Step 16 - With all the lines at the chosen length and thick- ness, and the brush applied to them, I select them all and go to my “Object” menu and pull it down to where it says “Expand” or “Expand Appearance”. This will convert those applied brushstrokes back to the type of outline we first drew for the original brush.

Step 17 - With all the pieces “Expanded” selected I go to my “Window” menu and pull down to where it says “Path- finder”, this will make the path finder menu pop up on my screen. In the “Pathfinder” menu I choose the “Merge” selection. this flattens all the items selected and makes any connecting pieces of the same color into one piece, It’s kind of a cookie cutter effect.

Step 18 - After the items have been “Merged” I go to my “Object” menu and “Ungroup” them. The tools in the “Pathfinder” menu tend to group items after any of its tools have been used on them. Ungrouping them lets me grab or select individual pieces.

Step 19 - After I have “Ungrouped” the pieces I go and delete the white teardrops from my piece, as you can see they cut out the black that was behind them. I took my “Pen” tool or path tool and did some light smoothing o a couple of sharp corners left by the merging of the various pieces.

Step 20 - I now have a basic block of flames, I can tweak it, or, as I have done here, made it into another brush and added it to my pallet. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36