Friday, October 30th, 2015

Draw Colorful Boxes for Text in Illustrator

 

Learn some great Illustrator skills while you create text boxes in Illustrator

In this video you will see how to draw two different text boxes in Illustrator. You will learn how to add multiple strokes and effects to single shapes and also to grouped shapes each having a very different result in the final art. These techniques will help you build confidence as you use multiple strokes on shapes in Illustrator and with using the all important Appearance panel too.


 

 

Wednesday, August 6th, 2014

Illustrator – Make a Vintage design from one shape with multiple strokes and fills

Create a Multidimensional Shape from a Simple 20 Point Star

Learn to create this multidimensional shape in Illustrator from a simple 20 point star. You will learn how to make the points round, how to fill the shape with a color and a pattern then how to create the outside and inside strokes.

The entire effect (minus the background and text) is one single resizable fully adjustable vector shape.

By the end of the video you will understand how to use the Appearance panel and how to add multiple strokes and multiple fills to a shape and how to offset strokes  from each other. You will learn how to add a pattern fill to a shape and blend it in with the underlying fill color and how to vary the pattern transparency.  These skills will make your work with vector shapes in Illustrator easier to do.

Helen Bradley

 

Monday, July 28th, 2014

Illustrator – single shape with multiple strokes and fills

Create a multi-dimensional Illustrator shape from a simple star

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Learn to create this multidimensional shape in Illustrator starting with a simple 20 point star.

You will learn how to make the points of the star round, how to fill it with a color and a pattern then how to create the outside and inside strokes.

The entire effect (minus the background and text) is one single resizable fully adjustable vector shape.

Helen Bradley

Wednesday, January 29th, 2014

Vintage inspired shape in Illustrator

Learn to add multiple fills and strokes to a single shape in Illustrator

Illustrator can be a challenge to learn and once you get hold of the basics you may be so relieved that you have progressed this far that you forget to dig deeper for better and smarter ways to create designs.

One feature of Illustrator is the ability to add multiple strokes and fills to a single shape, to order them so they appear on top of each other correctly and even to blend them using Blend Modes.

This video shows how to turn a star into this vintage inspired free pattern filled shape in Illustrator. It’s simple to do when you know how – just a few minutes of video can open up a wealth of opportunities for being creative in Illustrator – Enjoy!

Helen Bradley

Monday, January 13th, 2014

Dotted edges in Illustrator

 

Learn to add multiple strokes to a shape in Illustrator

One way I force myself to extend my knowledge of Illustrator is to take an existing illustration and to try to reproduce it. I don’t use these for anything but for learning and improving my skills. It’s a great tool because, when you try to copy someone else’s illustration you have to work out how to do things you may not typically do. You can’t just fluff yourself off and do the same old thing – if you don’t know how to achieve an effect you have to think about the problem and work it out using your existing skills or go research solutions.

Today I’ve been working on shapes that have neat edges and, in particular shapes with solid edges and dots – all in the one shape!

Start by drawing your shape – mine was a speech bubble but you can do it with anything. Then add a fill color and a stroke – this stroke is the thick band around the shape so make it the right size for the edge effect.

Now open the Appearance panel and add a second stroke by choosing the Add New Stroke icon. Make sure this is the top stroke – if not you can drag it up as if it were a layer. In the Appearance panel select a different color for this stroke and size it smaller than the previous one. You can now make it dots by setting up the panel so it looks like this – just note that your gap value should be the same or just larger than the stroke to make dots and that the cap shape is rounded – to get dots!

 

Helen Bradley