Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
STEUER
Sharon Steuer
While preparing artwork for the pattern brush chapter in her
lynda.com
course
“Artistic Painting with Illustrator: Object-Creation Brushes,” Sharon Steuer realized
that not all patterns work well with corners. She decided to revisit an art piece she
created many years ago in which she digitally wrapped a line of her doll paintings
around circles. Now she could achieve the same result more easily by placing the
“paper doll” image in Illustrator, making it into a pattern brush, wrapping the pattern
brush around a circle. After adding a drop shadow and a second smaller stroke
the Appearance panel), she then experimented with applying this pattern to a
rectangle, but none of the Auto-corners looked good, and she couldn't visualize a
custom corner that would work regardless of the size of the rectangle. Steuer
realized that she could eliminate corners entirely by applying her pattern to a
rounded rectangle. In her “Simulating Corners” movie she demonstrated how to
manually select and adjust the rectangle's anchor points to tweak how the pattern
wraps around the shape. Now, with Live Rectangles, this process is much easier.
Simply create a rectangle using the Rectangle tool, or if you have a previously
created rectangle, choose Object> Shape> Convert to Rectangle. If your pattern
isn't already applied, click
Basic in the Control panel and choose your brush from
the pop-up. Now, in the Control panel (from Shape) or in the Transform panel, click
the arrows to adjust the Corner Radius field. What radius value you'll prefer will vary
