Create smooth blend or gradient?

[Henry C. Millman]

The attached screenshot was drawn line by line and then filled using live paint. It looks like a stepped blend. Is it possible to make an actual smooth blend or gradient that looks like what I show in the attached screenshot? If so, how would you do it? Thanks in advance for any help.

[John Mensinger]

Here's a 3-line blend masked in a quarter-circle...

Horizontal line, stroke = 0% K

Diagonal line (45°), stroke = 50%K

Vertical line, stroke = 100% K

Blend > Smooth Color converted to Specified Steps and increased number of steps until miore cleared (on my display around 420 steps).

Mask:

[Jacob Bugge]

Henry,

How about a quarter of a half size circle (half the outer Radius) as a stroked path with a Stroke Weight equalling the Radius and a Gradient along the path?

[John Mensinger]

Henry,

How about a quarter of a half size circle (half the outer Radius) as a stroked path with a Stroke Weight equalling the Radius and a Gradient along the path?

By @Jacob Bugge

Sure, why not?

[Ton Frederiks]

Absolutely

[Jacob Bugge]

Sorry, John, I was right when I feared I might be too woolly about the halving of the radius to get the spine into the middle and obtain a radar sweep.

[Henry C. Millman]

All of these methods worked just great! Thank you all very much! I am new to Illustrator and trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible for a specific project. I will be combining line drawings produced in Autocad with shading produced by Illustrator, and all your suggestions were very helpful in getting me to think more creatively in Illustrator. Best wishes for a healthy and happy 2022!

[Jacob Bugge]

For my part you are welcome, Henry, and best wishes.

Blends and Gradients are probably the easiest and best ways for your purposes in many cases, some undoubtedly in connexion with Clipping/Opacity Masks and/or Art Brushes as other tools in your box.

You can look further into these and other concepts by Bookmarking and using this empty search (giving you an error, but just insert):

https://helpx.adobe.com/search-results.html?q=&scope=%5B%22helpx%22%5D&subscope=%5B%5D&limit=10&star...

[Henry C. Millman]

Thank you very much! Best wishes for 2022!