In this tutorial video we're going to
learn about the reshape tool and create
a basic paintbrush illustration with it
so you can see the finished product here
and we'll build our new paint brush on
the right-hand side there are three
different tools that we're going to use
quite often the first is the actual
basic shapes drawing tools so if you
want to come over here to the toolbar
and hit this tear off tab to get this
mini toolbar you should absolutely do
that if you don't want to it's ok
the other tools that we use are the
direct selection tool and that its up
that is up here it's the white arrow and
then we need to use the reshape tool
which is actually hidden underneath the
scale tool or also where the sheer tool
might be depending on what you've chosen
the last time we've been an illustrator
so we need those three tools to create
this project
the first thing we need to do is draw a
rectangle for the handle or base of our
paintbrush now if you have weird colors
in yours with that object selected if
you just hit D on your keyboard it will
change it to the default colors of a
white fill and a black stroke now the
tricky thing with the reshape tool is in
order to make it work
you can't have selected at first with
the regular selection tool or the black
arrow so right now this is actually
selected and I want to change the direct
selection tool and click off to
de-select that object and then click
back on the path part of the object so
that it knows that we want to alter the
different paths of this object with that
done I need to grab my reshape tool and
then I'm just going to pull down the
bottom segment of the path to create the
bottom of my paintbrush and then I can
curve the upper part down
I don't want to go too far and then this
outside but upper edge I want to bulge
out not too crazy but I want to bulge
out and notice that I'm trying to keep
it pretty level with where I click and
drag and then click and drag to pull in
the bottom portion
OK so tweak that and make it look as
best as you can and once you've done
that grab the rectangle tool again and
we're going to create a rectangle that
needs to sit just above the paintbrush
here but we actually want to have it sit
behind so in order to do that command or
control left bracket key and you can hit
that left bracket key as many times as
you need to to get it behind but it
should work if you just do it once now
mine is a little bit off in terms of
size so I like to kind of stretch it out
and then pull it back in and really look
for where those guides lineup
OK so again in order to make this curve
on this top part of the metal I need to
first grab the direct selection tool
click the path of that object grab the
reshape tool and now I can drag that
path and create the curb so I wanted to
look pretty similar to this curve down
here to create the top of the paintbrush
where essentially the bristles would be
we're going to use the Oval tool and
drag a great big oval out now
you don't need to worry necessarily
that it's perfectly in line and
perfectly the with because we're going
to alter this so again command left
bracket and keep hitting it until it
goes to the very behind grab your
direct selection tool and
remember you have to first d select
because this has been selected already
with basically the selection tool it
won't work if you click on the path and
then try to use the reshape tool so d
select first just in case then select
the path then grab the reshape tool and
click and drag in to create the top of
this paintbrush and you can tweak it
however you think it looks best
and then you can grab this upper portion
oops
and that looks a little bit weird so I
don't really like that
well it's just being tricky so I'm going
to go ahead and just drag this out
because I want it to actually look like
it is coming off the side so I might
need to nudge it
a little bit and really try to get it to
hit those corners so I don't really like
what's happening here so i might come
back later and mess with the reshape and
pull it down pull it out whatever I need
to do but there's the basic paintbrush
that you need to create so you could
sort of rescale this to fit better on
your page and then what I want you to do
is actually add some color but you want
to add some depth to death with some
gradient so i'm going to choose the
linear gradient and i'm going to choose
my different color stops so because I
want it to look like light i wanted to
go from light green to dark green and
the problem is right now it actually
just change that on the outline so i'm
going to change the outline to black and
of course it's not working with me right
now so I'm just going to fill this
ok so it's because it was selecting the
whole object or just just different
parts of the object there we go back to
normal so with the fill color again
linear and you can change the different
color stops and to show that light we
want to we want to see different shades
of the same color and it's still not
doing it wasn't doing it
ok I don't know why was it wasn't doing
that so again this one I would do a
gradient but i would do a light gray and
then a dark grey to show that light and
actually just noticed that i put the
shadow wrong out here because the lights
hitting it from this side so make sure
you pay attention that piece of it and
change this to whatever color you want
but in order to do the paint on the top
you might need to create a copy of it
and then you can either take the eraser
tool to the bottom down here or you can
even draw a path and then use the divide
option on the pathfinder to create that
upper piece that has kind of that you
know painted drip look and then put it
back on there so i'm going to go ahead
and leave you to do that
and in order to create the shadow if you
copy all of these objects you can then
merge them and let's see
don't want to have a stroke i do want to
have a fill of a light gray for right
now and then what you want to do is
either grab the transform controls so
this is where you can actually
perspective distort free destroyed so if
i do free distort I can sort of drag
these different points out here and
really try to distort it and it's going
to look a little bit wonky
there you go so you can do that and then
you can do the gradient fade which is
going to take it from a light gray or a
mid-grade you're really like gray or
white so it looks like it fades out so
again if i do command left brought
bracket and it'll send it behind it and
then you're good to go
so customize this print paintbrush
however you see fit
make sure that you do some gradients for
some light and you know you might do a
little bit of shine on the paint maybe
you have some paint splatters I don't
know what you want to do but customize
it in some way that you think looks good