Is it possible to have a stroke gradient on an art brush?

Question

This drives me crazy. I'm trying to paint hair and I would like to have a gradient on my strokes. It shows like there is a gradient on it, but there's only color. This should work. I've changed the brush's colorization method and everything I could for no avail. What could be the problem?

It works with calligraphic brushes. I've tried with the default brushes, so to know it is not me how scr.ws up the brush creating. So in the Artistic Ink library the calligraphic brushes have gradient, the art brushes not. What am I missing? Please help me.

barbara_a7746676 · Accepted Answer

It is not possible to use a gradient with an art brush. You can Object > Expand the brush and then fill it with a gradient.

tromboniator · Answer

Build a negative of the brush you want—in other words, make the part that you want to have the gradient on it be open space, and the blank regions filled, such as with black. It may be easiest to build the positive version, put a filled rectangle behind it, select it all, and do a Minus Front in the Pathfinder panel. Make a brush from the result.

Draw the path you want, and apply whatever gradient you want to the stroke. In the Appearance panel, add a new stroke and apply the (negative) brush. Set the opacity of that brushed stroke, and only that stroke, to 0%. In the opacity for the entire path, at the bottom of the list, activate Knockout Group, being sure that a tick or check ✓ shows, but not a blank or dash.

You may need to be a bit fussy in your dimensions when building the brush (and the rectangle you subtract it from, if you do that) and the stroke weights to get the look you want.

Peter

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