I love adding texture to my illustrations, but creating a texture from nothing is always hard, so learning how to manipulate the different tools and default resources in Adobe Illustrator you already have, can work in your favor. Today I’m going to show you how to create a grunge paper texture Graphic Style, starting with a humble default Art Brush, then using the Pattern Options of CS6 and then some fun with the Appearance panel. So let’s jump in! Step 1 Let’s start by taking advantage of one of the Art Brushes you get by default in Adobe Illustrator. In the Brushes panel go into the drill down menu and select Open Brush Library > Artistic > ChalkCharcoalPencil. Select the top brush which is called “Chalk” and apply it along a horizontal line drawn by the Line Segment Tool (). Step 2 While the line is selected, go to Object > Pattern > Make. This will open the Pattern Options screen and will automatically expand the art brush applied to the line to shapes. However, there is a slight issue… all the shapes are in group, upon group, upon group, upon… So select the group and Object > Ungroup until you’re left with the below. Step 3 Let’s give the pattern a name, here I’…
Read more here:
Quick Tip: How to Create a Grunge Paper Texture Graphic Style in Illustrator