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Creating Simple Arrow Graphs with Illustrator’s Live Paint Tool

Creating Simple Arrow Graphs with Illustrator’s Live Paint Tool

Dig Into the Live Paint Tool

The live paint tool is a powerful tool in Adobe Illustrator. But it's also one that is sometimes overlooked when creating simple shapes. Let's take a look and see how the Live Paint Tool can be used to create some easy arrow graphs.

Step 1 - Create a Circle

In Adobe Illustrator, create a new document and select the Ellipse Tool (L). Hold down the Shift and Options keys on your keyboard and click and drag a new circle shape. Set the stroke of the shape to 30 pixels. The color doesn't matter right now. Click Object | Expand to create a shape from the stroke. Now select the Polygon Tool. If you don't see it, click and hold the Ellipse Tool button on the tools panel and the Polygon Tool will be in the menu that appears. Click and drag a new shape, and without letting go of the mouse, use the down arrow key on your keyboard to reduce the amount of sides to 3 (triangle). Before letting go of the mouse, hold the shift key to perfectly align the triangle. Scale the triangle down a bit, rotate it and align it with the edge of the circle. Using the Line Segment Tool (\), draw a line cutting through the edge of the circle.

Step 2 - Apply the Live Paint Tool

Select all of the shapes, and choose the Live Paint Bucket (K) from the tools panel. Begin clicking the various shapes to fill them with a new color. You can use the Group Selection Tool to select the cut line, and then use the Rotate Tool to move the arrows end to include more or less of the circle shape.

Step 3 - Expand and Finalize

Now select all of the shapes and click Object | Expand. Then click Object | Ungroup. Once ungrouped you can click each shape individually. Delete the line divider. Select all of the green arrow shapes and click the "Unite" button on the pathfinder panel to combine them into one shape. To finalize, try adding a gradient to give the arrow graph a bit more contrast.

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