What Is the Difference Between an Art Brush and a Pattern Brush

Working with the Unlike Brush Types

Here are the iv brush types and some options that y'all can use when painting with them.

Art brushes for times when you're a bit wacky

Art brushes accept any Illustrator paths and stretch them along a path. Effigy 9-vi shows several examples of Art brushes.

Figure 9-6: All these objects are (believe it or not) Fine art brushes.

You tin can use several Art Brush options to make Art brushes look exactly the style you desire. Figure 9-7 shows the Art Brush Options dialog box, accessed past double-clicking any Art brush in the Brushes palette.

Effigy 9-7: The Fine art Brush Options box.

In the Fine art Castor Options dialog box are a variety of options to bear on the manner the brush makes a stroke. The following listing describes how to utilize some of those options:

• Name: Give the castor a descriptive proper name here. This name appears when you choose View Past Proper name from the Brushes palette pop-upwardly menu.

• Preview: Select the Preview selection to see any stroke in your artwork that uses the brush stroke y'all're irresolute. What yous come across is what you get — the stroke as information technology volition await if you apply the new changes. This doesn't alter your bodily artwork. This feature is extremely handy because you don't have to think what all the different settings do — yous tin just watch what happens after you change them!

• Direction: This selection determines whether the graphic rotates clockwise or counterclockwise (relative to the path) as yous stretch it.

• Size: With the Proportional choice selected, the artwork grows wider as the path gets longer. With Proportional option deselected, the artwork stretches. Y'all can enter a scaling percentage in the Width box.

• Flip: This choice resembles the Direction option, except that information technology flips the artwork upside down instead of rotating it.

• Colorization: Brushes have fill and stroke colors of their own. They are ordinary Illustrator artwork endowed with the power to be brushes, significant that distinct make full and stroke values are office of the deal. The Colorization setting determines whether the brush keeps the colors of the original artwork or replaces them with Fill up and Stroke colors from the Toolbox. A Method setting of None preserves the original artwork'southward colors. Other settings blend the make full and stroke colors with the artwork. How they perform this miracle depends on the colors in the original artwork for the brush and on the specific options you choose.

Tip?

Click the Tips push for a visual illustration of the various colorization settings.

Figure 9-8 shows the same brush with iii different sets of options applied to information technology.

Effigy ix-8: The same brush changed by only i setting produces variations similar these.

Scatter brushes for times when you're a bit wacky

Scatter brushes are similar to Art brushes; they're made upwardly of Illustrator paths. Still, the similarities finish there. Instead of stretching art along a path, Scatter brushes toss, fling, and scatter fine art along a path. Figure ix-9 shows the result of using a Scatter brush.

Effigy ix-nine: This artwork is actually a unmarried path used equally a Scatter brush.

Technical Stuff?

Scatter brushes have even more options than Art brushes, simply Scatter brushes demand more options. Imagine a brush of randomly scattered ladybugs becoming a brush of organized ladybugs that follow the path y'all create with the castor. To access the options of a Scatter brush, double-click whatever existing Scatter brush to view the Scatter Castor options dialog box (you see the same options when you create a new Besprinkle brush).

The Scatter brushes echo and randomize artwork based on four variables: Size, Spacing, Scatter, and Rotation. Yous set the specific amounts for these options by dragging their respective sliders to the left or right. How the brush uses these values is determined by the method (Stock-still, Random, or Force per unit area) that y'all select in the driblet-down listing boxes to the right of each slider. The following list describes how each method works:

• Fixed: This method uses the exact value in the associated text box, which you previously specified past using the slider.

• Random: This method gives you 2 sliders instead of 1 so that you can specify Minimum and Maximum amounts of variance in the associated choice. For example, after you set the Size to a Minimum value of 50% and a Maximum value to 200%, the Besprinkle castor varies the artwork randomly between half its original size and twice its original size.

• Pressure: Like with Random, Pressure uses Minimum and Maximum amounts of variance in the associated option. This method works only when you take a pressure-sensitive tablet hooked to your computer. This characteristic is then absurd that you may want to run out and buy one of these tablets, which is sort of using a mouse except that you draw with a pen-similar stylus. Instead of but painting or not painting (your only options with a mouse), the stylus recognizes just how hard y'all press. The Minimum and Maximum settings represent to the amount of pressure. The lightest pressure uses the minimum value; the hardest pressure uses the Maximum value. The values you lot get vary according to merely how hard yous press.

Two versions of the Scatter Brush Options dialog box appear in Effigy 9-10. Next to each version is a brushstroke created with the option settings shown in the dialog box.

Figure nine-10: Two versions of the Besprinkle Brush Options dialog box and the artwork resulting from those options.

Later y'all determine which method to use, ready the sliders on the left side of the dialog box to specify how you want the artwork repeated along the path. Hither are the options:

• Size: This option controls the size of the scattered objects relative to the original.

• Spacing: This pick controls the amount of space that appears between the scattered objects.

• Scatter: This selection controls how far abroad objects tin can besprinkle on either side of the path.

• Rotation: This pick controls how the objects are rotated and whether they're rotated in relation to the path or to the document. Figure 9-11 shows the difference between a Scatter castor rotation based on the path (left) and ane based on the page (right).

  
  Effigy 9-xi: The Besprinkle brush on the left is set to rotate at 90 relative to the path; the one on the correct is set to rotate at 90 relative to the page.

You probably noticed the glaring similarities between the Symbol Sprayer (discussed in detail in Chapter iv) and Scatter brushes. The results are often visually identical, and the process of making Besprinkle brushes is much like creating a symbol. Tabular array 9-1 lists the differences between the two.

Table 9-i: Differences Between Scatter Brushes and the Symbol Sprayer

Affair	Symbolism Tools	Scatter Brushes
Components	Paths, type, pixel-based images	Paths
Editability	Via Symbolism tools	Via Pencil or Straight Selection tools
Control	Nonexact manipulation	Precision changes via Options dialog box
Examples	Leaves on a tree, grass blades, hair, wisps of fume	Footprints, marching ants,
Good for	Fills	Strokes

Pattern brushes — also absurd and utterly wacko

Pattern brushes (see Figure 9-12) are too cool for words, and then I can only move on. Okay, no weaseling. For openers, you tin can apply 5 different pieces of art for Blueprint brushes rather than just one! Of course, that fact can as well make them difficult to create. You need a graphic for straight lines and curves, one for inside corners, i for outside corners, one for the commencement of a line, and one for the end of a line. The results are worth the time and attempt to make sure that these 5 graphics work together.

Effigy nine-12: A sampling of the Pattern brushes.

Tip?

Well, okay, if making five pieces of fine art is too fourth dimension intensive, yous can get away with using just one. The Side blueprint is the primal pattern. If you lot don't create v different graphics, the Pattern brush simply repeats the Side pattern for any missing design. But come on, now, that's cheating. If you desire eye-popping results, make those five graphics and accept full advantage of what this wonderful brush can practice.

Making the artwork for a Blueprint castor

If you detect that creating a Pattern castor is pretty tricky and counterintuitive, you're not alone; a lot of trial and error is par for the course, specially at first. The first stride in building a Pattern brush is to create the 5 pieces of artwork. Before you can practice that, nevertheless, you need to know just what these pieces of artwork are for. Double-click a design brush in the Brushes palette to open the Blueprint Castor Options dialog box for a peek at the possibilities. Figure ix-13 shows the Pattern Castor Options dialog box, in which you tell Illustrator just where to put the artwork on a path. Pattern brushes are context-sensitive: They know what the specific office of the path they are on is supposed to look like — then they use the graphic that corresponds to that role of the path.

Figure 9-13: Each Pattern castor championship knows where information technology is on a path and uses the corresponding artwork.

Tip?

You may find it helpful to examine existing Design brushes. The Tile Options list in the Blueprint Brush Options dialog box offers a sampling.

Setting Blueprint Castor options

The Pattern Brush Options dialog box looks more complicated than it really is. Double-click any Pattern castor in the Brushes palette, and the Pattern Castor Options dialog box appears, displaying the following features:

• Tiles: These squares are thumbnail representations of each piece of artwork. Below each tile, a graphic shows the artwork's position on the path. Click a thumbnail to modify it by using the Tile Options list.

• Tile Options: Click these options to change your blueprint tiles. Click None to remove the selected tile's graphic. (The Original selection is already selected if you added your ain graphics.) The remaining options represent to the Pattern swatches in the Swatches palette. This arrangement enables you to employ Design swatches as an alternative to creating your own tiles.

• Colorization and Flip: See the earlier section, "Art brushes for times when you're a bit wacky," for details on these options.

• Size: Use the Scale option to enlarge or compress the tiles as they run along the path. If they get too big, the Spacing option enables y'all to increment the altitude between tiles.

• Fit: This option determines how the tiles get distorted to fit around spaces that don't quite match the five different Tile types. The Stretch to Fit option distorts artwork the about, mashing information technology into any shape it needs to exist to fit the path. The Add Infinite to Fit option adds space between tiles to distort them equally little equally possible. The Judge Path option only works when the path is rectangular.

Positioning the artwork in the Pattern brush

After you create your graphics, think about what position each graphic is going to play. You may find information technology helpful to create a single guide that really contains all five positions, as shown in Figure 9-14. Apply this graphic as a way of visualizing how each graphic element is going to piece of work at the unlike points.

Figure 9-14: Creating a guideline with all 5 design positions can be a big help when you create the artwork for the Blueprint brush.

Using the guideline, create five pieces of artwork to stand for to the positions on the path. Knowing exactly how each piece of the artwork needs to change in response to its position takes practice. Some differences can exist subtle (such as between the starting fine art and ending art) or obvious (such as between the side piece and corner pieces), every bit shown in Effigy 9-15.

Figure ix-15: Left to right; The starting time, side, outside corner, inside corner, and terminate pieces.

After y'all have all the artwork, you're ready to create the Pattern brush. Forward, intrepid creative person! Just follow these steps:

1. Select the Side tile and click the New Brush button (it looks like a little slice of paper) in the Brushes palette.

   The New Castor dialog box appears.

2. Click the New Pattern Brush option and then click OK.

   The Pattern Brush Options dialog box appears, with the Side tile in the proper position. (For a refresher on how that looks, refer to Effigy 9-xiii.)

3. In the dialog box, give the new brush a name by typing it directly into the name box and click OK.

   The new Design brush shows upwardly in the Brushes palette. (Don't worry about the other options right now. I come dorsum to those!)

Technically, the new brush is fix to apply correct now. (The side artwork fills in the other positions.) Simply true artists (no slackers hither!) desire to add the rest of the artwork to the castor. Naturally, this part of the process gets tricky. Notice that the brush, as it currently appears in Figure 9-16, has six slots, two of which are filled by the side artwork. The remaining four slots are for the remaining 4 pieces. The next fix of steps creates them.

Figure ix-16: The new Blueprint brush, awaiting the four remaining pieces.

Here's how true artists (the aesthetically dedicated) add the residuum of the artwork to the brush, one slice at a time:

1. Select the artwork and press and hold downward the Alt central (Option on a Mac).

2. While belongings downwards the Alt primal (Choice on a Mac), drag the artwork onto the Pattern brush, over the appropriate slot, and then release the mouse push.

   Tip?

   Y'all're over a slot when a bold, dark line appears around the slot. Ah, but how do you know what the appropriate slot is? The brush has no label to tell you what'due south what. The Blueprint Brush Options dialog box obligingly labels the slots, but tragically the order of the Blueprint bushes in that dialog box does not stand for to the order in the Brushes palette. The only fashion to add together a new brush to the Pattern brush is to concord down the Alt key (Option on a Mac) and drag it (kicking and screaming) onto the slot in the Brushes palette. But you're in luck! I labeled the slots in the brush for y'all in Figure 9-17. So feel gratuitous to use the figure as a map.

   
   Figure 9-17: The Pattern Brush with its slots labeled.

   Alarm?

   Nothing stops you from putting a corner piece into the straight section or vice versa. Pay careful attention to where y'all drop your artwork when creating a pattern brush, or yous can become some nasty-looking art equally a issue!

3. The Blueprint Brush Options dialog box appears, displaying the artwork in its appropriate place. Click OK.

   Don't worry virtually the other options for now.

4. Drag all the remaining graphics to their appointed places.

Tip?

Each fourth dimension you add together a graphic, the Pattern Castor Options dialog box appears again. Just click OK and keep going.

Testing your new Design brush

When you finally have all your graphics in place, yous can exam the new brush by applying information technology to open up and closed paths: After making sure that the new brush is selected in the Brushes palette, you create two uncomplicated graphics. Annihilation you lot create when a brush is selected uses that brush as its stroke, even when y'all aren't using the Paintbrush tool. Any path will work, but because the Pattern brush uses different artwork at corners, testing the shape on an object that has corners (such as a rectangle) is helpful. In this example, I utilise the Rectangle tool to create a square. With the new brush yet selected, I choose the Paintbrush tool and paint a squiggly line. This procedure shows how the corner, side, and finish tiles look on both curved and straight lines. Testing this way (as I did in Effigy 9-xviii) gives you a proficient idea of whether all your artwork is working well in the new brush.

Figure 9-18: The new Pattern castor tested on a square and a squiggle.

Tip?

If any of your tiles aren't working, tweak the original artwork, select it, and elevate information technology back to the appropriate slot.

If you're suddenly inspired to create more Pattern brushes, a adept way to start is past examining the Pattern brushes (near a hundred of them) that come with Illustrator. Tinker with them to figure out how they work and how to create them.

Calligraphic brushes for formal occasions

Calligraphic brushes create strokes that emulate the kind of strokes you make with real calligraphic pens; the strokes they brand vary in width depending on the direction of the stroke. Equally the only brushes that aren't created by paths that y'all can drag into the Brushes palette, Calligraphic brushes are the nonconformist brushes in Illustrator. You set them up by using controls in the Calligraphic Castor Options dialog box (accessed past either creating a new brush or by double-clicking on an existing Calligraphic castor), as shown in Figure 9-19.

Figure 9-nineteen: The Calligraphic Brush Options dialog box.

Calligraphic brushes are deceptively simple. Don't allow the proper name fool you lot; you can use them to create any type of artwork, not only calligraphy. (Although they're especially good for emulating traditional pen-and-ink type drawings.)

Technical Stuff?

Yep, the Calligraphic Castor tool seems a lot more similar a existent pen than the powerful-but-weird Pen tool. It may help to think of it this fashion: Calligraphy is an art expert with brushes.

To create a Calligraphic brush, only follow these steps:

1. Click the New Castor icon (information technology looks like a tiny piece of paper) in the Brushes palette.

   The New Brush dialog box appears.

2. Select the New Calligraphic Castor option and click OK.

   The Calligraphic Castor Options dialog box appears — and though it may look intimidating, you have only the following three options to set (afterward you name the brush):

   • Bending: If y'all were using a real-world brush (or pen, equally the instance may be), this setting would be the angle at which you're tilting the brush.

   • Roundness: This setting enables you to change just how round the brush is — from a narrow ellipse to a circle.

   • Diameter: This setting determines how large the brush is.

   The boxes in the middle column determine how (and past how much) those starting time iii options may vary, if at all. Select one of three options in these driblet-down list boxes to make up one's mind whether the preceding 3 options may vary not at all (Fixed), randomly (Random), or co-ordinate to the amount of pressure you use by using a force per unit area-sensitive stylus (Pressure).

   Tip?

   The boxes in the tertiary column enable you to set the corporeality by which those first three options may vary (if the method by which they may vary is either Random or Pressure). The higher the numbers, the greater the range of sizes the brush will produce. Figure 9-20 offers a hint of what the Calligraphic Castor tool can exercise with a force per unit area-sensitive tablet. The variable width of the stroke adds composure to the cartoon.

   
   Figure 9-xx: Artwork created on a force per unit area-sensitive tablet using Calligraphic brushes.

3. Subsequently you set your options, click OK.

   The new Calligraphic brush appears in the Brushes palette for you to apply.

Every bit yous begin creating artwork with brushes, you discover that it's but like painting with existent paintbrushes — the all-time artwork requires a combination of several different brushes. Fortunately, y'all have an astonishing multifariousness of brushes to choose from! The most well-stocked art supply store pales in comparison to the Brushes palette. Best of all, you don't have to pay extra whenever y'all need a new brush. You can but build your own!

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Source: http://etutorials.org/Adobe/Adobe+Illustrator+CS/Part+II+Drawing+and+Coloring+Your+Artwork/Chapter+9+Creating+Magnificent+Brushstrokes/Working+with+the+Different+Brush+Types/

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