grafikhaus computer training - Illustrator Tutorial

New to version CS5, the Width Tool allows you to modify the appearance of basic lines. In this simple example, we're going to modify the vapour trail from an aircraft.

Here we have a simple 'sky' background with a plane which we've drawn with the Pen Tool and a white 'trail' drawn with the Line Tool.

So far, so simple. But by selecting the Width Tool from the toolbar:

we can begin to manipulate this white line. The Width Tool can be used either manually - by clicking anywhere within the line and dragging towards or away from the axis of the line, or, by double-clicking the line axis, entering coordinates in the Width Point Edit dialogue box.

Width Point Edit

By adding a touch of Gaussian Blur (EFFECTS...Blur...Gaussian Blur), interesting images can be achieved: