How to Make a Stipple Shading Brush in Illustrator

Illustrator Brushes

Stipple shading is a technique used by artists to create intricate textures and gradients by placing countless small dots on a design. This method has its origins in traditional printmaking and pen-and-ink drawings, where it was used to add depth, shadow, and texture to artworks. Although you can still use the handmade technique for your designs, there is a more efficient (and faster) way to do it using digital tools. So today, I'm going to show you how to make your own stipple shading brush in Illustrator in less than 5 minutes that you can later change the size, density and color for you to use in your designs.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and make a new file at any size you want. In this case, I will make mine at 1800 x 1200 px.

Step 2

Select the Ellipse Tool (L) and make between 10 and 15 circles at different sizes as shown.

Step 3

Press Ctrl+A on your keyboard to select all elements.

Step 4

Go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen. Apply the following settings and click OK. Note: You may play with these values until you find a distortion that you like.

Step 5

With all elements selected, go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 6

Go to Window > Brushes and click on the "New Brush" icon.

Step 7

In the New Brush window, select " Scatter Brush" and click OK.

Step 8

In the Scatter Brush Options window, apply the following settings and click OK. Note: You may change any of these values to your liking.

Step 9

To test the new brush, select the Paintbrush Tool (B) and make a stroke over the artboard with any kind of shape you want.

Step 10

Lastly, in the Brushes window, click over the recently created brush to apply it to that stroke.

Some Final Notes:

Now that you know how to make your own stipple shading brush in Illustrator, you can follow the same procedure to create new ones using more or less circles, different distorion effects and change any setting you wish in the Scatter Brush window to create an unlimited number of brushes to be used over your designs. And if you want to change the brush color, simply select the path and in the Swatches Panel change the stroke color like in the following examples.