Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

•

Choose Path➝Average from the Object menu, or press

Ctrl+Alt+J (-Option-J). This brings up the dialog box

shown in Figure 2-21. Select Both, and click OK. Finally,

press Ctrl+J (-J) to join the points.

•

The fastest (and my favorite) method to align and join points

is the now familiar key-masher. Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+J

(-Shift-Option-J on the Mac). If the two points aren’t co-

incident, this combines the Average and Join commands

into one simple step, with no dialog boxes to respond to.

However you choose to get there, you now have one single path

consisting of the two arc segments. Only one element is left be-

fore your Horus eye is complete!

13.

Draw the concentric rings of the eye. The last element you

need to draw is the group of concentric rings that make up the

iris and pupil of the eye. While you could use the shape tool

and draw each circle individually, there’s a faster way—using

the polar grid tool. Select the tool from the minitoolbox,

and start dragging from the intersection of the guides in the

center of the eye.

Much like when drawing the spiral, the outline you’re draw-

ing looks quite different from the desired results. And like the

spiral, a number of keyboard shortcuts can help:

•

Hold the Shift key to constrain the ellipses to perfect circles.

•

Press the



and



keys to add or subtract concentric circles.

In this case, you want a total of three circles. ...