Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

Enhancing Line Art

with Art Brushes

In this fi rst exercise, I’ll show you how to apply and

customize art brushes in Illustrator. I’ve created all the

paths for you in advance. But remember, if you want to

paint your own brushstrokes, you can do so with the

paintbrush tool, which you get by pressing the B key.

This is particularly useful if you own an art tablet with

a pressure-sensitive stylus, such as one of the Intuos

line of tablets from Wacom (www.wacom.com). That

said, standard paths typically offer the most precision,

which is why I employ them in the following steps.

1. Open an illustration with colored lines.

Find the Lesson 09 folder inside the Les-

son Files-AIcs5 1on1 folder, and open the

fi le called Eyeliner.ai. Shown in Figure 9-5

newest version of the Eye of Horus artwork that

you fi rst drew in Lesson 2. Only this time Horus is

a pop band and Eyeliner is the name of the group’s

debut single (with the obligatory David Guetta

remix and an ill-advised collaboration with Akon).

2.

Open the Brushes panel. Choose Window→Brushes

or press the F5 key. Pictured in Figure 9-6, the

Brushes panel contains a row of calligraphic brushes,

followed by Basic and six art brushes. Like the

icon at the bottom of the panel, Basic removes any

brush and restores an unadorned stroke.

P E A R L O F W I S D O M

Like symbols, swatches, and other panel items, Brushes are

saved along ...