This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Working with drawing modes
Illustrator has three different drawing modes that allow you to draw shapes in different ways. They are found near the bottom of the toolbar: Draw Normal, Draw Behind, and Draw Inside.
Draw Normal mode: Every document starts by drawing in Normal mode, which stacks shapes on top of each other.
Draw Behind mode: This allows you to draw behind all artwork on a layer if no artwork is selected. If artwork is selected, the new object is placed beneath the selected object.
Draw Inside mode: This mode lets you draw objects or place images inside other objects, automatically creating a clipping mask of the selected object.
Using Draw Inside mode
Now you’ll add a nose (and a few other things) to the bear by drawing and pasting inside of shapes using the Draw Inside drawing mode. This can be useful if you want to hide (mask) part of the artwork. You can draw, place, or paste content into a shape with Draw Inside mode active.
Select the Selection tool (
) and click to select the bear’s head.Choose Draw Inside from the Drawing Modes menu (
), near the bottom of the toolbar.
Press and hold on the Star tool (
) in the toolbar and select the Ellipse tool (
).Draw a circle on the bear head that will become a nose. See the following figure.
Change the fill color to black.
With the Selection tool selected, drag the circle into position where the nose might go.
If you drag the circle so it extends beyond the edges of the bear’s head, you will see that part is hidden because it is inside of the bear head.
Now you’ll draw a line to give the bear a smile.
Press and hold the Ellipse tool in the toolbar and select the Line Segment tool. Draw a straight line that will be the mouth of the bear.
Change the Stroke Weight to 2 pt and the Stroke Color to black.
Click the Drawing Modes button (
) toward the bottom of the toolbar. Choose Draw Normal.
When you’re finished adding content inside a shape, you can choose Draw Normal so that any new content you create will be drawn normally (stacked rather than drawn inside).
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Practicing with Draw Inside mode
Now you’ll take the brown chamfered corner rectangle and paste it into the body of the bear to make the belly.
With the Selection tool (
), click the rectangle with chamfered edges to select it.Change the fill color to a lighter brown.
Choose Edit > Cut to cut it from the artboard.
Select the body of the bear.
Choose Draw Inside from the Drawing Modes menu (
), near the bottom of the toolbar.Choose Edit > Paste.
The artwork is pasted within the bear body shape. You’ll get it into place in the next section.
Click the Drawing Modes button (
) toward the bottom of the toolbar. Choose Draw Normal.Choose Select > Deselect, and then choose File > Save.
Editing content drawn inside
Next you’ll make adjustments to the bear’s belly to see how you can edit an object inside another object after you create it.
With the Selection tool (
) selected, try clicking the lighter bear belly shape. You’ll wind up selecting the darker brown bear body that it’s inside of.
The bear body is now a mask (called a clipping path). The bear body and the belly artwork you pasted inside make a clip group. Looking at the top of the Properties panel, you will see “Clip Group.”
With the clip group selected, click the Isolate Mask button in the Properties panel to enter Isolation mode. Now you can select either the clipping path (the brown bear body shape) or the lighter brown artwork pasted within.
TIPAs with a group, you can also double-click the clip group to enter Isolation mode.
Drag the lighter brown belly shape to look more like you see in the figure.
You can use the arrow keys to move it, make it smaller, and perform any other type of transformation as well.
Press the Escape key to exit Isolation mode.
You’ll probably see that the legs are in front of the bear body. Let’s put them behind.
Drag across both the legs and the claws (triangles). Choose Object > Arrange > Send To Back.
I moved my legs up and farther apart.
Choose Select > Deselect.
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Pasting artwork between documents
Next you’ll paste the bear logo you’ve created so far into another Illustrator document that contains a flyer design.
To select all of the bear artwork, choose Select > All On Active Artboard.
Copy it by choosing Edit > Copy.
Choose File > Open. Open L3_flyer.ai in the Lessons > Lesson03 folder you copied onto your hard disk.
Click in the blank artboard on the right to make it active, and fit the artboard in the window by pressing Command+0 (macOS) or Ctrl+0 (Windows).
Choose Edit > Paste to paste the bear logo.
Click the Group button in the Contextual Task Bar below (or above) the artwork to group it.
Choose Select > Deselect.
