How to add a Connected Stroke Around Multiple Shapes in Illustrator

This lesson is exclusive to members

Course contents
SECTION: 4
Keyboard Shortcuts 14:06

Questions

2

Course info

104 lessons / 10 hours 33 quiz questions 31 projects Certificate of achievement

Overview

Hey there, I'm Dan Scott, an Adobe Certified Instructor with over 16 years of design experience under my belt, I'm part of the Adobe Expert program, and my online and in-person classes have been attended by more than a million people, just like you! Join me as we dive into the exciting world of Adobe Illustrator Advanced! In this course, you're not just leveling up in Illustrator, you're transforming into an Illustrator SuperHero!

In this course you will work on a bespoke brief designed to ignite your imagination, coupled with immersive course videos, you'll be crafting jaw-dropping graphics in no time. Throughout our journey together, you'll flex your creative muscles and construct projects that will elevate your portfolio to new heights. So, let's dive in and unleash your creativity!

You’ll learn:

  • - How to use artificial intelligence to boost your creativity in ideation. 
  • - The quick way to take hand-drawn sketches and vectorize and color them. 
  • - The building blocks needed to set you loose on a huge variety of beautiful effects and techniques.
  • - To make beautiful charts and graphs for your documents. 
  • - Color mastery to make quick color adjustments, Pantones, and blend it all together beautifully.
  • - How to master images inside of your illustrator workflow. 
  • - To harness all the secret gems that'll help you level up your typography skills. 
  • - All the tricks of the trade for drawing complex shapes easily. 
  • - To double your creativity with the Transform and Distort section. 
  • - To speed up your personal workflow to get the most out of your creative day.

Explore the full course outline for a comprehensive list of topics that will expand your Illustrator prowess beyond imagination.

If you're already comfortable navigating the basics but want to  unlock the true potential of Illustrator, then this Illustrator Advanced course is your ticket to becoming a master of Illustrator! So join me and the ranks of design superheroes and let's embark on this thrilling journey together.

Requirements:

- All you need is a copy of Adobe Illustrator, you can get a free trial from Adobe here to get started.
- A basic knowledge of Illustrator is required. I recommend watching my Illustrator Essentials course prior to embarking on this epic adventure.

Who this course is for:

- Creative adventurers who already have a basic understanding of Illustrator.
- Self-taught Illustrator enthusiasts yearning for structured guidance.
- Graduates of my Illustrator Essentials Course, hungry for more knowledge and skills.
- Visionaries who have developed their own unique Illustrator approach but crave exploration of the vast universe of tools, updates, and time-saving techniques.

What you'll learn:

- How to use Text to Vector Ai
- How to use Text to Pattern Ai
- How to use Generative Recolor
- When to use the Scissor Tool, Eraser Tool & Knife Tool
- Advanced Shape Builder Uses
- The differences between the Pathfinder Vs Shape Builder
- How to use the Join tool & Joining Path Ends
- Advanced Pen Tool Tricks
- Width Tool Advanced Techniques
- The Curvature Tool
- How to master corners with corner widget effects
- How to work with Compound Paths
- The difference between Expand & Expand Appearance
- How to create Graphic Styles
- How to make Symbols
- How to use the Smooth Tool
- Advanced use of Simplify Path
- What Live Shape Effects are for
- How to make Repeating Grids & Concentric Circles
- How to make Random Objects
- Advanced Keyboard Shortcuts in Illustrator
- How to add a Gradient on a Stroke
- How to add a Gradient in Text
- How to use the Freeform Gradient tool
- How to use Advanced Color Swatches
- How to use Global Color Swatches
- What is the difference between RGB vs CMYK color modes?
- How to proof colors
- How to use Pantone Spot Colors
- Recolor Artwork & Changing all colors at once
- How to use Blending Modes
- How to work with Images & Blending Modes
- How to make Black & White Images
- Learn Advanced Workflow Tricks
- All the Super Selection Mastery
- How to use the History Panel
- Advanced Fonts Tricks & Tips
- Use Retype to know what Font is being used
- How to put Text Inside a Letter or Shape
- How to use the Touch Type Tool
- How to add a Connected Stroke Around Multiple Shapes
- How to Offset a Stroke with Text
- How to make a Bar Chart in Illustrator
- How to make a Pie Chart in Illustrator
- Layer Power Moves
- Advanced Artboard & Pages Tricks
- How to Unlink vs Embedded Images
- How to Crop Images Rather than Mask
- How to Mask Inside Text & Multiple Shapes
- How to you use the Puppet Warp Tool
- How to use the Distort Envelope Shape & Type
- How to use the Envelope Mesh
- How to blend lines together
- How to make a Linocut Effect
- How to make 3D Gradient Lettering Blends
- How to spin text into a ring
- How to turn text into a 3D donut shape
- How to make a Duotone image effect
- How to make a Roughen Stamp Vector Effect
- How to make a Neon Sign Glow Effect
- How to use a Halftone Effect using Plugins
- Advanced Exporting Assets Tricks in Illustrator
- How to use the Dimension Tool

So what're you waiting for? Let's start the course now!
Daniel Scott

Daniel Scott

Founder of Bring Your Own Laptop & Chief Instructor

instructor

I discovered the world of design as an art student when I stumbled upon a lab full of green & blue iMac G3’s. My initial curiosity around using the computer to create ‘art’ developed into a full-blown passion, eventually leading me to become a digital designer and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop.

Sharing and teaching are a huge part of who I am. As a certified Adobe instructor, I've had the honor of winning multiple Adobe teaching awards at their annual MAX conference. I see Bring Your Own Laptop as the supportive community I wished for when I was first starting out and intimidated by design. Through teaching, I hope to bring others along for the ride and empower my students to bring their stories, labors of love, and art into the world.
True to my Kiwi roots, I've lived in many places, and currently, I reside in Ireland with my wife and kids.

Certificates

We’re awarding certificates for this course!

Check out the How to earn your certificate video for instructions on how to earn yours and click the available certificate levels below for more information.

Downloads & Exercise files

Transcript

Hey everyone. Uh, in this video we're gonna look at some  advanced stroke stuff Using the appearance panel,  we're gonna be able to kind of create something  that is a graphic style that runs around the outside  of multiple objects, okay? And those objects can still be moved around. You can see the stroke kind of comes along for the ride. Okay? We'll do it for this mountain here, which is kind  of flat and doesn't have a stroke around it.

And then we're gonna kind of add it  and we're gonna add this kind of like extra effect here  to kind of push it off to the side. It's reusable. We can turn it into a graphic style. That's a lot of the skills we already know. Alright, let's jump in. Alright, I've got the file called stroke outside.

Uh, open up in my document I drew some  mountains or triangles. And we wanna do what you saw at the beginning  with the line around the outside. So, uh, there's a couple of rules. Um, first of all, let's select it all  and let's open up our appearance panel  'cause that's where the magic's gonna happen. And what we wanna do is add a stroke around it. Ugh, it won't let us.

It says it's  'cause there's all sorts of mixed things going on. All we need to do is group it. It's a command G on a Mac control, G on a pc,  and it kind of turns it into a group. You see here it says I'm a group now and guess what? I can add a stroke to it. Ooh, that kind of works.

Let's, uh, increase this up and not quite what I want. I want the stroker on the outside  and it's just to do with the appearance panel order. Okay? Uh, so we're gonna click hold, drag, drag, drag. And you want it, um, behind the, either in front  of contents or behind it. Behind it.

Okay? So, uh, drag it behind the contents  and the contents will be above the stroke  and the stroke will just apply around the outside. Cool. Huh? I love it. Um, the cool thing about it's let's, let's pick a color.

I'm just gonna pick a color from this, just kind  of an off, uh, gray color. And I'm gonna hold shift and click this up a few times. And what's really cool about it is what this,  if I can double click to go inside,  I'm grab uh, the top of the mountain. Can you see, can you see the stroker on the outside? I dunno. It's magic.

I don't know why that's magic,  but you see it bends around it depending on where it is. You don't have to like outline stroke and try and force it  and have never, never be able to adjust it later on. One of the things in this particular example is it can see  for some reason, um, even though if I go to outline mode,  my little, I've got a little line  that I drew a little zigzag. Okay, he's in there. Okay. The stroke is kind of seeing it and scourging out the side.

Can you see it? You're like, what is that? It's really weird things like that happen. Um, what we wanna do is I am going to come back out. Okay? Double click on the background.

First of all, you have to have it selected. I always spend a lot of time messing around in here. Not having the actual shape selected. You will do this and you'll be like, it's not working. It's 'cause you don't actually have it selected. Okay?

You're doing stuff but to nothing. Okay? So I'm gonna go to my stroke and in stroke here. Okay? I can kind of cut to the stroke panel  by hitting this little dropdown  and say I can pick one  that's maybe more appropriate to what I want. Okay?

To try and get rid of that line. If you need the sharp one, it is just a byproduct  of using this technique. If I double click it to go inside  and I go you in a little bit, oh,  grab this one, hold shift and click over. Can you see? It's only when that edge gets close to it. So you might run into little problems that you need to kind  of work around, but I love it.

Alright, let's go even further. Double click the background. Let's add that kind of extra line. So we've done this earlier on. Remember way back when when we did graphic styles, okay? And we added lots of lines around the stroke.

I couldn't remember either. Remember this  way back when I was like, I'm sure we did it. We did. Okay. So basically we can do the same thing here  but add a little bit of extra advanced to it. So I could say actually add another stroke.

Just make sure it's in the right spot. Okay? I'm gonna put mine just above, below the contents. I'm gonna make this one white. Okay? And I wanna make it smaller and  because it's on top of the gray one, it kind  of looks like there's this like offset part.

We'll do offset in another video  but kind of faking it here a little bit. But what I want to introduce you  to is we're gonna do effects more and more,  but while we're in the appearance panel, I wanna kind  of start introducing it. So what we do is we have it selected. Make sure, okay. And what you can do is you can actually apply effects  to a specific thing in your appearance panel. So I'm gonna say you Mr.

Stroke, I've got it selected, it's kind of blue. I can say I want an effect. Okay? And all of these effects here are  the same ones that are up here. We're gonna cover those in a bit. Okay?

But let's just do one to get us started. So with it selected effects, I like this one. You can go, uh, two transform and distort. I'm gonna go to free transform. Okay? Make sure we have it selected.

And watch this. I'll do something. Yeah,  I'm just gonna kinda like drag it out this way. Watch this. Oh, it's too far. It's kind of, you can kind of see the bits underneath.

So I'm gonna click on free distort  to get back into that effect. And I'm just gonna make it  appropriate for the size of the stroke. Your stroke will be different. But look at that. I love that kind of like, I don't know, it's kind of nice  and Victor, but it has this kind  of organic can drawn comic book style. I've double clicked to go inside of it  and that's what's really cool about it.

It is something can be updateable. So if you're doing a kind of a set of icons  or a set of matching shapes, as long  as it's done in the appearance panel  and you haven't outlined everything  and just hand drawn it, okay, you can, you know,  it's all totally updateable. Alright, last thing I wanna do is turn it  into a graphic style. Just a, we've done that before. Um, I just wanna kind of reiterate it. So graphic styles.

Remember, okay, if I select this, I'm kind  of at my home base, I'm not inside of it. Got it selected. I can say Euro a graphic style. Okay. And then over here I can grab my lips tool. I'm gonna grab one eye, drop a tool, grab that one,  two, and three.

Eye drop. A tool is the I key. Just grabbing a couple of colors. That one. Okay, so I've got them all. I can select them if I apply the graphic style.

Now it doesn't quite work, okay? What I wanna do is go to my parents' panel. Okay? And remember I can't add anything. Now what do I need to do? What's the thing?

Yep, you need to group it. Okay. Group  It. It could be a symbol. Just needs to be together. Okay?

And this group now can have all this stuff,  but I can say, all right, just add the graphic star library. Look at that. It matches that one. And if I double click it to go inside, look blo. Okay? It all kind of connects up.

I do love it. Look at us Advanced, uh, appearance panel. People making graphic styles we're awesome. Alright? Uh, that is how to add strokes around the outside of stuff  that is editable. It's fancy appearance panel stuff.

Alright, that is gonna be it. I will see you in the next video.
  • Powered by Marvin
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy policy
  • © Bring your Own Laptop Ltd 2025