Everything was going pretty well until I get to the "create clipping mask step." I won't tell you how many hours I spent trying to work it out, re-reading and re-re-reading the step to see if I've missed something. I tried using the pathfinder to attempt the same step using another method and I just couldn't get it. It's easy in Photoshop, so I really don't know why I struggled with it so much. So, I've aborted this tutorial until someone can explain to me what I am missing. Here is the step:
Here is my unhappy looking unfinished sugar skull. :o(
Maybe this is a lesson that I should stick to what I know and that's video.
If you do want to try this yourself the tutorial link is here.
what I would do is take one of the strokes you have of the skull and duplicate it, like for example take the outside black stroke of the skull, duplicate it, THEN take away all the color so essentially you'll have just the path. Now highlite said duplicate layer and your flowers and add the clipping mask. You may have to play with the layer order (skull path above or below both flowers) Also make sure your flowers are on the same layer. I hope that helps! It took me awhile to figure out the clipping masks also.
ReplyDeleteAaaaahhh....THE LAYERS!!! Maybe that IS it...will try it tomorrow. Layers aren't as straight forward as they are in Photoshop. I may have to rearrange my workspace so they are always there and then I hopefully won't forget.
ReplyDeletealmost everything I create in Illustrator has it's own layer, that way it's easier to do clipping masks and use the pathfinder tool. I sent Cruz an Illustrator file I did so he can look at it, tell him to send it to you too and you can pick it apart and see what all is involved.
ReplyDeletewhen I first started out I did everything in one layer which became a pain like I guess you had, then I found it just easier to finish a piece lock it create a new layer and repeat. it's easier to lock and unlock your layers too, prevents accidental selecting.