Need help making a fillable shape

Question

I am trying to make this shape and want it to be fillable:

(file can be dowloaded here: bit.ly/1SYJOfU as pdf or in Illustrator).

I know Photoshop a little bit, Illustrator far less! I'd like this to be vector, so in Illustator.

I made a path and then applied the brush. Then I reflected it. However, I realize now that I have to do it all over again, and the proper way - which I don't know what it is and I know it is fairly simple - because it has to be transparent - fillable.

What is the proper way to do this?

The other problem with this is, that up top there forms two triangles, one on each side, as a result of the reflection and combining of two sides. Likewise, on the sides where the curve meets the straight line, I need a smooth path, no crick that shows that join.

When I put this pdf in illustrator, I can't make much sense how to use the pen tool to outline also how to replicate the double curves one beneath the other. Basically need to re-do to be fillable, using this as a template. Would love your help as soon as possible. Thank you so much!!

Answer 1

your two top 'triangles' have high corners because of the angle the two lines meet at the anchor point. There are a few ways to do this, depending on the final result you want.

Try changing the join type: in the stroke palette, under corner, select the 2nd icon 'round join'. The first, default icon is 'miter join' which can give the results you got. This works if you need the two 'triangles' to have different fill colours.

or, select both 'triangles', open the pathfinder palette and click 'unite' (make sure the inside paths are aligned).

If the whole 'window' if going to be a single colour, unite the whole shape (all four shapes), then draw a vertical, then a horizontal 'frame' over it.

Answer 2

Easiest way with least illustrator know-how would be using "Live Paint Tool" https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/how-to/illustrator-live-paint.html

Answer 3

I'm not using Illustrator anymore but as far as I know, you will lose the brush stroke when applied a fill inside it. Maybe this step will work:

1. It's better to make the shape boundary first by mirroring from y axis and welding/combining two shapes from half shape of window. That will make two triangles won't exist. Make sure it snaps each other so there's no gap between the shapes or those triangle will still there.
2. Then make the vertical and horizontal line. Adjust them as you please on the boundary.
3. Now make the stroke larger until you happy with it. Make sure again there's no stray stroke exceed the window boundary after enlarging the stroke.
4. Expand stroke to path so your strokes become paths then combine them all at once with pathfinder > expand it! Now you have a whole window object in path, you can change its color or fill the empty space for glass color with live paint bucket tool.
5. Don't be hesitate to press ctrl+z when you get mistakes. You can learn more about live paint bucket here.

I use these steps (except about live paint bucket tool) to make objects even outside of Illustrator, like Inkscape, etc. Hope it helps you. :)

Answer 4

I'm not sure how you made this drawing, but it's done very oddly.

Opening the file I was expecting to see a bunch of lines that weren't a single closed path thus un-fillable. I was also expecting to see the thickness of the lines to be a stroke but those thick black lines are closed paths.

To fix this drawing it would be many complicated steps of uniting, dividing, and releasing compound paths. Also, there's way too many anchor points on your curves. It would take a long time to explain how to fix this properly.

I would suggest doing the drawing from scratch in Illustrator. Draw a single line for the left side. You should be able to do it with 3 anchor points. Take that shape and mirror it. Create the thickness of the line with the stroke thickness. Fill it with whatever color you want and add cross bar lines like @Paul Murphy suggested.

Don't be afraid of starting over. Watch a tutorial on how to use the drawing tools in Illustrator. This is a nice exercise to learn from.

Here's a fun little game that shows you how to use the pen tool: http://bezier.method.ac/