1 00:00:00.05 --> 00:00:02.01 - In this chapter we'll take our first look 2 00:00:02.01 --> 00:00:04.03 at the Blob Brush, which is the tool we'll be using 3 00:00:04.03 --> 00:00:06.07 to create this project right here. 4 00:00:06.07 --> 00:00:08.09 I'm going to start things off by going up to the File menu 5 00:00:08.09 --> 00:00:10.04 and choosing New from Template, 6 00:00:10.04 --> 00:00:11.05 or we have that keyboard shortcut 7 00:00:11.05 --> 00:00:12.06 of Control Shift N, 8 00:00:12.06 --> 00:00:14.02 or Command Shift N on the Mac. 9 00:00:14.02 --> 00:00:15.09 Then you want to locate your Center Guides file 10 00:00:15.09 --> 00:00:17.06 and click on the New button. 11 00:00:17.06 --> 00:00:19.07 All right, now I'll click on the Guides layer 12 00:00:19.07 --> 00:00:21.01 here inside the Layers Panel. 13 00:00:21.01 --> 00:00:22.05 I don't actually need these guides, 14 00:00:22.05 --> 00:00:24.09 so I'll go up to the View menu, choose Guides, 15 00:00:24.09 --> 00:00:28.01 and then choose Clear Guides to get rid of them. 16 00:00:28.01 --> 00:00:30.02 And now we'll introduce the tracing template, 17 00:00:30.02 --> 00:00:32.03 just as we did in the previous chapter, 18 00:00:32.03 --> 00:00:35.05 by going up to the File menu and choosing the Place command. 19 00:00:35.05 --> 00:00:37.03 Or you can press Control Shift P, 20 00:00:37.03 --> 00:00:39.04 or Command Shift P on the Mac. 21 00:00:39.04 --> 00:00:41.08 Now if you have access to the Exercise Files, 22 00:00:41.08 --> 00:00:44.02 then navigate to the 11_painting folder, 23 00:00:44.02 --> 00:00:46.04 where among other things, you'll find a file called 24 00:00:46.04 --> 00:00:48.04 Face sketch.jpg, 25 00:00:48.04 --> 00:00:50.01 and then click on the Place button 26 00:00:50.01 --> 00:00:51.07 in order to load your cursor. 27 00:00:51.07 --> 00:00:54.05 And then click anywhere inside the document 28 00:00:54.05 --> 00:00:57.01 in order to introduce a template. 29 00:00:57.01 --> 00:01:00.09 Now assuming that Align is set to Align to Artboard, 30 00:01:00.09 --> 00:01:03.02 you want to click on each of the center icons, 31 00:01:03.02 --> 00:01:04.07 Horizontal Align Center, 32 00:01:04.07 --> 00:01:07.00 and then Vertical Align Center. 33 00:01:07.00 --> 00:01:09.06 And next go ahead and click on the word Transform 34 00:01:09.06 --> 00:01:13.01 right there, or click on the X, Y, W, or H, 35 00:01:13.01 --> 00:01:14.07 and make sure your center point is selected 36 00:01:14.07 --> 00:01:16.07 inside the reference point matrix. 37 00:01:16.07 --> 00:01:18.08 Make sure that the link is turned on 38 00:01:18.08 --> 00:01:23.05 and then change the Width value to 650 points, like so. 39 00:01:23.05 --> 00:01:25.02 And if you press the Tab key, 40 00:01:25.02 --> 00:01:27.07 that will change the Height value accordingly. 41 00:01:27.07 --> 00:01:29.02 All right, now you can press the Escape key 42 00:01:29.02 --> 00:01:30.05 in order to hide that panel. 43 00:01:30.05 --> 00:01:32.04 And then finally, I figured this guy wanted to be 44 00:01:32.04 --> 00:01:34.09 a little bit higher, so I press Shift up arrow 45 00:01:34.09 --> 00:01:36.08 to nudge him upward 10 points. 46 00:01:36.08 --> 00:01:39.01 All right, now go ahead and double click on an empty portion 47 00:01:39.01 --> 00:01:41.04 of the Guides layer to bring up the Layer Options 48 00:01:41.04 --> 00:01:43.09 dialog box, rename this layer Template, 49 00:01:43.09 --> 00:01:45.08 and turn on the Template check box, 50 00:01:45.08 --> 00:01:47.04 and then click Okay 51 00:01:47.04 --> 00:01:49.03 and you've got yourself a tracing template. 52 00:01:49.03 --> 00:01:51.05 All right, now go ahead and click on the Drawing layer, 53 00:01:51.05 --> 00:01:55.04 and then notice this tool directly above the Pencil Tool 54 00:01:55.04 --> 00:01:56.09 in the single column toolbox. 55 00:01:56.09 --> 00:01:59.02 by default it's the Paintbrush Tool 56 00:01:59.02 --> 00:02:01.04 and you would think that's the tool you want to use, 57 00:02:01.04 --> 00:02:02.09 but we're not even going to get to that tool 58 00:02:02.09 --> 00:02:04.04 until the Mastery course. 59 00:02:04.04 --> 00:02:06.02 And that's because the more fundamentally useful 60 00:02:06.02 --> 00:02:09.00 painting tool is the next tool down, 61 00:02:09.00 --> 00:02:11.01 which is the Blob Brush. 62 00:02:11.01 --> 00:02:13.02 And now, just to make sure you're painting with Black, 63 00:02:13.02 --> 00:02:15.01 go ahead and tap the D key, 64 00:02:15.01 --> 00:02:17.00 which gets you the Default Colors, 65 00:02:17.00 --> 00:02:19.06 and that makes Black the stroke color. 66 00:02:19.06 --> 00:02:21.00 And by default, the Blob Brush 67 00:02:21.00 --> 00:02:22.06 works from the stroke color. 68 00:02:22.06 --> 00:02:24.05 Nowadays it will also work from the fill color 69 00:02:24.05 --> 00:02:26.09 if there is no stroke. 70 00:02:26.09 --> 00:02:28.07 And now just go ahead and paint 71 00:02:28.07 --> 00:02:31.00 along this line, if you will, 72 00:02:31.00 --> 00:02:33.05 and things may end up looking a little bit jagged, 73 00:02:33.05 --> 00:02:36.03 especially if you're painting with a mouse, as I am. 74 00:02:36.03 --> 00:02:37.06 But as soon as you release, 75 00:02:37.06 --> 00:02:39.05 Illustrator goes ahead and automatically 76 00:02:39.05 --> 00:02:41.03 smooths that Path Outline. 77 00:02:41.03 --> 00:02:42.09 But, not enough for my tastes, 78 00:02:42.09 --> 00:02:44.09 so I'm going to go ahead and press Control Z, 79 00:02:44.09 --> 00:02:47.04 or Command Z on the Mac, to undo that brush stroke, 80 00:02:47.04 --> 00:02:49.04 and I'm going to press the Enter key 81 00:02:49.04 --> 00:02:52.02 to bring up the Blob Brush Tool Options dialog box. 82 00:02:52.02 --> 00:02:54.01 If you're working with a drawing tablet, 83 00:02:54.01 --> 00:02:56.02 you may want to move this slider triangle 84 00:02:56.02 --> 00:02:57.08 closer to Accurate. 85 00:02:57.08 --> 00:02:59.04 In my case though, I'm going to move it 86 00:02:59.04 --> 00:03:01.05 closer to Smooth, like so. 87 00:03:01.05 --> 00:03:03.07 And this tends to be a perfect setting right here, 88 00:03:03.07 --> 00:03:06.06 one tick mark over from Absolute Smooth 89 00:03:06.06 --> 00:03:08.07 when you're painting with a mouse. 90 00:03:08.07 --> 00:03:09.08 I also want you to turn on the 91 00:03:09.08 --> 00:03:11.05 Keep Selected check box, 92 00:03:11.05 --> 00:03:13.05 just so that we can see what's really going on. 93 00:03:13.05 --> 00:03:15.09 And notice that the Size value set to 10 points, by default, 94 00:03:15.09 --> 00:03:17.07 the Angle is zero degrees, 95 00:03:17.07 --> 00:03:19.03 and the Roundness is 100%, 96 00:03:19.03 --> 00:03:21.08 at which point you can go ahead and click Okay. 97 00:03:21.08 --> 00:03:25.00 And then try painting that line once again, 98 00:03:25.00 --> 00:03:28.07 and even if it's pretty shaky, as it is in my case, 99 00:03:28.07 --> 00:03:33.02 it's going to smooth up considerably, like so. 100 00:03:33.02 --> 00:03:34.05 And now notice instead of getting an 101 00:03:34.05 --> 00:03:36.08 open path outline, as we would if we were 102 00:03:36.08 --> 00:03:38.05 drawing with a Pencil Tool, 103 00:03:38.05 --> 00:03:40.02 we get a closed path outline 104 00:03:40.02 --> 00:03:43.04 filled with the stroke color, as we're seeing here. 105 00:03:43.04 --> 00:03:45.05 All right, now I'm going to paint from this corner 106 00:03:45.05 --> 00:03:49.08 right there, down into the left along this edge 107 00:03:49.08 --> 00:03:51.03 and as soon as I release, 108 00:03:51.03 --> 00:03:53.04 even though I have a very wiggly brush stroke, 109 00:03:53.04 --> 00:03:55.06 things smooth out very nicely, 110 00:03:55.06 --> 00:03:57.08 and Illustrator goes ahead and joins 111 00:03:57.08 --> 00:03:59.03 those two brush strokes 112 00:03:59.03 --> 00:04:01.08 into a single path outline. 113 00:04:01.08 --> 00:04:03.03 Now here's a bit of advice 114 00:04:03.03 --> 00:04:05.02 if you want to get nice, sharp corners, 115 00:04:05.02 --> 00:04:07.03 don't just try to paint the thing 116 00:04:07.03 --> 00:04:09.05 all the way around, like so, 117 00:04:09.05 --> 00:04:11.04 because that will get you a soft edge 118 00:04:11.04 --> 00:04:12.07 as we're seeing right here. 119 00:04:12.07 --> 00:04:13.08 Instead what you want to do, 120 00:04:13.08 --> 00:04:15.05 I'll go ahead and press Control Z, 121 00:04:15.05 --> 00:04:17.08 or Command Z on the Mac to undo that brush stroke, 122 00:04:17.08 --> 00:04:20.04 just paint each one of these brush strokes 123 00:04:20.04 --> 00:04:22.09 independently of each other, and let 124 00:04:22.09 --> 00:04:27.01 Illustrator join them into a sharper corner, like so. 125 00:04:27.01 --> 00:04:28.08 And now I'm just going to go ahead and paint 126 00:04:28.08 --> 00:04:31.05 up the nose, and if you're having problems, 127 00:04:31.05 --> 00:04:33.06 just slow it down. 128 00:04:33.06 --> 00:04:34.04 The slower you go, 129 00:04:34.04 --> 00:04:37.05 the more likely it is that you can stay on that line, 130 00:04:37.05 --> 00:04:39.00 and then when you release, 131 00:04:39.00 --> 00:04:41.03 you're going to get a nice, smooth path outline, 132 00:04:41.03 --> 00:04:43.07 as we're seeing right here. 133 00:04:43.07 --> 00:04:44.06 All right, now I'm going to go ahead 134 00:04:44.06 --> 00:04:47.08 and paint along the nose, like so. 135 00:04:47.08 --> 00:04:49.06 And then I'll paint this part right here 136 00:04:49.06 --> 00:04:51.02 in a separate brush stroke, 137 00:04:51.02 --> 00:04:53.05 and I'll go ahead and paint the smile, 138 00:04:53.05 --> 00:04:55.08 and I'll paint this crease and you can see 139 00:04:55.08 --> 00:04:58.05 everything's turning out super smooth, 140 00:04:58.05 --> 00:05:01.05 despite my sometimes awkward brush strokes. 141 00:05:01.05 --> 00:05:02.07 Now that one wasn't so good, 142 00:05:02.07 --> 00:05:04.01 so I'm going to press Control Z, 143 00:05:04.01 --> 00:05:05.09 or Command Z on the Mac to undo it. 144 00:05:05.09 --> 00:05:07.03 And I'm going to try to see if I can give this guy 145 00:05:07.03 --> 00:05:10.07 a fuller lip, and that worked out pretty nicely. 146 00:05:10.07 --> 00:05:12.01 And now I'm just going to go ahead 147 00:05:12.01 --> 00:05:14.01 and paint down his chin. 148 00:05:14.01 --> 00:05:15.05 All right, now let's just go ahead 149 00:05:15.05 --> 00:05:17.00 and fill out the cheek over here. 150 00:05:17.00 --> 00:05:19.02 And incidentally, if you find that 151 00:05:19.02 --> 00:05:21.07 painting in one direction doesn't work for you, 152 00:05:21.07 --> 00:05:23.06 as it's not really working for me, 153 00:05:23.06 --> 00:05:26.01 then just go ahead and undo your brush stroke 154 00:05:26.01 --> 00:05:29.06 and try painting in the other direction instead. 155 00:05:29.06 --> 00:05:31.07 And bear in mind folks, 156 00:05:31.07 --> 00:05:33.01 that I am left handed, 157 00:05:33.01 --> 00:05:34.01 and so if you're a right hander 158 00:05:34.01 --> 00:05:36.00 you might find that it's easier to paint 159 00:05:36.00 --> 00:05:39.07 in the opposite directions you see me working right now. 160 00:05:39.07 --> 00:05:42.04 All right, now I'll just go ahead to paint this eyelid 161 00:05:42.04 --> 00:05:46.01 and I'll paint in this brush stroke up here 162 00:05:46.01 --> 00:05:48.04 and you can see this is a pretty jagged stroke, 163 00:05:48.04 --> 00:05:50.05 but it ends up reconciling nicely. 164 00:05:50.05 --> 00:05:53.05 And now I'll just paint this little edge for his eye. 165 00:05:53.05 --> 00:05:55.03 And now despite the fact that I have painted 166 00:05:55.03 --> 00:05:58.05 a total of 18 successful brush strokes, 167 00:05:58.05 --> 00:06:00.04 Illustrator has fused them into 168 00:06:00.04 --> 00:06:02.09 a single closed path outline. 169 00:06:02.09 --> 00:06:04.05 And that's at least the basics 170 00:06:04.05 --> 00:06:06.04 of working with the Blob Brush 171 00:06:06.04 --> 00:06:09.06 here inside Illustrator.