Wicked Illustrator Brush Effect
This Adobe Illustrator bitt will show you how to make a funky custom brush for a fast and easy grunge-like effect.
1. Open a new new Illustrator document and make a few simple shapes on the artboard. Put a black stroke on the shapes, but no fill.
2. With your shapes selected, open the brushes palette, and apply an organic-looking brush stroke to your shapes.
I used “rough charcoal,” but choose whatever you like.
3. Keep your shapes selected and take the stroke to a large number like 20pt.
4. Now, with your shapes still selected, click on the arrow in the upper right of the brushes palette, and select “New Brush”. You will be prompted to choose which kind of brush you want to create. Choose “Art Brush.” Then hit OK.
5. The “New Brush” dialogue box will appear. Play with these settings later, just hit OK for now to create your new art brush
6. Delete your shapes from the artboard, and select the brush tool. Make sure you have your new brush selected in the Brushes palette. Draw a simple shape (even just a line or curve) and watch your new wicked brush at work.
7. Now it’s time to play, but first… If you want to add color to your wicked new creations, you have to select the brush stroke, and go to the “Object” menu and select “Expand Appearance.” Have fun!
Related Posts:
- How to Make a Custom Illustrator Brush
- Easy Illustrator Trick: Oversized Stroke
- Working with Illustrator ‘Art’ Brushes: Options and Adjustments
- Illustrator Brush-Making Tip: Colorization Method
- The Power (and ease) of Patterns in Illustrator
- Illustrator: Rid Yourself of Pesky “Expand Appearance” Woes
Thanks for the great tips and files with Illustrator. In 5 minutes by following your instructions I had my own new Grunge Art masterpiece. Keep up the good blogging. Looks like you are using wordpress for the blog. Do you mind revealing the template you are using? It is nice and clean.
I believe the theme I’m using is called “fjords03 1.0″ Fjords is nice and clean to begin with, but i did some heavy customizing on my own, especially in the header.
~BittBox
I really love these tutorials… will be adding my favorites into my website to show others at some point!
Thanks and keep up the hard work!
this is about the illest site for a new guy, thanks bbox
GREAT Thank you!!
The brushes and techniques on this site are crazy!! You’ve really been a lot of help.