Create a Dusty Chalk Board

Adobe Illustrator graphic design software is the industry's premier vector-drawing environment for creating graphics that scale across media. In this tutorial Cheryl Graham will be looking at the Warp Tool and the Bristle Brush settings to make a quick and effective chalkboard illustration. Let’s get started!

Draw a rectangle 700px x 500px. Keep it selected and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter -30. Zoom in so you can see the corners, and using the Line Segment tool (Backslash), draw a line at a 45-degree angle. You can turn on Smart Guides to help. The line should extend beyond the rectangles in each direction, as in the image below. Do this for each corner. Select everything and click Divide in the Pathfinder panel. Now take the Group Selection tool and click once on one of the inner angled lines. This should select all of the overlapping paths at once. Press Delete. For the wood grain, draw a long thin rectangle. Holding down the Option/Alt key, drag to make a copy. Press Command/Ctrl-D to make a few more copies.