How to Make Mandalas in Adobe Illustrator - Using Pattern Brushes
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2024
- In this video I show you how to make beautiful mandala designs using pattern brushes inside of Adobe Illustrator. These complex designs can be used as adult colouring book pages or a wide variety of other applications.
I'd like to thank Luxurycardstore for the idea for this video. If anyone else has a topic that they need help with please let me know in the comments and I'll see what I can do.
To download some of the free brushes that I made using this technique visit the resource section on my website. www.dwcreativestudios.com/reso...
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I am a Graphic Designer/Illustrator/Photographer/Creator with 14 years of professional experience. Subscribe to my channel so I can share some of my creative knowledge with you.
I've been using Illustrator for years and I learned some very important (and time saving) tricks from this video. Thank you!
That’s awesome! It’s always great to hear that these videos are helping people learn new techniques. Thanks for checking out my channel.
This tutorial is genius! Thank you for doing step by step and explaining everything.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for the kind words.
I also really appreciate this video because these brushes are editable, and therefore can make many combinations, saving a lot of time, instead of building each mandala from scratch.
It really is great how putting the work in upfront to build these brushes can lead to different end results. Thanks again for the comments and for subscribing.
Thank you Dave. Love it!
My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it.
Amazing
Thank you! Cheers!
remarkable, I expect more of such videos
Fantastic tutorial; best mandala creation for Illustrator I've seen yet. Thank you so much.
Thanks so much for the comment! Glad to hear that you found this tutorial useful.
Wow! Dave, you are amazing! That was complex but you broke it down so well into small pieces that me, a newbie to AI actually could follow along. Thank you so much, I am very excited, and nervous, to try this in the very near future! Thanks so much! 👍
Thanks so much! I'm glad you found this helpful. Hope you are able to put it to use in the future. Learning AI can be intimidating but it's such a powerful tool that it's totally worth it!
Great, touch of color is impressive.
I just finished this tutorial, working along with it as I watched. This was only my third project in illustrator (or any vector graphics software, for that matter) and I managed! I have a number of personal projects in mind and settled on your tutorials as my intro to the process, because I like your artwork and tutorial style. Thanks so much for producing this.
Thanks so much for checking out my tutorials and your kind comments. Really appreciate the support. I'm happy to be a part of your vector journey
OMG! Thanks a bunch! And you explained everything so well and in detail, can't thank you enough. Subscribed🌸🐞
Thanks for subbing and thanks for the wonderful comment! Glad you enjoyed the tutorial.
Awesome video. Keep them coming.
Thanks Bryce. Really appreciate it. I have a bunch of new material in the works. Stay tuned.
Just WOW
Thanks so much for the comment. Glad you liked the tutorial!
Thank you so much!! Your videos are really refreshing in this rabbit hole of graphic design tutorials. Please keep it up!! So clean and detailed. And also so unique.
Could you make a video maybe of your progress how to put together those animal masks with the patterns? They are so amazing!!
Thank you again!!! 😊
You're very welcome and thank you so much for the kind words! I have a list of videos I'd like to make and the mandala animals are near the top. There have been several people request the same thing. Stay tuned and I'll try to get to it for you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain everything, including how to select and what to select and keyboard shortcuts. Especially for newbies like me, I appreciate your taking the time to not just show, but explain every step along the way. Your soothing voice also kept me patient enough to follow along :) New subscriber here.
Thanks so much for subscribing. Glad you found the tutorial helpful. Apparently I have a voice for radio!
@@davewatkinscreative you definitely do. New career?
Too funny. I guess I should update my resume!
You are awesome!
Thanks so much!! Appreciate that.
Thank you so much! And Keeping making video
You are very welcome. Thanks for checking this video out. Hopefully you found it useful!
Thank you Dave. With your help I have successfully created my first mandala.
That’s great! I saw that you had commented earlier but when I went to reply the comment was gone. I hope that means you were able to solve the issue you were having.
@@davewatkinscreative Yes, I solved the problem within minutes of sending that first message. I've only been learning illustrator for a couple of weeks so everything feels a little strange. I think the problem I had with creating the pattern brush was that I was selecting the guide lines as well as the pattern so the software sent an error message each time I tried to make the brush. I should have created the guides on a separate layer to the artwork...I think. I love your tutorials, your instructions are so clear and this is vital for a beginner. Mandalas are an easy way to learn to use illustrator while simultaneously creating something beautiful so I look forward to creating more mandalas with your help. Thanks again Dave, I've already become a loyal fan.
I'm glad you were able to solve the issue you were having! In a few of my other tutorials I have mentioned that I like to build my guides on their own layers so that I can be sure I'm keeping them separate and don't accidentally select or move them. The traditional method is to lock guides in the menus under View > Guides > Lock Guides but I prefer the separate layer approach and being able to click the lock icon in the layer palette. Thanks so much for your wonderful comment!
Thank you. I'm teaching a Media Arts class and was trying to find a way for my students to make mandalas. 😊🌈
That's great! I also I have three other mandala tutorials that your students may find useful. The latest version is a technique for creating mandalas in photoshop.
more than amazing
Appreciate the kind words!
Another great tutorial from you, Dave - and a different approach to creating mandalas. Your explanations are always clear and easy to follow. Thank you so much! Liked and subscribed...
Would you consider making a video on creating a multi-layered stencil for a cardmaker? Doesn't have to be a super-complicated shape. The main objective of using multi-layered stencils here is mostly coloring parts of the image with different inks in order to create depth (light-shade areas) and more interest. Thank you in advance!
Really appreciate the feedback and the video suggestion. I'm not familiar with card making with stencils so hoping you could provide me with some context so I have a better idea of what you're looking for. If you could send a note via the contact page of my website that would be awesome. dwcreativestudios.com/contact
I feel l have discovered a hidden treasure with your channel! It's simply amazing! Can you do more videos with the Astute Graphics plugins? That would be sooo inspiring...🙃
Thanks so much for the kind words! I have been working with the team at Astute Graphics for a few months now. There will be more videos by me posted to their channel in the future so keep an eye out for those.
Awesome!!!
I really liked your illustration style. Do you have some tutorials on how to make illustrations like the one you showed in the beginning of the video?
Assuming you mean the mandala animals in the intro of my other mandala video? It’s been on my list of things to do for a long time to make a tutorial for those illustrations…. I’ll bump it back to the top.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Cheers! 🥳
Looks Awesome Man! Thanks so much for the detailed explanation!
Would recommend a shotgun mic for improved audio when talking to the camera, would remove the echo!
Keep it up!
Thanks so much Tanner. I really appreciate the feedback. My audio quality is certainly an area that I'd like to improve. I have recently purchased a boom arm to keep the mic off of my desk. My hope is that will cut down on the sound of my mouse dragging around.
@@davewatkinscreative Awesome Idea, Thanks for your reply. I didnt hear the mouse at all to be honest, it was in the intro and outro that I notice the echo the most :)
I wish I could figure out how to do this in GIMP or InkScape. Can't afford AI right now. Great tutorial, though! Very detailed and perfect for a beginner like me.
I haven't had a chance to use either GIMP or InkScape so I can't be much help. Thanks for the compliment on the video though. Hopefully you can find a way to recreate this effect with the tools you have access to.
wow Dave - I am so glad I found you. Can this be accomplished in photoshop as well?
Hey! I wasn't able to recreate this tutorial exactly in photoshop but I have just posted an alternate mandala technique that you might be interested in.
ruclips.net/video/kcFrSu-Ce1I/видео.html
Thanks for the topic suggestion!
How did you delete the line o the middle of a leave shape ? Is the line behind it ?
Hey - At 5:45 I talk about deleting the section of line that was in-front of the leaf shape. In this instance I used the shape builder tool with both elements selected and alt clicked on the section of line I wanted to delete. Hope that helps.
This is awesome! I learned a lot!! However, when I was ready to make the pattern brush, I got an error message that said "The selected artwork contains an element that cannot be used in a pattern brush". I researched it and found that one of the problems could be using a gradient but I didn't use a gradient. What else could be the problem? Thanks in advance for your help!!
Hey Michele - Thanks for checking out the tutorial. I'm guessing here because I can't see your file but I think you may have selected an unlocked guide when trying to make your pattern brush. To lock guides go to View>Guides>LockGuides. If you had a guide selected along with the rest of your objects you would have seen the "element that cannot be used" error. Could you give that a try and let me know if that solved your problem?
@@davewatkinscreative IT WORKED!!!! THANK YOU!!!! I am so excited about this!! Is there a way to show you my design??
That's awesome. Glad I could help out. You could send me a DM on IG (@designwisdom) or use the contact form on my website www.dwcreativestudios.com/contact Excited to see what you put together!
This is a fantastic turorial! My Patterns have a tiny gap between them when i apply the pattern brush to the circle, is there anything i can do to tighten the gap between them? I kept it at 2 x 6.5 inches like you did in the tutorial
So there are two things I can suggest. Sometimes you'll want to go back and look at the original pattern swatch that you created. If any of the points extend out further than your outer border even slightly it can create small gaps once applied to your final shape. So zooming in, dropping guides and verifying that everything lines up would be my first stop. The second is that sometimes illustrator can leave minuscule gaps in patterns even when your original pattern swatch was perfect. The work around that I use in this situation is to expand the stroke fully to outlines and to add a tiny stroke of the same colour that visually doesn't change the appearance too much but that fills the gaps. Then outline that stroke and merge everything back together with the pathfinder. Hope that helps.
@@davewatkinscreative yep that was me going over the guide lines with a curved line, all sorted now. Thanks again Dave, I’m really enjoying the tutorials. I have a Glowforge laser cutter and now itching to get some multi layered mandalas cut out
Awesome! Glad you were able to get that issue sorted out. Good luck with the laser cutting projects. I would love to get my hands on a laser cutter some day.
@@davewatkinscreative Thank you for this video. This is an easy way for beginners like myself to create mandalas. I am having trouble with gaps between the pattern. I made sure all the lines are up to the boarder by zooming in and making sure everything lines up. Im not quite sure what you mean about expanding the stroke and seeing if that helps. Where would I expand the stroke in the pattern or once I create the mandala? Thank you for any help you can give.
Hey Pamela - I'll go into the process I described above in a bit more detail. The issue that I've run into in the past leaves behind tiny gaps in some situations when working with patterns. What I've done as a work around is to select all of the stroked elements I was working with and to "create outlines" Object > Path > Create Outlines. This will create filled paths in place of the stroked path. From there I would select everything and "unite" it all together with the pathfinder. I would then add a matching colour stroke to the now filled compound path - this stroke can be adjusted in thickness to a point where it covers the offending small gaps in the pattern without adjusting the appearance of the underlying path too much (I'm normally using a fraction of a point thickness stroke). This outline can be expanded again and united together with the main path to be left with a clean/gapless pattern. One thing to note is for this to work you will want to be working with a single colour only. I would generally go through this process before adding any fills or colours to my design. If this doesn't work for you please send me a note on the contact page of my website (dwcreativestudios.com)
Is this the way to do mandalas in CS6?
While making this video I was using Ai CC 2018 but I'm fairly certain all of the features I used were available in CS6. That being said there are numerous techniques for creating mandalas in Adobe Illustrator. I have two other mandala tutorials available on my channel that you might find interesting. A small portion of those tutorials use a feature that was introduced after CS6 but would still be useful to you.
@@davewatkinscreative I'm still using CS5, and all the features worked for me.
Good to know that everything I talked about here worked in CS5.