Live Paint Bucket is used to color designs and objects freely. You can fill and add strokes to the drawings that you have created with the currently selected colors. When the live paint bucket tool is selected, it shows three colors with the pointer. You can switch the color by using the arrow keys. So in this way, you have access to all colors and there is no need to select each color from the Swatches. Just press the arrow keys to switch the colors and fill in the shapes.
Use Live Paint Bucket in Adobe Illustrator – Video Tutorial
You can watch the below video tutorial, to learn how to use the live paint bucket in Adobe Illustrator. You can learn to quickly fill up the colors into shapes and designs. You can also fill the open path by adjusting paths with just a few clicks.
We will discuss, the main reason to use the Live Paint Bucket Tool is that you can even fill the color in the open paths. Because sometimes we draw such shapes that have a bit open path and it becomes difficult to fill them. Live Paint, Gap options help to close all those paths and fill any color.
You can also learn:
Where is Live Paint Bucket in Adobe Illustrator
If you are new or don’t have any idea how to use Live Paint Bucket in Adobe Illustrator, then you are at the right place. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the live paint bucket tool to fill the colors in any open or closed path shape in Adobe Illustrator.
So let’s start.
As you can see we have some designs below and we will show you how to fill the colors using the Live Paint Bucket in all the tiny leaves and deer.
Live Paint Bucket works on Live Paint objects, which means that you need to make them all live paints and then use the Live Paint Bucket Tool.
Step 1: Select all parts of the design that you want to color, using the Selection Tool. You can grab the Selection Tool from the left toolbar.
Step 2: Go to Object > Live Paint > Make. The Object menu is available overhead, you can find it easily.
Note: If Live Paint > Make is grayed out then it means that no objects or shapes are selected. So in order to use it, you need to select objects or shapes first.
All the objects will be Live Paint. Now you can fill color into all using the Live Paint Bucket.
Step 3: Grab the Live Paint Bucket that is available under the Shape Builder Tool. The shortcut key to Live Paint Bucket is K in Adobe Illustrator.
Note: If you can’t find Live Paint Bucket in your toolbar then go to Edit Toolbar, and then scroll all the way down until you find Live Paint Bucket. Select and drag the Live Paint Bucket to your toolbar. Now you can easily use it.
As you select Live Paint Bucket, the pointer will look like this. As you can 3 colors are appearing with the paint bucket pointer.
Note: You can switch the colors from the palette by only pressing the arrow keys.
We are using two color libraries that you can also select from the Swatch Library menu that is available in the Swatches panel.
We have Skintone library which is for deer and Flowers library to fill in the leaves and other stuff we have in our design. Now we are selecting the color palette from the color library to fill in the drawing.
Here are some colors added to the drawing using Live Paint Bucket.
Fill in all the colors selecting each color one by one.
Here we have completed filling up all the colors into the drawing using the Paint Bucket Tool.
If you find any gap in the drawing, then it is a great idea to fix it. So that you can add all colors easily to the exact place, without running the whole drawing. To fix the gap, go to Object > Live Paint > Gap Option.
Gap Option panel will appear.
Select the Paints stops at options and select Set Default.
All the gaps will be fixed and you can easily color them.
If you want to remove the outline then you can do that without worrying about the colors. Because you can easily remove all the strokes. You can move the object if needed.
It may happen that some gaps will not be filled because that can happen with the Live Paint Bucket.
You have learned to use Live Paint Bucket in Adobe Illustrator.
In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the Live Paint Bucket Tool in Adobe Illustrator. It is necessary to make Live Paint, all the drawing or objects that you want to color. Live Paint Bucket can speed up the work. You can select any color palette and then easily use arrow keys to switch between the colors in the palette.
Live Paint Bucket is best to use for closed-path objects but it is a good idea if you use it for the drawings. Make sure to Live Paint, otherwise, you will not be able to use Live Paint Bucket.
Have More Questions?
If you have any questions related to using the Live Paint Bucket Tool in Adobe Illustrator, you can ask in the comment section below. We have also answered some most frequently asked questions below.
Where is the Live Paint Bucket tool in Illustrator 2022
You can find the Live Paint Bucket Tool under the Shape Builder Tool. YOu can press K to use the Live Paint Bucket Tool in Adobe Illustrator.
In Illustrator, go to Edit Toolbar > Live Paint Bucket Tool. Select and drag the tool to the toolbar.
Live Paint Bucket tool shortcut in Illustrator
The shortcut key to Live Paint Bucket Took is K in Illustrator.
All Done! Enjoy.
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