Lines

As I'm learning illustration I'm wondering if there's a best way to handle lines in illustrations, given that open paths are not allowed. Say for example I want an ear on a head that is outlined except at the front. The techniques that I'm aware of are

• use a stroke and fill, expand stroke, delete section at front
• duplicate shape, both without stroke, bottom one black (or other outline colour) top one fill colour, reshape top to overlap bottom where the outline is not to show
• duplicate shape that has stroke and fill, remove stroke from top copy, move or reshape it to cover part of outline underneath.

I'm wondering if any of these is more likely than the others to get me accepted here, or if there's another way to do it that might be better.

(Edited on 2009-12-24 13:59:06 by crazychristina)

You can have stroked open paths (line) as long as there is no fill applied to them - or you can expand the line. I expand my strokes but that's my own preference.

Thanks for that clarification Diane. Still, my main issue is with partly outlined shapes such as facial features, upper arms where arm joins body, etc.

Oh, sorry. Here's how I sometimes handle that. I will make the filled shape, then copy & paste on top so it's in the same place - then remove the fill and just apply a stroke color. then you can just cut away the part of the stroke you don't need or expand it and erase what you don't need. I usually apply a simple brush to those kinds of strokes and expand them but a simple stroked line works as well

(Edited on 2009-12-24 19:38:26 by diane555)

OK, that's pretty straightforward. I'll give it a go.