Create a brush stroke

[SharleneW]

Hello I am trying to create a brush stroke to look like the first 2 attached images but every time I try it does not come out looking like this.  I have imported dry brushes that look like this on their preview but when I use them they is hardly any detail and doesn't look like a brush stroke at all.  The 3rd image is what my brush stroke looks

like Please help.  What am I doing wrong?

[Doug A Roberts]

what did you make the third brush from? here's one i made from tracing your second image. looks ok to me at this zoom anyway:

[SharleneW]

I can't even get illustrator to trace like you have.  What am I doing wrong?

[Doug A Roberts]

what's wrong with what you have there?

[SharleneW]

Just doesn't seem as detailed as your trace.  Did you just trace it straight from a .png?

[Doug A Roberts]

i traced it from the image you attached in the first post.

[SharleneW]

Thanks for trying to help me out.  I copied the image in my first post, pasted it into Illustrator, hit Trace, then expand and this is what I get now.  It's even worse quality and detail.

[Doug A Roberts]

these are the settings i used:

any more detail would need a higher-resolution starting image.

[SharleneW]

Do you rasterise the image first before tracing?

[Doug A Roberts]

you can only trace a raster image. i thought that's what we were talking about. if they're vector already, there's no need to trace.

[Doug A Roberts]

if you really want to make a good set of your own though, the best way would probably be to take high-contrast photos of actual brushstrokes and trace them.