follow along if you make some intricate and some interesting illustrator
patterns using custom brushes make sure to follow along step by step and at the
very end of today's video I'm only gonna have an awesome pattern but you would
have also learned some skills to create your very own patterns in Adobe
Illustrator so firstly press L for the ellipse tool and then click and drag
whilst holding down shift to create a perfect circle make sure that you have
the smart guide switched on and you can do that by pressing command or control U
on your keyboard now hold down the alt option key and click and drag to
duplicate the circle so it's exactly in a position that you can see on screen
the smart guides are telling me when it's in this position and we just want
to use the middle section of these shapes and we could use the shape
builder tool but this time I'm going to use the intersect function in the
Pathfinder window NABBA size and rescale your shape until you think you're ready
to go and let's copy this with command or ctrl C and then paste a duplicate
right over the top using command or ctrl F and I resize the new shape down like
so and this is the first part of the design completes so let's keep going on
finished today's pattern we're going to need to outline the strokes of our
design so we can turn these strokes into a vector shape only do this after you're
happy with the size of your stroke weights we now need to bring up the
guides onto our design and to do that you need the rulers open which you can
press command or control R to do so if you guys are hidden right click the
artboard and then show guides select your design and then press command or
control G to group everything together now I've got a nifty technique for
you'll select the design and a guide by clicking and dragging over this election
but then also click the guide a second time to highlight it we can then align
everything to this guide and we do need to be precise in today's custom brush
tutorial and this is one way to be precise when the lining things
so once you've got your guides along both sides ungroup your design and then
duplicate the outer shape by holding down the alt/option key we need a guide
that runs along the top of the original design and then press P for the pen tool
we're now going to create an area to cut into this new shape by drawing a vector
path and then accessing the Pathfinder window and the intersect option press
Shift + X to fit the stroke of your shape over to a filled path and then
duplicate the shape over to the other side
finally reflect the shape with a reflection located in the top drop-down
menu now press M for the rectangle tool and
enter a rectangle absolutely in line with your guides now it is crucial that
you make sure it's perfectly in line
once you've made the rectangle rest command or control three to hide the
rectangle as we're going to want to use it later in the tutorial now still using
the rectangle tool draw in a rectangle below and it doesn't matter if it creeps
over the guides position your rectangle in place and then when ready click and
drag to duplicate the rectangle but this time we want to resize the shape to make
sure it's thicker we're essentially building up the pattern for our
brushstroke later in the video and for the next section create a rectangle but
this time making sure it's a stroke only with the rectangle selected head up to
object and then split to grid this is going to be a quick guide for us to use
and I'm actually going to use four columns you can use the selection tool
by pressing V on your keyboard to move the entire grid around but when ready
press L of the ellipse tool and then generate a circle in the same position
as I'm doing here you can then duplicate the circle over
to the next section and the grid that we just made basically just make sure
everything is evenly spaced out across the pattern design again user smart
guides to make sure things are in line we can now remove the grid because we
don't need it anymore and then proceed to duplicate the two rectangles at the
very top and arrange them in the order that I'm doing here but of course you
can actually make whatever pattern you want for your design
now we nearly finished but follow along and learn the most crucial aspects of
today's tutorial we can now hide or remove the guides because we don't need
to use them anymore and then press alt command or ctrl + 3 to reveal the hidden
rectangle we made earlier this is going to help us make a clipping mask and we
absolutely need to make sure the rectangle is brought to the front of all
layers so the clipping mask can actually work then select everything and generate
the clipping mask function finally for this portion tutorial use the trim
function in the Pathfinder window we now have a brush pattern ready for a pattern
design you can access the brushes menu right here at the top and then click the
fly down menu in the top right corner we're going to make a pattern brush and
if you've done everything correctly by following the steps your pattern will
fit perfectly next to one another the clipping mask helps us with that
basically now press B for the brush tool and you can see when you click and drag
you're making a pattern across your canvas
the really cool thing though is that when you press L to the ellipse tool and
create a circle you can then just press the brush in the brushes menu and the
pattern is going to be generated around the entire circle now this works for
every single shape that you can think of or that you can use in Illustrator and
lowering the stroke is going to increase the amount of times your pattern is made
around the shape also of course you can increase the stroke weight and the
design kinda gets a bit out of control at this stage but it's still cool
nonetheless and remember if you want to keep
expanding your skills and your awareness is a graphic designer
subscribe to Satori graphics for a weekly graphic design content also like
and share my videos on social media and of course stay locked in here at Soto
graphics but yeah have a great day and until next time design your future today
peace