artwork for the Art Brush. Gradients and Effects cannot be used when creating a ArtBrush.

1.


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Select all the created artwork and drag it into the Brush Panel. When the New Art Brush dialog opens,select New Art Brush from the options, to bring up the Art Brush Options.

2.



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Direction: The Direction setting sets the orientation of the art in relation to the path to which the brushus applied. Select one of the four arrow to change this option. The blue arrow that appears in thepreview area allows you to see how the art will be drawn on a path.

4.


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Width: Change this value to define how large the art will display in relation to the path to which thebrush is applied. For the most part you want to check the Proportional box to keep the height-to-widthration unchanged as you scale the object to which the brush is applied.

5.


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Flip Along and Flip Across: These check boxes allow you to flip the art over the horizontal and verticalaxis.

6.


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Colorization: The Colorization options are the same as the Scatter Brush options.7.


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Click OK to save your new Art Brush.8.

To edit a preexisting Art Brush, double-click on the particular brush in the Brush Panel to bring up the ArtBrush dialog.

Pattern brushes are arguably the most difficult to master. A Pattern Brush can consist of five different patternswatches. You can use different artwork for the start, finish, side (center), inside corner, and outside corner.Creating a Pattern Brush with five pattern swatches requires you to create some pattern tiles. I will first goover creating a simple Pattern Brush then explain how to create a Pattern Brush with multiple patternswatches.

Create some artwork for the Pattern Brush. Gradients and Effects cannot be used when creating aPattern Brush.

1.


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Select all the created artwork and drag it into the Brush Panel. When the New Art Brush dialog opensselect New Pattern Brush from the options, to bring up the Pattern Brush Options.

2.



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Scale: The Scale determines how big or small the art is drawn on the path, relative to the size of the art.4.


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Spacing: The Spacing determines the amount of spacing between the art.5.

Flip Along and Flip Across: These check boxes allow you to flip the art over the horizontal and verticalaxis.

6.


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Fit: The Stretch to Fit Options makes a perfect fit across the entire path. The Add Space to Fit changesthe spacing of the art so it fits evenly across the entire path. The Approximate Path option changes thepath so it fits with the art.

7.


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Colorization: The Colorization options are the same as the previous brush options.8.


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You can create a Pattern Brush with multiple swatches to create banners, picture frames, and much more

Create some artwork for the Pattern Brush. Gradients and Effects cannot be used when creating aPattern Brush.

1.


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Define each separate element as an individual pattern swatch by dragging each element in to theSwatch Panel one at a time. It helps to name the pattern swatch after you created it. To do this,

2.


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double-click on the swatch in the Swatch Panel and renaming it.


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Click New Brush from the Brush Panel and select new Pattern Brush from the New Brush dialog. Thiswill open up the Pattern Brush Options.

3.

To add the swatch to the particular part of the path (start, finish, side (center), inside corner, and outsidecorner), click on the corresponding thumbnail at the top of the Pattern Brush Options dialog. Onceselected you can choose the appropriate pattern swatch from the list.

4.

Follow the rest of the options for creating a simple Pattern Brush and you will have a multi-swatchPattern Brush.

5.


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To edit a preexisting Art Brush, double-click on the particular brush in the Brush Panel to bring up the ArtBrush dialog.

Now that you have create a bunch of new brushes, you might want to save them so you can access them fromany new document you create. To save the brushes, click the Brush Libraries Menu and select Save Bushes.Name the brushes, and next you need them Click the Brush Libraries Menu, then choose your brushes underthe User Defined section.


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Use Scatter Brushes to quickly fill a page with random looking art.If you need to edit on instance of a brush, use the Stoke Options button from the Brush Panel. You canmake changes to a certain brush stroke without affecting the other strokes.You cannot use gradients in brushes, but you can use blends. You can create a blend that looks like agradient and create a brush out of it.

Below is a list of Free brushes around the web. I suggest downloading some of the brushes and figure outhow the creators made them and try to recreate them.

Vectips Watercolor BrushesVectips Sketch Brushes28 Free Illustrator Brushes for making Swooshes and Swirls35 Free Abstract Illustrator BrushesFree Illustrator Brushes: Ink/WatercolorVictorian Decoration Brushes50 Killer Retro Starburst Brushes50 Ridiculous Retro-Style Broken Line Illustrator BrushesIllustrator BrushesPaint Brushes Set 1Illustrator Brushes

Below you can download all the brushes created in this guide. Play around with the different brushes withdifferent shapes, colors, and paths. Work on recreating brushes, practicing, and experimenting, then you willbecome a brush master!


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Tags: Basix

By RypeRyan Putnam (Rype) is a professional vector illustrator and master of Adobe Illustrator. He runs the blogVectips.


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A Comprehensive Guide_ Illustrator’s Paintbrush Tool and Brush Panel _ Vectortuts+