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Design Illustrator Foundations How to Draw in Illustrator Image Trace

Posted by ramseydennis
ramseydennis
4,530 Points

Hey everyone, I have a couple questions regarding 5:48 onward in this video -

Hey everyone, I have a couple questions regarding 5:48 onward in this video -

[As a sidenote, I am using the newest version of Illustrator)

At 5:48 - when Mat instructs us to hold shift, click on the black, thereby deselecting where we click - which therefore deselects all the paths left that are empty - he has many empty paths that are present.

I, however, have significantly less empty paths than he does - in fact I barely have any deselected paths at all.

This is the case despite my belief that I followed his instructions well.

Does anyone know why this would be the case - does it mean I'm doing something incorrectly?

At 6:15 - Mat instructs us to select the blob brush in order to connect the end points of the illustration and close off the bottom of the drawing.

He instructs us to hold shift to get a straight line.

After this, he, without grouping the brush line with the trace, declares that the blob brush line seamlessly integrated into the rest of the trace. That is, it is not grouped with the trace and does not exist as a separate entity.

When I did this, my blob brush did not integrate into the tracing - it instead existed as a separate entity.

Moreover, it was much thinner than Mat's. I attempted to make my brush thicker by increasing the size of the stroke - but that went against what Mat did, for he did not have a stroke (only a fill) and still had a thick blob brush line.

What might I be doing wrong for my blob brush line to be existing as a separate entity to the rest of the tracing, which was contrary to Mat's tracing - and how can I make my blob brush thicker like Mat's, without increasing the stroke size, since he did not have a stroke on his?

Thank you in advance -

Rudy Tan
Rudy Tan
Courses Plus Student 16,635 Points
Rudy Tan
Rudy Tan
Courses Plus Student 16,635 Points

Have you select all the paths available like matt did? Holding 'shift' while clicking on path will either select it or deselect it.

I tried with the blob brush and it is integrated with the image if you draw it and to change the thickness of the blob brush you need to double click on the blob brush tool icon, it will bring a new window of the blob brush setup. You can play with the setup there. Note if you check the 'Merge Only with Selection' box than your blob brush will not integrate to other paths, only if you select the path and draw the blob brush over will it merge them.

Hope that helps.