Creating scatter brushes in Illustrator

Creating scatter brushes

To define a scatter brush, start by creating artwork to use as a brush. Small patterns work well. With the artwork selected, follow these steps to create and use a scatter brush:

1. Drag the artwork onto the Brushes panel. The New Brush dialog appears. Choose the New Scatter Brush option and click OK.
2. The Scatter Brush Options dialog appears (Figure 2). Enter a name for the brush in the Name area.

    

   

   Figure 2: Defining a scatter brush from a group of stars.

3. Use the sliders and lists in the dialog to modify the pattern. Size defines the size of the pattern in relation to the size of the original drawing. Spacing controls the spacing between instances of the artwork. Use the Scatter slider to define how far apart the scatter brush art will scatter away from the path to which the brush is applied. Use the Rotation setting to define how much objects will rotate as the brush is applied to a curved path.
   
   

   Note: The Rotation setting can be applied relative to either the path or the page.

4. Use the Colorization Method pop-up list in the Scatter Brush Options dialog to define how coloring is added (or not added) to the original stroke color. You’ll see a preview of each option if you click the Tips button (Figure 3).

    

   

   Figure 3: Previewing tints for a scatter brush.

5. After you define scatter brush options, click OK to generate the brush. Apply the brush by clicking on a selected path with the Selection tool, and then clicking on the art brush in the Brushes panel. Or select the art brush first, and then use the Paintbrush tool to draw interactively (Figure 4).

    

   

   Figure 4: Drawing a path of flowers with an art brush using the Paintbrush tool.

Random scatter

The Size, Spacing, Scatter, and Rotation sliders in the Scatter Brush Options dialog can be set to fixed or random values. If you choose random from the pop-up associated with each white slider, a second, black slider becomes active that controls how much randomness to generate. For example, if you apply Random to pattern size, the second slider defines the amount of size variation (in percent) that will be applied as the brush is applied to a path.

Where to go from here

To learn more about using brushes, and other features in Illustrator CS3, check out the following resources:

• Illustrator Design Center
• Adobe Video Workshop
• Creating calligraphic brushes in Illustrator, by David Karlins and Bruce C. Hopkins

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