Issues with path fill in Adobe Illustrator

Question

Here is the shape itself, just so you have a general reference

I created it with a path tool, but it ended up being two shapes, regardless, they seem to have identical points, the join function doesn't work on either corner

My actual issue is this - when attempting to fill in the shape, regardless of whether I group it or not, there is a hole in it.

I've tried joining, but it doesn't seem to work. Pathfinder creates a path along the same non-existent "edge" that gets filled out with fill.

What can I do to properly consolidate the shape?

Answer 1

Fills only work properly on closed paths. Your design contains some open paths. Grouping won't make any difference. Joining might work if you were creating a closed path, but you can't join a path to another path in the middle of a path like that. Also note this limitation is not specific to Illustrator, but all vector applications work similarly. It's a limitation of using vectors.

There are several way to work around this problem. Here are a couple.

1. You could use the Shape Builder tool to make closed paths, then apply fills to each object as normal.

2. Or you could select all the pieces and do Object > Live Paint Make, and use the Live Paint Bucket tool (K) to fill the pieces.

3. Another method would be to make closed paths which overlap. This is by far the simplest solution, and requires no fancy tools that are specific to Illustrator only.