I'm having trouble masking drawn objects

[Art Moofin]

I've been doing research on how to add a paintbrush effect to a circle but can't really get a solid answer on how to do it, a lot of it seems to making objects into compound shapes and then uniting them but it makes what I drew disappear. In short how do I add the paintbrush effects onto the black circles like the second piece. I drew the second one on Procreate and the tool was 'Alpha Lock' but on Illustrator it's clipping mask?

[Monika Gause]

First of all:

those black lines: are they fat strokes? 

If they are actually shapes, then if the 4 compound paths are grouped: ungroup them.

Then make a compound path.

Then select that compopund path and click on "Draw inside" in the tool panel.

Then paint your blobs in them.

[Art Moofin]

They were originally 2 circles from the elipse tool then I used the live paint tool to fill in the black, then I just made 1 circle and made the stroke 70pt.

The single 70pt stroked path is able to be made into a compound path but when I select the draw inside, the paint blobs appear on the outside. And when i use the other circle, I ungroup and try to make into a compound path but i get an error.

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

You still have a live paint group. This needs to be expanded. And then you need to check it in the Layers panel and make one single compound path out of the four rings. 

Here's how I would do it. In this video there is no live paint.

https://youtu.be/1D_0xorStqI 

[Art Moofin]

I had no idea the polar grid tool existed! Thank you so much! This was such a headache to figure out on my own

[Art Moofin]

 Not sure how but this keeps happening when i try to follow the steps of the video, and if i try to add more rings it eventually goes all black

  

[Monika Gause]

When does this happen? As soon as you add the rings? Or later?

[Art Moofin]

when i follow the steps, after ungrouping and turning it into compound path and swapping the stroke to fill i get this

 If do compound path at the beginning i get this

 its strange because when i lower the circles do the compound path in the beginning without ungrouping it turns out fine

 

[Monika Gause]

When you double click the polar grid tool there is an option to create a compound path of them. Try and check that.

[Art Moofin]

This is the option and result if I do 6, which it's on the right track but colors are flipped, if i put 5 it's normal

 

 

 

[Monika Gause]

If you want the center to be hollow then you need to have an uneven number of circles.

[Art Moofin]

IT WORKED! thank you again!

 

[Ton Frederiks]

Outline the stroked circles.
Object > Compound Path > Make
When still selected: Click the Draw Inside button at the bottom right of the Toolbar.
Cut the paint blobs and choose: Edit > Paste in Place
Click the Draw Normal button at the bottom left of the Toolbar.

[Art Moofin]

I followed the instructions but the paint blob appears on the outside rather than in

 

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

[Art Moofin]

Hey thank you so much, I'm still pretty new to illustrator so this is awesome!

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear that helped.

[Michael Ambroise · Accepted solution]

Follow this example in a few steps. I hope this can help you achieve your goal.

https://youtu.be/yoYP9KSKFVM

[Monika Gause]

That's basically the content of my video.