You can do this by changing the color of individual objects, or by changing the brightness of your entire drawing. Depending on the complexity of your drawing and the final coloration you intend to achieve, the choice is up to you. Here it is shown how the colors of selected objects can be darkened or lightened as a whole. The steps are for illustrator CC 2017 version.  

If you need to reduce brightness of all objects in the artwork at once please follow the instructions below.

illustrator adjust brightness

Step 1. Select your objects.

With CTRL/CMD + A short cut, you can select all objects on the workspace.

Step 2. Open the Recolor artwork dialog box.

The dialog box is accessed in two ways. if objects are selected, the recolor artwork icon appears on the control panel. click this icon.

illustrator’s new version has different workspaces. The recolor artwork icon is located in the “essential classic” workspace. You can change the workspace by clicking the upper right icon as shown below.

for the “essentials” workspace “recolor artwork” can also be found under the properties panel. once you click you will directly see the brightness slider.

Step 3. Click the Edit tab in the dialog box

“essential classic” workspace users should follow the steps below.

Now you should see recolor artwork panel like this:

Step 4. Adjust the brightness using the slider

The brightness slider placed just below the color wheel. Click preview (Recolor Art) to see the immediate result.

Thank you.

The post How to adjust the brightness of vector drawings in illustrator appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.

How to select colors from the swatches panel for shape builder

Swatches panel is the default option to pick a color for shape builder tool. You can select any color from the swatches panel and use it directly with the shape builder tool.

1. Hit CTRL + A keys to select your objects ( Shape builder tool produce results only for the selected objects)
2. Click shape builder tool in the toolbox
3. Pick any color/texture from the swatches panel and drag your Mouse in your drawings and create your shape with the color you select.

If you don’t know how to use the shape builder tool please watch these videos:

•  braid brush 
• Shape builder

How to select colors from the artwork for shape builder

In order to use the shape builder tool with artwork color:

1. double-click shape builder icon in the toolbox.
2. Select the color picking method from the “pick color” option. As you may notice, there are only two options: color swatches and artworks.
3. Select pick color from “artworks” and hit ok.

In this method, the color is determined by where you start the drag. The below gif animation shows the usage of this method. In such drawings, it is a very easy way of combining objects with colors.

Shape builder tool usage animated Gif

I hope this helps

The post How to select colors while using shape builder tool in illustrator appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.

What do you want to do?

• I would like to remove everything outside of the artboard and save as a vector file.
• I would like to remove everything outside of the artboard and export as a raster image.
• I would like to resize my artboard to the size of my vector drawing.

Crop your vector using Pathfinder to remove outside of the boundary

In order to crop your vector drawings, place all your objects in the same layer.

Create a rectangle in front of the objects.

Select them all and use “crop” command in the Pathfinder panel.

Be careful, this command will divide all your objects into many parts. It may be difficult to re-edit your file later.

Use Layer Clipping Mask

If you still want to crop your objects without deformation, you need to use one of the masking options. Either you can use a clipping mask, opacity mask or layer clipping mask. Each of them has different results.

Most people use the layer clipping mask to visually crop vectors to the artboard.

Create a rectangle up to the size of the artboard in the same layer with your objects. Bring it to the front if not.

Click on the layer name and Click layer clipping mask icon.  Using layer clipping mask will not actually crop your vector drawings. It will only hide places outside of the boundaries of the artboard.  When you export without restraining to the artboard size, all your drawings will be visible in your raster image file.

Export

How do I export just the artboard in Illustrator?

Sometimes you need to export your vector drawings into raster images. Especially when you want to use your drawings for a web page, you should export your ai file to a jpg image. In the normal case, I mean if all of your drawings are inside of the artboard, you can easily export your file to a jpg. On the other hand, when your drawings exceed the boundary of the artboard, the ordinary export command will result in exporting all the drawings you have in your file regardless of your artboard size.

As for exporting only what is inside of the artboard to a jpg file, you have three commands under the file>export menu.

• Export for screens
• Export As.
• Save for web

If you just want to export your artboard, you can use one of all three options.

It is very obvious what to do if you use “Export for screens” option.  Just select the artboard to be exported (1). Define the quality of the file if you like(2). And click export artboard button(3).

If you decide to use “Export As.. “ option, select the file type you require (1) and make sure to thick “use artboard” checkbox (2). Then Export (3)

Finally, when you decide to use “Save for webs” option, make sure “clip to artboard” checkbox is checked.

Please note that this information is valid for Adobe Illustrator CC. If you use an older version of the illustrator, the menus may have different options.

Resize artboard

Sometimes you need your artboard to fit your drawings. In that case, double-click artboard icon in the tools panel and select the Preset pull-down menu. Choose “fit to artboard bounds” as preset.

The post How to remove drawings outside of an artboard in illustrator? appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqS8oaqf2NQ

The post How to create live sliced text effect in illustrator appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLy3EAGLgw

The post illustrator paper cut out text effect appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.

Enjoy the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EHb8iRXe8w

The post How to design clock face in illustrator appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.

Step 1: Go to the arc tool and click somewhere in the artboard.

Step 2: Give the X and Y axis values as 300 px and hit ok.

Step 3: Make no fill and 10 pt black stroke for the arc you draw.

Step 4: Go to menu bar and select Effect>Distort&Transform>Transform

Step 5: Using transform panel, make 5 copies with these parameters: 140pt vertical move, Rotate 60°

Step 6: Since it is an effect, first goto Object>expand appearence. After that go to object>expand command. Expand stroke only.

Step 7: While objects are selected, run unite command using pathfinder panel

Step 8: Go to tools panel and select draw behind mode.

Step 9: Pick up the ellipse tool and make perfect circle using ALT/OPT + Shift key

Step 10: Select all objects in the artboard and run minus front command using pathfinder panel

Step 11: ungroup the shutter icon object. Remove the hexagonal shape.

Find two videos here. first one shows how to create shutter icon with straight lines. second is curved ones.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j22_UfsQec
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXmIOJoF98c

The post How to create shutter icon in illustrator appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.

drawing includes  using cut path at selected anchor points command. The simple and accurate way of drawing.

Just watch this short video.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQpFxEekEVQ

The post Wifi icon free vector design in illustrator appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.

Here is the video showing how to create cogs wheel icon:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mecb4N9Mq0U

The post illustrator gear logo design | cog wheel or setting icon appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KTC_kqVxa8

The post Illustrator honeycomb seamless pattern design appeared first on Illustrator Tutorials.