Multiple Strokes with the Appearance Panel

Creating multi-layered strokes is easy with the Appearance panel:

1. Open a new document in Illustrator and draw a shape. Or open a previously created document and select the shape you'd like to stroke.


2. With your shape selected, add a stroke color, style and weight in the Stroke panel. For this example, choose Align to the Outside (third option) in the Align Stroke portion of the Stroke panel.


3. In the Appearance panel, choose Add New Stroke from the flyout menu. Choose a stroke color, style and weight. Continue adding strokes as desired.


4. To adjust the stacking hierarchy of a stroke in the appearance panel, select a stroke and move it up or down. The stacking hierarchy works just like layers, layering strokes on top of each other to create different effects.


5. To copy the multiple stroke effect from one shape to another, select the original multi-stroked shape. At the top of the Appearance panel, select the thumbnail for that object. Drag that thumbnail onto the new shape to apply the Appearance panel effects.