Lately, I’ve been using my Sketch-Style Brushes in illustrations and tutorials. In, some of these illustrations, the brush strokes needed to be expanded to editable paths. When expanding, you also get a bunch of unfilled paths. To clean up, simply go Object > Path > Clean Up and check the Unpainted Objects check box. You can also use this feature to get rid of Empty Text Boxes and Stray Points!

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The Pencil and Brush tools are useful, but sometimes frustrating. I always found the open paths it creates particularly annoying. A simple solution is to press the Option/Alt key when you are ready to close a path. Once pressed, it will join the first and last anchor points with a straight line. Holding down the Option/Alt key and drawing a little past the starting anchor will close the path automatically.

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