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Author: Tao-man, Contributing Editor
| This tutorial is going to cover how to create knotwork and other interwoven patterns using Adobe Illustrator. The basic principles I'll be explaining can be applied to other illustration programs, they just might have different names for the same functions. Since I have Illustrator 8 on a Macintosh, my instructions are going to reflect that. I am also assuming you're working in CMYK color mode which is the default mode for Illustrator.
We'll start with some very basic stuff just to help you understand the principles of what we're doing. Weaving together two squares is a whole lot easier to follow than some of the really elaborate designs I've been playing with. Just keep in mind that the complex pictures are built with the exact same techniques as the simplest ones (you just repeat the same simple steps umpteen different times.) I'll describe actions according to the menu commands that run across the bar at the top of the screen, using a greater than (>) symbol to walk you through submenus. For example Filter > Distort > Punk & Bloat means go to the Filter commands. From that drop-down menu select the Distort commands. From that drop-down menu select Punk & Bloat. If there is a keyboard shortcut, it will be listed in parentheses, like so (Command C). Okay, let's get to it! |
| Fire up Adobe Illustrator. If you don't already see a blank page, go ahead and create a new document File > New (Command N).
Select something bright for your fill color. This will make it easier to see what we're doing in later steps. I chose the default yellow. We'll use a black stroke to help us see what we're doing as well. |
| Go ahead and select the Rectangle tool (M) Click once on your page and the rectangle dialogue box will pop up. Enter five inches for both the width and height. |  |
| Choose your selection tool (V). Make sure the square we just created is selected. Then go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Now the Offset Path dialogue box will pop up. Enter -.25" as the offset amount. |  |
| Now we have one square sitting inside of another. We could have simply drawn the rectangles by hand, but using the offset path command allows us to make sure that all of the shapes we eventually create will have lines of the same thickness. This becomes very important later on when we make more complex designs.
Now we need the Pathfinder window to be open. The Pathfinder tools give you some very handy ways to create complex shapes out of a number of separate parts. If your Pathfinder window isn't already open, go to Window > Show Pathfinder. |
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