Quick Tips for Getting That Hand Drawn Look in Illustrator

Several of my Threadless submission – including my latest collab w/Frickinawesome for the Love Drawing comp – have a hand drawn feel to them. While a few of my designs started out as doodles, sketches, whatever – I generally start the process right in Illustrator. After many hours of tinkering with various brushes and settings, I’m now able to achieve that hand drawn look right in Illustrator. If you’re into the hand drawn style, I hope you find these simple tips helpful in your work.

1: Click on the brushes tab in your top palette and click on the small, far right arrow and select New Brush.

2: Click on New Calligraphic brush.

3: Your brush settings will appear. Name your brush whatever you like.

4: Now feel free to modify the following settings but this is generally what I use:
Angle: 10
Roundness: 90
Diameter: 70
Variation: 45

5: Double click the pencil tool and use the following settings (again feel free to modify to your liking):
Fidelity: .5
Smoothness: 0

6: Set the pencil tool’s point weight to somewhere in the range of .01-.04.

I’ve also found that using the wrinkle tool (with minimal setting values) can add to the hand drawn vibe of your design. So that’s it in a nutshell. Now what are you waiting for? Go draw something already!

P.S. – Did I mention that my latest Threadless collab is eagerly awaiting your vote?