Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

Cutting, Separating,

and Closing Paths

You’ve seen how to draw and edit paths, but we have

a few operations left to cover—namely, how to cut

a single path into separate paths and how to close a

path. As with the other exercises in this lesson, the

best tools at your disposal are the white arrow tool

and the pen tool.

For the last exercise, I’ve provided a fi le with the com-

plete path outlines of the mishipizheu. You’ll split an

existing path, learn how to draw multiple paths with-

out leaving the pen tool, and close open paths. Finally,

we’ll wrap up the exercise by coloring our various

paths to match the underlying painting.

1. Open the artwork. If you were dili-

gent and drew all the paths after the

end of the last exercise, congratula-

tions—and by all means use your fi le. Other-

wise, open Mishi paths.ai located in the Lesson

03 folder. You’ll notice that this fi le contains a

total of fi ve paths for the water panther—one

closed path that traces the outline of the body

and scaly spine, and four open paths (one for

the backbone, and three for the remaining

legs), as shown in Figure 3-34.

2.

Split the path that composes the backbone

and muzzle. The path that makes up the

backbone also traces along the bottom edge

of the creature’s muzzle. I think the art would

be much improved if these were two separate

paths, and thankfully Illustrator gives us a

way to do just that:

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