Warp placed image along the path in Illustrator

[varxtis]

I have made some brush strokes and scanned them in. I want to take one of the longer, straighter strokes and shape in into an S. Can I some how do this by warping to a path or something? Ive seen pleanty of tutorials and posts refering to the envelope meathod, and basic abstract shapes that maintain a fundamental rectangular or square shape, one that has a linear form. By this, I even include a water drop that is short at the top and, in a linear fashion, gets wider at the bottom. But I havent found anything explaining how to warp an object that flows back and forwarth like an S.

Is this possible?

{Renamed by MOD}

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Import your scan into Illustrator and then use the inage trace. Make sure to set it to "Ignore white".

And make sure to have the result in horizontal orientation.

Then expand the image trace and make it into an art brush.

Draw a curved path and apply the brush.

[varxtis]

Thank you 🙂 I was following your advice and had the new brush in the palette. Im still pretty new to brushes in Illustrator so I went to look up how to apply a brush to a path. I went back to Illustrator, created my path, then went to make sure the new brush was selected and . . . . . the new brush is no longer in the brushes palette. Ive created 4 more new brushes as Art Brushes, but everytime I hit "Ok", the New Brush dialogue box disappears, and no new brush is listen in the palette. I changed absolutely nothing to the project, nothing to how the document is viewed (Trim, presentation, etc.) and even deleted the path. Nothing. any ideas what I am doing wrong. It was going so smooth.

[Monika Gause]

Can you please show screenshots of the brushes panel?

Also: brushes belong to files, not to the application. So you have to stay in the file in which you created the brushes.

[varxtis]

Monika, I have no words. Before I posted about the brush not showing up, I had restarted the program twice, changed views and tools, and it just wasn't coming up. Now I come back to it from over the weekend, and low and behold, its there. Im going to try and follow the rest of your instructions, and let you know how it turns out in a few hrs.

Thank you as always for your patience and help.

[Monika Gause]

You're welcome. Glad you could solve it.

[varxtis]

Hey Monika. When last I posted, I said that I would be able to follow the rest of your directions and then never followed up. Please accept my apologies. I don't want you to think I take your (or any one in this community) advice for granted. Ive had a LOT going on, health, fam, and PC wise all in a 4 day period. I do have a bad habbit of not following up, but I appreciate everyones help and advice. Im trying to break the habbit. I hope to be able to try your technique today. I thank you for your patience.

[Monika Gause]

Health and family are the most important parts of your life. Just take your time. Looking forward to your results.

[varxtis]

Your technique worked beautifully!! Thank you so very very much!

Going to overlay it or mask it to give the text a very very light grunge/worn look.

[Monika Gause]

You're welcome!

What a nicely textured result - thank you for showing.