The exciting new feature for Illustrator CS5: The Stroke Width Tool (Shift + W) allows you to vary the width of a stroke along its length at any point regardless of where the anchor points are. This means that you can change a stroke’s weight at any point. To get started zoom in on your stroke, select the tool and click and drag from the middle of the stroke outwards. Continue to do this along the line until you achieve the desired effect.

Any points you do not want can be easily deleted by selecting the centre dot and pressing the backspace key with the stroke width tool is still selected. Clicking and dragging the centre point along the path allows you to move the point. Grabbing the outer handles and pulling them in or out adjusts the width of existing points. Thicker strokes exaggerate the effect of your shadows while a thinner stroke will bring out highlights. Be as creative as you like with this to create a bold and exciting character.

Exaggerated example of effects achievable

For those of you not using Creative Suite 5, a similar effect can be achieved using a custom art brush. Create a shape like the one above and select Window > Brushes (F5). Drag and drop the shape into the Brushes Palette to start creating your custom brush. We want to create a new art brush. Give your new brush a name and use the direction buttons to choose which way the shape will sit along the stroke. Click ok to create the new brush.

To apply our new brush, select the shape with the standard stroke and click on the new brush in the palette. The brush will then stretch along the path. It might appear quite large so either double-click the brush in the palette to edit its settings and reduce the width percentage, or change the stroke weight.

The custom art brush method does not provide us with as much control as the CS5 stroke width tool does. However, with some experimentation custom art brushes can produce similar results to the Stroke Width tool.

Now that the graphic is complete we need to save it with a transparent background and at varying sizes for the different iOS devices. I will take you through this process in Creating an iPhone Graphic Part 3 and finish off this tutorial trilogy.

So i thought, let’s put it in a blog and share it around. Here are a list of web sites that i have found.

If anyone has any others, let me know.

free icons

List of free texture sites

food textures

free vector glass buttons

useful textures

more textures

lovetextures.com

chicago reference pack

various patterns

free illustrator patterns

brushes

As always, check the site you download the images from as to how you may use them – free is not necessarily what you think it is. There is usually a license agreement somewhere telling you what you may use the images for, e.g, Creative Commons license, etc.

Have fun!

Click, let go and shift – click elsewhere in your document and you will get a straight line

Click and hold with your mouse button, then hold the shift key, and then move your mouse – you will be constrained to horizontal/vertical lines

When using things like eraser, dodge, burn, etc, Photoshop sees one stroke as mouse-down and mouse-up. If you just paint with one mouse down, and then let go, you will get one long stroke with one application of your effect (like with the dodge tool you will only lighten a little bit, not build up as you might expect).

So it is best to use short strokes, and let go of the mouse, short strokes, etc.

This means that you can also do multiple undos and so have a lot of control of how you step back, and you can see the effect build up as well.

Do not forget that all the tools that use a brush have access to brush shapes and so you can rub out and apply effects in any shape you wish – text, logos, etc.

Also, use the [ and ] keys to decrease/increase your brush size on the fly, and shift + [/] changes the hardness of the brush – very useful.

Let me know of any clever brush shortcuts you have come across!