Help embedding letters in Illustrator

[jwfc]

Hi! I'm an Illustrator newb and I'm trying to embed letters within each other. If you can imagine the Olymipc Rings for example, I'm trying to do something like that with letters. For example, I have the curved part of the letter D behind the open part of the letter R and I want the curved part of the D to show in the window part of the letter R. Illustrator leaves that area as white space and I can't seem to get the curved part of the D to show. (I drew both the R and D like you would see someone "tagging" on a wall if that helps you envision it).

Also, I am trying to draw something near the letters. For example, I am drawing two sides of a triangle that use part of the curved part of the letter R. So if you imagine the letter R, and thing about two lines emerging from the letter to reach a common point (like a tee-pee), the curved part of the letter R starts disappearing and I don't want that to happen. Any advice on either of these questions? Thanks!

 

[moriaorc]

First question: select both parts of your letter R (check your layer palette to make sure the interiour shape is on top), then go to Object>Compound Path>Make.

Second question: check the fill on your two lines and make sure the fill is set to none.

HTH

 

[jwfc]

This is probably another dumb quesiton, but where can I check the fill of my line? Is it on the stroke palette?

Here is a similar question that might have the same answer. I have the view transparency mode on when I'm drawing in this example. I draw a straight line and I see the black line as planned. But then when I continue drawing from that line, a right angle, so I essentially have an "L" shape, white space forms connecting the two points of the "L" creating a triangle. I think that is where my problem lies. I can't seem to figure out how to use the pen tool to only take up the black space the line draws without having extra fill around it. Any help?

-i know, i'm a total newb :-\.

 

[moriaorc]

Same answer to both of these questions. Go to your Color pallette (Window>Color or hit the F6 key). You will see on the left of the pallette two overlapping squares. The upper left square is the object fill and the lower right square is the line stroke color. Select the upper left square and then look at the gradient area directly below. On the left you should see one swatch that shows white with a red line through it (you could also select the same swatch in the Swatches pallette). Selecting this will se your fill to "None". That should take of your problem.