Illustrator Brush Basics Tutorial Author - bedlam123 (http://forums.biorust.com/member.php?userid=5021)

ILLUSTRATOR'S BRUSHES are an illustrator's dream. They combine the ability to draw variable, freehand brushstrokes or apply a pattern or objects to a path with all the advantages of vector graphics - i.e. small file sizes, resizability, and crisp output.  To new users, however, they can be a little confusing.  If you have followed our Introduction to Illustrator and need to learn a little more about basic brush functions, then you have definitely come to the right place!
 

Overview There are two ways to work with the brushes: Choose the Paintbrush-tool & a brush and draw a shape right away with a brushstroke built-in, or apply a brushstroke to an existing path. To change the contour of a brushstroke, you can use any tool or command you'd normally use to reshape a path (Reshape, Pencil, Smooth, Erase, Add-anchor-point, Convert-anchor-point, etc.). Brushes come in four flavours: scatter, calligraphic, art, and pattern.  They are stored on and accessed from the Brushes palette. The brushes that are currently on the Brushes palette save with the document. If you modify a brush that was applied to any existing paths in a document, you'll be given the option via the Brush Change Alert dialog box to update those paths with the revised brush. To update those paths click the triangle located at the top of the Brushes palette and select Brush Options. You can now update the paths and/or create your own brush(es). The brush dialog box on your screen will depend on the type of brush you have selected to change/create. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the options, play with the sliders, and watch as your brush changes with the selections you make. When you have made your final changes, click OK. The next pop-up is the Brush Change dialog box. The choices are Apply to Strokes, Leave Strokes, or Cancel. This alert gives you the option to change your mind before finalizing the brush.

To Draw With The Paintbrush-Tool Choose the Paintbrush-tool and choose a fill of None (i.e. as in the image on the left). If your Brush palette is not open go ahead and open it now by selecting Window > Show Brushes and click on a brush type. Draw on your artboard with the brush. I selected the Fall Leaf. A path created with the Paintbrush-tool can be reshaped using the Pencil or Direct-Selection tool.  This is all fairly easy, but forms the basis of a great deal of Illustrator's core functionality and flexibility.

To choose settings for the Paintbrush To choose paintbrush settings, double-click the Paintbrush-tool from the toolbar (or  choose the tool and then press Return/Enter). The Paintbrush-Tool Preferences dialog box will pop-up. Take the time to look at the dialog box. Under Tolerances you have two choices; Fidelity and Smoothness. Choose a Fidelity value, the range is from 0.5 to 20. A Fidelity value below 5 will produce a path very close to the way you drag the tool. A high setting will produce a smoother path with fewer anchor points that only approximates the path you drag. Choose a Smoothness value, the range is from 0 to 100. The Smoothness value is a measure for the amount of curvature the tool creates in the path. The higher the Smoothness, the fewer the irregularities in the path. At the bottom of the dialog box are two options; Fill new brush strokes, and Keep Selected. Check the Fill new brush strokes box if you want new paths to be filled with the current fill color. Check the Keep Selected box to keep the newly drawn path selected. If you would like to return the dialog box to default status, then click the button on the right hand side directly underneath the Cancel option. Click OK or Return/Enter and the dialog box closes.

To remove a brushstroke from an object Select the object(s) that you want to remove the brushstroke from. I am using a fish. Open the Brushes palette, if not already visible on your artboard. From the Brushes palette click the Remove Brush Stroke icon located at the bottom of the dialog box. It is the icon with the diagonal line drawn through it.  Once you have removed the stroke you are left with a path and nothing else.

To apply a brushstroke to an existing path From the main menu bar select Window > Show Brushes, if not already open to open the Brushes palette. The brush I have on my artboard is a fish, and I will change my brushstroke into a ladybug scatter brush. Now drag the ladybug brush onto an existing path of the fish. The path does not need to even be selected beforehand. Release the mouse when the hand pointer is directly over the edge of the object. Another way to do the same thing; select a path of any kind (except a type path), then click a brush on the Brushes palette. A type path won’t accept a brushstroke, but you can convert type into outlines and then you can apply a brushstroke to the outlines.

To create or modify an art brush You can create an art brush from one or more objects, including a compound path, but not a gradient, gradient mesh, or mask. When it’s applied to a path, an art brushstroke follows the shape of the path. If you reshape the path, the art brushstroke will stretch or bend to conform to the new path contour. To create a new brush, select one or more objects. Let’s create some text to use for this exercise.  Because this is type we will need to convert the text to outlines, and we can do that by going to the main menu bar and selecting Type > Create Outlines. Now go ahead and drag the outlines onto the Brushes palette, click the New Brush icon located at the bottom of the palette and click New Art Brush from the pop-up New Brush dialog box. The Brush Options dialog box should now be on screen. Take some time to look at this dialog box: At the top of the dialog box is a section for the Name. If this is a new brush, then go ahead and give it a new Name. If it is an existing brush, there will already be a name showing. I am naming this brush BIORUST. On the right hand side is a section called Direction with 4 arrows; left, right, up, down. These buttons control the orientation of the object on the path. The object will be drawn in the direction the arrow is pointing. Select the up arrow. Below Direction you find the Size section. This is the width to scale the art brush. If you want to preserve the original object’s proportions you should check Proportional. Another section you may want to try out is the Flip. If you check Flip Along it will reverse the object on the path (left to right). Check Flip Across to reverse the object across the path (up and down). Colorization is at the bottom of the dialog box and you have 4 choices; None, Tints, Tints and Shades, & Hue Shift. I am leaving the Method as None. Click OK and take a look at what you have now.  There is no change to the object on the artboard, but the Brush palette now contains a new brush called ‘Biorust.’ Deselect the current artboard object by clicking away from it and then click on the new brush you created and drag it to the artboard. This new brush has now changed direction to up and down reflecting the change we made on the Brush Options dialog box.

To expand a brushstroke When you expand a brushstroke it is converted into an ordinary object. If you then change the original brush, you won’t have the option to update the brushstroke on the object. From the main menu toolbar select Object > Expand. In the Expand dialog box select the Object or Stroke option and deselect the Fill option. I am selecting the Object option. Click OK. The brushstroke is now a separate object(s). Again go to the main menu toolbar and select Object > Ungroup, this will separate the brushstroke object(s) from the original path. To test this, click away from the object on the artboard, then click on the path. Where did the path go? It is still there, just not visible.

Preparing an Image for Use As a Brush Take a look at the image below. In order to use it as a brush we first need to get rid of any illegal elements, such as gradients, masks, and dynamic brushes. The mountains, flat waves and whitecaps contain elements that we need to expand. If you want to follow along in Illustrator yourself, you can download the source files here. Open your layers palette and lock all the layers except the Houses layer. Houses layer should be active. Select the entire image (Win: Ctrl+A, Mac: Cmd+A). Choose Object > Expand. In the dialog box check expand Object, Fill, and Stroke, click OK, then lock the layer. Unlock and make active Whitecap layer. Select entire image, just as you did previously. Again we choose Object > Expand. Expand the Object, Fill, and Stroke, click OK. Lock the layer. Unlock and make active Flat Waves layer. Select entire image. Choose Object > Expand. Expand Object, Fill and Stroke. Lock the layer. Unlock and make active Boats layer. Calligraphic strokes are here and they also must be expanded. Choose Object > Expand. Expand Object, Fill, and Stroke. Lock the layer. The image does not look any different, but Illustrator now will let you create a Pattern brush from it.  In the Brushes palette drop down menu, choose Select All Unused. Then from the same drop down, choose Delete Brush. Click on OK to the warning message. Unlock all the layers, select the entire image, and drag the entire image into the Brushes palette. In the New Brush dialog box select the Pattern Brush. Go ahead and name the brush “Image Brush”. Leave the Scale at 100% and change the Colorization method to Tints And Shades. Be sure to save the document as SSBRUSH.ai and go ahead and close the document. Now let’s create a new Illustrator document. Choose File > Document Setup, we will need to change the orientation of our document to Landscape mode (wider than long). Turn on the Rulers (Win: Ctrl+R, Mac: Cmd +R). Drag a guide from the top ruler to the 5 ¼ inch mark on the left vertical ruler. Set the Fill color to None and the Stroke color to 50% black and select the Pen tool. Click on the left side of the guide where the guide meets the image margin. Now press Shift and click on the guide where it meets the right edge of the document. Yes, you will be going past the margin on the right side. Turn off the Rulers and choose View > Clear Guides. Select Window > Brush Libraries > Other Library. Select the file you created and saved as SSBRUSH.ai and choose the stroke you selected. Click on Image Brush. Choose the Selection tool and click on the artboard. Use the arrow keys to move the image into position top to bottom. Go ahead and stretch the path a bit if you need in order to make the image fill the document area inside the margin guides. Experiment with changing the Stroke color to change the coloring of the entire image. When you drag the Stroke selection slider, you will see different monochromatic color schemes, choose the one you like best. And that's all there is to basic brush functions in Illustrator.  Have fun!  :)