Types of brushes

You can apply brush strokes to existing paths, or you can use the Paintbrush tool to draw a path and apply a brush stroke simultaneously. You can change the color, size, and other features of a brush, and you can edit paths after brushes are applied (including adding a fill).

There are five types of brushes that appear in the Brushes panel (Window > Brushes): Calligraphic, Art, Bristle, Pattern, and Scatter. In this lesson, you will discover how to work with all of these except the Scatter brush.

Applying a Calligraphic brush to artwork

To get started, you’ll filter the types of brushes shown in the Brushes panel so that it shows only Calligraphic brushes.

1. Choose Window > Brushes to show the Brushes panel. Click the Brushes panel menu icon (), and choose List View.

   

   Note

   A checkmark next to the brush type in the Brushes panel menu indicates that the brush type is visible in the panel.

2. Click the Brushes panel menu icon () again, and deselect Show Art Brushes, Show Bristle Brushes, and Show Pattern Brushes, leaving only the Calligraphic brushes visible in the Brushes panel. You can’t deselect them all at once, so you’ll have to keep clicking the menu icon () to access the menu.

3. Select the Selection tool () in the toolbar, and click one of the curved pink paths to select it. To select the rest, choose Select > Same > Stroke Color.

4. Select the 40 pt. Flat brush in the Brushes panel to apply it to the pink paths.

   

   Note

   Similarly to drawing with an actual calligraphic pen, when you apply a Calligraphic brush, such as the 40 pt. Flat brush, the more vertically the path is drawn, the thinner the path’s stroke appears.

5. Change the Stroke weight to 3 pt in the Properties panel.

6. Click the Stroke box in the Properties panel, make sure the Swatches option () is selected, and select White. Press the Escape key to hide the Swatches panel, if necessary.

   

7. Change Opacity to 20% in the Properties panel by clicking the arrow to the right of the value and dragging the Opacity slider.

   

8. Choose Select > Deselect and then choose File > Save.

Drawing with the Paintbrush tool

The Paintbrush tool allows you to apply a brush as you paint. Painting with the Paintbrush tool creates vector paths that you can edit with the Paintbrush tool or other drawing tools. Next you’ll use the Paintbrush tool to paint waves in the water with a Calligraphic brush from a brush library. Your waves won’t look identical to what you see in the lesson, and that’s okay—just have some fun!

1. Select the Paintbrush tool () in the toolbar.

   

2. Click the Brush Libraries Menu button () at the bottom of the Brushes panel, and choose Artistic > Artistic_Calligraphic. A brush library panel with various brushes appears.

   Illustrator comes with a host of brush libraries that you can use in your artwork. Each brush type, including those discussed previously, has a series of libraries to choose from.

3. Click the Artistic_Calligraphic panel menu icon (), and choose List View. Click the brush named “15 pt. Flat” to add it to the Brushes panel.

   

4. Close the Artistic_Calligraphic brush library panel.

   Selecting a brush from a brush library, such as the Artistic_Calligraphic library, adds that brush to the Brushes panel for the active document only.

5. Make sure the fill color is None (), change the stroke color to the Water swatch, and change the stroke weight to 1 pt in the Properties panel.

6. Change the Opacity to 100% in the Properties panel.

   With the pointer in the Document window, notice that the Paintbrush pointer has an asterisk next to it (), indicating that you are about to paint a new path.

   

   Note

   This Calligraphic brush creates random angles on the paths, so yours may not look like what you see in the figures, and that’s okay.

7. Move the pointer over the water in the lake. Paint a short curving path from left to right. You can consult the figure for how I painted it.

   

8. Try creating a few more paths, painting from left to right.

9. Choose Select > Deselect (if necessary) and then choose File > Save.

Editing paths with the Paintbrush tool

Now you’ll use the Paintbrush tool to edit one of the paths you painted.

1. Select the Selection tool () in the toolbar, and click to select one of the paths you drew on the water.

2. Select the Paintbrush tool () in the toolbar. Move the pointer over the selected path. An asterisk will not appear next to the pointer when it’s positioned over a selected path. Drag to redraw the path. The selected path is edited from the point where you began drawing.

   

3. Press and hold the Command (macOS) or Ctrl (Windows) key to toggle to the Selection tool, and click to select another one of the curved paths you drew with the Paintbrush tool. After clicking, release the key to return to the Paintbrush tool.

   

4. With the Paintbrush tool, move the pointer over some part of the selected path. When the asterisk disappears next to the pointer, drag to the right to redraw the path.

5. Choose Select > Deselect (if necessary) and then choose File > Save.

   Next you’ll edit the Paintbrush tool options to change how it paints.

   

6. Double-click the Paintbrush tool () in the toolbar to display the Paintbrush Tool Options dialog box, and make the following changes:

   • Fidelity: Drag the slider all the way to Smooth (to the right).

   • Keep Selected: Selected.

7. Click OK.

   The Paintbrush Tool Options dialog box changes the way the Paintbrush tool functions. For the Fidelity option, the closer to Smooth you drag the slider, the smoother the path will be, and with fewer points. Also, because you selected Keep Selected, the paths remain selected after you finish drawing them.

8. Change the stroke weight to 2 pt in the Properties panel.

9. With the Paintbrush tool selected, paint several more paths from either left to right or right to left across the water.

   

   Notice that after painting each path, the path is still selected, so you could edit it if you need to.

   Note

   When the Keep Selected option is deselected, you can edit a path by selecting it with the Selection tool () or by selecting a segment or point on the path with the Direct Selection tool () and then redrawing part of the path with the Paintbrush tool, as you saw previously.

10. Double-click the Paintbrush tool in the toolbar. In the Paintbrush Tool Options dialog box, deselect the Keep Selected option and then click OK.

    Now the paths will not remain selected after you finish drawing them, and you can draw overlapping paths without altering previously drawn paths.

11. Choose Select > Deselect, if necessary, and then choose File > Save.

Editing a brush

To change the options for a brush, you can double-click the brush in the Brushes panel. When you edit a brush, you can also choose whether to change artwork that the brush has been applied to. Next you’ll change the appearance of the 15 pt. Flat brush you’ve been painting with.

1. In the Brushes panel, double-click the brush thumbnail to the left of the text “15 pt. Flat” (or to the right of the name in the Brushes panel) to open the Calligraphic Brush Options dialog box.

   Note

   The edits you make will change the brush for this document only.

   Tip

   The Preview window in the dialog box (below the Name field) shows the changes that you make to the brush.

2. In the dialog box make the following changes:

   • Name: 20 pt. Angled

   • Angle: 20°

   • Choose Fixed from the menu to the right of Angle. (When Random is chosen, a random variation of brush angles is created every time you draw.)

   • Roundness: 0% (the default setting)

   • Size: 20 pt

   

3. Click OK.

   

4. In the dialog box that appears, click Leave Strokes so as not to apply the brush change to the existing waves that have the brush applied.

5. Choose Select > Deselect, if necessary, and then choose File > Save.

Removing a brush stroke

You can easily remove a brush stroke applied to artwork where you don’t want it. Now you’ll remove the brush stroke from the stroke of a path.

1. Select the Selection tool (), and click the purple path with the purple stroke applied (see the following figure).

   When creating the artwork, I was trying out different brushes on the artwork. The brush applied to the stroke of the selected path needs to be removed.

   Tip

   You can also select the [Basic] Brush in the Brushes panel to remove a brush applied to a path.

2. Click the Remove Brush Stroke button () at the bottom of the Brushes panel.

   

   Removing a brush stroke doesn’t remove the stroke color and weight; it just removes the brush applied.

3. Change the stroke weight to 10 pt in the Properties panel.

   

4. Choose Select > Deselect and then choose File > Save.

Applying an existing Art brush

Next you’ll apply an existing Art brush to create a fern plant on the lake shore.

1. In the Brushes panel, click the Brushes panel menu icon (), and deselect Show Calligraphic Brushes. Then choose Show Art Brushes from the same panel menu to make the Art brushes visible in the Brushes panel.

2. Click the Brush Libraries Menu button () at the bottom of the Brushes panel, and choose Artistic > Artistic_ChalkCharcoalPencil.

3. Click the Artistic_ChalkCharcoalPencil panel menu icon (), and choose List View. Click the brush named “Charcoal” in the list to add the brush to the Brushes panel for this document. Close the Artistic_ChalkCharcoalPencil panel group.

   

4. Select the Paintbrush tool () in the toolbar.

5. Ensure that the fill color is None (), change the stroke color to the Fern green swatch, and change the stroke weight to 10 pt in the Properties panel.

   

   Tip

   With the Paintbrush pointer selected, press the Caps Lock key to see a precise cursor (X). In certain situations, this can help you paint with more precision.

6. Move the Paintbrush pointer () on the left side of the lake (marked with an X in the figure). Drag to create the plant path.

   Refer to the figure to see how it was painted, and don’t worry about being exact. You can always choose Edit > Undo Art Stroke and repaint the path.

   

7. Try adding a few more painted paths, always starting from the same point as the original path you painted, to add more fronds (leaves).

8. Select the Selection tool, and click to select one of the paths. To select the rest of the paths that make up the fern, choose Select > Same > Stroke Color.

   

9. Click the Group button in the Properties panel to keep them together.

10. Choose Select > Deselect and then choose File > Save.

    If you followed the tip on the previous page and pressed the Caps Lock key to see a precise cursor, press the Caps Lock key again to return to a normal cursor.

Creating an Art brush

In this section, you’ll create a new Art brush from existing artwork.

1. Choose 2 from the Artboard menu in the Properties panel to navigate to the second artboard with the tree artwork on it.

2. With the Selection tool () selected, click the tree artwork to select it.

   Next you’ll make an Art brush from the selected artwork. You can make Art brushes from embedded raster images or from vector artwork, but that artwork must not contain gradients, blends, other brush strokes, mesh objects, graphs, linked files, masks, or text that has not been converted to outlines.

   

3. Choose Window > Brushes to open the Brushes panel, if it isn’t open already. With the tree artwork still selected, click the New Brush button () at the bottom of the Brushes panel.

   This begins the process of creating a new brush from the selected artwork.

   

   Tip

   You can also create an Art brush by dragging artwork into the Brushes panel and choosing Art brush in the New Brush dialog box that appears.

4. In the New Brush dialog box, select Art Brush and then click OK.

   

5. In the Art Brush Options dialog box that appears, change the name to Tree. Click OK.

6. Choose Select > Deselect.

7. Choose 1 from the Active Artboard menu in the Properties panel to navigate to the first artboard with the main scene.

8. With the Selection tool selected, click to select the purple line to the right of the cabin artwork.

9. Click the brush named “Tree” in the Brushes panel to apply it.

   

   Notice that the original tree artwork is stretched along the path. This is the default behavior of an Art brush.

Editing an Art brush

Next you’ll edit the tree Art brush you applied to the path and update the appearance of the tree on the artboard.

1. With the path still selected on the artboard, in the Brushes panel, double-click the brush thumbnail to the left of the text “Tree” (or to the right of the name in the Brushes panel) to open the Art Brush Options dialog box.

   

2. In the Art Brush Options dialog box, select Preview to see the changes as you make them, and move the dialog box so you can see the line with the brush applied. Make the following changes:

   • Stretch Between Guides: Selected. The guides referred to in the settings are not physical guides on the artboard. They are used to indicate a portion of the art that stretches or contracts to make the Art brush fit the path length. Any part of the art that is not within the guides will be able to stretch or contract. The Start and End settings are how you indicate where the guides are positioned on the original art.

   • Start: 5.875 in

   • End: 7.5414 in (the default setting)

3. Click OK.

   

4. In the dialog box that appears, click Apply To Strokes to apply the change to the path that has the Tree brush applied.

5. Choose Select > Deselect and then choose File > Save.

Changing Bristle brush options

As you’ve seen, you can change the appearance of a brush by adjusting its settings in the Brush Options dialog box, either before or after brushes have been applied to artwork. In the case of Bristle brushes, it’s usually best to adjust the brush settings prior to painting since it can take some time to update the brush strokes.

1. In the Brushes panel, click the panel menu icon (), choose Show Bristle Brushes, and then deselect Show Art Brushes.

   Tip

   Illustrator comes with a series of default Bristle brushes. Click the Brush Libraries Menu button () at the bottom of the Brushes panel, and choose Bristle Brush > Bristle Brush Library.

2. Double-click the thumbnail for the default Mop brush, or double-click directly to the right of the brush name in the Brushes panel, to change the options for that brush. In the Bristle Brush Options dialog box, make the following changes:

   

   • Shape: Flat Fan

   • Size: 3 mm (The brush size is the diameter of the brush.)

   • Bristle Length: 150% (This is the default setting. The bristle length starts from the point where the bristles meet the handle of the bristle tip.)

   • Bristle Density: 33% (This is the default setting. The bristle density is the number of bristles in a specified area of the brush neck.)

   • Bristle Thickness: 50% (The bristle thickness can vary from fine to coarse [from 1% to 100%].)

   • Paint Opacity: 75% (This is the default setting. This option lets you set the opacity of the paint being used.)

   • Stiffness: 50% (This is the default setting. Stiffness refers to the rigidness of the bristles.)

3. Click OK.

Painting with a Bristle brush

Now you’ll use the Mop brush to draw some smoke above the chimney of the cabin. Painting with a Bristle brush can create an organic, fluid path.

1. Select the Zoom tool () in the toolbar, and click a few times, slowly, on the chimney at the top of the cabin to zoom in on it.

2. Select the Selection tool () in the toolbar, and click to select the chimney.

   This selects the layer that the shape is on so that any artwork you paint will be on the same layer.

3. Choose Select > Deselect.

   

4. Select the Paintbrush tool () in the toolbar. Choose the Mop brush from the Brush menu in the Properties panel, if it’s not already chosen.

5. Make sure that the fill color is None () and the stroke color is White in the Properties panel. Press the Escape key to hide the Swatches panel. Change the stroke weight to 4 pt in the Properties panel.

   Tip

   If you want to edit paths as you draw, you can select the Keep Selected option in the Paintbrush Tool Options for the Paintbrush tool, or you can select paths with the Selection tool.

6. Move the pointer over the top of the chimney. Drag up in an S shape. Release the mouse button when you reach the end of the path you want to draw.

   

   

7. With the Paintbrush tool, use the Mop brush to paint more paths. Try drawing from where you started the first path, at the top of the chimney. The idea is to create smoke coming from the fireplace in the cabin.

Creating a Pattern brush

You can create a Pattern brush in several ways. For a simple pattern applied to a straight line, for instance, you can select the content that you’re using for the pattern and click the New Brush button () at the bottom of the Brushes panel.

To create a more complex pattern to apply to objects with curves and corners, you can select artwork in the Document window to be used in a pattern brush, create swatches in the Swatches panel from the artwork that you are using in the Pattern brush, and even have Illustrator autogenerate the Pattern brush corners. In Illustrator, only a side tile needs to be defined. Illustrator automatically generates four different types of corners based on the art used for the side tile. These four autogenerated options fit the corners perfectly. Next you’ll create a Pattern brush for some lights on the cabin.

1. Choose 3 from the Artboard menu in the Properties panel to navigate to the third artboard with the light bulb artwork on it.

   

2. With the Selection tool () selected, click to select the yellow light bulb group.

3. Click the panel menu icon () in the Brushes panel, and choose Thumbnail View.

   Notice that Pattern brushes in the Brushes panel are segmented in Thumbnail view. Each segment corresponds to a pattern tile.

   

4. In the Brushes panel, click the New Brush button () to create a pattern out of the light bulb.

5. In the New Brush dialog box, select Pattern Brush. Click OK.

   A new Pattern brush can be made regardless of whether artwork is selected. If you create a Pattern brush without artwork selected, it is assumed that you will add artwork by dragging it into the Brushes panel later or by selecting the artwork from a pattern swatch you create as you edit the brush. You will see the latter method later in this section.

   Note

   Some brushes don’t require corner tiles because they’re designed for straight lines or curved paths.

6. In the Pattern Brush Options dialog box, name the brush Lights.

   Pattern brushes can have up to five tiles—the side, start, and end tiles, plus an outer-corner tile and an inner-corner tile to paint sharp corners on a path.

   

   You can see all five tiles as buttons below the Spacing option in the dialog box. The tile buttons let you apply different artwork to different parts of the path. You can click a tile button for the tile you want to define, and then you select an autogenerated selection (if available) or a pattern swatch from the menu that appears.

   

   Tip

   Move the pointer over the tile squares in the Pattern Brush Options dialog box to see a tool tip indicating which tile it is.

   Tip

   Selected artwork becomes the side tile, by default, when creating a Pattern brush.

   Tip

   To save a brush and reuse it in another file, you can create a brush library with the brushes you want to use. For more information, see “Work with Brush libraries” in Illustrator Help.

7. Under the Spacing option, click the Side Tile box (the second tile from the left). The artwork that was originally selected is in the menu that appears, along with None and any pattern swatches found in the Swatches panel.

   

8. Click the Outer Corner Tile box to reveal the menu. You may need to click twice, once to close the previous menu and another click to open this new one.

   The outer-corner tile has been generated automatically by Illustrator, based on the original light bulb artwork. In the menu, you can choose from four types of corners that are generated automatically:

   • Auto-Centered: The side tile is stretched around the corner and centered on it.

   • Auto-Between: Copies of the side tile extend all the way into the corner, with one copy on each side. Folding elimination is used to stretch them into shape.

   • Auto-Sliced: The side tile is sliced diagonally, and the pieces come together, similar to a miter joint in a wooden picture frame.

   • Auto-Overlap: Copies of the tiles overlap at the corner.

9. Choose Auto-Between from the menu. This generates the outer corner of any path that the Pattern brush will be applied to from the light bulb artwork.

10. Click OK. The Lights brush appears in the Brushes panel.

    

11. Choose Select > Deselect.

Applying a Pattern brush

In this section, you’ll apply the Border Pattern brush to a path on the cabin. As you’ve seen, when you use drawing tools to apply brushes to artwork, you first draw the path with the drawing tool and then select the brush in the Brushes panel to apply the brush to the path.

1. Choose 1 from the Active Artboard menu in the Properties panel to navigate to the first artboard with the main scene artwork on it.

2. Choose View > Zoom In a few times to zoom in.

3. With the Selection tool () selected, click the horizontal green path on the cabin.

4. Toward the bottom of the toolbar, click the Fill box, and make sure that None () is selected, and then click the Stroke box and select None ().

5. With the path selected, click the Lights brush in the Brushes panel to apply it.

   

6. Choose Select > Deselect.

   The path is painted with the Lights brush. Because the path does not include sharp corners, outer-corner and inner-corner tiles are not applied to the path.

Editing the Pattern brush

Now you’ll edit the Lights Pattern brush using a pattern swatch that you create.

1. Choose 3 from the Active Artboard menu in the Properties panel to navigate to the third artboard with the light bulb artwork on it. There is a white light bulb in the group that you won’t be able to see since it’s on a white artboard.

2. Click the Swatches panel tab to show the Swatches panel.

   

3. With the Selection tool (), drag the artwork with the white light bulb into the Swatches panel.

   The artwork is saved as a new pattern swatch in the Swatches panel. After you create a pattern brush, you can delete the pattern swatches from the Swatches panel, if you don’t plan to use them for additional artwork.

4. Choose Select > Deselect.

5. Choose 1 from the Active Artboard menu in the Properties panel to navigate to the first artboard with the main scene artwork on it.

6. Click the Brushes panel tab to show the panel and double-click the Lights pattern brush to open the Pattern Brush Options dialog box.

   Tip

   You can also change the pattern tiles in a Pattern brush by pressing the Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows) key and dragging artwork from the artboard onto the tile of the Pattern brush you want to change in the Brushes panel.

7. Change Scale to 20%. Click the Outer Corner Tile box, and choose the pattern swatch named New Pattern Swatch 1, which you just created, from the menu that appears (you’ll need to scroll). Click OK.

   

8. In the dialog box that appears, click Apply To Strokes to update the lights on the cabin.

   The lights on the horizontal path won’t change since there are no corners.

9. With the Selection tool selected, click to select the green rectangle path on the door of the cabin. You may want to zoom in.

10. Click the Lights brush in the Brushes panel to apply it.

    

    Notice that the white light bulbs are added to the path. The path is painted with the side tile from the Lights brush and the outer-corner tile.

11. Choose Select > Deselect and then choose File > Save.

Drawing with the Blob Brush tool

Next you’ll use the Blob Brush tool to create a flower.

1. Choose 4 from the Active Artboard menu in the Properties panel to navigate to the fourth artboard, which is empty.

   

2. In the Swatches panel, select the Fill box and then select the swatch named “Flower.” Select the Stroke color box, and select None () to remove the stroke.

   When drawing with the Blob Brush tool, if a fill and stroke are set before drawing, the stroke color becomes the fill color of the shape made by the Blob Brush tool. If only a fill is set before drawing, it ultimately becomes the fill of the shape created.

   

3. Press and hold down on the Paintbrush tool () in the toolbar, and select the Blob Brush tool ().

4. Double-click the Blob Brush tool in the toolbar. In the Blob Brush Tool Options dialog box, change the following:

   • Keep Selected: Selected

   • Size: 70 pt

5. Click OK.

   

   Note

   You can release the mouse and then continue painting with the Blob Brush. As long as the new artwork is overlapping the existing flower artwork, it will merge.

   Tip

   You can also change the Blob Brush size by pressing the right bracket key ( ] ) or left bracket key ( [ ) several times to increase or decrease the size of the brush.

6. Press and drag to create a flower shape.

   When you draw with the Blob Brush tool, you create filled, closed shapes. Those shapes can contain several types of fill, including gradients, solid colors, patterns, and more. Notice that the Blob Brush pointer has a circle around it before you begin painting. That circle indicates the size of the brush (70 pt, which you set in the previous step).

Editing with the Eraser tool

As you draw and merge shapes with the Blob Brush tool, you may draw too much and want to edit what you’ve done. You can use the Eraser tool () in combination with the Blob Brush tool to mold the shape and to correct any changes you don’t like.

1. With the Selection tool (), click to select the flower shape.

   Selecting the shape(s) before erasing limits the Eraser tool to erasing only the selected shape(s).

   

2. Double-click the Eraser tool () in the toolbar. In the Eraser Tool Options dialog box, change Size to 40 pt, and click OK.

   

3. Move the pointer over the center of the flower shape and, with the Eraser tool selected, press and drag to remove some of the center. Try switching between the Blob Brush tool and the Eraser tool to edit the flower.

   The Blob Brush and Eraser tools both have pointers that include a circle that indicates the diameter of the brush.

4. Choose Select > Deselect.

5. Select the flower shape with the Selection tool.

6. Choose Edit > Copy.

7. Choose 1 Lake scene from the Active Navigation menu in the Status bar to navigate to the first artboard with the scene artwork on it.

8. Click the bush with flowers on the right side of the artboard, and press Command and + (macOS) or Ctrl and + (Windows) a few times to zoom in.

9. Click the Arrange button in the Properties panel, and choose Bring To Front.

   

10. Choose Edit > Paste to paste the flower. Pressing the Shift key, drag a corner to make the flower smaller. Release the mouse button and then the key.

    

11. Option-drag (macOS) or Alt-drag (Windows) the flower shape onto another part of the bush. Release the mouse button and then the key to place a new copy.

12. Repeat this several times to create flowers on the bush.

    

13. Choose Select > Deselect and then choose View > Fit Artboard In Window.

14. Choose File > Save, and close all open files.