Illustrator: How do I merge a shape to take the form of another?

Question

I would like to merge the tan/lighter coloured brown shape (inner face of the sloth) here onto the darker coloured brown or the (outside face of the sloth), so that the tan colour extends to the beard of the Sloth, but is the same shape as the dark brown underneath. See the sketch for an example.

• Both the tan and dark brown furs were made with the pen tool, and are closed paths.
• Other than awkwardly duplicating the shape and moving the paths around, or attempting to merge the two with the shape builder, I can't work it out.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Shape Builder (as you mentioned) is a perfectly acceptable way to do what you want. Or you can just use Pathfinder.

Extend the top shape over the area you want to cover. Duplicate the bottom shape. Select the duplicate bottom shape and the top shape and use Pathfinder's Intersect shape mode.

Ta-da...

Answer 2

Use "Blend Tool". In Object upper menu -> Blend there are optiona you can play with to achieve the look/feel you want.