How to Create a Pattern Brush in Adobe Illustrator

Art brushes in Illustrator stretch artwork along a path. A pattern brush repeats the art on the path and even allows you to define different art for different sections of the path, such as endpoints, corners and runs. You can also create pattern brushes from raster image files.

These functions are available Illustrator CC.

1. Here are three shapes that will be used to create a pattern brush. Because multiple shapes will be used, each must first be defined as a pattern swatch. Drag each shape separately into the Swatches Panel.
2. Open the Brushes Panel (Window > Brushes). With nothing selected, click the New Brush button at the bottom of the panel.
3. In the dialog box, select Pattern Brush and click OK.
4. The Pattern Brush Options dialog box has five menus for specifying the treatment of different parts of paths: 1. Outer Corner, 2. Side, 3. Inner Corner, 4. Start, 5. End.
5. In this example, I've selected patterns for Side, Start and End.
6. If you'll need to change the color of the stroke after the pattern brush has been applied to a path, go to the Colorization Method menu and choose Tints.
7. Here the pattern brush has been applied to paths, each with a different color stroke.
8. Raster images can also be used to create pattern brushes. The images must be embedded. Images can be embedded using the Links Panel (Window > Links). Click the Links Panel menu and choose Embed.
9. In this example, I'm using a grayscale bicycle in .psd file format, dragging it directly into the Brushes Panel.
10. Select Pattern Brush in the dialog box and click OK.
11. If you want space between the repeats in the pattern, set the percentage in the Spacing field.
12. Here's the bike pattern applied to a path.