Using brushes slows Illustrator way down!

[andrewdraws]

Hello!

If I add 3 or 4 brush strokes to a project, it becomes completely unworkable. I'm using some stock brushes and some from True Grit.  Illustrator is now super slow with the spinning beach ball after every zoom or selection or anything. Impossible to work this way!  I've never used brushes befroe... is this what everyone is experiencing?

I'm using an 2019 iMac with 3.7 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5, 48 GB RAM, and  Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB

Help!  I really want to work with brushes.

[Monika Gause]

WHat kind of brushes are they?

In which way are the brush strokes set up and interacting with each other?

Please show screenshots.

[andrewdraws]

Hi Monika,

Thanks for the reply! Here's a screen shot. So... it's pretty simple:  a masked shape, and then three or four strokes of textured brushes.  Also, not sure if it matters, but I have an app called CleanMyMac. And sometimes, when Illustrator is really slow, or the beach ball is spinning, a warning will pop up saying "non-responsive applications:  AI Robin  "

Whatever that means?

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

That's what I was suspecting.

These brushes may look simple but internally they create a gazillion of objects that needs to be moved around. Was there no warning associated with them? There should be, because this behaviour needs to be expected.

[andrewdraws]

I think you're right. I don't seem to be having as much trouble with the line brushes... but these that make a "fuzz" are causing the slowing. I'm a little surprised becasue I've seen other people's work that looks like they are using shapes on top of shapes all masked and multiplied with these "texture" brushes. Maybe it's PSD and not Illustrator.  Humph!

[Monika Gause]

Other peoples' artworks may still be vector and they just wait as long as you do and just don't tell you 😉

[andrewdraws]

Ha! ... maybe you're right.    How do you think Charlene Chua's works?  Vector?  It's amazing!

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

The grass on the bottom left is almost certainly raster, some nice Photoshop brushes. So I assume that maybe the base shapes are vector (if at all - a lot of people also create their base shapes in Photoshop or whatever they use).

A lot of artists use Clip Studio Paint, which has vector tools, although the output will always be raster.