Blend Tool Shape Multiplier

So while I was looking for ways to accomplish a specific illustrator task, I stumbled upon a really easy, yet neat tutorial that produces an awesome effect. Take a look! To begin, open an illustrator document and for best results that pop, choose a background color. Next, draw two curving lines that intersect each other using the pen tool and give both lines a stroke color. Click the selection tool or the solid black arrow and select both lines by clicking one, holding shift and clicking the second. Next, double click the blend tool in the toolbox and the blend options panel should pop up. Under the spacing drop down menu, make sure it is set on “specified steps” and enter 20 into the box. Select the second orientation option and click ok. With both lines still selected and the blend tool ready, click on the first anchor of the first line and then click on the first anchor of the second line. This will result in a multiplying and blending of the two original lines. In order to edit the path or color, use the direct selection tool to select on of the original lines. If you double click one of the lines with the direct selection tool, you should enter outline mode, allowing you to edit either of the original lines, which will then affect the lines in between. You can also use this tool/ technique to apply this multiplying affect on all different vector shapes in illustrator. So what are you waiting for? Go play and let us know what you think!

Written by: Karly Poole