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Chapter 10: Painting
About painting
Painting methods
Illustrator provides two methods of painting: the existing method used in previous versions of Illustrator and the
new Live Paint method.
With the existing method, you can draw an object and assign a fill or stroke to it. You can then draw other objects
that you can paint similarly, layering each new object on top of the previous ones. The result is something like a
collage made out of shapes cut from colored paper, with the look of the artwork depending on which objects are on
top in the stack of layered objects.
With the Live Paint method, you paint more like you would with a traditional coloring tool, without regard to layers
or stacking order, which can make for a more natural workflow. All objects in a Live Paint group are treated as if they
are part of the same flat surface. This means you can draw several paths and then color separately each area enclosed
by these paths (called a
face
). You can also assign different stroke colors to portions of a path between intersections
(called an
edge
). The result is that, much like a coloring book, you can fill each face and stroke each edge with a
different color. As you move and reshape paths in a Live Paint group, the faces and edges automatically adjust in
response.
An object consisting of a single path painted with the existing method has a single fill and a single stroke (left). The same object converted to a
Live Paint group can be painted with a different fill for each face and a different stroke for each edge (right).
Painting with the existing method leaves gaps and overpainting (left). Painting with Live Paint avoids gaps and overpainting (center). Using
the Live Paint Selection tool lets you select excess paths and delete them (right).
See also
“About Live Paint” on page 228