In the last tutorial, we drew all of the uppercase letters for your alphabet. Now it's time that we have some fun. Let's apply some brushes to the vector paths of the letters. It's quick and easy to do, by applying different stroke options to the sketch alpha group layer.

1. To quickly apply a style to all the letters, select the sketch alpha group layer.

Note: Whatever styles that we apply to the sketch alpha group layer will also be applied to all the letter's paths within this group (i.e. every letter in the alphabet).


2. To open the Brushes panel, click View - Studio - Brushes.


3. Open your favorite brush category and click on a thumbnail image for your first brush.

You should see all of the letters change to this brush stroke and colored by the default black color. Here are some examples.

• Markers Brush (see screenshot)

Stroke Color - Black
Stroke Width - 33 pixels


• Pencils Brush (see screenshot)

Stroke Color - Black
Stroke Width - 100

At this point, all the letters are black. But you might wish to have each letter set to a different color. To do this, we need to select the group layer for each individual letter. Of course, if you wish to use the same color for several letters, just select the group layers for those letters. Let's start with the first letter.

1. Open the sketch alpha group layer.


2. Select the A group layer.

Note: Whatever styles that we apply to an individual letter's group layer will only be applied to this one letter in the alphabet.


3. In the Context Toolbar, click the Stroke Color box and choose a new color for the letter.


4. Repeat this for each letter.

Example

• Acrylics Brush (see screenshot)

Stroke Color - your choice
Stroke Width - 128 pixels

We can also apply the Dash Line Style instead of a brush.

1. Go back to the sketch alpha group layer and select that layer in the Layers panel.


2. Open the Stroke panel again in the Context Toolbar.


3. At the top, click the Dashed Line Style icon.


4. At the bottom, add the number 5 into the first two boxes.

Note: The number placed in the first box will set the length of a dash. The number placed in the second box will set the length of the empty space between dashes.

Example

• Dashed Line Style (see screenshot)

Stroke Color - your choice
Stroke Width - 17 pixels
Dash Size - 5 pixels
Space Between Dashes - 5 pixels

Note: When you apply a brush to a path, the width or thickness of the brush stroke defaults to the maximum size, which is usually too large. The stroke widths used in the examples above are just a suggestion. Feel free to set your own brush sizes.

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Screenshots used by permission of Serif (Europe) Ltd. This article is not endorsed by Serif Ltd.