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Thanks for the support throughout all these years :)
Illustrator CS2
Eyebrows
First of all, create a new Art Brush:
» Make an ellipse, 250×25 px.
» With the Convert Anchor Point tool, click on the left and right points only once in order to create sharp corners.
» Open the Brushes palette, select New Brush – New Art Brush. On the Art Brush Options select Proportional and change the colorization method to Tints.
Open the photo you want to trace on the same document or save the brush file for importing as a Library into a new document.
Note: It always a good idea to create layers when tracing over a photo, so you don’t get the objects mixed up.
With the Line Segment Tool, make a line at the beginning of the eyebrow.
Go to Objects – Expand Appearance.
Expand the layer where your object is located; then expand the groups until you find the object.
To be completely honest I have no idea why Illustrator creates so many groups when expanding objects.
Click on the object, drag it out of the groups and delete these (including the other path that was created).
With the Selection Tool, hold the Alt key and drag a copy of the object to the end of the eyebrow. Resize it so that it is smaller than the original shape.
Double-click on the Blend Tool to open its options.
» Settings: specified distance = 3 px (or more, or less, depends on your image), orientation = align to path.
Hit OK and click on the first and second shapes.
Expand the Layer where your object is located. Then expand the Blend group and select the top Path, which should be line connecting the initial shapes.
With the Convert Anchor Point Tool click on the right point and drag it, making the blend follow the eyebrow line and that’s it.
If you don’t feel good about the first result, you can continue editing it without having to start all over again.
» Editing the blend: select the blend with the Selection Tool and double click on the Blend Tool. Change the options as needed.
» Editing the shapes: expand the Blend on the Layer Palette and select the desired object. Modify it as you wish.
Tracing · Nov 15, 2004 ·