Handling whitespace at points where shapes interconnect/overlap

Question

I'm helping a friend out with a bird logo and I'm new to Illustrator.

I need to increase the whitespace around the points where the wings intersect with the body ellipse, without changing the wing shape/size. The logo will need to be printed small, so I want the shapes to be visible clearly at the much-reduced size.

I was using a white Stroke but when I pump the weight/thickness up, it gets messy around the body/wing intersect points. Plus the wings get smaller with the increased whitespace all the way around the wing shapes.

What's the proper way to handle this, so I only increase the whitespace where the wings meet the body (and not all the way round the wings).

Sorry, my terminology is off here - I'm pretty sure the effect I'm looking for is easily achieved. I just don't know how to properly describe the issue in order to get the right guidance back in my search results...

Answer 1

You can try using a non uniform width profile on the stroke. (use the default #4 which goes from thin to thick)

The problem is, with using the variable width profile - it won't produce the exact results wanted (in this case - see how it does get thinner on the wings) since the stroke goes all the way around.

To solve this will require some manual work:

Set the stroke to None

Using the Direct Selection Tool (A) select each line on the side of the wing and

• Clone it (Ctrl+C Ctrl+F)

Make sure you click to select, not drag - this way it'll only select the actual line

_{(If there are multiple anchor points - click in between each anchor point and make sure to Right click → Join afterwards)}

---

Now for each line individually, apply the width profile: (you can adjust the stroke up for more space - I did 10pt)

_{(Background color so you can see width)}

Answer 2

My preference would be to handle this in one of three ways....

1. Either treat the end caps of the "feathers" as a single object removing them from the ellipse entirely
   
   
2. Or... forget about separating the "wings" and combine all the shapes:
   
   
3. Or... separate the ellipse from the "wings" not vice versa:
   
   

Which method would greatly depend upon the importance of the ellipse and if there were additional artwork related to this which you haven't presented here.

---

In the case of #1 above, I'd merely draw a new shape to indicate the piece to remove from the ellipse:

Then use the Pathfinder Panel to subtract those areas from the ellipse.

This leaves you with 1 color artwork and clear definition between the shapes at small sizes.

---

If the ellipse is imperative, then options 2 and 3 would be best for clarity and definition in my opinion.