Brush Lab: Coffee Label

Brush skills to practice

• Make an Art Brush from a shape and explain which part stretches along a path.
• Make a Pattern Brush from a tile and explain why its boundary controls the repeat.
• Apply each brush to a new path, then edit one brush and explain why its strokes update together.

1. Unzip BrushLab_StudentFiles.zip. In Illustrator choose File > Open (Ctrl+O / Cmd+O), go to the Starter Files folder, and open BrushLab_Starter.ai. A forest green artboard opens with a cream label, one spray of leaves, and dashed guide lines.
2. Choose File > Save As. Set the format to Adobe Illustrator (ai). Name the file LastName_CoffeeLabel.ai and click Save. Click OK in the options box. From now on you work in your own copy.
3. Set the units to pixels so the numbers in this lesson match your screen. On Windows choose Edit > Preferences > Units. On Mac choose Illustrator > Settings > Units. Set General and Stroke to Pixels, then click OK.
4. Open Window > Properties, Window > Swatches, Window > Brushes (F5), and Window > Layers (F7). In Layers you should see Guides (locked, faded), Poster, Label (locked), and Background (locked). Draw on Poster.
5. Scroll down below the artboard. On the gray pasteboard sit two parts for later: a long brown tapered shape (the Steam brush art) and one small brown bead with a cream center.

• Save As right away so you never work in the starter file itself.
• The dashed lines are guides. You draw over them, and they never export because the Guides layer gets hidden at the end.

1. Press V for the Selection tool (the black arrow) and click the leaf spray. The whole spray is one group, so one click selects it.
2. Choose Object > Transform > Reflect. Pick Vertical for the Axis. Click Copy, not OK. A mirrored copy lands on top of the original.

   

3. Hold Shift and drag the copy to the right side of the label, so it mirrors the left spray: same height, and the same gap from the dashed steam guides in the middle. Shift keeps it level while you drag.

   

4. Click empty gray space, or press Ctrl+Shift+A / Cmd+Shift+A, so nothing is selected.

• Copy keeps the original. OK moves it.
• Vertical axis means left and right swap.

1. Press L for the Ellipse tool. Click once on the label (do not drag). In the box, type Width 97 px and Height 132 px, and click OK. Click the Roast Orange swatch so the oval is orange with no stroke.
2. Drag the bean into the gap between the two leaf sprays, over the dashed crease guide. In the Properties panel under Align, open the Align To menu (the small icon at the left end of the align buttons) and choose Align to Artboard. Then click Horizontal Align Center. The selection snaps to the center line of the label without moving up or down.
3. Set the Fill to None first: click the Fill chip in the control bar at the top and choose the white tile with the red slash. If you skip this, the Pencil fills your curve with color. Press N for the Pencil tool and draw the crease: start just above the bean on the dashed line and drag down along it in one stroke, ending just below the bean. The line must run past both ends.
4. Give the crease a stroke: with it selected, press X so the Stroke chip is in front, click the Espresso swatch, then type 10 in the Stroke field in the control bar and press Tab.
5. Smooth it: click and hold the Pencil tool in the toolbar and choose the Smooth Tool (Shift+A). A slider appears at the top left of the window. Drag the circle to about 30 %. The bumps in your line disappear.

   

6. Press Shift+W for the Width tool. Double-click the middle of the crease. In the Width Point Edit box, set Total Width to 12 px and click OK. The crease is now fatter in the middle.

   

7. Turn the stroke into a shape: Object > Path > Outline Stroke.
8. Select the bean and the crease together: press V, then hold Shift and click the bean. In the Properties panel under Pathfinder, click Minus Front (the second button). The crease cuts through the bean and the label shows through.

   

   

• The crease must cross both ends of the oval.
• Minus Front keeps the shape in back and removes the shape in front.

1. Scroll down to the pasteboard. With the black arrow, click the long brown tapered shape. The Properties panel shows W 800 px and H 34 px.
2. At the bottom of the Brushes panel, click the New Brush button (the plus icon). Choose Art Brush and click OK.

   

3. In the Art Brush Options box, type the name Steam. Leave Width at Fixed 100 %.
4. Under Brush Scale Options choose Stretch Between Guides. Click in the Start box and type 120, press Tab, type 700 in the End box, and press Tab. Two dashed guides move on the preview: the rounded tip and the pointed taper sit outside the guides, so they will not stretch.

   

5. Leave Direction on the right arrow and Colorization on None. Click OK. Keep the original shape on the pasteboard so you can inspect or rebuild the brush later.
6. Predict, then test: with Fill set to None, use the Pencil (N) to draw a short curved path on the gray pasteboard. Click Steam in the Brushes panel and set Stroke to 0.52 px. Does the middle stretch while the round tip and taper keep their shape? Leave this practice path on the pasteboard; Use Artboards keeps it out of the JPEG.

• Pick Stretch Between Guides, not the default.
• Keep the practice path on the pasteboard so you can see that one brush works on different paths.

1. Zoom in on the dashed curls above the bean (Ctrl++ / Cmd++). Set the Fill to None first: click the Fill chip in the control bar at the top and choose the white tile with the red slash. If you skip this, the Pencil fills your curve with color.
2. Press N for the Pencil. Start inside the small hook of the left curl and trace the dashed line around the hook and down to its bottom end in one stroke. Where you start is where the rounded tip of the steam goes.
3. With the curve still selected, click Steam in the Brushes panel. Then type 0.52 in the Stroke field in the control bar and press Tab. The curl now tapers from a rounded tip to a point.

   

4. Repeat for the middle curl and the right curl. Start each one inside its hook. If a curl looks lumpy, select it, use the Smooth Tool slider, and the brush redraws.
5. Add the drip: press L, click the label, make a circle 18 by 18 px, click Espresso, and set the stroke to None. Drag it onto the small dashed circle just right of the middle curl.

• Fill None before the Pencil.
• Start inside the hook, finish at the bottom.

1. Scroll below the artboard and select the small brown bead with the cream center. Keep its two circles grouped.
2. Choose Object > Transform > Move. Set Horizontal to 22 px and Vertical to 0 px, then click Copy. Press Ctrl+D / Cmd+D twice. You now have four round beads, each center 22 px from the next. Drag a marquee from empty pasteboard around the four beads and choose Object > Group.

   

3. Make a 88 by 28 px rectangle with M. Set Fill to None and give it a 1 px Roast Orange stroke so you can see its edge. Choose Object > Arrange > Send to Back. This is the tile boundary: four 22 px intervals, including the interval from the last bead to the next tile's first bead.
4. Drag a marquee around the bead group and orange rectangle. In the Align panel, set Align To to Align to Selection, then click Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center. The four beads stay in a row while the boundary centers behind them. At 100 percent, each cream center should read as a separate round dot.

   

• Click Copy in the Move box, not OK.
• Judge the circles at 100 percent before making the brush.

1. Click only the orange rectangle and set its Stroke to None. Its edge disappears, but it stays behind the beads. If you cannot grab it, click the small selection circle at the right of its row in the Layers panel. Then drag a selection marquee from empty pasteboard around the bead group and rectangle; both objects must be selected.
2. Click New Brush in the Brushes panel. Choose Pattern Brush and click OK.
3. Name it Round Beads. Under Fit, choose Approximate path. Leave Scale at 100 percent and click OK.

   

4. Keep the completed tile on the pasteboard as editable source art. Predict, then test: draw a short straight path with the Line Segment tool (\) on the gray pasteboard, click Round Beads, and set Stroke to 1 px. Does it repeat circles or stretch one bead? Keep this practice path for Step 9.

• Remove the temporary orange stroke, then select the beads and tile boundary together.
• Approximate path keeps the circles round.

1. Press Ctrl+0 / Cmd+0 to see the whole artboard. Click the dashed oval just inside the edge of the label. It is named Frame path.
2. Open Window > Stroke and uncheck Dashed Line. The frame path becomes a solid line before you apply the brush.
3. Click Round Beads in the Brushes panel. Set the Stroke field to 1 px. The beads should sit in a single row inside the cream edge.

   

4. Zoom in at the top and bottom. Every bead should have a visible cream center, and the outside should retain a cream margin. Check the bottom seam for a doubled or missing bead.
5. Predict, test, explain: Double-click Round Beads in the Brushes panel and change Scale from 100 to 85 percent. Click OK, then Apply to Strokes. Look at both the border and your practice line: both update because they use the same brush. Say which changed: the brush definition, the two paths, or both.
6. Undo the scale change (Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z) to restore the reference-sized beads. If Undo does not restore both paths, reopen Round Beads, set Scale back to 100 percent, and choose Apply to Strokes. Keep the practice line off the artboard.
7. Brush checkpoint: point to the two new practice paths and answer aloud: Which brush stretches one shape? Which repeats a tile? Why did the border and practice line change together? Save your Illustrator file before moving to the type follow-up.

• Select the dashed oval, not the label.
• Weight 1 px; inspect the cream margin.
• Choose Apply to Strokes so both paths update.

1. Press T, click empty label below the bean, and type COFFEE. Press Esc. In Window > Type > Character (Ctrl+T / Cmd+T), choose Academy Engraved (on a Mac it may be listed as Academy Engraved LET, style Plain) at 184 px. Set Horizontal Scale to 68 percent. Select the text with the black arrow. In Properties under Appearance, set both Fill and Stroke to Espresso and Stroke weight to 5.5 px. Drag COFFEE just below the bean and leaves, then in the Properties panel under Align, open the Align To menu (the small icon at the left end of the align buttons) and choose Align to Artboard. Then click Horizontal Align Center. The selection snaps to the center line of the label without moving up or down.

   

2. Type SINGLE ORIGIN below COFFEE. Set Montserrat Bold, 46 px, Tracking 50, and Espresso. Align to Artboard and click Horizontal Align Center.
3. Type CRAFT ROAST below SINGLE ORIGIN. Set Montserrat Bold, 37 px, Tracking 90, and Roast Orange. Leave room above the dashed curve; center it the same way.
4. Press T and click on the dashed curve near its left end. The cursor changes to a curved type icon. Type RICH & SMOOTH, then press Esc. Set Montserrat Bold, 40 px, Roast Orange. In the Paragraph section of Properties, click Align center.

   

   

5. Check the gaps between all four lines. The two practice paths and brush source art remain on the gray pasteboard and will not appear in the JPEG when Use Artboards is checked.

• Place and center each line before starting the next.
• Click near the left end of the curve.

• Two mirrored leaf sprays, one on each side.
• The bean is split by an S-shaped gap that runs all the way through.
• Three curls of steam made with my Steam Art Brush, each with the rounded tip in the hook.
• The round-bead border goes all the way around the label with separate cream centers and a clear outer cream margin.
• I tested Steam and Round Beads on new pasteboard paths, then edited Round Beads and saw both of its strokes update.
• I can explain: an Art Brush stretches artwork along a path; a Pattern Brush repeats a tile along a path.
• I set COFFEE, SINGLE ORIGIN, and CRAFT ROAST, then put RICH & SMOOTH on the curve.
• I hid the Guides layer before exporting.
• I exported with Use Artboards at Screen (72 ppi), the file name starts with my last name, and I uploaded the JPEG, not the .ai.