Lesson A: Create Plaid Fabric

Grid Setup

• 1 Set the General units in your preferences to millimeters.
• 2 Set the grid layout in preferences to Gridline every: 100 mm and Subdivisions: 10. This creates heavier grid lines with lighter grid lines for the subdivisions. You can uncheck the Grids in Back preference if you want to see the grid in front of your artwork.
• 3 Select Show Grid to see the grid. Turn on the Snap to Grid function in the View menu. 

  
• 4 Each grid line will be a darker gray and the subdivisions will be a lighter gray. I refer to each darker gray section as a unit (the ten units by ten units) and each individual square a subunit.
• 5 Draw a rectangle nine units wide and seven units high and fill it with a color. Start the rectangle at a unit corner (darker gray grid line). This rectangle will snap to the grid if you have the Snap to Grid function turned on.
• 6 On the next row of units below, draw a one unit by one unit sqaure filled with black. Repeat this black square every other unit on the row, and repeat the pattern every other row below.

Transform

• 7 Draw a 10 pt line on the grid from corner to corner. Round cap the ends in the Stroke panel. Duplicate the line and keep it for the vertical stripe we are going to create.
• 8 Select the line and choose Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform. Set the Horizontal offset to 10 mm. Set the number of copies to 100. Click OK. This will take the single line, duplicate it 100 times to the right, skipping every other subunit.
• 9 Move the transformed set into position over the checkerboard. This is an effect so the one line is simply transformed 100 times, 10 millimeter offset each time. This effect makes the line look like 100 lines, but is really one line that appears to be 100 lines. Using an effect to transform makes it easier to edit and select a single line, rather than 100 individual lines.

• 10 Select the duplicated line and move it above a row of black squares. Choose Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform. Set the Vertical offset to 10 mm. Set the number of copies to 80. Click OK. This will take the single line, duplicate it 80 times down, skipping every other subunit.
• 11 Move the transformed set into position over the checkerboard.
• 12 Repeat the transform every other row and every other column.

• 13 Create a smaller line at an angle, the size of one subunit. Add a red 10 pt stroke and round cap the ends.
• 14 Turn off the Snap to Grid. Move the line so the center of the line is directly in the center of one unit. Snap to Grid will only snap objects to end and corner points, not center points. (The black lines are showing the exact center of the line aligning to the grid and are for reference only.)
• 15 Select the line and choose Effects > Distort & Transform > Transform. Set the Horizontal offset to 10 mm. Set the number of copies to 100. Click OK. Move the line set to the center of a row with black squares. You may have to zoom in to get the center of the line exactly on the center of the subunits since the Snap To Grid is off.

• 16 Duplicate the red set of lines exactly 10 subunits and change the stroke color to white.
• 17 Repeat the red set of lines ever other row, and the white set of lines in the remaining rows.
• 18 Similar to step 15, repeat the same transform with a vertical offset for the white, then red sets. Alternate the vertical sets starting with the white, then the red. Repeat this for all the vertical columns making sure that the line is centered, as in step 14.

Draw Inside

• 19 Select all the artwork and choose Object > Group. Choose Edit > Cut to cut the artwork.
• 20 With the Rectangle tool (M), draw a rectangle nine units wide by seven units high. With the rectangle selected, click on the Draw Inside icon at the bottom of the toolbar.
• 21 Choose Edit > Paste to insert the cut artwork inside the nine by seven rectangle. Click on the Draw Normal mode at the bottom of the toolbar. Nice work creating a tartan plaid!

Recolor Artwork

• 22 Select the artwork and choose Edit > Recolor Artwork. Click on the Edit tab at the top of the Recolor Artwork panel. Click on the link icon in the lower right of the color wheel to link the colors together.
• 23 Move the colors’ handles around the wheel to actively change them in the plaid artwork.
• 24 Try several different color renditions with Recolor.