Borders...? Help please ;-)

[Hev]

Hi I'm totally new!! to this forum & illustrator - I'm an oldfashioned pen and ink illustrator - But I need to get with it & use Adobe. Using an old version (9) at present, just started, so using the posts here to work through some tutorials etc.. Thanks!

But I really need to work out how to add new brushes, to make borders - like the ivy & greek keyline patterns that are already in the Brushes section. I've sussed the NEW Brush bit - but I can't get the dropper to change the colours - Help.

Also, I'd really like to be able to create my own borders - either by scanning & importing or by drawing in illustrator. is there a way that you can turn an image into a brush. so that i can draw a section of outline & then use it to create a border using the pen tool?

[jamesc]

hi Hev,
believe it or not I was just looking for this the other day and came across your post looking for more info. here is a link that I found that would certainly help you:

Creating Brushes in Illustrator CS - Page 1

another feature that would be of help to you in the latest version of illustrator (CS2) is called live trace:

Using the New Live Trace Feature in Illustrator CS2
(about.com just keeps coming up first in google ;-)

you can scan a pen and ink drawing and then illustrator will trace it on the fly and you can color it in using live paint. it works surprisingly well but you will have to play with the settings to get the best tracing.

you can also also try a graphics tablet if the mouse feels a little clunky...

hope this helps,
james