How to Create a Custom Scatter Brush in Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator's scatter brush allows you to paint one or more elements in groups or at random. This makes it much easier to fill in a landscape with grass or a field of flowers with butterflies. Rather than copying and pasting items one by one, you can simply create a scatter brush.
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Instructions
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Draw your art element on the Illustrator art board. You can create it from scratch, or use a symbol from Illustrator's symbols libraries.
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Select all of the elements you want to be included in the brush object. Open the brushes palette and choose "New Brush" from the palette's options menu (access by clicking on the small triangle in the palette's upper right corner). Choose "New Scatter Brush" as the brush type.
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Choose your brush settings in the Scatter Brush Options Dialogue. You can set size, spacing, scatter and rotation. Set the spacing and scatter percentages smaller to group the art objects more tightly, larger to space them out. Choose whether you want each setting to be the same for all elements, randomized, or based on pressure sensitivity (if you have a pressure sensitive tablet).
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Set the coloring style with the Colorization pulldown menu. You can paint the elements as with no coloring, as a tint of the selected stroke color (or a tint with black shades), or by shifting the color hues based on the selected stroke color. Click on the "Tips" button to see a preview of the colorization effects.
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Paint a path with the paintbrush tool. Your art element will follow the painted path based on your settings. If you want to change the settings of your path, keep it selected and click on the brush icon in the brushes palette. Select the preview option to see your changes live.
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Change the elements' overall size by changing the stroke size. If you have selected a colorization method, you can change the color by changing the stroke color.
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Tips & Warnings
You can apply the scatter brush to any selected path, regardless of its original style settings.
