Illustrator Brushes - Scatter and Artistic

Installation of the Illustrator brushes CS5 CS4 CS3 CS2 CS1 etc tutorial

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The designs are native format files (version 8 or 10 in some cases).

The files may be placed in the presets brushes folder (though they can be located in a different folder). The designs are then accessible via the palette / libraries menu.

The brushes are displayed in their own library as below. At this point you cannot change or manipulate the brushes but as soon as you select a brush from the library then it is added to the document's own palette and can be modified in multiple ways

How to convert artistic into scatter brushes in Illustrator tutorial?

Once you have opened the file and have the Illustrator brushes available in the palette, select the artistic stroke and drag the design from the palette onto the artboard. You can then modify the brush design and drag the design back into the palette and select the scatter

option

1) select item in palette

2) drag from the palette to the artboard

3) drag back to the palette

4) Select the scatter option

You can at that point set all the options: size, spacing, scatter, rotation, colorization as well as settings such as pressure and random

Pattern brush Illustrator tutorial

1) Drag design to brush palette (use one of the existing designs from the palette)

2) click OK

3) Set as original in pattern list

4) set scale, etc

5) Give a name to the brush

6) OK

Now you can add the design to any other path i.e. circle design

The example above shows the elliptical stroke applied as a pattern brush to a basic circle

Now, you can change the angle of the brush by dragging the original design from the palette to the artboard and then rotate the design by 90 degrees and then re-add the design to the palette. Select that brush in the palette to get the result below

You can change the scaling and pattern of the brush via the palette - a simple change can create a very different end result

How many types of Illustrator brushes can I create?

You can create calligraphic, scatter, artistic, bristle and patterns. All the brush design options have their own features, quality and options. The pattern tool and scatter and artistic tool can be created using paths. Bristles strokes are more limited and offer a variety size / length / density / thickness etc but bristle brushes are great for more realistic strokes than earlier brush types.

There are also blob brushes but the blob stroke is available via a separate icon in Illustrator and creates its own unique brush strokes.

Example of a blob brush below - the stroke is filled with the current foreground fill and this can be set to a gradient or pattern swatch so you can always use the brush designs (convert to a swatch) as a source for a blob fill.

The blob brush can also have a standard scatter / artistic stroke added as below.

1) select blob brush tool

2) apply the tool

3) go to the brush palette

4) apply one of the scatter / artistic designs

5) double click to change the width etc

The stroke applied can also be modified even further such as adding color or tinting or modifying the actual shape of the stroke via the width profile dropdown or by using the width tool to manipulate the size of the stroke at particular points along the blob design

How can I modify the color ?

The design will take the current color of the stroke setting if the colorization method has been set to something other than 'none'. You can find out the colorization setting by clicking the Illustrator brush in the palette. If set to none, simply set the method to tint / tints and shade / hue shift. Sometimes a brush works best with a colorization of none. It really depends on what you want to achieve with the brush stroke.

example of a brush stroke from the brushes collection applied to a text shape (use the appearance palette to apply a new stroke and then add the brush to that)

Frames and Illustrator brushes

Use the design as a quick way of making a frame. Select a square or circle design and apply the stroke to obtain an instant frame design. You can also, of course, simply select the paint tool and then apply the brush in a general shape of a frame and then position the frame over the underlying object.

Illustrator Brushes and opacity

The designs can be applied using 100% but they can be applied using 40% etc opacity or 10% opacity. Use the paint tool at different opacities to create more realistic strokes.

1) Select brush

2) Set opacity via the top bar to 40%

3) Apply paint tool

4) Re-apply over and over, overlapping strokes etc

5) Creates marker / pencil like brush strokes

Does have a tendency to create a lot of paths and complexity though. You might like to group the brush paths together using the object menu > group command enabling you to move the brush strokes as one. You can then apply various filters or warping tools to warp the entire brush set in one go.

As well as using opacity to create 'realistic' brush strokes, you can also go to the transparency palette and then set the brush strokes to different blending modes such as darken or difference to create even more brush stroke designs. Some settings work better than others when it comes to brushes and blending modes though.

Symbols and Illustrator

Drag a stroke from the palette (or apply the brush to a path) and then drag the path or design back into the symbols palette, a great way of creating a symbols collection. The brushes sets come with tools to convert a large selection of brushes to symbols.

Warp and Illustrator strokes

Drag the stroke from the palette, apply warp tools to the stroke or perspective to modify the design. On completion, re-save as a new paint stroke.

Live Trace for Illustrator and brushes tutorial

Use Illustrator stroke with live traced images to add a dash to any image

1) File > place

2) Select image file

3) Click the live trace command (on selected image)

4) Use live trace preset or change settings as required

5) Click expand

6) Apply brush from palette (might require some changing of settings, tints etc as required such as changing the scattering settings, size, scattering, rotation - random etc as this will create a vast array of different designs even from a basic set of brushes)

Illustrator Scripting and strokes

The Illustrator brushes can be accessed by scripts (Javascript or Visual Basic Scripts) but the range of settings is fairly limited and includes options such as apply the brushes to a path. You cannot modify the brushes in scripts at present. If you want to find more about the scripting in Illustrator then I would suggest checking out the Adobe Illustrator SDK site as that includes all the Javascript commands and VB script commands.

Modifying the brush strokes in Illustrator tutorial

Modify the artwork stroke by expanding and re-saving as a new stroke to create unique designs

1) select the paintbrush tool

2) select stroke from the palette

3) Apply stroke design

4) image > expand appearance

The path can now be modified, ungrouped, edited and re-colored as well as adding additional paths (or removing parts of the path)

5) drag the new design back to the palette and save

Overlay Illustrator strokes in Illustrator tutorial

The strokes can be applied but to create a 'realistic' brush stroke. You can also modify the transparency of the design and apply multiple strokes. Apply with different blending modes and different opacity settings to create realistic designs and illustrations

1) take a stroke from the palette and drag to the artboard

2) set the opacity to less than 100%

3) copy and then paste the design and apply above the earlier stroke

4) Set the stroke to a new value

5) duplicate multiple times and set the opacity as required (but less than 100%)

6) Select all the created strokes and drag to the brush palette to save as a more realistic stroke

Text and strokes for Illustrator tutorial

One thing I love to do is use text as a brush. Simply create some text and drag to the palette and save as scatter, doesn't work as artistic unless you convert the text using the create outlines or expand command.

1) Select the text tool

2) Set font

3) Set size

4) Set color of text

5) Apply

6) Object > expand

7) Save as artistic brush via brushes palette

8) Apply brush (perhaps setting tint etc settings as required)

Eraser tool and Illustrator

Must admit I never think of it as a brush but it is still a brush and it is a useful tool at times. Select a path and then apply the eraser tool to cut through a path such as a blob brush stroke. It also comes with virtually the same option set as the calligraphic tool, which clearly it is but in the 'negative'. It is a totally useless tool though if you have no paths in the document! Does require the path to be selected. I would love to see the eraser brush to be extended to be a variant of the scatter and artistic tool so you could erase using the realistic or abstract art designs. The other tools such as the smooth tool and pencil tool though in a sense are brushes, they are nothing like the scatter or calligraphic etc strokes.

Width tool and Illustrator brushes

The new CS5 width tool brings yet another wow feature to Illustrator strokes and you can apply the width profile / tool to the scatter as well as artistic and other brushes.

How can I apply the stroke to an Illustrator path?

Select an Illustrator path and then go to the palette (found in the window menu) and select a stroke. The design will then be applied to the path, though the result will depend on how complex the path design is.

How can I use an Illustrator brush stroke to create a frame?

You can always just apply the design in a general shape of a frame, perhaps repeat strokes or apply the in a single pass. You can also apply the brush stroke to a rectangular path or circular path.

How can I use the brush with width profiles in Illustrator?

The width profiles work well with the strokes. Apply the design and then go to the width profile dropdown (along the top bar of Illustrator) and select a width profile. The profile will change the artistic / pattern brush strokes in a variety of ways creating sharper or more surreal brush designs. You can also, once you have applied the width profile, modify the profile and the Illustrator brush stroke by using the width tool (shift + W). Use the width tool to distort or modify or straighten a stroke.

How do I convert Illustrator brushes to, say, symbols or swatches?

You can certainly do that with the strokes and it is fairly easy. Similar to the conversion of artistic and scatter strokes, you can simply open the brushes palette and select the design and drag to the artboard. You can then use the brush design to create an Illustrator symbol or Illustrator pattern. You can also export the design to another application by using the various export command such as export to PNG or export to SWF (for Flash) or you can always use the good old pasteboard or clipboard by using the copy command. Saving the brushes to symbols and swatches should be fine, though it is not always as easy to do the reverse and create brushes from swatches etc as sometimes these contain elements that brushes cannot use and an error message will appear

How to create a bigger brush stroke?

The paths in Illustrator are vector designs so they can be small or big. One quick easy way to create a bigger stroke - without changing the stroke width - is simply to drag the stroke from the palette and re-scale the design and place the design back into the palette.

Brush Direction of the Illustrator brushes

Modify stroke / direction and more via the brush palette. To change the direction of the brushes, click the direction button in the brush palette.

In some cases, there will be little actual displayed change -- though in some cases, the stroke will change radically. Experiment.