brushes?

Um...can I get a little elaboration?

lookit the top, next to the stroke color, under the main menu stuff? see the point of the stroke to the right of the stroke color? to the right of that is the brushes

or something completely different:
Object > Outline Stroke, then manipulate points?

Are the brushes pressure sensitive? I've used the brush tool to do some calligraphic stuff but hadn't noticed it change in thickness.

oh I guess you should have the stroke selected to find what I am trying to explain about the brushes, sorry

I like that second tip.

? maybe I am the wrong person to ask

I feel like I'm not getting you

oh ok good then

if you want it to be pressure sensitive I'm 70% sure you need to have a tablet of some sort. If you're using a tablet, you have to set Illustrator up to have it pressure sensitive under brush settings.

and, of course, you can apply brush settings to the pen tool to have varied thickness, but likely unless you're just trying to do calligraphic effects it's not going to give you exactly what you want.

I have a tablet. Neato. How do I set it up? I'm sorry =/I'm really green.

Like I know enough to draw passably well in an extremely inefficient manner.

you can do it with the pressure of your tablet pen. If you create a new brush and edit the brushes settings theres a pressure/sensitivity option/variable thing in there.

So in other words you can't do it with the pen tool but the brush tool is at least a somewhat simpler option? I guess I like the pen tool because I can pick up my pen and move it and place my next data point where I want. I like that about the pen tool a lot. Sounds like it's a no go, though. Thanks for all of your help, guys.

wait, what?

I was trying to say "use a different brush" not "use the brush tool"

) : ack

We'll get there eventually I guess, lol. I'm sorry I just don't know all the jargon so I can't really articulate myself as well as I probably could otherwise.

ah no it's ok
I'm being unclear

ok look

• draw something with your pen
• make sure it's selected, just to make sure there's no confusion
• look way at the top, where it says
  File Edit Object Type...&c.
• look just below that. it should say Path, and then to the right there should be a thing that shows the fill color, then the stroke color, then the weight, then the type of brush used to make the stroke.

that's what I meant, sorry.

you can use either - you can apply the brush stroke to your pen tool, or use the brush, whatever. but you gotta set it up - go to brush options (which will pop up if you just make a new brush), you'll see angle, roundness, diameter and next to that options like fixed, random, tilt, etc - make sure it's set in diameter to "pressure" and you'll get what you want.
that's the EASIEST way to have varying line widths in a single line.

I think I get you guys. Thanks so much! Do you think I should leave this up for other peeps? I'm sure someone blogged about this already...

Wouldn't leaving a blog up go against your basic nature?

I vote leave it here.

Oh hush.

ya u gotta get brushes.. u can download free sets online.. just google illustrator brushes.. i got a buncha kool ones there.. but i think drawing the lines out urself as a shape looks better asthetically..

K I know this is a billion years later but when I try to adjust the pressure the drop down menu only reads fixed and random and everything else, including pressure is grayed out. What to do?

for the first question...

click me

please leave this blog up for me, I might like access to this info later. . .

Jellyes, I know how to do that. I want to know about the pressure sensitivity. Thanks though. =)

olie! - I will certainly do so.

No one? Anyone? Leetle help here?

Only calligraphy brushes are supposed to work with pressure sensitivity in Illustrator I think, but I have never gotten them to work. I only have a bamboo though, so I don't know if it is an Illustrator problem or because I have a cheap tablet.

When I need to fake it, I make something with the pen tool that looks like This then drag it into the brush palate. Choose the option to make it an art brush and in the next window that pops up, where it says method, pick tints (this is so that you can change the color of the line). Then you can make lines that look like This when you apply the brush to them.

I don't know if any of that is helpful, but I tried

Yeah Amy, for once leave a blog up! This might be useful if I ever get illustrator.

I've always intended to leave this one up. =P

I learned a few things on Illustrator since this blog. I can always give you what few pointers I know.

see that first shape? i'd draw that with the pen tool. kind of like how you drew the third one, but then i'd turn around and draw my way back to the start, then fill it and turn off the Stroke. i draw most of my lines that way, with as few carefully place points as possible.

I'm not following you.

It sounds like you do what I was just describing...I think. Can you explain it a bit more pretty please?

like i'd start at say the point at the extreme right, then move left halfway and click a point and drag to extend the curve, then add another point at the extreme left edge of the curve and so on until i reached the inside of the spiral at the tip, then i'd add another pointback kind of next to the second last..........wait. this needs some gifs. I'll be back.

kinda tiny but does this make sense? seeing a single line layed out in 12 steps makes me wonder if i really want to do vector art at all.

I gotcha. That seems somewhat less time consuming. Thank you!

draw!