Jan 16
Creating simple Art Brushes in Illustrator
2008 at 02.12 pm posted by Veerle Pieters
Ever wondered how to create those popular, but elegant tapered lines? Or just simple lines that go from very thin to tick and back to thin? If you create an Art Brush for this, you’ve really done half the job already. So the good news is, it’s easy and it’s fast.
Create an Art Brush
- Select the the Circle Tool in the Toolbox
- Draw a circle
- Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow)
- Click the bottom point of the circle and drag it vertically down holding down the shift key (see screenshot)
- Select the object using the Selection Tool (black arrow)
- Drag the object in the Brushes palette (go to Windows > Brushes in case you don't see the palette on your screen)
- Select Art Brush in the window
Draw the arc/bow
- Double click the Arc tool in the Toolbox (under the Line Tool) if the Pen tool isn't your favorite tool
- Use Y-axis
- Click drag to draw a bow
- Select the new brush in the Brushes palette
- Adjust the Stroke width if needed
- Expand the object : Object > Expand Appearance
- It's now a fill, but there is still a stroke inside the shape
- Go to Outline mode (command/control + y)
- Delete the stroke using the Direct Selection tool (white arrow)
- Now you can fill the line with a gradient if you wish to
- You can duplicate, flip, scale this line etc. to have a combination of lines
My set of simple brushes
Here is my set of 3 simple brushes:
In case you're interested, you can download VeerlesArtBrushes.ai.zip
This article was inspired by Simeon Griggs from Rimfya.
Want to learn more?
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29served
1
Hey Veerle, always a pleasure reading your short but sweet tutorials! I must say I learned something today, thanks.
2
Nice! Extra brushes always come in handy
3
Cool tutorial. I always wondered how you could make such cool graphics in Illustrator. But using brushes is pretty easy I see :)
4
Many thanks Veerle, I did not know the funcion Arc Tool..
Nice tutorial!
5
Always a great read, Veerle! I love your site.
6
Veerle, Super stuff.
We have had some US Forum discussions recently on gradient (or psuedo-gradient) art brushes. The only good way is to create a blend and make brushes to creat a gradient-like effect. However, the application of such brushes (because the blend is a series of objects)gives a staggered/jagged look in the Illustrator document/window. These are smoothed out in saved jpeg/gif files though.
Better yet is to take brush strokes and gradients to InDesign and apply there. The application of the gradient is very smooth in InDesign. Furthermore, you can apply those gradients to fills/strokes and get separate gradient effects applied on dotted strokes (and the gap fills).
Cool stuff. Using Illustrator and InDesign could be a most powerful combination for applying art brush strokes. Maybe an extension to your work discussed here?
7
Thanks a lot for the share, very interesting stuff again!
8
Thanks for the morning inspiration. Still trying to figure out the brush tolerances settings (fidelity/smoothness). Kind of weird how they work.
9
Excellent tutorial…......thanks for the very nice work
10
moy magnifico
11
That looks awesome, I’ll surely try it out sometime :)
12
Aw shucks! This is a great method huh, and the ways you can experiment with it are endless!
13
Thanks. I have never taken the time to figure out how to do this, and you helped me learn it fast.
14
I’ve been subscribed to your blog for a few weeks/months now Veerle and just love these tutorials. Your work is fantastic and the fact that you share so much is inspiring! Keep up the great work!!
15
I was trying to figure out how to do this for a while and so I asked one of my friends if he new how to…He told me to go to this website called xtrain.com to take some online training courses about it. These courses really worked. I would recommend this site to anyone.
16
I am dreaming about it. Thanks for the simple steps!
17
That is some interesting stuff. Illustrator seems so foreign to me and intimidating, I am much more comfortable in Photoshop. But I keep giving Illustrator a shot. Cheers.
18
Interesting, I am not a big Illustrator fan for vector art, but this has definitely created some interest. Thanks
Cheers :)
19
Great article. It’s surprising how helpful a short little tutorial like this can be.
20
Thank you for this Article.
21
Nice brushes!
Great work!
22
Thanx for adding the downloads. I’ll give it try as soon as I’ve finished work ;)
23
Great tutorial
24
Super post and site! keep it coming!
cheers
-CH
25
Excellent tutorial! Thanks for sharing.
26
This site is amazing. Great USEFUL tutorial. I shall be using it in the near future. Again, great site!
27
Veerle,
Further to my earlier comment - I realized what a gem - worth its weight in gold - is the tip here about removing the expanded stroke from inside the shape.
A benefit to all!
28
Which version of photoshop are you using?
29
Sohbet said:
Duh! Did you read the title? It’s Illustrator :)