Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Open Trees.xar. As mentioned earlier, a saved stroke is saved
to a document and not as a program entry; therefore, there is a
nearly completed stroke above the bare trees in this file, thus
making an entry “leaves” in your New Brush Strokes folder.
However, it's better to learn how the stroke is created then just
to use it, and this is a two-parter. You first define a stroke from a
group of objects, and then you edit the saved stroke to make the
stroke less predictable in appearance, more natural.
1.
Design three or four leaves. The leaves themselves can
be made up of more than one shape—group two halves
of a leaf to make a whole one with two different colors;
this is similar to flipping and duplicating the ornament
pattern you worked with earlier in this chapter.
Rotate and scale the leaves so
2.
the distance between them is
random and their locations on
the drawing page look random
and natural. Make sure their
orientation more or less is
facing right, as this is the way
strokes are built. Press
CTRL
-
A
and then
CTRL
-
G
to make a
group from the leaves; keep the
group selected.
Choose the Freehand and Brush
3.
Tool, and then click the Create
A New Brush button on the
Infobar.
Name the brush in the following
4.
dialog box and click OK.
Make a stroke with the Freehand and Brush Tool,
5.
and then set the line width to at least 72 points on the
Standard bar.
That's the definition part; now let's edit the stroke to make
the stroke look more like leaves and less like the leaf pattern on
the walls of a cheap restaurant.
1.
Click the Edit Brush button on the Infobar: the box
has several tabbed areas—let's work through them,
beginning with Spacing.
