Wicked Illustrator Brush Effect

January 8, 2007 | Posted in Illustrator |

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.

Illustrator brush bitt

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.

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3. Keep your shapes selected and take the stroke to a large number like 20pt.

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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.

Illustrator brush bittIllustrator brush bitt

5. The “New Brush” dialogue box will appear. Play with these settings later, just hit OK for now to create your new art brush

Illustrator brush bitt

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.

Illustrator brush bitt

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!

Illustrator brush bittIllustrator brush bitt

Related Posts:

  1. How to Make a Custom Illustrator Brush
  2. Easy Illustrator Trick: Oversized Stroke
  3. Working with Illustrator ‘Art’ Brushes: Options and Adjustments
  4. The Power (and ease) of Patterns in Illustrator
  5. Requested Tutorial: Crop Excess Illustrator Artwork
  6. Illustrator: Rid Yourself of Pesky “Expand Appearance” Woes

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Illustrator. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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7 Responses to “Wicked Illustrator Brush Effect”

  1. Chuck Said... March 10th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

    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.

  2. BittBox Said... March 10th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

    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

  3. Carly Said... June 25th, 2007 at 4:34 pm

    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!

  4. justfresh Said... March 9th, 2008 at 7:49 pm

    this is about the illest site for a new guy, thanks bbox

  5. Great Said... May 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 am

    GREAT Thank you!!

  6. Dburks Said... June 17th, 2008 at 11:42 am

    The brushes and techniques on this site are crazy!! You’ve really been a lot of help.

  7. Laurice Said... October 11th, 2008 at 3:13 am

    wow! wonderful tutorial!
    i have learned great things in illustrator from you. lol

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