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How to Use the Live Paint Bucket in Illustrator

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Read Time: 3 min

Is there a paint bucket tool in Illustrator? In the following tutorial, you will learn how to use the live paint bucket in Illustrator. First, you will learn how to use the paint bucket in Illustrator, and then you'll discover how to customize the settings of this tool.

Once you've learned how to use the paint bucket in Illustrator, you can head over to Envato Elements, where you can get unlimited downloads of stock videos, music, graphics, photos, fonts, and more.

What You'll Learn in This Illustrator Tutorial

  • How to use the live paint bucket in Illustrator
  • How to customize the paint bucket in Illustrator

1. How to Use the Live Paint Bucket in Illustrator

Step 1

Use the Selection Tool (V) to select your design, and then switch to the Live Paint Bucket Tool (K). Simply click on your design to turn it into a Live Paint group.

live paint grouplive paint grouplive paint group

Step 2

Use simple clicks to fill parts of your design.

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Step 3

Use the up and down arrow keys to navigate between color groups in the Swatches panel (Window > Swatches), or the left and right arrow keys to navigate between colors within a group.

navigate colors live paint bucketnavigate colors live paint bucketnavigate colors live paint bucket

Step 4

Using the Live Paint Selection Tool (Shift-L), you can select multiple parts of a live paint group. Hold the Shift key and just click the sections that you wish to select, and then click the color from the Swatches panel to fill your selections.

live paint selection toollive paint selection toollive paint selection tool

2. How to Color Strokes Using the Live Paint Bucket in Illustrator

Focus on your toolbar and double-click the Live Paint Bucket to open the Live Paint Bucket Options. Check the Paint Strokes box and click OK.

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Hover your cursor over a stroked path, and once your cursor turns into a paint brush, you can color that stroke.

live paint bucket stroke colorlive paint bucket stroke colorlive paint bucket stroke color

3. How to Customize the Live Paint Bucket in Illustrator

Step 1

Open the Live Paint Bucket Options and check the Cursor Swatch Preview box to get that tiny preview with the colors that you're about to apply.

live paint bucket cursor swatch previewlive paint bucket cursor swatch previewlive paint bucket cursor swatch preview

Step 2

Open the Live Paint Bucket Options and use the Highlight settings to adjust the color and the size of the border surrounding the sections from a live paint group.

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