[ Music ]
>> Hello and welcome to this video tutorial brought
to you by tastytuts.com.
In the previous episode we looked at how to draw
in Illustrator using the pen, pencil, and brush tool.
In this video we're going to be taking a look
at the blob brush tool and the eraser tool.
Now, the blob brush tool allows us to draw similar
to the brush tool by drawing freehand strokes,
though unlike the brush tool the blob tool does not work along a
vector path.
The blob tool essentially creates
and builds vector shapes.
The eraser tool works to remove parts of a vector shape.
To follow along with this tutorial
and practice these tools you will need
to open this document I have prepared especially
for this tutorial.
This can be found in the "essential practice" folder
in the "project" folder.
You can download this "project" folder for free.
The download link is in the description.
Along the way I will be mentioning some useful shortcut
keys, which you can find in the description
and in the shortcut key page in the project pdf,
which you can also download in the description.
So with the "project" folder open,
click "essential practice," "blob brush," "versions,"
and select the version of Illustrator you're using --
in my case it's CC -- and open the "blob brush" file
and you should have something that looks like this.
Now, we're going to be covering a lot in this video,
and in quite some depth.
If you wish to skip ahead at any point in the video, or back,
you can do so quite simply.
The topics covered in this video are listed
in the description along with their times,
so be sure to check that out.
So once you have this document open let's get into it.
So once you have your document open we are going to begin
by selecting the blob brush tool from the menu.
This tool can be found under the pencil tool
or you can use the shortcut shift/B on the keyboard.
With the blob brush tool active you will now see the mouse
cursor change to what appears to be a brush and a circle.
The circle represents your stroke size.
Now, we can toggle the size of the stroke
by using the keyboard shortcuts.
Now, I'm simply going to draw a scribble on the canvas like so
and upon release we have our scribble.
Now, if I press V to activate the selection tool and click
on the scribble we notice immediately
that this is now a vector shape as we can see a vector outline
and the anchor points that create the vector.
Unlike the pen, pencil, and brush tool
that create strokes along a vector path,
the blob tool creates vector shapes.
Next I'm going to press shift/B
to activate my blob brush tool again, but this time I'm going
to draw a line through the middle of my scribble,
then I'm going to press V to activate the selection tool
and again select the scribble.
Notice this time how the line I just created on top
of the scribble has been merged
into the first initial composition.
So we can use the blob tool to build vector shapes and continue
to draw on top to add to them.
With this vector shape we can treat it as such,
such as adding stroke and color fill effects.
So again, I'm going to press shift/B
to activate my blob brush tool, but before I begin I'm going
to click the default color fill and stroke to reset my colors.
I'm going to draw a scribble like so and then I'm going
to select a new color from my swatches panel,
making sure it's not the same black color.
Let's go for an orange.
And I need to make sure my stroke color is now orange
in the tools menu.
And I'm going to draw another scribble on top, like so.
Then I'm going to choose another color from the swatches
and draw another scribble and another,
until I have something that looks like this.
This time if I press V to activate the selection tool
and click on the color vectors we can now see that they are
in fact individual objects.
So earlier we learned that the blob brush tool can draw
and merge vector shapes, but it's only by color.
If you use the blob brush tool to draw and use the same color
to draw on top, only then will it merge together.
If you use different colors they don't merge.
It's as if the colors distinguish them
as individual elements.
So keep that in mind.
Next we are going to take a look at the eraser tool.
Now, the eraser tool can be found in the menu
under the blob brush tool or you can use the shortcut shift/E.
With the eraser tool active you will see the cursor change
to a circle indicating the area which you will remove.
And we can toggle the size
of this easily using the keyboard shortcuts.
Now, the eraser tool can be used to delete parts
of a vector shape or smooth a surface of a vector outline.
The eraser tool can be very useful along
with the blob brush tool.
So I have two vector shapes here; a stroke and a solid fill.
With the selection tool I'm going
to select the first vector then I'm going to press shift/E
to activate the eraser tool.
I'm going to push up my eraser area like so,
place my eraser tool over the vector outline,
and simply click once.
Now you can see that the area has been removed
from my vector shape and the vector outline
of my shape has been redefined.
Notice, if I try and click
on any other vector shape nothing works.
If you select a particular vector shape the eraser tool
will only be applied to your selection.
If I press V and select the next vector, press shift/E,
toggle my brush size, I can remove parts
of the next example like so.
Easy. Now the eraser tool can be very useful along
with the blob brush tool.
Let's have a look at the next examples.
Here I have a blob shape and a rose illustration
from the previous video.
For this example I'm going to attempt to color
in this blob shape and the rose using the blob brush tool,
then use the eraser tool to redefine.
If we look in the layers panel over here on the right --
if you cannot see your layers panel then you can come up
and click on "window" and select it from there.
We can see this document consists of three layers;
the top layer, the strokes on top layer,
and if I toggle the visibility
of this layer we can see the strokes that make
up these examples sit on this layer.
This layer is also locked
so we don't accidentally edit or move our examples.
The layer beneath this is the "add color" layer
and this is the layer we are going
to use the blob brush tool on.
Now, I have prepared the layers in this way
as to keep the black strokes on top of our color,
which we are about to add.
So by pressing I on the keyboard I'm going
to use the eyedropper tool
to select the green from my sample here.
Press shift/B to activate the blob brush tool and begin
to draw where I would like to place color, like so.
Upon release we will now have the blob of color,
but now we can see some color outside the outline.
So I'm going to make sure the vector shape is selected,
press shift/E and carefully remove the parts I don't want,
like so, until I have something that looks like this.
So on the next example I'm going to use a combination
of the blob brush tool and the eraser tool to add some color
and highlights, selecting some prechosen colors on the right
and hopefully that should demonstrate how easy it can be
to create unique vector shapes and add color
and effects to your artwork.
So that's an introduction
to the blob brush tool and the eraser tool.
In the next video we will be taking a look at text
in Adobe Illustrator and some of the tools
and effects that can be used.
See you in the next video.