Back to school, and need a back back? Build one and also learn how to easily create multiple alternate colored versions with Recolor Artwork. 

Draw a rectangle for the main body of the backpack.

Pull the Corner Widgets in slightly to round he corners. 

Add a fill and stroke. This is a 2 pt stroke. Create a duplicate of this shape off to the side, we will use this again.

For the leather patch at the bottom of the backpack, create a rectangle and corner widget the bottom 2 corners. COPY THIS!

Select the main body and click on the Draw Inside mode at the bottom of the Tool bar.

Paste the copied leather patch into the body and move it into the correct position. Click on the Draw Normal mode at the bottom of the tool bar. 

Ad a rounded rectangle for the front pouch. 

Create another rectangle, rounded top corners for the top of the pouch.

Draw filled rectangles for the straps. Open rectangles for the buckles. 

Add a simple zipper by using the Line Tool, hot dog the ends in the Stroke Panel to give the rounded cap ends. 

Add an Oval behind the bag for the handle. Object> Arrange> Send To Back. 

With that copy of the main bag you made in step 2, removed the fill and add a dark stroke. This will be the bag shadow noodle. 

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select and remove the upper right portion of the rectangle. 

In the Control Bar, click on the Opacity Link and set the Blend Mode from Normal to Multiply and the opacity to 20%.

Position the shadow noodle on the bag. Add a white highlight noodle to the top of the bag, 20% opacity, Normal Blend Mode. 

Add shadow or highlight noodles where needed to help with added dimension. Select the bag and Group it. Duplicate it to make different color versions. 

Select on of the bags, an choose Edit> Edit Colors> Recolor Artwork.
1. Choose the EDIT tab next the Assign tab. 
2. Click on the LINK ICON (to link colors together).
3. Use the Hue, Saturation & Brightness sliders to change all the colors at one time! 
Click OK when done.

Understanding Illustrators Effect Menu and the how to edit these effects can be frustrating to many. Here is a quick overview and explainer on what they are, how they work and how this will make you less frustrated using both the Effects and the Appearance Panel. This tutorial is just one of MANY things you can do in the Appearance Panel. 

There are 2 sections in the Effects Menu. Illustrator Effect which are (mostly) vector based and can be turned into shapes and paths and be edited in Illustrator. The second section is ALL filters that you can apply in Photoshop; none of these are vector based and cannot be turned into editable shapes. Some of these options may have the exact same names but choosing from the wrong section can give you different results. 

Draw any shape. 

Go to Effects> Distort & Transform> Roughen. 

This is the result. 

Open the Appearance Panel. You will see the Roughen Effect applied ON TOP of the list. You will also see the stroke color, weight and opacity (which is all editable in the Appearance Panel) as well as the Fill color and opacity.

If the result from the Roughen Effect wasn't what you wanted, and you go back under Effect>Distort & Transform and try to "change" the effect, you will get this message. 

When you click Apply New Effect you are not actually editing the existing effect, you are APPLYING ANOTHER EFFECT on top of this one. The result is TWO effects. ​
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If you truly want to edit the Effect, and not apply another effect, click on the Effect in the Appearance Panel and edit it there. 

TIP! The Effects Panel is built into the bottom of the Apperance Panel. No need to go to the Menu bar, click on the FX button and the entire Effects Menu is there. 

Why would you want to apply more than one Effect? Because you can get cool results!!
I applied a Pucker & Bloat Effect and a Warp. I got this.

I started with this shape. 

Added a Pucker & Bloat filter. This one is the Pucker to bring the points in. 

I added the Warp filter to this as well. 

I then added a Stylize Effect (Scribble) to get this. You can go on and on!

These are all JUST Effects. Which means the shape of your object is still the original shape you drew. It just gives the EFFECT you are seeing and the effect isn't directly editable as shapes. I am in Outline Mode. View>Outline to see the actual shape. 

After Expand Appearance is applied, this is what the shape looks like. Now what it looks like IS what the shape actually is, not just the Effect. 

If you want to learn more about Expand and Expand Appearance, here is a link to my blog topic HERE

There are LOTS MORE things you can do with the Appearance Panel as well. Multiple strokes as shown here. (This is only one shape with several strokes). Go HERE to see how this is done in the Appearance Panel. 

Yes, these topics are all related. In fact it is how you can create simple pie charts with the Transform Panel and you don't need a calculator to do the math; the Transform Panel will do the math for you! 

Open the Transform Panel under Window>Transform

Draw a circle. 

On the right side of the circle is a handle that when you over over with the Selection Tool, will show a pie icon.

Click on the handle and move it around the circle. A tool hint will show up giving you the angles. 

This is the result. A partial pie chart.

The handles correspond with the angles in the Transform Panel. 

I want to end up with a Pie Chart like this. I am not going to draw this or pull the handles to get it exact, I am going to use Math!

Start with your original circle and type in the first angle the Percentage of the pie you want the piece to be (60%) x 3.6. The math looks like this: 60*3.6 then press return.

For every 1% of the pie chart it will be 3.6° of a circle. 100% = 360° in a complete circle.  

The results are 60% of the Pie Chart showing. 

Now you want the missing piece of the Pie Chart. Don't draw it...

Select the original piece of the pie and click on the swap pie piece highlighted here in the Transform Panel.
(You have to click on the arrows in between the pie shapes).
This will give you the other piece BUT you will lose the first pie piece!

You want both pieces of the pie without redrawing. 

Select the piece of the pie and hold Otion or Alt and THEN click on the flip arrows and this will create a perfect opposite piece that fits perfectly in place!

Simple easy pie charts, every time!

If you have ever tried to make a pattern in Illustrator manually, you know how hard it is to make it perfect, if not impossible. Using the Pattern Options Panel you can create any pattern seamlessly and perfectly every time. However, it is not straight forward or intuitive so here is a quick tutorial in making Patterns work for you.

First step in making a pattern is creating artwork that you want to be the basis of you pattern. Any fills, strokes, styles and colors will work. 

Open the Pattern Options Panel from the Window Menu. It will be grayed out and it looks like you cannot do anything with it.

Select your artwork, Group it to make things easier later, and click on the Pattern Option Cheese Grater to get the fly out menu. Click the Make Pattern option. 

This will SAVE the pattern to the Swatches Panel even before you did anything. Yes, it is confusing, but this is not a linear process. Click OK and move along.

The Pattern Options Panel will then show the artwork to be set up in the style of pattern you want. 

You will see the content on screen with a center area that contains your editable original artwork. The area around this will be the repeated pattern that is not editable. It will be dimmed back to show you how the pattern repeats. You can set the Dim copies to any percentage you want at the bottom of the Pattern Options Panel. 

The artwork inside the edit space can be copied, changed, rotated, edited or remove to create the pattern. The dim areas around will reflect any and all changes made to the artwork.  

The layout of the Pattern can be changed by choosing the Tile Type drop down menu. Once you choose an option, you will get further options shown in the next step. 

The Tile Type option will then allow different offsets to become available. Choose the type of offset you want and the pattern will update accordingly. 

If you want to see more or less repeats on the screen, choose the Copies drop down menu to change the repeat. This is for you visually and does not effect the final Pattern, they repeat into infinity regardless of how many copies you choose here.  

Once you are done with your pattern options and layout, click the DONE button at the upper left of your screen. The Pattern was saved when it was created (doesn't make sense but that is how it is) so no need to click Saved a Copy unless you want TWO patterns in your Swatch Panel... which you don't!

To see how your pattern works, create a shape and use the Swatch Panel to choose the new Pattern Fill. 

If you want to Edit your pattern after the fact, select the shape with the pattern fill, choose the Edit Pattern from the Pattern Options Cheese Grater.

Patterns show in the swatch panel for further use. 

One frustrating item with Patterns is that they do NOT scale with the shape by default. To scale the pattern when you scale an object, open the Transform Panel, click on the Cheese Grater and Choose Transform BOTH if you want both the Object and the Pattern to scale together.

You can edit the pattern anytime through the Pattern Options Panel.

If you edit the Pattern and want to keep the original Pattern as well, then Choose the Save a Copy to get your new copy saved to the Swatches Panel. 

When you save a copy of the pattern, both will appear in the Swatches panel for use. 

Two hidden tricks in the Swatches Panel!!
1. If you select your shape, click ONCE on the fill in the swatch panel it will scale the Pattern back to 100% if you have scaled it. 
2. Double click on the Pattern in the swatch panel will open the Pattern Options Panel to edit the pattern. 

This post was a request from a viewer about creating isometric vector patterns. They look cool and they are fun and they can be created using any shapes. 

Start with the Polygon Tool to draw a rectangle. Drag the Diamond on the upper ride side of the bounding box down to create 3 sides. 

Select the triangle, then select the Rotate Tool. OPTION + CLICK just above the top of the triangle. OPTION opens the dialog box, click places the point of rotation.

Here is the dialog box for rotation. TIP! To create the right number of triangles, use the inout field as a calculator! I used 360° divided by 6 and just type that in as 360/6. click the COPY button to copy the shape.

This is the result of the rotate and copy. Use COMMAND + D to redo the rotate/copy command.

Here is the COMMAND + D 4 more times. 

Select all the shapes, and OPTION + DRAG to duplicate the set. 

Use the COMMAND + D to duplicate the shapes several times.

Select each set and add a white stroke to each one progressively. Add the STROKE to the INSIDE of the shape.

Select the shape and click on the Align Stroke to Inside in the stroke panel. 

The white stroke around then shapes will show up if you place this on a colored background.
​ If you are using this on a white background, you can skip these next few steps in removing the white stroke.

This is set to Outline Mode under the View Menu to show the outline and shape.
Select the shape and choose Object>Path>Outline Stroke. This will create a shape out of the path. 

Select the shapes and choose Object>Compound Path>Release. Then delete the outer stroke shape, leaving the middle shape, then ungroup them.
The middle shapes will have lost their color fill, so select them and fill them again. 

Select the middle shapes of each section and OPTION + DRAG them to the side and position them to fill in the space. 

Select the entire set and OPTION + DRAG the set again. Use COMMAND + D to duplicate the duplicate as many times as you want. Nice job!