Thanks for waiting until Thursday this week, we, uh, had some things to take care of yesterday here in the US.

[Exhales] This week’s free Deke’s Techniques episode continues Deke’s exploration of Illustrator on the iPad, this time with particular attention to the Freeform Gradient feature and the Repeat function both of which allow you to go from a simple path outline to the color explosion you see above.

Here’s the basic starting point for this color explosion, a path that Deke uses the Align function to line up:

Next, the he uses the Freeform Gradient feature to create some, uh, very colorful Fill.

Next, the Symmetry (or as Deke calls it the “Butterfly”) setting in the Repeat panel mirrors the shape.

The Repeat panel (once exclusive to Illustrator on the iPad) also has a Radial setting that takes your object around a center point.

BREAKING NEWS (and not the scary or embarrassing kind), the Repeat feature now works on Illustrator for the Mac or PC!

You can change the number of objects that make up the Radial repeat.

And then you can use these two handles to adjust (or what I call squish and squirm) the objects.

Deke also covers some of the landscape that happens when you move your Illustrator for the iPad creation to full-blown Illustrator on the Mac or PC. (Again, some of those features may have changed since this was recorded.)

Deke’s Techniques, bringing the multi-color sun of peace and kindness to this soon-to-be less bleak landscape.