How do I fill an object with a solid color with lines through it?

[andreas2523]

I have a vector map of the United States that I am currently trying to shade in for the election. I would like to achieve an effect similar to that shown here with the lines going through the red and blue states -  http://i.minus.com/jbifABqJ59G92s.jpg How would I go about doing that? I'm a novice at Illustrator and only know the basics of filling with solid colors. I have CS6 if that makes a difference. Thank you!

[Larry G. Schneider]

You would need to add a new fill to the object in the Appearance panel and use a pattern fill from one of the pattern libraries. I don't have AI on this machine to show you the steps. Sorry

[Waiting Crane]

Yes, as Larry suggests.

1. Select your  shape, in the appearance panel create a new fill above your solid color fill.

2. In the swatches window, click the upper-right corner icon to expand swatch list.

3. Choose "Open Swatch Library / Pattern Swatches / Geometric Patterns / Lines

4. Then choose the swatch that most looks like the effect you prefer.

NOTE: You may need to rotate the pattern 45º to get it to look like the example. In this case, select your shape then select the top fill with (the one with the lines) in the appearance panel. Next, double-click the rotate tool and set it up to rotate 45º and uncheck all tick-boxes except "Pattern".

ADDITIONAL NOTE: It may be the case that the Illustrator patterns all consist of black lines and not white. There are a fiew different ways to get the pattern lines to be white. I would begin by seeing if a blend mode might fix the issue. If this doesn't work, I would then drag the pattern swatch from the swatch panel and onto the artboard where there is no artwork. This should allow you to edit the swatch. Change the black lines to white and then drag the new swatch — clipping box and all — back into the swatch panel.

Hope this helps.

[Guest]

You might want to check this out free maps for all designers and mappers | Editable Vector Maps all Cities: PDF Illustrator Corel: ex... this is where I get my printable maps, might be useful to you too