Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

17.

Select the warp tool in the toolbox. Click and hold on the width

tool icon, and then select the warp tool from the fl yout menu, as

demonstrated in Figure 7-50. Or press the keyboard shortcut,

Shift+R. The warp tool is the fi rst of Illustrator’s seven liquify

tools (the width tool is not one of them), which allow you to

paint distortions into selected paths. While I only rarely use

them to adjust path outlines, the liquify tools can be exceed-

ingly useful for modifying a gradient mesh.

18.

Adjust the warp tool settings. By default, the warp brush is 100

pixels in diameter, too small for our purposes. To enlarge the

brush, double-click the warp tool icon in the toolbox. Inside

the Warp Tool Options dialog box, change both the Width and

Height values to 250 pixels. Then click OK.

Another way to change the brush size is to press the Alt key (Option on

the Mac) and drag in the document window. Drag up or right to enlarge

the brush, and down or left to reduce it. I say or because you can scale

the width and height of the brush independently. To maintain a circular

brush, press and hold Shift as you drag.

19.

Brush inside the mesh. If nothing is selected, the warp tool

acts on all unlocked objects; otherwise, the warp tool affects

just the selection. So check the Layers panel to make sure the

<Mesh> item is selected (with the

meatball). This prevents

you from messing up the clipping ...