Discover how to extend the skyline in digital art by adjusting the artboard and adding new layers and shapes. Learn to use tools such as the artboard tool, rectangle tool, Shape Builder tool, and Pathfinder panel to create and modify buildings for a more complete skyline image.
Key Insights
- The artboard tool can be used to extend the artboard to the left and right by either dragging it out while holding 'alt' or changing the dimensions in the properties panel.
- Adding a new layer for the extended skyline and using the rectangle tool to add buildings can help to create a more rounded and complete skyline.
- The Shape Builder tool and Pathfinder panel are useful for combining buildings into one shape, thus creating individual buildings within the skyline.
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In this video, we'll be extending additional buildings to our skyline. Let's begin by zooming out and getting a better look at our artboard.
In order to extend our skyline to the right- and left-hand sides, we'll first want to extend our artboard. To do this, we can utilize the *Artboard Tool*, and we can either drag it out to the right and left while holding ALT, or we can change it within our *Properties Panel* by typing in a new dimension for our width or height. For our width, let's type in 2500 and hit ENTER.
For our height, let's simply drag it so that it's just above and just below our skyline. From here, we now have enough room to extend our skyline. So, let's hit V on the keyboard, and we'll add a new layer for our extended skyline—making sure to first lock our *Windows* layer.
We'll retitle this layer *Extended Skyline* and hit ENTER. We're now ready to add buildings. Looking at our current image, we have all the main buildings, but the ends simply seem to drop off.
Therefore, by adding rectangles to the right- and left-hand sides, we’ll round out and complete our skyline. Next, we want to select the *Rectangle Tool* and make sure that we have a black fill with no stroke. We'll select *None* for our stroke, and we're ready to begin dragging rectangles.
If you don't see the pink lines as you drag, make sure that under *View*, *Smart Guides* is turned on. Next, let's begin dragging our rectangles. To do this, we can start at the edge of our buildings and simply drag downward to create our first building.
We'll release, and do the same thing as we continue to add additional buildings. Once we've added our buildings, if we'd like to modify them, we can do so with the *Selection Tool*. Now, let's work on our left-hand side.
We'll again click and draw additional rectangles for our buildings, and extend them all the way to the end of our artboard. I'll hit V on the keyboard, and let's modify these a little bit so that they aren't scaled too perfectly as they taper toward the edges. We'll leave it right about there—and this looks good.
We now have a more complete skyline image. If we toggle visibility, we can see that we've successfully extended our skyline. Next, let's combine the buildings into one shape. To do this, we could utilize the *Shape Builder Tool* and simply drag the sections together. Or, to make this process easier, we can go to *Window* and open up the *Pathfinder Panel*, giving us several options for combining shapes.
With all of our buildings selected, we can choose *Merge*. With one click, we've effectively done the same thing as the *Shape Builder Tool*, merging all the shapes into one cohesive skyline. We'll close out of the *Pathfinder Panel*, hit V on the keyboard to view our work, and well done! We've now completed our skyline. Let's hit CTRL+S on the keyboard to save our work. In the next video, we'll begin working on a new file for our city reflection.
See you there!