The veins in the right leaf were manipulated using the width tool and give it a little more dimension than your regular path. The veins in the left leaf are a plain old path. So letвЂ™s compare what something would actually look like with and without using the width tool.

Select the object you wish to manipulate (in this case the square) and drag out the portion of the path that you wish to thicken. The width tool looks something like this: To use the width tool, select the width tool in your left side toolbar. On the right square, I used the width tool to thicken the top and right lines on the box. The left square is a normal square without any variation in its lines.

The width tool works with paths and allows you to make certain parts of a path thicker or thinner depending on your desired look. Without a tablet, Illustrator does not have this function, but you can still create a similar look to the pressure sensitive pen by using the width tool. If you have a tablet you will probably be well aware of the magic of being able to use a pressure sensitive pen. To select the smooth tool click/hold down on the sharper tool and scroll down to the smooth tool. You can find the smooth tool underneath the sharper tool that looks like this: To use the smooth tool you have to select the path you want to smooth first. If your lines still have kinks in them you can go back in with the smooth tool and smooth out those lines. While this still happens with the less smooth fidelity, it doesnвЂ™t happen as often.Д¬hanging the fidelity of your brushes will significantly decrease the amount of work you will have to do later, but sometimes that isnвЂ™t enough. The reason I donвЂ™t suggest you move the fidelity of the blob brush tool all the way to smooth is when you go to make corners Illustrator will sometimes round the corners in a rather haphazard way. If you plan on using the pencilВ tool, I would suggest moving the Fidelity all the way to smooth. This will give you straighter lines without much effort, similar to what would happen if you have a tablet.

I like to move the fidelity one place over in between the middle line and smooth because it will smooth out the kinks that are caused by shaky hands. Usually your brush will start out in the middle of accurate and smooth, however, you want your brush to be closer to smooth. Using the blob brush options as an example, change the fidelity of the brush. If you double click on either the paintbrush, blob brush, or pencil tool, Illustrator will open up an options box filled with all of the different features of each tool. The cool thing about Illustrator is it actually has features built in that on a basic level will achieve a similar effect to a tablet, and that is what I want to discuss here. I also felt like I was missing out on some of the features that tablets have to offer such as pressure sensitive pens but as soon as I got my tablet I realized I was wrong. When I started using Adobe Illustrator I didnвЂ™t have a tablet for about 5 months and I thought this meant I had to avoid certain things like using paintbrushes and blob brushes. I have been wanting to make this tutorial for a while now.

Adobe illustrator 2015 drawing tablet