Here you'll find a delightful variety of resources to help you create designs in Adobe

Illustrator with an authentic, hand lettered look! Created with three different types

of media (chalk, pencil, and ink) these amazing handmade assets will give you

everything you need for your next "handmade" digital design.

This helpful user guide has a few tutorials, tips, and tricks

to make your digitally "handmade" artwork as fun and easy as possible. Do you have

lots of questions? Or are you just ready to dive in? Either way, I hope you'll find the

answers you seek in this user guide.

Read this PDF first. If you've already taken a peek into the Brush

Studio, you've noticed that for each version of Illustrator (CS3-6) it is comprised of

three separate .ai files as well as three installable .ai libraries. Here's what you've got:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Click on a topic to learn more and explore

File Listing .................................................................................................................. 2

Art Brushes and Pattern Brushes ......................................................................... 3

Pattern Swatches ...................................................................................................... 4

Graphic Styles and Text Styles .............................................................................. 5

Ornaments .................................................................................................................. 6

Framing Elements ..................................................................................................... 6

Lettering Sets and Catchwords ............................................................................. 6

Tutorials ....................................................................................................................... 7

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FILE LISTING

• The Brush Studio-Brushes Patterns Swatches.ai

This file contains all the art brushes, pattern brushes, and pattern swatches. These can

be accessed via the brush panel or the swatches panel in Illustrator.

• The Brush Studio-Graphic and Text Styles.ai

This file contains all the graphic styles, as well as the styles developed especially for

text. These styles can be accessed via the Graphic Styles panel in illustrator. This file

also contains the brushes and patterns.

• The Brush Studio-Ornaments Lettering.ai

This file contains ornaments, framing elements, 2 stroke-editable "fonts," and 2 sets of

stroke-editable catchwords. I will go into more detail on these super-cool features of

the Brush Studio.

Add-On Libraries

• Libraries > The Brush Studio-Brushes.ai

This file is an Illustrator brush library, containing all art brushes and pattern brushes,

which can be installed into Adobe Illustrator to be used in any design or file.

• Libraries > The Brush Studio-Styles.ai

This file is an Illustrator graphic styles library, containing all graphic styles (including text

styles), which can be installed into Adobe Illustrator to be used in any design or file.

• Libraries > The Brush Studio-Swatches.ai

This file is an Illustrator swatches library, containing all the pattern swatches, which

can be installed into Adobe Illustrator to be used in any design or file.

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ABOUT THE BRUSHES

The Brush Studio contains two kinds of brushes that can be used in your designs: art

brushes and pattern brushes.

• Art brushes and pattern brushes can be accessed from the Illustrator Brushes Panel (Window

> Brushes).

• Art brushes and pattern brushes are found in the The Brush Studio-Brushes Patterns

Swatches.ai and The Brush Studio-Graphic and Text Styles.ai files. The brushes are

also saved as a brush library, The Brush Studio-Brushes.ai, which can be installed into

Illustrator.

• For more information about brushes and how to install them, check out this handy help page

from Adobe.

Art Brushes

Each art brush in the Brush Studio was created with a pencil, pen, or chalk, then was

scanned at high resolution and brought into Illustrator. Brushes can be applied to lines,

shapes or text in any color you choose, to add the next level of authenticity to your

designs.

• You'll notice that in each style (pencil, ink, or chalk) there are brushes of varying lengths. Pair

these brushes with lines of corresponding lengths for a more realistic handmade look.

• Each art brush is presented as a source file and a straight line with the brush applied.

• Some of the chalk art brushes are very bold and may need to be used at .5 pt or less on short

paths. Alternatively, use smaller brushes on shorter paths.

• On shapes where fill color is not an issue, use the Cut tool on the corner for more realistic

corner effects:

• Over large paths, brushes may lose their realistic look. For fun, check out this tutorial to

preserve a realistic brush look. (See TUTORIAL 1)

• Use art brushes with dashes built in (seen in the pencil and ink brushes) to create your own

vintage-style engraved look. (See TUTORIAL 2)

corner with cut tool used normal corner

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Pattern Brushes

Pattern brushes in the Brush Studio can lend a unique, artsy, handmade flair to paths in

your design. They are useful as framing elements and can also be used to draw fancy

borders around a design. The color of the pattern brushes change with your stroke color.

• Pattern brushes work well on many shapes, but are recommended for fairly simple paths and

shapes.

• Some of the pattern brushes are very large and may need to be used at .5 pt or less, depending

on your design.

ABOUT THE PATTERN SWATCHESThe Brush Studio contains seamless patterns that will be useful as alternative fills for vector shapes.

• Patterns can be accessed from the Illustrator Swatches panel (Window > Swatches)

• Patterns are found in The Brush Studio-Brushes Patterns Swatches.ai and The Brush

Studio-Graphic and Text Styles.ai files. The patterns are also saved as a swatch library,

The Brush Studio-Swatches.ai, which can be installed into Illustrator.

• Some patterns (especially the chalk patterns) may need to be scaled down for smaller shapes.

See TUTORIAL 3 for how to scale and rotate patterns.

• See how to change pattern colors in TUTORIAL 4.

• For more information about swatches and how to install them, visit this helpful page from Adobe.

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ABOUT THE GRAPHIC STYLES AND TEXT STYLES

The Brush Studio has a great selection of graphic styles to make your shapes and text take on a handmade feel.

• Styles can be accessed from the Illustrator Graphic Styles panel (Window > Graphic Styles)

• Styles are found in The Brush Studio-Graphic and Text Styles.ai file. The styles are also

saved as a swatch library, The Brush Studio-Styles.ai, which can be installed into Illustrator.

• Text styles work best on thicker fonts size 48 pt and higher. (To give you a base point, they

were developed on Myriad Black at 80 pt, but they also work well on thinner weight fonts at

larger sizes.)

• See how to change and scale graphic styles in TUTORIAL 5.

• Chalk styles are developed for dark backgrounds. You can put text with these styles on any

color background quickly and easily by changing the Blending Mode of the text to "Lighten."

If this is ineffective, go into the Appearance Panel to match colors to your background.

(See TUTORIAL 5)

• Ink and Pencil styles are made for lighter background. You can put text with these styles on any

color background quickly and easily by changing the Blending Mode of the text to "Darken" or

"Multiply."

If this is ineffective, go to the Appearance Panel to match colors to your background.

(See TUTORIAL 5)

Blending mode: Normal

Blending mode: Normal

Blending mode: Lighten

Blending mode: Multiply

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ABOUT THE ORNAMENTSThe Brush Studio has a variety of ornaments and flourishes to dress up your designs.

• Ornaments are found in The Brush Studio-Ornaments Lettering.ai file.

• Ornaments come out of the box with a chalk brush applied, as an example of use. Ornaments

are all stroke-based and therefore editable, so have fun applying different brushes, varying

stroke weights, and changing colors!

ABOUT THE FRAMING ELEMENTSThe Brush Studio comes with 13 different corner sets and 8 side ornaments to make it easy for you to add flourishing, handmade frames to your designs.

• Framing elements are found in The Brush Studio-Ornaments Lettering.ai file.

• Framing elements are all stroke based and therefore editable, so have fun applying different

brushes, varying stroke weights, and changing colors!

• See how to assemble framing elements in TUTORIAL 6.

ABOUT THE LETTERING SETS AND CATCHWORDS

The Brush Studio brings you something else you may not have seen before: two stroke-based "fonts," to which you can apply any brush of your choice. You'll also find that the two catchword sets will add the finishing touch to your designs.

• Lettering Sets and Catchwords are found in The Brush Studio-Ornaments Lettering.ai file.

• The two lettering sets (Studio Hand and Studio Hand Tall) are flexible and fun. Being stroke-

based, they are easily editable. Apply any brush of your choice, vary brushes for a completely

handmade look, vary strokes, change colors, and extend paths with the direct select tool.

• Catchwords are your pre-fab decorative connector words, which, like the lettering, are stroke-

based and super editable. Have fun with them!

• See how to place and use lettering sets in TUTORIAL 7.

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TUTORIAL 1 use dashed lines for more realistic brush paths

You'll notice that on long paths, a brush applied gets stretched out, sometimes to the point of losing its realistic quality. In this tutorial, I'll demonstrate a technique for preserving the realistic quality of a brush applied to a path.

USED: Chalk Bold 6 in The Brush Studio-Brushes Patterns Swatches.ai

1. Draw a path, fairly long, and apply a solid 1 pt stroke to it. The length of my path is 4 in.

2. Apply the brush of your choice. I've used Chalk Bold 6, and I took it down to 0.5 pt.

3. With your path selected, go to the stroke panel, check

[ ] Dashed Line, and enter a large number (such as one

from 50-100pt) followed by 0, then another large

number (different from the last) followed by 0. You

can fill in the remaining two fields if you want, but I've

decided to stop. My path looks like this:

4. With your path still selected, visit the appearance

panel. Add another stroke below the first one.

Click on the second "Stroke" and deselect [ ]

Dashed Line, then take the stroke down to 50% of

what the top stroke was (in this case, 0.25pt). Now

my path looks like this, and it's much more realistic!

CS6+

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In this tutorial, you'll learn a technique for using the "dashed" brushes to create a vintage engraved, shaded look.

USED: Pencil Brush 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A in The Brush Studio-Brushes Patterns

Swatches.ai; I also used a banner from The Banner Shoppe.

1. Draw a shape in a new Illustrator document. I used a Banner from The Banner Shoppe,

but you can use any shape. My banner is about 5.3" wide.

2. Draw two lines framing the area you are going to be "shading," like so:

3. With the two lines selected, create a blend by going to Object > Blend > Make... (If

you bought The Banner Shoppe, there are blends included in the product.) Here are my

blend settings:

TUTORIAL 2 use dashed brushes to create "engraved" shading

CS3+

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4. With your blend(s) selected, go to Object > Expand and check only [ ] Object.

5. At any point, you can change the stroke color. I changed mine to white. Now, using the

direct select tool, move points to vary the widths of the lines, like so:

6. Finally, apply a brush of your choice to each line. For best results, vary the brushes.

There are several "dashed" brushes in both pencil and ink, so you have several choices.

TUTORIAL 2use dashed brushes to create "engraved" shading - continued

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In this tutorial, you'll learn how to resize and rotate a pattern without changing the shape.

USED: Chalk Wide Lines - 1 White in The Brush Studio-Brushes Patterns Swatches.ai

1. Draw a shape, any size. Fill it with a pattern of your choice. I used Chalk

Wide Lines - 1 White. (For reference, my square is about 1 inch.)

2. Decrease or increase the size of the pattern within the shape: With the shape selected,

visit your appearance panel. Select "Fill" in the Appearance panel and go up to Effect

> Distort & Transform > Transform... Deselect [ ] Scale Strokes & Effects and [

] Transform Objects, but leave [ ] Transform Patterns checked. Under "Scale" at the

top, enter equal values for both Horizontal and

Vertical. If desired, under "Rotate," enter a degree

value to rotate the pattern. Click OK when you're

done. Since you've used the Appearance panel, the

transform effect you've just applied is "Live" and can

be changed and edited at any time!

TUTORIAL 3 how to scale and rotate patterns

CS4+

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TUTORIAL 4 how to change pattern colors

The Brush Studio offers a variety of handmade pattern swatches, in two colors each. Unfortunately, Illustrator CS6 doesn't have the power to control the base color of a 1-color pattern swatch with the click of a button. This tutorial demonstrates two techniques you can use to change the color of these pattern swatches.

USED: Chalk Wide Lines - 1 White in The Brush Studio-Brushes Patterns Swatches.ai

METHOD 1: The Recolor Artwork method

1. Draw a shape, any size. Fill it with a pattern of your choice. I used

Chalk Wide Lines - 1 White. Beside the shape, draw a small shape

(any size, and shape) and fill it with the color that you want your

pattern to be.

2. With both shapes selected, click the "Recolor Artwork" tool on the option bar at the

top. You'll see a menu with the colors found in your artwork.

If you hover over a color under "New," the tooltip will say, "Double click to edit color.

Drag to swap." Drag the new color into the pattern's current color. Click OK. Your pattern

color is now changed! In fact, Illustrator has just created a new pattern in the Swatches

panel in the new color. You can delete your "helper shape" and keep designing.

Color I want instead >

Current color of my pattern >

Click on this color...

and drag it to this color.

CS4+

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METHOD 2: Create a new swatch from the source

1. In the Brush Studio, source paths of each pattern are provided, along with a shape with

the pattern swatch applied.

Simply change the fill color of the source pattern to any color of your choice (you will

need to access the compound path/group from the Layers panel).

2. With the whole swatch selected (as illustrated above) drag the new swatch to the

Swatches panel. (The transparent squares are spacers and need to be included.) You

now have a new pattern swatch in a color of your choice!

TUTORIAL 4how to change pattern colors - continued

Source Source Patterns applied Patterns at 45°

Select this, and

change color

Then select this, to grab

the whole swatch

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The Brush Studio text effects were developed for thicker fonts size 48pt and higher, but they can be scaled down or up, based on your needs. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to change and resize text effects with and without using the Appearance panel.

USED: Chalk 10 (Style) in The Brush Studio-Graphic and Text Styles.ai

PART 1: Changing the text style

1. Create a new document, and in it, create a background in a color of your choice. From The Brush Studio-Graphic and Text Styles.ai copy a text layer with the effect of your choice (from the source) and paste it into your new document. I'm using Chalk 10, and I've pasted it into my new document. Let's take a look at the Appearance panel to see how the text effect is built.

• A roughen filter is applied to the whole effect. This can be

edited by clicking "Roughen." Other effects can be edited in a

similar way, just by clicking on the orange text.

• There are a number of fills and strokes, in a specific order, with

effects applied to each, also in a specific order.

• Each fill has its own color or pattern swatch, which you can

change by clicking on the little swatch icon next to "Fill."

• Each stroke has its own color, which you can also change. You can

also change a brush applied to a stroke by clicking on the stroke

and selecting the brush of your choice from the Brushes panel.

• The opacity of each fill/stroke can be edited separately.

TUTORIAL 5 how to change and resize text effects

CS3+

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2. changing colors: You'll notice that text styles were built with a certain background color in mind. In this case, for Chalk 10, the background defaults to black. You can change the text style to fit a background color of your choice with one of three ways:

• 1 - Manually change the fill/stroke swatches

that are black (circled in red) to match the

background color.

• 2 - Select the entire text layer (with the

effect applied) and use the Recolor Artwork

tool to change colors.

• 3 - Select "Opacity" at the bottom (circled in yellow - this is

the opacity that controls the whole text layer) and change the

blending mode to "Lighten" or "Screen."

• TIP: For this layer, there's a stroke shadow (circled in blue.) If

you wish to change the color of this stroke, I recommend using

method (1) or (2) above to match the background color.

PART 2: Resizing the styled text

3. Let's start over with the original text pasted in a new document. Again, I've used the Chalk 10 style, and it's set in Myriad Black, size 80pt. I'd like to make my text bigger, scaling the effects proportionally. There are two ways to do this, one live and editable, and the other non-editable:

• 1 - editable: With your type selected, visit the Appearance panel. Click on "Type" (circled in

green above) and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform... Under "Scale," enter

two equal values (such as 50%, 50%). Make sure [ ] Scale Stroke & Effects; [ ] Transform

Objects; and [ ] Transform Patterns are all checked. Click OK. You can now go back and edit

this transform effect at any time. It will appear at the bottom of the Appearance panel.

• 2 - non-editable: With your type selected, go to Effect > Distort & Transform >

Transform... Under "Scale," enter two equal values (such as 50%, 50%). Make sure [ ] Scale

TUTORIAL 5how to change and resize text effects - continued

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Stroke & Effects; [ ] Transform Objects; and [ ] Transform Patterns are all checked. Click OK. You

can't go back and edit this effect, but you can create a new style in the Graphic Styles panel.

• Tip: Most of the text styles in the Brush Studio have some degree of "Roughening" applied. The

larger you attempt to transform text effects, the more rough and dirty it may become. Depending

on the look you're going for, you may want to edit this effect separately.

TUTORIAL 5how to change and resize text effects - continued

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TUTORIAL 6 how to assemble framing elements

This tutorial will demonstrate how to use framing elements to create beautiful borders and frames for your designs.

USED: The Brush Studio-Ornaments Lettering.ai

1. Create a new document. From The Brush Studio-Ornaments Lettering.ai copy a set of framing elements and a side element (if desired) and paste it into your new document. Let's take a look at the Layers panel to see how the framing elements are organized:

2. After moving the corners to create the general size of your frame, placing side elements where you want them, etc, select the framing set and side element, and ungroup them (CMD / CTRL + SHIFT + G) until they can no longer be ungrouped. After that, group them together again. (CMD / CTRL + G)

< Here's the framing set, with each corner as a sub-group.

< Here's the side element

Here, my corners and side element are placed where I want them. The smart guides (CMD/CTRL + U) are very helpful for this.

CS3+

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3. Now I'd like to join my side element to the corner elements on each side. Deselect everything. With your Direct Select Tool chosen, select the two points you want to join. In this case, the two points are directly on top of each other. With the two points selected (circled in yellow,) right click and select "Join" (or CMD/CTRL + J).

4. Repeat this step for all the other points you'd like to join.

TIPS:

• Framing elements all have a double border which is the same distance apart on each framing

element set. When resizing, be sure to remember the percentage at which you resize the

framing elements, or resize them all together.

• Framing elements are all stroke-editable. Change the stroke color, stroke weight, brush, and

vary them all: have fun!

• Use smart guides (View > Smart Guides or CMD/CTRL + U) and the shift key to keep things

lined up and straight.

TUTORIAL 6how to assemble framing elements - continued

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TUTORIAL 7 how to use the lettering sets

This tutorial will demonstrate how to place and use the stroke-editable lettering sets in the Brush Studio.

USED: Studio Hand from The Brush Studio-Ornaments Lettering.ai

1. Create a new document. From The Brush Studio-Ornaments Lettering.ai select the characters you wish to use from one of the two lettering sets. (I used Studio Hand; see the letters I selected in yellow.) Copy these characters and paste them into your new document.

2. With the characters still selected, visit your Align panel and select "Vertical Align Center" to straighten them up.

3. Now, using the Shift key to keep things aligned, reposition the characters. Use the ALT/Option key to duplicate characters as necessary.

CS3+

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4. Now it's time to kern. (Type nerds rejoice!) Select all the characters, then in the Align palette, select "Horizontal Distribute Center," or "Horizontal Distribute Space." Last, use the Select tool with the shift key to manually clean up the kerning.

TIPS:

• Lettering sets are stroke-editable. Change the stroke color, stroke weight, brush, and vary

them all: have fun!

• Use smart guides (View > Smart Guides or CMD/CTRL + U) and the shift key to keep things

lined up and straight.

• Use the direct select tool on points, and move them up and down to create your very own

realistic-looking "hand-lettering."

TUTORIAL 7how to use the lettering sets - continued

Distribute spacing...

Manually kern!

I hope you enjoy using it. If you did, I'd really appreciate a review in the product

comments and a positive recommendation! If you have any questions, technical or

otherwise, please message me via Creative Market, Etsy, or my blog.

JOHN 3:16

VISIT MY BLOG | ORNAMENTS k GRACE | VISIT MY SHOP