I absolutely LOVE learning new things about the design programs that I use regularly. When I’m busy I get stuck in ‘production’ mode and tend to stick to what I do best – or in other words – don’t crawl very far out of my comfort zone.
While paroozing through one of my favorite websites, Motorburg.com, I stumbled upon a semi-tutorial on how to use ‘artist brushes’ in Illustrator, and I just had to try it out. About that same time I got a quick design job from my favorite local shirt shop, 3ink Screenprinting, to do a simple one color illustration for a customer of theirs. Perfect timing!
I’m really happy with how this turned out! I spent awhile adjusting the brushes to my personal tastes, and had to ask how to apply a spot color to each one (essential for screen printing) but overall I’m stoked. I really love the varying line weights I can achieve using this method.
Here’s a closeup:
Once I get a bit more familiar with the process maybe I’ll get really brave and post up a small tutorial, but for now I’m still in the ‘experimenting’ phase.
Thanks for looking!