Future Artifacts

March 6, 2023

A simple and quick way to create wild lines and shapes in Adobe Illustrator
I created a set of six poster style images using a very simple technique in Adobe Illustrator.  I began by drawing a line with curves in it, and gave it either a line weight or a solid fill, depending on the complexity desired.

Using the Distort and transform effect

Once you select the line you have created, go to Effect > Distort and Transform > Transform... This brings up the dialog box you see below. Here you can explore entering the attributes you desire and do a quick preview of them. 

Once you have given your line the effects you want in the Transform process, you can click ok to save that and continue experimenting with it by selecting the line and try different line weights, fills, color, whatever you like.

keeping it simple

In my own work I have found that the simplest line can give me everything I want. See the example below. The actual line is amazingly simple, making the transform feature do all the work. Connecting the line in a loop eliminates having irregular ends that probably don't align well when given multiple copies.

my series of six images