How to eliminate overlap of brush and how to repeat brush within a shape without slicing

[SerenandNina]

Hello! Trying to teach myself some elements but I don't know how to even word this inquiry into a search to find a tutorial. Basically I need help with two things:

1.) Is there a way to repeat a brush in a scattered formation without the brush overlapping? I made a custom brush and in settings I selected scatter at 1000% but I want spaces in between the scatter of the brush without the brush shape overlapping each other kind of like a pattern that I can control. I don't want to make a pattern because I want the brushes to repeat in different sizes and angles randomly (which i've already adjusted to my liking in Shape Dynamics). I just need the brush content to not overlap.  

2.) is there a way to fill a shape with your scattered brushstrokes and not have the edges of a shape slice parts of what you drew off. Basically in the end I want to fill a star shape with a scattering of smaller star shapes without any of those smaller stars being cut up at the edges of the larger star shape that I'm trying to fill. Kind of like what it would look like if you filled a cookie cutter with sprinkles in a single layer (but said sprinkles aren't being chopped up to fit.) Please help and thanks in advance!

[Myra Ferguson]

It sounds more like what the SpaceFill tool in the ColliderScribe plugin for Illustrator from Astute Graphics does.

If you try creating the effect with a Photoshop brush, make one brush stroke per layer. That way if you get a star that is overlapping another, you can remove it.

[SerenandNina]

I am very new to Illustrator and that sounds very technical for me but I'll definitely research it, thank you! In Photoshop the brush looks like this in one stroke on one layer:

How do I avoid the overlap? I want the stars to scatter and not touch on a single layer/stroke. I feel like there's got to be a setting that I don't know enough to pinpoint.

[Myra Ferguson]

Try editing the brush so that you have more control over the placement of the stars per brush stroke:

1. Reduce the Scatter to 0 so that you can see the stars in a single line.
2. Go to Brush Tip Shape to increase the Spacing until the stars no longer overlap.
3. Go back to Scatter and increase it only slightly so that the stars appear slightly above, slightly below, and on the stroke.

Then draw one stroke at a time on separate layers.